seepage, not pressure

[Old Diver]

Jus a thought, since most housed cameras ar damaged by seepage into the housing and not by pressure, and further most controls used on digital systems are push buttons why not make an inner bladder with the requesite clear zones at the lens and screen for the extra security from non-pressurized water? It could be simple blow-molded. I tried using a Kodak box camera at shallow depths when I was a kid. It worked down to about 10'. It just has to be a skin.

 

[Larry C]

An outfit called Ewa-Marine makes exactly that. It's basically a plastic bag with a lens. Voila' ! Universal camera housing.

 

[Charlie99]

You won't be able to go too deep, though. Cameras have air spaces inside and eventually the plastic bag pressing hard against the case will make something fail, and before that it will activate buttons. You are lucky to get 30ft with the flexible bags.

 

[Old Diver]

No, what I mean to say is use the bag inside the hard housing, not by itself. If they can mass produce disposable 15' depth $12.00 junk, why not have a minimal but waterthght inner system that is then housed? For an extreme example imagine a Nikonos in a housing.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

It's a good idea. Compression of the bag would not be a problem in the 1 atmosphere housing until the housing leaked and it would take a fair amount of water in the housing to get an unworkable amount of pressure anyway - and then you'd be busy surfacing, not shooting.

I would envision something like a plastic zip lock bag you'd insert the camera in. You could use a glass port but something like a latex seal that could seal along the barrel or base of the lens on the camera would eliminate the need for the port and avoid the space/fit problems that would probably result with many housings and it would still give you 95% of the "seepage" protection of a fully sealed/ported unit.

 

[MarkH]

I've used a ziplock bag to cover the bottom part of a SLR (and a video camera) in a housing before. The top of the camera and the lens weren't covered, but the housing would have to be half-full before the water would reach it.

 

[Larry C]

Hey! How about paint molding a latex sleeve to fit around the battery bay and everything up to and around the screen and lens (below or around the buttons) That would give you pretty good protection from even semi-serious seepage without interfering with anything.