to buy a go pro or a reliable cover for an iphone 14?

[azstinger11]

I have a kraken currently but going to transition to a DiveVolk.

As others have said have a phone you don’t care about, so for me it’s an android phone that I have exclusively for travel/diving, and use that in the housing not your daily driver.

Eventually want to toy around with using it to kill time on deco. Figure the ability to load up ebooks or something could help kill time.

 

[Green Frog]

To resurrect an old thread… on my recent trip to Nassau I met a very nice man and his lovely 13 year old daughter. They were depending on his (old, not currently activated) iPhone in an underwater case. I was happy to share some of my SeaLife picture, but sad that it was necessary because his iPhone housing FLOODED! Imagine not only losing the phone and all it contained, but the specific memories of the daughter’s childhood diving!
No, I won’t even consider using a cased iPhone for underwater photography, never, ever, not ever!

 

[Mercracing]

To resurrect an old thread… on my recent trip to Nassau I met a very nice man and his lovely 13 year old daughter. They were depending on his (old, not currently activated) iPhone in an underwater case. I was happy to share some of my SeaLife picture, but sad that it was necessary because his iPhone housing FLOODED! Imagine not only losing the phone and all it contained, but the specific memories of the daughter’s childhood diving!
No, I won’t even consider using a cased iPhone for underwater photography, never, ever, not ever!

iCloud is the way.

 

[lexvil]

To resurrect an old thread… on my recent trip to Nassau I met a very nice man and his lovely 13 year old daughter. They were depending on his (old, not currently activated) iPhone in an underwater case. I was happy to share some of my SeaLife picture, but sad that it was necessary because his iPhone housing FLOODED! Imagine not only losing the phone and all it contained, but the specific memories of the daughter’s childhood diving!
No, I won’t even consider using a cased iPhone for underwater photography, never, ever, not ever!

Sealife makes what looks to be a very nice case

 

[Green Frog]

The SeaLife case for my iPhone sells for $350, and then add the value of the iPhone itself. Compare that to about $600 for the SeaLife Micro 3.0 which is absolutely flood proof while my precious iPhone stays safe on the boat in my dry bag or on shore. Add the fact that the SeaLife is a great little snapshot camera to drop in my pocket and go tourist-ing with, and for me the decision was an easy one. BTW, as far as I know, the cloud didn’t preserve what was shot on the dive where my friend’s housing flooded, so anything on his daughter’s one dive day in the Bahamas for that trip on her 13th year was lost forever. Everyone needs to make their own choice, but as cheaply as GoPro and SeaLife and other, similar, purpose built UW cameras are, the decision was an easy one for me!

 

[Lorenzoid]

The Divevolk housing is getting some praise over in this other thread: U/W housings for IPhones?

 

[lexvil]

The SeaLife case for my iPhone sells for $350, and then add the value of the iPhone itself. Compare that to about $600 for the SeaLife Micro 3.0 which is absolutely flood proof while my precious iPhone stays safe on the boat in my dry bag or on shore. Add the fact that the SeaLife is a great little snapshot camera to drop in my pocket and go tourist-ing with, and for me the decision was an easy one. BTW, as far as I know, the cloud didn’t preserve what was shot on the dive where my friend’s housing flooded, so anything on his daughter’s one dive day in the Bahamas for that trip on her 13th year was lost forever. Everyone needs to make their own choice, but as cheaply as GoPro and SeaLife and other, similar, purpose built UW cameras are, the decision was an easy one for me!

iPhone is just something I have, nothing precious about it, I use a sealife DC2000 but its getting old and may not have support much longer.

going by your price examples I see it as saving $250

 

[lexvil]

The Divevolk housing is getting some praise over in this other thread: U/W housings for IPhones?

I like the idea of it a lot but the dryglove thing is holding me back.

 

[amfibia]

I have a kraken currently but going to transition to a DiveVolk.

As others have said have a phone you don’t care about, so for me it’s an android phone that I have exclusively for travel/diving, and use that in the housing not your daily driver.

Eventually want to toy around with using it to kill time on deco. Figure the ability to load up ebooks or something could help kill time.

Hi @azstinger11,

Would you mind elaborating on why you're switching to the Divevolk? I was thinking of buying an old pixel 5 and a kraken case because of the Google supported app that would allow use of the native camera functionality. It seemed to me that I might prefer buttons vs touch for gloved use in California. After reading your post in this thread I found your prior post about buying the kraken case/pixel and sounds like your setup is pretty much exactly what I was imagining getting for myself. Also your review made me even more interested in the kraken case.

Thanks

 

[Oldmanmatt]

I use both. For the iPhone, I use the DiveVolk housing. GoPro hero 11 with a light tree.
Of the two, I’m pretty sure the iPhone (13) has the better quality image for both video and stills, but the compact/small size and “fire and forget” (press record at start of dive, stop on the safety stop) of the GoPro makes it much better when you need to think about other things, like penetration, poor vis etc etc. The quality is definitely acceptable.
Use your old phone. Put it in the housing while still onshore and dry, because even a drop in the housing from damp fingers plays hell with the touch screen. Around here, that means do it in the AC of the dive shop/home because the humidity/condensation out on the boat is as bad as wet hands. The DiveVolk is my second iPhone housing and I find it much better than the previous “button” housing as having full use of the touchscreen underwater is more useful than anticipated. It’s a little fragile though and stuffing it in your dive bag is not a good plan (soft screen cover needs protection).
Use your old phone.
And.
Use your old phone.