Underwater iPhone 5 Housing

[justin_mandi_tas]

Hi everybody, I'm new to this forum.
I would just like to start by saying I've been looking for a underwater housing for the iPhone 5 series. I've come across many different brands such as seashell SS-i5, I-pix A5, Watershot Pro, Optrix PhotoProX and many others. I would like to find out which housing I should buy. Can anyone help? Cheers

 

[Doc]

Buy the one for an older model IPhone. The out of date phones are really cheap, comparatively. When it floods, you won't lose huge money - and why risk your everyday phone?

Same advice for any camera, buy last years model.

When it floods, not if.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

We have the Watershot and the Watershot Pro and like them very much. They take excellent pictures.

 

[blanik]

i have the iPix, took great pictures with it, you can also put a 32mm wide angle on it, with 15 dives on it i had two occurrences where a drop or two entered without damaging the phone but it made me feel less confident about it, i think both time it happened because i kept a button pressed mid way through for a while or it's just because i've didn't managed the o-ring well (lubricating, dust or sand)

i love being able to get to the hotel room, sort em out, apply a filter on the good ones (best so far for me: the 5$ Tiffen App, there's a function called Auto-Levels, it's awesome to correct the reds in a second) and send them to family or Facebook all in one go but i always do a backup of my phone before leaving for a vacation and the phone is still on Apple Care so if it floods i'll get a new one but once the Apple Care is off it'll be more nerve racking :-/

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Both the Watershot and the Pro accept red filters. The Pro will accept a wide angle or macro lens. The only negative is that the lens cannot be changed during the dive.
The Watershot app has a software red filter, but in my experience the physical filter does a better job. These were shot off Cozumel in Feb of this year. The only editing done on either was to crop the turtle picture a little. I have never had the slightest leakage with either housing, but obviously maintenance plays a big role.

 

[justin_mandi_tas]

Thanks I really appreciate everyone replying, It would cost more $ to buy a older model iPhone, as just easier to use my everyday iPhone. Hey Doc you were saying "when it floods" does that happen a lot to which housing? I'm only really wanting to spend about $250au on a housing unless I go all out and buy an igills. Does any one know of any one using seashell SS-i5 ?

 

[Doc]

Thanks I really appreciate everyone replying, It would cost more $ to buy a older model iPhone, as just easier to use my everyday iPhone. Hey Doc you were saying "when it floods" does that happen a lot to which housing? I'm only really wanting to spend about $250au

All housings flood sooner or later, it's just a matter of when. The opening and closing of housings is a precise science that will tend to extract it's due.

Your IPhone 5 runs what? 8 megapixels. I believe the phones cost what we call here in the US a $#i+load of money, possibly you use the same expression in Australia, where your overall budget $250au is essentially the same in US Dollars, $235.

You can go to eBay, right now, and snag yourself a "2 generations out" Canon G10 and grab the Canon U/W housing for somewhat less than $175 total if you shop carefully. That will set you up with 14megs and a decent on-board flash, a white balance capability and no need for additional macro lenses- ones that can only be changed above water. You can even shoot with that G10 antique in "raw" mode.

If you look for a Canon Powershot in the equivalent 8meg (to the iPhone), they will probably pay you to haul it away.

Cameras, at least U/W cameras, are still real-deal cameras. The consumer level "point & shoot camera" is indeed going away, in deference to the mini-tablet, we can all see that, but at this point, the cameras in them suck-big-time in no uncertain terms. (Possibly you have this expression in Australia as well)

We started this "sport" using 35mm Transparency film (slides) and only just recently has the consumer priced u/w camera reached that level of quality. The Smart Phone surge in photography is all the rage, but quality lags far behind even the low-end point and shoot cameras you can buy at Sam's Club. Convenience and inclusion in your phone has eclipsed any requirement for resolution and control. This will certainly change, but it's simply not there yet. Maybe they will dumb-down photography to such an extent that whatever they put in a Smart Phone will become the new standard. Nobody makes 11x14 prints, anyway.

Someday soon there will be a decent IPhone (or the larger 4x6" tablet that everything is headed towards with blue-tooth only headset for the phone) that will have slightly better cameras, there may be Apps available to compensate for their U/W shortcomings, but it's 2014 right now.

Save yourself some heartache, buy a used u/w housed camera.