Hey, wondering if it is possible to make your own waterproof camera housing, or buy one and where to get a good deal on it.
i think that i saw one in last months issue of surfing mag it wasa video housing and it fits most handheld video cameras. the price want that bad either it was around $250 dollars. i will very this info later
I had mine custom made and it seemed like the guy that made it had a mold and he glassed over it several times to get the desired thickness. The tricky part is working out how to attach the back cover to it - he had someone machine a thick piece of plexiglass and installed screw receptacles (I’m sure there’s an actual word for them) onto the sides of the housing.
The lens port seemed a little tricky as well and I’m not sure how he got the actual front glass to attach to the port/tube.
There are several ways to do the trigger I’m sure and I’ve seen mechanical ‘levers’ as well as electronic push-buttons.
Good luck.
It’s possible to do either one, though housings may not be easily or inexpensively available for your particular camera. Though they most assuredly make 'em for everything up to 70mm cinema cameras.
www.ikelite.com , for instance, has a lot of them.Then you have the ‘plastic bag’ Ewa Marine types…call me old school, but I don’t think I want to trust my camera to a zip-loc.
But, the available housings might be big, awkward suckers, not something you want for, oh, catching a video of somebody slotted at your local break. Or cost more than the camera did. So, making your own is definitely an option.
Making your own housing involves some interesting stuff, such as acquiring and mounting controls, fitting the basic box to the camera and so on. Lots of o-rings. laminating, building forms, etc. I remember Rod Sumpter telling me how he built one, after making a camera-like ‘form’ to mold it over, lo these many years ago. Now, with vaccum bagging and all that, the process has improved considerably.
Some suggestions:
Make it rugged. The requirements for somebody snorkelling are quite different than yours, including going over the falls or pressure waves, etc.
Make it float, or attach enough floatation that it’s a little better than neutrally buoyant.
Make the body of the housing Very Brightly Colored so that you can find it if it gets loose.
Use at least 1/4" plexiglass for the viewport.
If your camera is auto-focus, see if it will auto-focus through plexiglass before ya go building the whole housing. Or else you’re in for quite a disappointment.
There’s lots more-
hope that’s of use
doc…
Epic Camera housings are around $250
Isn’t there a previuos thread on this???
What kind of camera are you using? Digital or video? You can start by looking here
Do not buy from epic. Their quality is no bueno mate. My friend who is the cinematographer for the UCSB surf team was sponsored by them last year, and this year the thing just broke a seal after a total of about 40 hours use. A big bummer when you’ve got a thousand dollar camera inside. So moral is buy from someone who’s got quality. You’re gonna pay more, but it’s worth it not to have your camera destroyed from water and salt. I’ll find out who he had build him his new one. It’s a guy who does custom housings in Santa Ana, CA. I’ll edit this post when i find out who the guy is. It’s definitely a much better housing.
I have a little Canon S230 digital camera. They make a water housing for most of the Canons, and I got mine off Ebay for about $110 few months back. ? Here’s a few a friend of mine and myself took with it on the first day…I’m sure with a little practice you could get some pretty decent shots…
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Hey, wondering if it is possible to make your own waterproof camera housing, or buy one and where to get a good deal on it.
Will it be for stills or video footage, Joel ?
aquafiend, where ARE you ?
Wildy ?
[sorry to ‘dob you in’, guys, but your expertise would be valued here !!]
I too would like to have a go at making a housing … for a still camera [with a motordrive …]
cheers !
ben
I have made my own, but I would not trust myself doing it for somebody else just yet.
If you think about making your own, remember the very basics…make sure everything is sealed. I killed one camera because of lack of attention to detail.
You can go a long way with wax, silicone and ‘o’ rings. It may not be the sony super-duper, but it will be a lot cheaper and can be a lot of fun.
I like your new avatar Chipper!
It would be for a video camera. How do you make one exactly?
Actually, you’re in luck! http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/personal/pdh/housing/
-Carl
That is a cool link. I didn’t even think that I wanted to make a housing, but after checking it out I had to bookmark the site. Thanks
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I like your new avatar Chipper!
thanks mate…"the attack of the killer pineapple board " [Mackenzie looks suitably impressed too, eh ?]
Joely:
I built one for my Sony/Nikon cam. Used some PVC 6" pipe, acrylic, two industrial pipe couplers or boots with stainless clamps. The handles are 1.5" PVC that I heated in a toaster oven and cinched down while still pliable for a molded fit. The camera sits on an acrylic tray with a 1/4 x20 tripod screw mounting. The rubber boot is actually a single unit that has been cut in half with a razor blade, it comes with the 2 outboard hose clamps, you supply the 2 inboard ones. Lots of online DIY plans, some cost $$, the most difficult step for the home builder is usually milling or routing a lip on the facing of your cylinder for the O-ring to seat in. I went with this variation, it works at the lower pressures of surface/surf shots. Always test your creation with an empty housing or a Kleenex tissue as a telltale for water leaks.
I don’t use this rig much anymore, have gone to a much more compact still/MPEG clip digicam in a small acrylic box.
If the inline upload fails:
http://www.thirdcoastsurf.com/test/Sony_HousingA.jpg
or
http://www.thirdcoastsurf.com/test/Sony_HousingB.jpg
Tom S.
hey, i just recently bought a digital camera (stills, but they take those short video things or something) that came with a waterproof housing for $169 Australian. haven’t taken it to the ocean yet cause i’ve had to work every day since (stupid harvest). it worked ok in a pool though.
I’ve heard people make moulds from foam, then scrape it out or dissolve it away [after a few layers of fibreglass].
And plastic wrap [MULTIPLE layers] with vaseline / mould release? …glassed again.
Anyone used these techniques ?
My brother said Zane Harrison had been experimenting with a board mounted p.v.c. pipe encasing for his video camera , as well…
ben
the kodak disposable underwater cameras are interesting to pull apart and check out [once the processors have got the film out of them, ask them if you can have the outer casing ]… this might give you some ideas too…
My buddy made a housing for a bolex 16mm, mounted on a scuba tank back harness ala George Greenough. He actually has his own point of view footage. Totally awesome. Jon if you’re reading this you betta jump in!! Any ways he created a male “plug/pattern” and laminated over that. The male plug allowed him to create “hard points” for mounting on the inside. The whole thing was very involved and labor intensive, but also first rate. I’d suggest first determining exactly what kind of pics/video you want to take and go from there. I.e. film, video, stills, hobby, pro, etc.
-Gary
George Greenough - photos by John Goubeaux
http://www.freephotoserver.com/files/img9703386_13915447.jpg
While I haven’t done it this way…yet… the way I was told to do it, lo these many years ago, was this:
Make your basic plug out of foam, then cover it with a thick layer of wax. You can carve the wax a bit better/easier than foam, you see, and it won’t stick, especially if ya warm it up some so the wax gets nice and soft, say in an oven set on ‘warm’.
As mentioned, hard points and/or reinforcements are pretty easy to add to mount controls, etc on. Likewise for handles and all. Use a strip of wax to make your o-ring channels, or use lots of screws and a fairly resilient gasket for the plexi plate in the front. Allow for something or other to hold the camera in place as well. Maybe a fitted crosspiece or two, with padding and a butterfly nut.
It’s also possible, I guess, to work with hot Plexiglass, male and female molds, but the trick would be using stuff thick enough and hot enough that you wouldn’t get thin spots where it was extruded by the molds. Funny, an old surf buddy of mine who I haven’t seen in about 15 years owned a company that did just that sort of thing… as well, so soon old, etc.
hope that’s of use
doc…