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| Underwater Camera Housing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Well... I am too cheap to buy a new digital camera. I am way too cheap to buy an overpriced underwater housing. Since I was building an industrial-strength one for a marine salvage company, I decided to build one for myself as well. Here is the WAY overengineered result. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The aluminum outside is made from an old scuba tank. I anodized it with sulfuic acid and a 50 amp power supply. The coloring is fabric dye. The front and back are polycarbonate. Additional hardware is stainless steel and aluminum. The two knobs control power/shutter and flash/LCD. Before you start with the "elementary, my dear Watson" jokes, be aware that I will build a more conventional handle in the future. |
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| The back plate holds the camera mount (attached with strong but ugly hot glue at this time). This makes it very easy to remove the camera and align the controls. This housing is large enough to hold most professional digital cameras as well as some of the new small video cameras. Because the back is cheap and easy to build, different cameras can be quickly exchanged for use with this housing. I suspect I will be using this for a video/video light battery housing as soon as I find a deal on one of those small video cameras. |
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| The handle unscrews for easy travel and, by removing the two bolts on the handle base, any type of handle configuration can be added to the block below it (which is attached to the housing by several shallow bolts). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Below are two pictures of the sister housing I built for Alpha Marine at the same time I built mine. This is actually the first thing I ever anodized (after three test pieces). Mr. Anodizing Man just lost my business. The cool handle comes from an old dive light and the mounting plate comes from a Sea & Sea underwater camera. The wonderful paintpen lettering and the rubber grasshopper are aftermarket options and are not endorsed by the factory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Because of its smaller volume and smaller lens surface area, this housing will go much deeper than mine. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||