Advice on housing a video camera for snorkelling

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Graham in Melton - 27 Dec 2004 16:24 GMT

I know this is a scuba Ng but its the closest I could find ...

I'm going to do a lot of snorkelling in the Caribbean in a couple of months
and I'm dubious about these "plastic" bag type of camera waterproofing for
video camera's.

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding "hard" housings or comments
on the softer, sealed bag type?

TIA

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David Walker - 27 Dec 2004 16:36 GMT

Unless you have a very very cheap video camera, I wouldn't trust the plastic
bag type things, even if you are just snorkelling... that might just be me
being me though!

Have a look at http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/video/index.html for the
type of cases available. I've only ever looked at the camera ones myself,
rather than video cameras, so can't give any specific advice. There'll be
plenty of other places selling them too, but the Cameras Underwater place
looked like just about the cheapest back when I was looking.

David

>I know this is a scuba Ng but its the closest I could find ...
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Does anyone have any recommendations regarding "hard" housings or comments
> on the softer, sealed bag type?

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David Walker - 27 Dec 2004 16:40 GMT

> Have a look at http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/video/index.html for the

PS - you might also want to look carefully at the prices, they're not nice!
A standard digital camera in a casing can be had from about ?300 for a
reasonable one that can do basic video as well as the normal photography
that might be a better option?

David

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Graham in Melton - 27 Dec 2004 20:34 GMT

On 27/12/04 4:40 pm, in article cqpdu0$lvm$1@wisteria.csv.warwick.ac.uk,

>> Have a look at http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/video/index.html for the
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> David

Thanks for the suggestions David,

I thought about that but we really like the quality of my digital video
camera. The website you suggested has the soft housings for my camera but
no hard ones - yes they are expensive but nowhere near as much as the DV
video camera. I've got tons of quite reasonable still pictures taken in the
Maldives with a bog standard waterproof disposable, so its decent quality
video I'd like to get. The highly compressed format of the average still
camera isn't really what I'm after.

As we're of this year to six islands and ten next year, the cost is going to
be split across two holidays so I can pay a bit if only I could find a hard
case !

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David Walker - 27 Dec 2004 20:49 GMT

> As we're of this year to six islands and ten next year, the cost is going
> to
> be split across two holidays so I can pay a bit if only I could find a
> hard
> case !

Don't necessarily give up on the soft cases - but I'd definitely do a lot
more research into them before I put my video camera in one. They might be
fine, I've never tried one, but would be a bit sceptical about a plastic bag
protecting my expensive camera from being crushed. Others may be able to
give you better advice about that.

David

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Nigel Hewitt - 27 Dec 2004 22:10 GMT

>> As we're of this year to six islands and ten next year, the cost is going to
>> be split across two holidays so I can pay a bit if only I could find a hard
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> being crushed. Others may be able to give you better advice about
> that.

My real concern with a soft case is that even if it stays dry it transmits
the pressure. Things that are sealed air tight just to keep the dust out
(eg: the viewing screen) might not stand simple snorkeling depths.

nigelH

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Deep Reset - 28 Dec 2004 13:02 GMT

>I know this is a scuba Ng but its the closest I could find ...
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> TIA

I've had a 10m rated Ewa Marine "sandwich bag" from CamerasUnderwater to 12m
for over 30 minutes at a time with a Sony TRV120.
The bag is very thick with a glass viewport for the lens, but trying to see
the mono viewfinder is virtually impossible, so the side-mounted LCD is
rotated flush with the side of the camera. Unfortunately, this automatically
sets the LCD into "mirror" mode, so panning takes a little geting used to!
You have to set all controls on the surface because pressing the small
buttons is virtually impossible, and pressure can cause the record button to
go off of its own accord.

On the plus side, the bag also takes my Pentax MZ-5n film camera, but only
into the shallows, because the bag isn't quite tall enough for the strobe.

Deep.

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