Does anyone make a "real" iPhone housing?

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grouchyturtle

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Hghbh
Does anyone know of one that can go down more than just a few feet, and allows you to use the camera?

I've been searching like crazy and can't find one. I find it hard to believe, with the image and especially video quality on the iPhone 4, that no one has made one yet. Yeah I know it's not a real camera. I personally have a Canon 40D with a housing, strobes, etc. But the quality on the new iPhone is definitely good enough for short clips to post on the web, underwater inspections on boats, etc. And it will fit in a pocket, unlike a real camera. The HD video quality is pretty damn good, even at full screen, when you consider it was shot with a phone.

Unfortunately the cases for iPhone seem to fall into 3 categories.

Bag style, which for the price actually work well. You can use all the phone's features, but only to 15-20'.

Big bulky things that are barely water resistant, and seem to have horrible reviews from most users.

And iDive which seems to be really rugged, and rated to 300'! But won't let you access anything except the iPod controls.
 
This one is a tall order....Dive cases take quite a while to build and develop and given that Apple changes the shape and positioning of buttons on the iPhone almost every year, it'd be a really tough project....

Dana
H2O Audio
 
Really! Has the position and size of the camera buttons really changed all that much?

There was the addition of video. And now HDR with the most recent upgrade.

But I'm pretty sure at least the shutter release and flash controls have pretty much remained the same. At least as long as I've had an iPhone, starting with the 3G.
 
Considering the camera button is on the screen, which is thermal based, I wonder how you'd make a water tight seal, that would conduct heat to even press the "button. I'd seem like the screen would need to be exposed to the water and the user couldn't wear a glove. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's far more complicated then other phones or cameras.
 
"Really! Has the position and size of the camera buttons really changed all that much?"

yes.
 
There was a very cool proof of concept back in 2008 but for some reason it never went into production.
Waterproofing electronics

That is essentially a conformal coating process, and one that has been around since as long as I have been in electronics, but it is impractical to do for consumer electronics except in a 'one off' situation like in that video. It is a standard process for any electronic components that might be exposed to a 'salt fog' enviroment.

Edit: I should also add this is only immersion waterproofing. Making the thing pressure resistant to goto even 10M is a whole nother can of worms.
 
That is essentially a conformal coating process, and one that has been around since as long as I have been in electronics, but it is impractical to do for consumer electronics except in a 'one off' situation like in that video. It is a standard process for any electronic components that might be exposed to a 'salt fog' enviroment.

The cool thing is the company had plans to provide it for any electronics at the consumer level - just send your device in. The cost they were proposing was quite affordable. I guess later on when trying to actually cost it out it and get the venture capital things didn't work out.
 
It would be the same as sending your phone to colorworks for a custom paint job. I mean more in the sense of implementing it at the manufacturing level of consumer electronics. Again, it just adds some water resistance, pressure will still likely cause some damage depending on whats inside. You could do something similar yourself with a vacuum pump and an air drying conformal coat (acrylic based most likely) A quart of the stuff wont run more than $15 masking off stuff you dont want to get it on (like charging plugs, headphone jack, screen etc) would be the most time consuming part of the project.
 

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