what to use on UW camera/housing to keep it afloat?

[s.s.seafan]

Hi,

Is there anything that I could get to attach to the UW camera/housing to keep it afloat in case it's dropped by accident in the water? (like when it's handed over from boat to diver in water)

thanks,

Jason

 

[bladephotog]

Sure. I'm not sure what kind of rig you have but you may not want your rig positively buoyant at all depths, including the surface. It would make it hard to handle at depth. Stix floats are great and non-compressible so they work at any depth. You attach them to your strobe arms. But again, since they're non-compressible they have the same buoyancy at all depths. Or you can go the cheap route and use pool noodles cut up in varying lengths on your strobe arms. The advantage with these aside from low cost is you can set your rig up to be positive on the surface, and as you descend they will become increasingly negative as they crush. Once you get below 30 feet or so they won't help much. I used them for a while and now use the Stix floats and have my rig adjusted slightly negative.

 

[s.s.seafan]

I should add that I don't have any strobe, tray etc at this point, just a UW housing with P&S camera. I'm new at this so I won't be going to dive very deep, probably less than 40 ft. Does that Stix float work with just a camera?

 

[jaybombs25]

Having your camera positively buoyant may not be the best of ideas. If you let go of it underwater it will shoot up and be wayyy more of a pain in the neck to go retrieve. If at any point during the dive you need to rest it down, it would be impossible since it will always float away and lastly if you're not physically holding it during the dive but instead have it attached by a lanyard, it will constantly be floating up and be more of an annoyance than you can imagine. I try to get my reg just a bit negative so that if I drop it in deep water I can always catch up to it easily and also if I need to rest it down during the dive I won't have to worry about it not remaining where I left it.

 

[herman]

I hate a floaty camera, they are a huge pain in the rear. A better idea is to put a little longer lanyard on it so that dive staff can hand it down to you with it and you can hold one end until you are sure they have it on the way out. While under water, you keep one end clipped off to your BC just in case you need to drop it.
If you still want it floating, before doing anything check to see if it actually is negative, most are not and require an add on weight as it is. If you still want to add more buoyancy, I would think a small piece of wood- solid, not plywood- could be bolted to the bottom of the camera. Most cameras have strobe mounting holes on the bottom of the housing. Most likely the threads will be 1/4-20 thread and make sure the bolt is stainless, otherwise you will have a rusted mess on your hands.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

I'm suprised to see so much oppsition to positive bouyancy in a camera. Maybe that's a sign of my noobness....
Like to OP, I don't have strobes and such. Just a little Intova and a bubble. It's slightly positively bouyant. I have a coil retractor clipped to a D ring in front of my right weight pouch. Unclipped, this gives me plenty of movement. Clipped, the camera floats at or just behind my right hip, easy to find. And since it's positively bouyant, I never have to worry about it dragging on the reef.

 

[Nemrod]

Is this thread in the right place.

If you have one of those little waterproof cameras then yes, Olympus and several other brands have floating neck straps or wrist straps that float the camera.

For an underwater photography rig, like this:

It is neither supposed to be positively buoyant nor do you want it to be, yes, if you drop it then it will sink into the blue depths. That is why most photographers use a variety of refractors, lanyards, straps or homemade clips.

Some photographers on really large or heavy rigs actually use a variety of floats systems that are often built into the strobe arms to help offset the weight or build DIY PVC ballast tubes to offset the camera weight.

N

 

[slowhands]

Hi,

Is there anything that I could get to attach to the UW camera/housing to keep it afloat in case it's dropped by accident in the water? (like when it's handed over from boat to diver in water)

thanks,

Jason

I don't know what rig you have, but some are actually positively buoyant by themselves, so test it. If you have a concern to make it more buoyant, there are many options. Get a wrist lanyard with floats. If you have strobe arms, there are products made that wrap around the arms and give more buoyancy. The crude way to do the same thing is to use foam pipe insulator from the hardware store, duct taped on the arms as needed. Use plenty of duct tape, get red if you can, it distinguishes your rig. One really cheap guy duct taped empty soda plastic bottles to his strobe arms. Very stylish and acts as a backup depth gauge when the bottles crush.

Then of course you could change to ultralight buoyancy arms, which come in two thickness for different buoyancy needs.

There are some strong opinions on this subject, I see. I know a woman who lost her $10000 video camera at Truk because it did not float. I know a guy who lost his G9 rig at Moalboal because it did not float. Yeah, they should have had lanyards on the gear, but I think it was a case of "I thought you had it, what happened to it?" Things get crazy when you are entering or leaving the water sometimes, and that's when it usually happens. So, I have a lanyard, and my rigs are all positive slightly. That's me, do what you like, but I don't want my dive trip ruined by the headache of losing a rig.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Slowhands,
the idea with the soda bottles is not bad. Leaving them open will open a new way to adjust boyancy "on the fly" filling them with air or water.
Some of this stylish energy drink bottles would add a sportive touch...


Chris

P.S. Said/Joking that, the idea with a air filled float is not bad, something like a rubber/vinyl hose may work like a champ for almost 0 $$$.
But this is a tread dor the DYS area....

 

[Nemrod]

Take nothing into the ocean you cannot afford to lose. N