Iphone housing - Worth it? Which one?

[gummybun]

Oh, I may have been a bit fast to question why there are depth meters as part of the electronic bundles of some of these housings as some camera manufacturers are pairing up with the housing makers and incorporating features that communicate with the housings. So maybe the Depth and Temperature will have some incorporated benefit. I don't know how electronic strobe triggers work, but I wonder if that will be worked in?

Google Pixel Announces "Capture the Seas" Feature with Kraken Universal Smart Phone Housing
at UWPG News, March 15th.

 

[Rick Brant]

I bought the Divevolk housing. It allows full touchscreen use, but at what might end up being a price. It uses a layer of thick, pliable, clear plastic to cover the touchscreen. At any depth the plastic presses down tight to the screen and as long as you are not wearing gloves, you can use the screen almost like normal. Of course that puts the full pressure of the water onto the phone glass. I have only been down to 20 feet or so, I'll take it deeper over the next week. The build quality is very good for a $200 housing, and it includes adapter "slides" for multiple phone models. If slides are available separately this will be able to work with future phones perhaps. I'll check back in here with some sample photos later.

 

[kelemvor]

I bought the Divevolk housing. It allows full touchscreen use, but at what might end up being a price. It uses a layer of thick, pliable, clear plastic to cover the touchscreen. At any depth the plastic presses down tight to the screen and as long as you are not wearing gloves, you can use the screen almost like normal. Of course that puts the full pressure of the water onto the phone glass. I have only been down to 20 feet or so, I'll take it deeper over the next week. The build quality is very good for a $200 housing, and it includes adapter "slides" for multiple phone models. If slides are available separately this will be able to work with future phones perhaps. I'll check back in here with some sample photos later.

That sounds too good to be true. Can you post a video or something? If it really works, I'm getting them for my wife and I.

Edit: I found a review
In this review, the touch functionality did work but just barely. It took the guy over 60 seconds to get the thing to register a touch on the video record button.

@Rick Brant if you're having better luck, I really would like to see a video of it. What phone model are you using? What divevolk housing (they sell several models)?

 

[Rick Brant]

You want a video shot using the housing? Or a video of it in action? I don't think I can do the latter underwater. I had no trouble with the touchscreen though so far. I swapped between multiple apps as I was testing both LIDAR and the camera quality. I'll give it another run tomorrow and then posts some photos. I forgot to mention, the housing is very large. It is sized for the largest iPhone model and it loads via the end, so there is a lot of extra plastic at the end. I'm still trying to figure out where to put it on my BCD.

 

[Eric802]

I thought SeaLife was pretty much the go-to for phone housings.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

For folks that really just want to get started taking some decent UW pics and video, rather than risking your Iphone, I'd recommend just going to Ebay and buying a used Canon Powershot and a matching used WPDC Canon housing for it... I'd get one of the Powershots with at least 10MP..

The vid below was all taken by me about 10 years ago with Canon Powershot that you can buy pre-owned on Ebay right now for $20 to $30 bucks... You can find the housings for about the same price.. The underwater stuff starts at about the 3 minute mark.....so you can see exactly what these little Powershots can do...

canon powershot sx230: Search Result | eBay

Buy and sell electronics, cars, fashion apparel, collectibles, sporting goods, digital cameras, baby items, coupons, and everything else on eBay, the world's online marketplace

www.ebay.com

canon wpdc: Search Result | eBay

Buy and sell electronics, cars, fashion apparel, collectibles, sporting goods, digital cameras, baby items, coupons, and everything else on eBay, the world's online marketplace

www.ebay.com

 

[Rick Brant]

The SeaLife housing can't do what I wanted to do, which is be able to open other apps. With SeaLife I believe you are limited to running their app. I have a pretty good camera rig already, I needed the phone and housing for 3D scanning and also some GPS work on the surface.

 

[Shabaday]

You are correct, the SeaLife Sport Diver works off it's own app..I have that housing and I have the DiveVolk housing that you have. I have used the Sport diver and love it...I have not gotten to use the DiveVolk as of yet. I do know others have said to turn on the assistive touch setting to help you navigate the screen. I am disappointed to hear that it doesn't work so well with gloves on

 

[Rick Brant]

I haven't actually tested with gloves, I just assumed it would not work since there is already a thick layer between the finger and the screen. I'll try it on my next dive.