Here is something interesting: patent for an universal underwater camera housing

By PR admin | Published: March 29, 2012

I came across this patent application 20120008928 for an universal underwater camera housing. Most of the current models from companies like Amphibico, Nauticam and Ikelite are very expensive and made for just a specific camera model - once you upgrade it, you will also need to buy a new housing. From the patent application:

"A universal underwater enclosure has a spherical shell having a hollow in which a camera, camcorder, or other device can be inserted, a lens attached to the shell that can be opened to insert a device, and glove assemblies extending into the hollow for manipulation of a device placed therein. The glove assemblies have fingers and not full gloves, reducing the dimensions of the enclosure—thereby minimizing buoyancy. A mounting system attaches to a device's tripod mount receptor, fixes the device, and allows it to be adjusted in three dimensions. A pressure equalization system relieves stress on the enclosure, which exhibits neutral buoyancy. A flash mounted on the shell operates independently of any device. Modular lens pods replace the lens to accommodate various other lenses. The glove assemblies have perimeter lips secured to the shell by fasteners and a bezel around teardrop-shaped cut-out holes in the shell. The fingers allow access to all of a device's controls."

Related posts:

  1. TriggerTrap: universal remote camera trigger
  2. Amphibico underwater housing for Sony FS100US HXCAM HD camcorder and NEX-5N camera
  3. Nauticam NA-GH2 underwater housing for Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 camera
  4. Nauticam announces NA-GF2 underwater housing for Panasonic Lumix GF2 camera
  5. Nauticam announces NA-NEX7 underwater housing for Sony NEX-7 camera

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  • Camaman

    MY $1 dollar enclosure… A condom.
    Just do it! Don’t overthink the simple things. If it worked for guns and cameras in Vietnam it will still work today even though its 21st century! :-P

    • Rob V

      Make sure the’re non-lubricated though! haha

  • weedfish

    Spectacularly impractical – this seems to have been designed by someone who has never dived, let alone used an underwater camera. The change in pressure from a change in depth of just a couple of feet would make the finger things useless – or you’d spend your entire time fiddling with the (unsurprisingly vaguely specified) “pressure equalization system” trying to get the housing neutral. And that case is not even considering the effects of pressure on the camera components themselves.

    It might just about work for snorkelling at the surface, but for that there are off-the-shelf manufacturers housings that are A) much smaller, B) would be less frustrating to use, and C) are probably already cheaper than this could be built for.

  • http://triggertrap.com Haje Jan Kamps

    To be fair to them, Weedfish, they do have a plan for dealing with pressure. However, it’s a CO2-cartridge based system, with a mechanical pressure regulator. There’s a lot of things that could fail, and it would indubitably be an expensive device.

    I wrote some more about the patent here:

    http://www.pixiq.com/article/universal-underwater-housing-patent-could-it-work

    • weedfish

      Nice article, but can you imagine how frustrating it would be? “ooh, there is a school of barracuda above me, all I need to do is ascend a couple of metres to get the perfect shot… and damn, the finger gloves have inflated and are sticking out of the housing like spines on an urchin. Equalise the excess pressure, push the fingers back in one by one, and… oh, the barracuda have gone.” :)

      As for the CO2 cartridges – they would need to be tiny to fit inside the globe, how long (a dive? a couple of dives?) could they last? They look pretty small – are they refillable? How? Or are they a consumable (…which adds to the cost of ownership). Do you need to take a box of spares with you on a long dive trip? You wouldn’t be able to fly with them, so then you need a worldwide dealer network or leave the camera at home.

      And are you sure there are no sealed air spaces inside your camera? At all? Not inside the sensor? Or lens? If there were, they would implode when you equalised the housing on descent! My camera manuals don’t quote an operating pressure range but I’m not convinced the designers have considered use at multiple ATAs… :)

  • Nat

    Big, bulky and totally impractical. I’m an underwater photographer, and this thing just looks and sounds like a bad idea. BTW, Ikelite is one of the cheaper housing manufacturers.

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