Most likely, this article will cause the majority of those who read it to be bewildered, “well, this is obvious?! And it’s just too much, why publish this at all?!” Perhaps so, but if there is at least one reader among whom this article will help in some way, I will be glad

During a week-long vacation on the lake (Pesochnoe Island, Volyn region, Ukraine), I noticed very clean and clear water. Naive, yes, but seeing what was happening at the bottom through 2 meters of water was new to me. I wanted to shoot an underwater video.

Boxing for underwater photography from scrap materials in two minutes

I had my portable video camera at hand. But you shouldn’t just put it in the water right away?! You need a special box for underwater photography. At first I thought of stuffing the video camera into a regular plastic bag (two or three). But firstly, then I would get distortions in the optics (water has a different refractive index, the plastic film would fit close to the lens, completely changing its optical design. And even if it were not so, then there are other serious drawbacks. The plastic bag is not very It’s also transparent. And it will probably be difficult to maintain the tightness.

And then a simple idea came to mind - use an ordinary half-liter jar as a box for underwater photography. I don’t need much from it - I’m not going to swim underwater for a very long time (I don’t have enough strength... or air). I ran to the dining room and begged them for a jar with a plastic lid. Here's what you need for a simple underwater box:

Then everything is simple - take a video camera and turn it on to record. We put it in a jar, upside down (the jar needs to be washed well before doing this, at least in the place where the lens will be), then we put something on top that will hold the camera at the bottom (I used a small towel). Close the chamber with a lid... and turn the jar over. It will be hers working position. So the simplest box for underwater photography is ready. During underwater photography, it is better not to turn the jar over, especially at great depths (if the plastic lid is not very tight). This happened to me several times (I tilted the jar a little to change the viewing angle), as a result, the towel got a little wet from below.

By the way, only later did the idea arise that it would be nice to add some kind of ballast to the jar. For example, a stone (on top of a towel, after turning it over, the stone would end up on the bottom). Then the can wouldn’t be pulled out of your hands like that.

In general, it’s not high-tech, but in a couple of minutes it’s a real box for underwater photography!

Flaws:

1. Inability to control the video camera (i.e. turn recording on and off). It doesn't bother me. The amount of memory in the camera is large - excess can be cut out using VirtualDub.

2. Incomplete tightness, hence the restrictions on the tilt of the homemade underwater box with a video camera. But no one bothers you to take a different type of can. With a tighter lid

Taking photographs underwater has been a long-time dream of mine. In my youth, there was even an attempt to make an underwater housing for a film camera. With the advent digital cameras this dream has come closer. And then one day, a happy combination of circumstances provided an opportunity to visit warmer lands in February. Trying to quickly find photobox or underwater case for my types of digital cameras was not successful. I had to set off without such technical equipment. I also tried to look for boxes for my devices in warmer climes - a complete fiasco. But in the shops they sold disposable and reusable soap dishes loaded with photographic film in underwater boxes. Having bought the simplest one (~$8), I happily shot the film in two trips into the water. Printing the pictures was depressing - blurry images and color distortions. But the dream must be realized. Right at the hotel I tried to adapt some digital camera to fit into a vacant photo box. Let's look at the results of the experiment.

How to make an underwater photo box with your own hands

The task turned out to be difficult. Of the three cameras taken on the trip with the lens extended, only the camera fit into the box Canon IXUS 75, but the shutter button was a little to the side. The materials at hand were used: a piece of the side wall of a plastic box, a piece of some packaging material, thread, nail polish and a toothpick. As always, the tools on the trip were a multi-tool and scissors. In principle, this economy was enough for improvisation. Making the parts with my own hands and fitting them took about three hours of the southern night.

The pressure bar turned out to be the most labor-intensive component in the photobox design. The bar bent, shifted and did not transfer force from the box button to the camera shutter button. As a result of the production of this strip, the donor box for cosmetics was completely destroyed. The bar was a bundle of engineering thought from a person who urgently wanted to take photographs under water - plastic plates with a toothpick pin for pressing the camera button. The entire structure is held together with threads on nail polish (the owner of the polish had no idea about this) and tape. Tests showed the functionality of the design.

Features of working with such equipment

1. IN Canon IXUS 75 there is a wonderful underwater shooting mode, set it up Necessarily.
2. In the camera settings, turn off the automatic shutdown mode.
3. Turn off the flash, it's of little use.
4. Depending on what we will be shooting, we set the normal mode, macro or video mode.
5. We place the switched-on camera into the box, install the shutter release bar and close the box.
6. When closing the box, we follow the rules for a film soap dish - the main thing is clean sealing rubber.
7. We check the functionality, the function of adjusting for sharpness and releasing the shutter should work.
8. We go into the water and check the tightness - there is water inside shouldn't act, not a bit!
9. When shooting underwater, although this is Canon It is better to anticipate the future scene and take pictures before the fish show their tail to you.
10. After a photo shoot, it’s a good idea to rinse the box with fresh water, dry it with a towel, open and turn off the camera.

With the help of this homemade photo box for underwater filming, we managed to capture 3 gigabytes of pictures. Some are given in small

Upon arrival back, I found a photo box for the IXUS75 digital camera in the store, but its price exceeded the cost of a new camera. And the result obtained did not give a reason to buy a photobox in advance incompatible with other cameras. After refusing to purchase a photo box, the design of the homemade underwater photo box was improved, the number of internal parts was reduced to three, new option underwater camera was tested in the same area not by me, but showed the same wonderful result.

I used a homemade underwater photobox and when filming in my cold regions (people were very interested in what it was), it turns out you can get interesting photos without fear of getting wet or damaging your photographic equipment.

In the process of preparing the material, I decided to finalize the design of the photobox and use only one part for installing a camera in an underwater photobox. The result of the work is in the photo report. The construction material is a polystyrene plate 1mm thick. The polystyrene was cut with tin snips, the rectangular hole and tabs were cut with a Dremel cutting disc. The plate is bent on some equipment after heating the bending area with a lighter.

The blank is cut

Special boxes for underwater photography are not cheap these days. Searching on the Internet possible options for my Sony DCR-HC48E, I came to the conclusion that it’s easier to make it yourself. Usually the price for underwater boxes is comparable to the price of the camera itself. That's why I started making it. I think anyone who is at least a little familiar with working with an angle grinder and a drill can do the same. Manufacturing costs are minimal. In addition to shooting underwater, the housing can be useful for shooting in the desert, where sand will instantly damage the camera. I apologize in advance for the quality of the attached photos - everything was taken in haste. To make it you will need:

• A barrel is a coupling from a PVC sewer pipe.
• Two plugs per pipe.
• A small piece of plexiglass (you can ask at a glass workshop - there is always an abundance of scraps).
• A handful of screws.
• Rubber glove.
• Silicone sealant.
• You can install a wide-angle attachment from an unsharpened “-10” lens from glasses.
• Two clamps.
• Pieces of 1.5mm iron and iron tape.
• Tape is Velcro for clothing.
• A desiccant bag to prevent condensation.

To control the camera or camera you need a remote control. To begin, take a pipe and cut a hole in it for the housing. monitor so that it can be clearly seen from the outside. Now we cut out a piece of 4mm plexiglass to size. We bend it using a hair dryer. I must say that this is probably the most difficult procedure. To do this, you need to put the glass on a piece of plywood and heat it evenly. In this procedure, the main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise the glass will begin to bubble.

We transfer the heated glass onto a piece of our pipe and bend it to fit. I didn’t get it straight the first time. So it’s better to practice on an unnecessary piece first. Having placed the finished glass in place, we drill holes for the screws. The holes should be such that the screw fits in with little effort. It is better to first drill a couple of holes on opposite sides and tighten the screws, and then drill the rest in the intended places. We carefully degrease the glass and pipe, lubricate it with sealant, and tighten the screws, having previously coated the threads. You should not tighten the screws too much - the PVC pipe will begin to deform.

In the same way, we cut out a hole for the glass on the plug (naturally, the glass should not be scratched.) Having thoroughly coated the standard gasket with sealant, we insert the plug into the pipe. To ensure that the entire structure does not move anywhere, we solder pieces of the same plastic in four places with a regular soldering iron.

Now we take a car inner tube from a Zhiguli and cut out a ring from the surviving part. The diameter is ideal for the coupling pipe. We secure it with a clamp.

We cut out a rectangular stand for the camera from an iron plate. We drill in two places for fastening screws. For this you need to take long screws with a countersunk head. We screw a sufficient number of nuts from below, thereby adjusting the height of the chamber. Drill two holes in the coupling. After lubricating the thread with sealant, tighten the nut from the outside. We glue Velcro from clothes onto the made platform with 88glue or Moment, and the mating part onto the camera.

Inside I put a wide-angle attachment made from a lens from “-10” glasses. I ordered it from an optician. A domestic lens cost me 240 rubles. And the original attachment for my camera costs about 3,500 rubles. The effect is almost the same. You can easily do without it, but the rays are refracted in the water, and you get a picture that seems to be cut off at the edges - smaller than if you were just shooting with a camera in the air. And the lens seems to expand the space. This attachment is good for shooting in tight spaces. I placed the lens in a 10mm frame cut from the rest of the laminate; plywood would also work. Everything is cut out so that all parts fit into the spacer. We make a hole in the frame for the self-tapping screw. When necessary, you can screw it in and remove the frame with the lens using it.

The camera is controlled using the infrared remote control included with the camera. To do this, cut a hole in the second plug for the working part of the remote control. We make a frame from 1.5 mm iron, round the edges, drill holes in the frame for countersunk screws. We drill holes in the plug in place. We put a piece of rubber from a glove between the frame and the plug. I made 2 layers just in case. Lubricate with sealant and tighten. From met. plates we make a bracket that presses the remote control to the plug. On the outside of the rubber, we draw the remote control control points with a marker.

For more reliable operation of the camera with inf. For the remote control, we make waveguides from optical fiber, which can be taken from a Chinese lamp. Several strands of optical fiber connected to the camera and remote control, for example with ordinary tape, will provide stable work cameras. This did not make the lamp any worse.

From the inside, we reinforce the plug with a ring rolled from a strip of iron (the ends can be riveted). Now, when tightening the second clamp, the plug will not deform or crack. If your camera does not have a LCD. monitor, then you can place the remote control on the wall of the coupling, and make the window for the viewfinder on a plug. This will even be easier, since bending an iron frame will be easier than glass. True, it will probably be problematic to see anything under water through it.

It's easy!

For enjoyable reading, you can tune in to your favorite radio below:

To make a box for underwater photography we will need:

sealed lunch box "Lock & Lock",

camcorder,

small blocks or something like that, in order to fix the camera inside the box,

polyurethane foam,

food bags,

• masking tape,

  washers for bolts,

  Chinese chopsticks (for eating),

  bolts, or screws with nuts, preferably nuts with Teflon, but if there are none, then you can lock the nut with a nut and, of course,

  Silicone sealant for aggressive environments is better.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot:

soldering iron

Well, let's begin!

First, we need to somehow position the video camera and fix it inside the lunch box. To do this, I personally used dry branches the thickness of a finger, put two bags in the lunch box so that they flowed around the inner cavity of the box, then, after opening the camera screen and unfolding it outward, in such a way as in the photo. No. 1, put the camera in two food bags. It is advisable that the bags be longer, do not tie the camera in the bag, put it in the box with the lens towards the bottom in the middle, bring the untied edge of the bag to the top so that the edge of the bag sticks out of the lunch box (this is done so that during foaming and After drying, the foam clearly flowed around the camera). Then, I fixed the back of the camera with spacers made from branches cut to size, Sony camera(see photo No. 2) and it has a rectangular battery sticking out from the back, so I put spacers in it on four sides so that the camera would more or less stand rigidly inside the box, this is done so that the camera does not move while foaming the box polyurethane foam and then drying it out!

photo. No. 1

photo No. 2

We create a mold for the camera using polyurethane foam.
It is best to do this in three or four passes, since if you foam a lot at once, the foam on the bottom will take a very long time to dry or will not dry at all!

So, the camera in its original position in the packages is fixed in the box. We take masking tape and glue it to the box in the middle above the recording button, make a hole above the button, insert a Chinese stick or branch into the hole (first wrap the branch or stick in a bag so that the foam does not stick to it), bring it to the button and leave it in that position, we put the whole thing on top of a garbage bag so as not to stain the floor with foam, and begin to foam the bottom of the box literally no higher than three centimeters (see photo No. 3), let the foam dry for several hours, it depends on the foam, how long it will dry, read yourself on a can!

photo. No. 3

After the first level has dried, we begin to foam further - we foam no more than three centimeters, let it dry, and if the dry foam has not reached the edges of the box, we make a third level.

After everything has dried, shake the camera in the foam out of the box, pick the camera out of the foam from the lens side, carefully so as not to destroy the shape of the camera foam. After removing the camera from the foam mold, we cut out a window in the mold opposite the screen so that when the camera is in the mold, the entire screen is visible.

Now we attach the glass to the bottom of the box!
We insert the camera back into the mold, insert the mold into the box until the lens touches the bottom, and, with the camera turned on, determine the view of your camera, mark with something on the bottom of the box where we will cut out the window (it should turn out like this (see photo No. 4) , take out the form with the camera from the box.
We take a heated soldering iron and begin to carefully melt a rectangular window. After this, we check whether the edge of the window is visible in the camera when shooting; if it is visible, then we remove the edge further with a soldering iron. (see photo No. 5)
Now you need to attach the glass. I took a glass lens from an old gas mask, it was perfect for this task, it doesn’t have to be round glass, you can use square glass, for example, with photo frames of the appropriate size. I placed it in the center so that it evenly overlaps the window we cut, and marked where I would make holes for bolts or screws (I put four screws, they were enough for me). Then, we burn out the holes with a soldering iron so that the bolt fits clearly into it (we burn it out, since when cutting or drilling, there is a possibility that the box will burst). After this, we check together with the glass to see how all the holes fit the bolts - whether they abut the glass, if they do, we perfect the holes with a soldering iron. We degrease the bolts with washers and glass, in my case there was a solvent, and dry them. Now we take a bolt with a washer, apply sealant to the washer from the side in contact with the box, insert it into the hole from the inside of the box, and so on with all the bolts. On the glass, in the place where there will be a window in the lens box, we glue masking tape, directly opposite the window, following the contour of the window (so as not to stain the clean glass with sealant). Now we apply sealant to the outer part of the box in those places where there will be contact with the glass and place the glass between the bolts on the sealant, insert washers onto the bolts, tighten the nuts, firmly press the glass to the box using the nuts, if the nuts are without Teflon, then lock the nut with the second nut , wait for the sealant to dry completely, then remove the mounting tape from the glass.

It should turn out something like this

photo. No. 4

photo No. 5

We insert the mold with the camera into the already underwater box from the side of the box lid, cut off the excess foam from the foam mold so that the lid can be closed freely. We cut the stick or branch that is responsible for pressing the “record” button to size, so that one end clearly touches the box lid, and the other - the “record” button, so we can, when pressing the box lid, turn on and off the recording on the camera .
Since my camera turns off after two minutes of inactivity, I had to make it so that I could turn on the camera by pressing the wall of the box from the side of the screen; on my camera behind the screen there is a button to turn the camera on and off (see photo. No. 6) . What I did for this was to glue a piece of masking tape wound into a ball onto the camera’s off button (see photo No. 7), now you could turn the camera on and off by lightly pressing the screen body when it is facing you. To make the screen move away from the button after pressing, I glued an elastic material next to the button (it is usually glued to the doorway so that the door does not slam when closing) similar to rubberized foam (see photo No. 7).
Now, opposite the screen body, when the video camera is in a foam form, we glue to the form something that could press on the screen body when pressing on the box wall, for example, polystyrene foam or whatever you find at hand (see photo No. 8).

photo. No. 6

photo. No. 7

photo. No. 8

Well, that's all, now you have a box for underwater photography! And yes, I almost forgot, the most important thing is not to shake the camera too much underwater, because when watching the video it can start to get cloudy from the dynamics of the movement, shoot as smoothly as in airspace!
And first test the underwater housing without a camera, but with a form for the camera in the bathroom, and then dive deeper into the sea. And there is a possibility that when diving deeper, the camera will turn off or turn off the recording itself, do not be alarmed by the pressure at the depth that compresses the box, just cut a little shorter the stick responsible for turning on the recording and the stick or foam plastic responsible for turning the video camera on or off .