I’m looking to put GoPro’s underwater to film for a few hours but the batteries won’t last that long in cold water. Therefore, I’m looking for a small case that would give me room to put the camera and a few extra batteies to keep the camera powered. 3D printing is also an option but would have to dig into O-ring groove design and figured there are better options out there.

 

Thinking it’s probably a DIY solution but could be purchased too. Anyone have any suggestions that won’t break the bank? Case will be less than 10ft deep. There are two main problems that I see.

1) Finding a waterproof case. My understanding is that most cases that are avertised as "waterproof" aren't actually meant to be underwater for hours at a time. Pelican cases for example are IP67 meaning they are rated for up to 1 meter underwater for 30 minutes.

2) If I don't find a clear case for the GoPro to look out, I could attach a dome to the case so the camera can look out but not sure how to waterproof it to the case. Perhaps epoxy?

 

Davide was working on a shallow cold-water (river) project with a digipower case giving 3 hours or so of filming

IIRC the waterproof battery pack is this one here, digipower refuel

https://digipower.com/collections/re-fuel/products/9hr-actionpack-extended-battery-module-for-hero9-ip68-waterproof-dust-proof-all-weather

 

it was used with new wide lenses, see here:

 

https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/616-inon-and-aoi-wide-angle-wet-lenses-for-gopros/page/2/#comment-3616

 

 

Yes, as Ben wrote i used a Digipowr case compatible with the latest GoPro (12 at least). I bought an old version for a GoPro5 too.

I was able to get up to 4 hours, sometime more at 4k@50p in a 9°C river water.

The DigiPower case/battery gives you the same standard waterproofing as the GoPro.

 

The only problem I had was with the AOI lens. After about an hour the image degraded terribly. Partly due to suspension particles sticking to the lens and partly due to some kind of blurring of the Gopro's inner lens. We could never quite figure out what it was due to. the AOI lens works like a WWL and so there is water flow between it and the Gopro lens. Eventually we didn't use it anymore because we threw away some very important images because of it. but the Digipower case/battery goes like a bomb.

 

 

For deeper projects there's a aluminium housing for the DigiPower case/battery:

 

https://www.flex-arm.com/en/housings-smartphone-action-camera/underwater-housing-gopro/t-housing-aluminium-housing-h10-power-for-gopro-hero-11-and-hero-10-and-hero-9.html

 

Go on eBay find an old ikelite housing that the camera and battery will fit. Seen them from 25-50 us

1 hour ago, Tobyone said:

Go on eBay find an old ikelite housing that the camera and battery will fit. Seen them from 25-50 us

 

Initially, we too tried to go this route with some old polycarbonate compact camera housings.
Then we gave up because many of these cheap housings have a deep flat port to accommodate the original compact camera lens, and the gopro would stay back and vignette. At least, we were not so lucky in finding the right housing.

 

You can cut hole in the housing and silicone either a thin flat glass or a dome. For your shallow water needs, this should work. For the dome you will need to figure out the diopter, because GoPros do not focus close with out a diopter. Here are some photos of a diy housing I worked on. They is Version one. I got to Version 9 and then found a Telsen dome for cheap that did what I wanted.

46 minutes ago, Tobyone said:

You can cut hole in the housing and silicone either a thin flat glass or a dome. For your shallow water needs, this should work. For the dome you will need to figure out the diopter, because GoPros do not focus close with out a diopter. Here are some photos of a diy housing I worked on. They is Version one. I got to Version 9 and then found a Telsen dome for cheap that did what I wanted.

 

Toby you are another league 😄

 

Davide,

Thanks for the compliment. Here is a link to photo of my first u/w housing. 1976 tested to 200 meters.

 

 

Wow!

 

Which film camera was inside?

Super-8?

 

 

12 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

Wow!

 

Which film camera was inside?

Super-8?

 

 

 

Sorry, I didn't notice it was a Flickr link:

 

Quote

 

O)n the Great Barrier Reef off of Lizard Island. Shooting documentary on Marlin fishing. The underwater housing ,

designed by me hade a Beulieu R16 camera with a 12-120 Anqenieux Lens. The housing latter accommodated Arri s 16mm, Cinema Products Gismo and Ev-300 Sony hi-eight tape camera. It is still functional today.

 

 

Which controls did you have?

16mm  & later hi=8 tape camera.  I used ikelite(glands) controls. I had the camera isolated from housing to avoid galvanic

corrosion. The cameras were mounted on a plexiglas tray. There is a description on the Flickr post.