iPhone as video monitor

I'm looking to add a monitor to my underwater setup – but not happy with the options available. SmallHD and Atomos are great monitors but cost thousands to take underwater. The dedicated underwater monitor options have received less than enthusiastic reviews from others I dive with... and still cost a few thousand. Not sure why someone hasn't put together a housing for an iPhone with a port for an HDMI cable. It would serve only to provide a larger articulated screen for macro or video – but that's all I need. Any thoughts on rigging the Sealife Sportdiver iPhone housing ($300) for this purpose – it has a threaded vacuum port, but not sure if it would be possible to replace or covert to an HDMI connection. 

If I’m not mistaken, Sealife iPhone housings don’t give you access to the touchscreen and the housing buttons are usually tied to a proprietary app via Bluetooth. If you were to attempt to use it as a monitor, you’d likely have to set your phone up topside and set it to not auto-turn off from inactivity and hope nothing changes on your screen while UW. 

44 minutes ago, rgilkes said:

If I’m not mistaken, Sealife iPhone housings don’t give you access to the touchscreen and the housing buttons are usually tied to a proprietary app via Bluetooth. If you were to attempt to use it as a monitor, you’d likely have to set your phone up topside and set it to not auto-turn off from inactivity and hope nothing changes on your screen while UW. 

That's a good point. My other concern is finding the space to run a cable inside the housing – might have to remove a few pieces. Might  be easier to convince Sealife to adapt it themselves. I imagine the market for a $400 underwater monitor housing would be big enough to make it worth their while. 

18 hours ago, rgilkes said:

If I’m not mistaken, Sealife iPhone housings don’t give you access to the touchscreen and the housing buttons are usually tied to a proprietary app via Bluetooth. If you were to attempt to use it as a monitor, you’d likely have to set your phone up topside and set it to not auto-turn off from inactivity and hope nothing changes on your screen while UW. 

I don't own one myself, but Divevolk SeaTouch housings claim to be able to operate the phone touchscreen underwater, down to 40M in the case of the Pro model. As I understand it, they use a flexible membrane for the screen window, and some sort of pressure equalization system in the housing grip - the user manual is fairly light on the details, but you're not supposed to dive it without either a phone or a supplied dummy block inside the housing, or the unsupported membrane will burst under pressure.

I’ve thought about this as well. In the case of using the phone as a monitor (such as monitor+ on the iPhone for Sony cameras) another way besides a hdmi wired connection is to get a wireless signal via a coaxial cable. In some cases I’ve been able to get the wireless signal from the camera through the housing in short distances, but I’m certain it won’t work through water. This could be solved by a pretty simple bulkhead connector.