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Mostly Everything

Turn your Samsung Galaxy S3 into a professional underwater camera with Patima

I’ve been a huge fan of Patima since the time they built sturdy professional-grade underwater housings for smartphones. They kickstarted 2012 with the underwater case for the iPhone 4s, for which I have a hands on review of photo and video samples.

Categories
Mostly Everything

SCUBA Test: Samsung PL120 and SH100 WiFi Camera with Seashell Housing


Above: Jan in his complete pro UW setup

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. The irony is that a lot of the action happens in the city Manila. In its odd state, you would think that for a country that is surrounded by water, we would have at our disposal a stable of underwater cameras or housings with underwater cases for sale in most gadget stores. Sadly this is not the (underwater) case. **Pun Intended**

If you take a look at the UW housing landscape in the Philippines, save for a dedicated store that deals with UW housings, it is quite rare to find manufacturers outfitting underwater cases for cameras. The reason isn’t so much as lack of demand, but warranty. It is very hard to put a warranty tag on a decent acrylic housing that can be submersed at depths of 100+ ft. Not that it would flood. But the risks may be bad for business.

Nonetheless, bringing down a camera to the underwater depths has its rewards. I for one have been diving for more than 2 years, shooting amateur UW video for a little more than a year, and indulging myself in underwater photography for a little over six months.