Introduction: 29.87 Second Underwater Camera
I made this so I could film my cute little daughter practicing blowing bubbles under water. I was amazed that it captured sound also.
I used dish towels to hold the phone for two reasons, the first was that I was not sure if the plastic jar was water tight, I figured the cloth would catch any water before it got to my Blackberry and the second was that they worked well to hold the phone in the jar without scratching the face of my phone.
Please only use plastic for this as you should never introduce glass to a swimming pool.
The materials and complete process for the build are all in the video as I took the concept of showing someone how to do something in 30 seconds on video to be very literal. I even added a demonstration of the camera in action. I hope you enjoy this Instructable at least as much as my daughter enjoys blowing bubbles underwater!
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59 Discussions
Amazing idea! I know I'll be using it ;) But I'm interested, why shouldn't we use glass?
First of all, thank you! I will answer this a couple of different ways.
Answer 1:
Well I was a lifeguard for eight years and swam competitively for ten. It seems that every time glass gets near a pool it gets broken. Have you ever tried to find clear glass shards in a pool full of water? You can't! The whole pool should be drained and cleaned. Some say you can just vacuum it up but I wouldn't put my little ones back in the pool after only vacuuming nor would I want to risk the liability if I was managing that pool.
Answer 2:
Not everyone has a pool and seeing as how it is against the rules at most public pools/beaches to bring glass items(some of the reasons listed above) this is something that was worth mentioning on that alone.
Answer 3:
Getting cut sucks! Seeing your little ones get cut sucks more!
Below are a couple of links from a quick Google search I performed (no applause necessary), one is an Ezine and the others are just examples.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Glass-Bottles-and-Swimming-Pools-Never-Mix&id=590872
http://coulwood.org/poolrules.htm
http://www.libertyheightshoa.com/news.php?viewStory=13
lol is the urine one a bluff?
No they actually make a chemical that turns urine blue in the pool! Got to be pretty embarrassing to be swimming in the big blue cloud!
It's a long-running bluff/joke (at least since the early 70s). I'll bet pool stores get people asking for it every week.
http://www.snopes.com/science/poolpiss.asp
Haha, funny.
http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/223882/results
Thank you for a complete, fast answer! You really explained everything I needed to know, I really love your idea and I hope you win :D Good luck!
Glass would work better. Let Darwin decide about bringing glass into the pool.
Smart, but I wouldn't risk putting anything expensive in the jar.
I now have 20+ hours of video without my $500.00 phone getting a single drop of water on it! Your paradox of a sentence seems to imply that I value my possessions less than you yours. Normally I would just give you a pass but it is not believable to me that you could make a knife from scratch but would be unable to make an air tight jar water tight enough to shoot a couple minutes of video underwater!
I am not going to go into fluid dynamics, the difference in viscosity between salt water & chlorinated water or the roughly 1.3atm that would be experienced at 10' underwater but since you have more than 30-seconds I will go ahead and give you a few ways to improve on my idea! In the spirit of the contset I will keep these things to something that would still have fit into the 30-second clip!
FOOL PROOF---Flip the jar upside down in the water. Est. Length Of Time Possible Underwater Without A Leak= How long does it take a plastic jar to disintegrate under water?
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Use Teflon tape on the threads.
E.L.O.T.P.U.W.A.L.=The battery in your phone would be dead before your jar leaks!
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Use RTV sealant on the threads.
E.L.O.T.P.U.W.A.L.= What is a leak?
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Get gasket maker from auto parts store and cut a circle to match your lid.
E.L.O.T.P.U.W.A.L.=I'm done, the way it was originally worked fine and was simple!
Yes, that really just happened!
You definitely blew my comment WAY out of proportion. You also misread my comment. I wasn't implying that you value your possessions any less than I value mine. I am simply saying that I wouldn't put a $200+ dollar item in a jar that costs less than 5.... Excuse me for being a bit skeptic about putting expensive and sensitive items in something that easily leak, crack, and shatter.
Buy a $6 jar then!
I misread nothing! I may have taken liberty with interpretation though. You start with a paradox and what comes out the other end? An oxymoron would have been easier to respond to!
I recently put my new Mino Flip as well as my two Blackberry's in the same jar and shot another 30+ minutes of video with no problems. Bad workers often blame their tools!
Some people live and some people just breath! To each their own! Bla Bla Bla!
I love idioms!
While we are here it's skeptical and "in something that could easily leak..." or something to that effect. Maybe the question is not whether I misread your comment but whether your comment made sense to begin with!
"Good day sir. I said good day!"
Dude, chill.
Serious, take a pill or something.
Why shouldn't you put glass in a pool?
Is it the breaking hazard?
because it could break and the glass shards would get lost in the pool and...(OOOOOOUUUUUCCCCHHHHH!!!!)
Amen.
Congrats on winning!
But I wouldn't trust this personally: knowing my luck the jar would have a hole in it or something... I guess I would just worry about water getting in somehow.
I didn't include the fact that you have to use a pinch of common sense, I thought that would be kind of ironic because if one had common sense one would use it anyway!
Hint:tsrif raj eht tseT
Have you used your flip mino HD with this trick?