Repurpose a glass dish as a DIY waterproof housing for your smartphone

Oct 13, 2018

John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Repurpose a glass dish as a DIY waterproof housing for your smartphone

Oct 13, 2018

John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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Ok, so it doesn’t really need to be said, but I’m going to say it anyway. You do this at your own risk. Smartphones come with varying degrees of water resistance, so if you fry your phone, it’s your own fault.

With that said, the guys from COOPH show a quick tip in this video to make a waterproof housing for your phone using items you probably already own. All you need is a glass dish with an airtight lid and some gaffer tape!

YouTube video

As with any underwater housing, you’ll want to test that it really is airtight. The easiest way to do this is to put a piece of paper towel inside, seal it up, and then submerge it in a sink full of water. If the towel comes out dry, you’re pretty much good to go.

Then it’s just a case of taping your phone to the bottom of the glass dish. There is a caveat here, though. This’ll only work with phones that have a front fingerprint sensor, face scanner, or a code you can enter on the screen itself. If your only way in is a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, you won’t be able to hit it.

But when you’re ready to hit the water, just turn on your phone’s camera app, hit record, seal it up and dive, dive, dive!

Instead of shooting video, you could run an intervalometer app to shoot higher resolution stills, too. The quality of the video or photos you get will depend on how good the dish is that you use. So, try to find one with as smooth a bottom as possible.

Again, you do this at your own risk! I don’t think I’ll be risking mine. I’ve got plenty of action cameras for this sort of thing. Maybe get yourself a GoPro Hero 7 instead or the new Insta360 ONE X with the underwater housing.

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John Aldred

John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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One response to “Repurpose a glass dish as a DIY waterproof housing for your smartphone”

  1. Chartreuxe Avatar
    Chartreuxe

    Warning: don’t dive in with your hacked device or go deep. Water pressure will create leaks in the seal. Keep it close to the surface and move it gently and slowly underwater.