F <news@spinningweb.not.net> wrote in news:4342d673$0$7087$ed2619ec@ptn-
nntp-reader01.plus.net:

There was an article in a photo magazine once about building your own. They
used a short end section (about 100mm) of pvc sewer pipe (150mm diameter)
as the casing with a screw-on cap with rubber sealing ring to close the
back (this is a standard accessory for such pipes) and allow the camera to
be inserted, and a sheet of perspex cemented across the front opening for
the lens to see out of. The tricky bit was controls - if you have a remote
control then there'd be no problem; as this was in the days of film cameras
I think they rigged up a cable release through a carefully sealed hole,
possibly something similar would still work to press the shutter release.
Everything else left on auto of course. If you make one, be sure to test
the empty box to a suitable depth to look for leaks before entrusting your
camera to it.

Alternatively quite a few "weatherproof" cameras are capable of use down to
a few metres depth (same as with watches) - worth looking out for when
buying a new camera as it saves a bomb on purpose built enclosures as
you've seen.

I'm sure there also used to be a cheapo enclosure which was basically a
heavy duty polythene bag with a waterproof ziplock seal for getting the
camera in and an embedded clear glass filter which screwed onto the filter
thread to give a clear view. With this you could operate the controls more
or less normally through the plastic. Again you could probably build such a
thing yourself, but I'm not sure how much I'd trust such a device to keep
dry. However if you get most of the air out, the squashy nature of the bag
would prevent a build up of water pressure and so reduce the ingress of
water through the seals.