Tarsaa
To this point, I’ve been impressed with the Oceanic+ app on my Apple Note Extremely to the point that I’m now using it as my secondary dive computer, alongside a Suunto D5.
While I’m ecstatic with my computer setup, my survey a suitable digital camera has been much less fruitful. I’ve been by a miniature handful and have to this point been disappointed with them all, for a bunch of reasons, including low quality and abominable battery efficiency.
When Huish Out of doors – the same company that designed the Oceanic+ find out about app – introduced that they will likely be building a phone housing designed to maintain up my iPhone all the arrangement down to 60 meters (a ways beyond the set most leisure divers would ever find themselves), I couldn’t have been more tickled. In spite of everything, I’ve stopped using my DSLR on terra firma because my easiest cameraphone now fits into my pocket.
Thankfully for me, the Oceanic+ Dive Housing arrived accurate days earlier than my iPhone 15 Pro, accurate as the diving season right here in the UK is coming to a shut.
What can the Oceanic+ Dive Housing attain that my digital camera can’t?
After quite a prolonged setup course of (more on my trip with that below), you’ll be met with a full-camouflage digital camera behold the set you would possibly perchance perchance switch between taking photos and movies, or enter a dapper mode that takes a photograph periodically (you would possibly perchance perchance define this) while filming.
You would perhaps perchance perchance additionally fiddle round with things esteem distinction, white stability, quality, video stabilization, focal point mode, which of the lenses you in deciding on to exhaust (including ultrawide), and file kind (including RAW), all of which is in a position to be modified on the high-tail underwater by the exhaust of the keypad, which connects to the phone by the exhaust of Bluetooth.
On narrative of the Dive Housing also has its accept as true with temperature, depth, and strain sensors, it serves as its accept as true with independent dive computer, break free any Apple Note Extremely that can perchance perchance be running the Oceanic+ app (or accurate the preinstalled Depth app). Bluetooth indicators don’t lunge smartly underwater, so it makes sense for both to be independent.
The recent depth and no deco time are overlaid in the top correct, but you would possibly perchance perchance press the keypad to expand this behold to give you all the same kind of information it’s doubtless you’ll query from the find out about app, including dive time, ascent price, a compass, and more.
The housing itself within reason dapper and has a full grip, but it’s doubtless you’ll additionally determine to connect a lanyard or exhaust one of the three mounting threads. Right here is admittedly vital, because in my case, the total setup including the titanium iPhone weighs 1,162g, and sinks to the backside at an attractive alarming price when dropped. Right here’s a standard flaw of most underwater phone housings, but attaching a buoyant mild arm or mounting the kit on a tray can counter this.
At the same time as you’re done, photos and movies high-tail straight into the app alongside the dive log, and you would possibly perchance perchance pinpoint exactly while you happen to shot something, along with your depth and the temperature. They’re also saved to the phone’s Pictures app.
It’s price mentioning that it charges with a USB-C connector, which made things in actuality uncomplicated because, with the iPhone 15 Pro’s recent USB-C connection, I handiest must elevate one cable.
Savor other dive computers, the Oceanic+ find out about app and Dive Housing both exhaust the Bühlmann ZHL-16 decompression algorithm, meaning it desires to be accurate as safe as intention-constructed dive watches.
In terms of accuracy, I chanced on that the Oceanic+ app on my find out about, the app on my phone, and the Suunto D5 had been always within 0.1m of every other.
My dive with the Oceanic+ Dive Housing
With summer season drawing to an cease in the UK and conditions removed from exotic, my nearest dive site at a disused quarry modified into the testing floor for the Dive Housing.
As soon as kitted up, my next step turned into as soon as to exhaust the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button to kick off a routine that I position up using the Shortcuts app. For me, this supposed opening the Oceanic+ app, enabling Airplane Mode and Create Now not Disturb as per the app’s requirements, and remotely locking my car.
The setup course of takes some getting primitive to and involves a pair of on-camouflage steps earlier than the iPhone is finally positioned inside the housing. Right here is when the instrument creates a vacuum and a 3-minute strain check is utilized to be certain that your phone is safe earlier than you would possibly perchance perchance dive.
I made the mistake of gloving up earlier than setting up the phone, which supposed I needed to eliminate the watches from over my gloves in uncover to steal them off so that I might perchance perchance initiate the setup. It turned into as soon as all a bit of a faff, but with a little discover – and mighty esteem the total gearing up course of for any dive – it becomes a fantastically choreographed routine.
For the intention of taking photos with the instrument, my pals and I stuck reach to the surface the set visibility turned into as soon as realistic and the mild had now now not primitive.
Despite the indisputable truth that I turned into as soon as sporting 5mm gloves during the dive, I turned into as soon as gathered in a position to exhaust the four-button keypad to switch digital camera modes and check a more detailed behold of my dive. My handiest gripe about the physical interface is that there’s little suggestions from the buttons, so while it’s easy satisfactory to press them, it can assuredly be unclear while you certainly have.
As soon as the photo shoot turned into as soon as over, we headed deeper to the set the mild had virtually primitive and visibility turned into as soon as a meter at easiest. On the complete, conditions esteem these suck the fun out of leisure diving, and having any sense of bearing becomes a accurate headache.
I chanced on that the iPhone 15 Pro’s digital camera turned into as soon as in a position to see more than my accept as true with eyes might perchance perchance as the 6.1-inch point to grew to develop into into a tv in front of my face. You’ll see from my photos that the stirred-up sediment from other activity in the quarry-grew to develop into-lake did nothing to succor visibility. Navigating by this further pair of eyes turned into as soon as a refreshing trip, and the on-camouflage compass might perchance perchance now now not have been more welcome.
I’m removed from a talented photographer, so I ditched the RAW layout and stuck to Apple’s HEIF, which allows the instrument to routinely coloration-accurate photos and movies. I turned into as soon as tickled in train to exhaust the iPhone’s full 4K 60fps functionality – the increased frame price allows divers to steal stills of anything interesting during a video with mighty more accuracy. The complete time, I stuck to using the 12MP 0.5x ultrawide lens, and didn’t find out a pair of most important tumble in imaginative and prescient from the 120-level field of behold in comparison with my DJI Osmo Action 3’s 155-level field of behold.
I did find out about that, in shallower waters and the set daylight is in particular sturdy, a mirrored image can assuredly appear mid-shot because the iPhone’s lenses sit a pair of millimeters a ways flung from the outer case of the Dive Housing. Then again, conditions had been abominable and even the professional digital camera being primitive to characterize me with dazzling 20,000-lumen lights turned into as soon as struggling. It’s also now now not a distinct topic to the Oceanic+ kit, and many other phone housings suffer from this too. Huish Out of doors instructed me that adjusting the position of the iPhone can relief eliminate this, in particular moving it to the left.
Having a apt sense of your surroundings, conditions, and dive parameters in any appreciate times is basic to a a hit dive, and while staring by a camouflage is definitely now now not beneficial, having that further instrument in my hands turned into as soon as a sport-changer. A traditional underwater digital camera or action digital camera would now now not be in a position to put all of this information in one set.
Will I continue to exhaust the Oceanic+ Dive Housing?
Let’s find the designate out of the arrangement, because at nearly $500 it’s an incredibly costly half of kit. Add that to the iPhone 15 Pro’s $999 / £999 / AU$1,849 designate brand, and another $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 while you’re after the most modern Apple Note Extremely 2, and it becomes costly in a brief time.
Despite this, I think the Oceanic+ Dive Housing is gathered apt cost for money. That’s because you would possibly perchance perchance without concerns spend over $300 / £300 / AU$500 on a DJI Osmo Action 3 or GoPro Hero 12 earlier than adding dive-explicit accessories, and that’s a instrument that you’ll likely must replace pretty in most cases as digital camera expertise improves.
I replace my iPhone yearly – or most years – anyway, meaning I will have the most modern digital camera expertise inside the same Dive Housing several years later.
If reading about my success with the Oceanic+ Dive Housing has bought you wanting one, you would possibly perchance perchance uncover the instrument from $490 in the US, £519 in the UK, and AU$979 in Aus.
Tarsaa
