Oceanic+ Dive Housing turns iPhone into an underwater camera & dive computer

AppleInsider

After the success of its Apple Watch Ultra diving app, Huish Outdoors has followed that up with a new Oceanic+ Dive Housing to transform an iPhone into a dive computer.

Oceanic+ Dive Housing for iPhone

The Oceanic+ Dive Housing entirely envelopes your iPhone and adds additional sensors that allow your smartphone to double as a dive computer and underwater camera system.

"Oceanic+ has already transformed the way we dive," said Mike Huish, CEO of Huish Outdoors. "With the new Oceanic+ Dive Housing, it will now change the way we will share our adventures."

It has a depth rating of 60 meters, or 196 feet. The integrated automatic vacuum pump removes air prior to diving and its unique fit allows it to work with many model, including the iPhone SE second-generation.

There is an array of universal mounting points on the housing, allowing it work with various underwater photo accessories.

The housing itself is powered and will cover a full week of diving after a 45 minute charge via USB-C.

Bluetooth allows the housing to communicate with your iPhone, allowing the five physical buttons on the housing to operate and the depth and temperature sensors to send data to your phone.

Diving with the Oceanic+ housing

The Oceanic+ app is used in conjunction with the housing to show the diving interface during the dive. You can take photos and video, see the temperature and depth during the dive, and get alerts for relevant events such as your ascension rate and safety stop timer.

Your dive is saved to the logbook where it now will include the photos and videos you took throughout the dive. Photos can be shared with dive information overlaid.

Photos will automatically be color corrected to compensate for the blue hue found underwater and both RAW and compressed options are available.

The housing is available for $489.95 and is currently up for preorder in North America. Shipping starts in late September.

Dive computer functionality requires an Oceanic+ subscription, which can be shared with your Apple Watch. You can still using the housing for photography, without an active subscription.

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tahoejr

I have been looking for a solid iphone housing solution for underwater photography.  Existing options are just the point and shoot variety or bulky high end configurations.  Looking forward to seeing the reviews for how this all fully integrates with the phone and quality of pictures/video. 

schubidoo

tahoejr said:

I have been looking for a solid iphone housing solution for underwater photography.  Existing options are just the point and shoot variety or bulky high end configurations.  Looking forward to seeing the reviews for how this all fully integrates with the phone and quality of pictures/video. 

I have a very similar housing (sans the divine computer feature) from SeaLife (SportsDiver) along with the matching spotlight. Takes great pictures and is enough for me as a free-diver. 

diman80

tahoejr said:

I have been looking for a solid iphone housing solution for underwater photography.  Existing options are just the point and shoot variety or bulky high end configurations.  Looking forward to seeing the reviews for how this all fully integrates with the phone and quality of pictures/video. 

When diving in saltwater, I cover iPhone 14 Pro Max openings with clear tape and use a smallrig cage with a safety strap. This prevents losing the phone, fogging and droplets on lenses effectively. In freshwater lakes, I skip taping holes. During a two-week period of daily diving in salt water, the screws in the smallrig cage oxidized, but nothing happened to the phone. Additionally, I block touch interface through guided access. Works for me like a charm.

Sometimes when I want extra quality I use Filmic Pro and Halide, but most of the times just the Camera app.

All cases that I tried were leaking or fogging or were degrading image quality to various extent.

sflocal

I'm a professional underwater photographer.  There's been quite a few underwater housing options for smartphones for a while.  I do like this version as it appears to be quite a more robust offering.

That being said, I would never use my primary phone in one of these housings, simply because if I'm on some tropical vacation out in the middle of nowhere, my phone is my lifeline to the outside world and a flooded housing at-depth could result in a ruined camera.  This is a great option if one has a secondary smartphone to use.  I'd be curious if there are options to use strobes via optical cord.  Oceanic is really making a name for itself in the Apple ecosystem.

right_said_fred

schubidoo said:

tahoejr said:

I have been looking for a solid iphone housing solution for underwater photography.  Existing options are just the point and shoot variety or bulky high end configurations.  Looking forward to seeing the reviews for how this all fully integrates with the phone and quality of pictures/video. 

I have a very similar housing (sans the divine computer feature) from SeaLife (SportsDiver) along with the matching spotlight. Takes great pictures and is enough for me as a free-diver. 

I have used this one several dives to 100ft, no problems.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B3DK6Y92/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

entropys

Making this subscription based seems weird. Especially after paying for the hardware in the first place. 

Is their target market full time divers only?

appleinsideruser

Why does the case pump the air out? Doesn’t this increase the pressure differential (leak potential) during a dive?

misterboey

appleinsideruser said:

Why does the case pump the air out? Doesn’t this increase the pressure differential (leak potential) during a dive?

My thoughts exactly 🤔

anonymouse

appleinsideruser said:

Why does the case pump the air out? Doesn’t this increase the pressure differential (leak potential) during a dive?

A quick search unearthed this bit for another product: "By creating negative pressure inside the housing and monitoring the vacuum pressure, the AirLock will verify your housing is leak-proof before you even jump in the water." So, apparently, it allows one to verify that the seal is working properly before taking it in the water.

sevenfeet

tahoejr said:

I have been looking for a solid iphone housing solution for underwater photography.  Existing options are just the point and shoot variety or bulky high end configurations.  Looking forward to seeing the reviews for how this all fully integrates with the phone and quality of pictures/video. 

iJustine on Youtube published her impressions on the case yesterday.

sevenfeet

sflocal said:

I'm a professional underwater photographer.  There's been quite a few underwater housing options for smartphones for a while.  I do like this version as it appears to be quite a more robust offering.

That being said, I would never use my primary phone in one of these housings, simply because if I'm on some tropical vacation out in the middle of nowhere, my phone is my lifeline to the outside world and a flooded housing at-depth could result in a ruined camera.  This is a great option if one has a secondary smartphone to use.  I'd be curious if there are options to use strobes via optical cord.  Oceanic is really making a name for itself in the Apple ecosystem.

iPhones can already withstand being thrown into a swimming pool and have been known to survive some depths falling off of dive boats. I guess the issue is that if you had a catastrophic failure at 100 ft, is pressure is going to also kill the phone or if the case can still protect it enough to get to the surface.

Also as others have said, it probably also shouldn't be your primary dive computer, but the fact that it embeds your dive metadata with pictures and videos is pretty sweet.  Who needs a dive book?