Planning a snorkeling trip? I’ve got a great tip – an equipment hack to take cheap underwater video to record your once-in-a-lifetime trip!
We’re about to make a very special trip to do some snorkeling! Of course we want to be able to snap some underwater photos, but $200 for a camera to use on one trip? Or even if we spring for that, it’s only one person who gets to take photos. But when I was shopping at our local sports store for snorkel equipment, I spotted a waterproof pouch for a phone. Not that I would dare take my phone underwater for extended periods of time. It’s too important to me, and too expensive! But then I had an idea…
I still have my old android phone! My information has been transferred to my new phone. But when it’s on wifi my old phone is still totally operational for everything but making calls! (Un-connected cell phones will always make emergency calls, but not any others.)
So we gave it a try in the pool and it works! It doesn’t leak. We were able to take some GREAT test videos. We weren’t able to take photos because our finger touch didn’t register underwater, but videos are better than nothing. We will try doing some photo captures from the video, but the quality will likely not be as high. But for saving $200 it will be good enough, and likely much better than the image I used in this post, taken of me snorkeling in Hawaii 20 years ago with an underwater disposable film camera.
We’ll be going on our trip soon and I’ll update with how it worked in the ocean. I still wouldn’t trust this with my new phone, but I’m definitely looking forward to trying it out with my old one. Bonus – we’ll have a phone with us that we can use for emergency calls if needed. (Which we do NOT want to have to use, but always good to be prepared.)
UPDATE: Check out the video we made using this underwater video hack! Maui Snorkeling from shore – Hawaii vacation 9
We got our case at our local sporting good store, but here’s one that looks just like it on Amazon.
Here is the video we made that way, snorkeling off a beach in South Maui. It’s a little shaky.
Here’s the video after a little stabilizing by Youtube.
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