Making dome ports

[smod]

Hello,

I’m new here my names Dominic. I’m making a housing and I need a few tips on dome ports.

How should I make one?

Should I just buy one?

Where from?

What are they made from?

If I could I would prefer to get someone to make one for me but who?

This is for a surf camera housing so super simple I just thought id come to you guys because you know your STUFF!

Thank you for reading

Dominic

[James]

It occurs to me that if you are making a housing and don't know how to make a dome you are in deep --------.

http://www.globalplastics.ca/plasticdomes.htm

I don't mean to sound discouraging but as someone who many years ago actually did make a couple of housings, it is not an easy thing to do and today it can be even more difficult to justify with so many already on the shelf to pick from.

Domes are made from Plexiglas/acrylic plastic usually though some are glass. You can purchase a ready made dome from Ikelite but it has their mount system, you would have to duplicate. I used a compass dome on one of my housings and I made one on another by draping acrylic over a form in an oven. It took several tries and it was never perfect.

Good luck.
James

[DevilDiver]

I have to agree with James for the most part but if you feel comfortable with this project I say great.

Here is some reading that might help:

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/diy-smal ... -for-cfwa/

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=38452

Here is a link where you can get glass and mounts:

http://www.athena-opt.com/kougakue.htm

Good luck! Please post updates on your project, I am sure it will be interesting.

[Vizart]

Compass dome where used for the longest time by various manufacturer in the early days, the only recurrent issue being optical quality, the dome originally made for compass , do not have the stringent quality controls that a dedicated optical port would, there might be some thickness variation (wave) and and other irregular issues, so be prepare to go through a fews before you find a suitable one.

Definitely making your own housing will not be economical, but will give you the satisfaction of having done it yourself and that's a nice feeling that I can relate to. Just make sure you plug all the holes

surf housing need to have preloaded O-rings seals, meaning that you need to compress the O-ring prior to immersion as it will get trash by the surf, a typical underwater photography housing is slightly different, it will get its load gradually as pressure increases on the way down and will not/should not be trashed in surf conditions, so just make sure you pick your building influence from the right source.

[smod]

Thank you soo much for your help. I need to sorce some buttons next. any tips?

I will show you guy the finished product

DOm