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To date, I’ve been impressed with the Oceanic+ app on my Apple Watch Extremely to the purpose that I’m now utilizing it as my secondary dive pc, alongside a Suunto D5.
Whereas I’m proud of my pc setup, my seek for an acceptable digital camera has been much less fruitful. I’ve been by way of a small handful and have to date been disillusioned with all of them, for numerous causes, together with low high quality and poor battery efficiency.
When Huish Outdoor – the identical agency that designed the Oceanic+ watch app – introduced that they might be constructing a telephone housing designed to deal with my iPhone right down to 60 meters (far past the place most leisure divers would ever discover themselves), I couldn’t have been extra happy. In spite of everything, I’ve stopped utilizing my DSLR on terra firma as a result of my greatest cameraphone now suits into my pocket.
Thankfully for me, the Oceanic+ Dive Housing arrived simply days earlier than my iPhone 15 Professional, simply because the diving season right here within the UK is coming to a detailed.
What can the Oceanic+ Dive Housing try this my digital camera can not?
After fairly a prolonged setup course of (extra on my expertise with that beneath), you’ll be met with a full-screen digital camera view the place you’ll be able to swap between taking photographs and movies, or enter a wise mode that takes a photograph periodically (you’ll be able to outline this) whereas filming.
You too can fiddle round with issues like distinction, white stability, high quality, video stabilization, focus mode, which of the lenses you want to use (together with ultrawide), and file sort (together with RAW), all of which might be modified on the go underwater by way of the keypad, which connects to the telephone by way of Bluetooth.
As a result of the Dive Housing additionally has its personal temperature, depth, and stress sensors, it serves as its personal unbiased dive pc, separate from any Apple Watch Extremely which will even be working the Oceanic+ app (or simply the preinstalled Depth app). Bluetooth alerts do not journey properly underwater, so it is sensible for each to be unbiased.
The present depth and no deco time are overlaid within the high proper, however you’ll be able to press the keypad to enlarge this view to present you all the identical form of info you’ll count on from the watch app, together with dive time, ascent fee, a compass, and extra.
The housing itself is pretty giant and has a chunky grip, however it’s also possible to select to connect a lanyard or use one of many three mounting threads. That is actually essential, as a result of in my case, the complete setup together with the titanium iPhone weighs 1,162g, and sinks to the underside at a reasonably alarming fee when dropped. This can be a widespread flaw of most underwater telephone housings, however attaching a buoyant gentle arm or mounting the equipment on a tray can counter this.
When you’re finished, photographs and movies go straight into the app alongside the dive log, and you may pinpoint precisely whenever you shot one thing, alongside together with your depth and the temperature. They’re additionally saved to the telephone’s Pictures app.
It’s price mentioning that it costs with a USB-C connector, which made issues actually easy as a result of, with the iPhone 15 Professional’s new USB-C connection, I solely have to hold one cable.
Like different dive computer systems, the Oceanic+ watch app and Dive Housing each use the Bühlmann ZHL-16 decompression algorithm, which suggests it ought to be simply as secure as purpose-built dive watches.
When it comes to accuracy, I discovered that the Oceanic+ app on my watch, the app on my telephone, and the Suunto D5 had been all the time inside 0.1m of one another.
My dive with the Oceanic+ Dive Housing
With summer season drawing to an finish within the UK and circumstances removed from unique, my nearest dive website at a disused quarry grew to become the testing floor for the Dive Housing.
As soon as kitted up, my subsequent step was to make use of the iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button to kick off a routine that I arrange utilizing the Shortcuts app. For me, this meant opening the Oceanic+ app, enabling Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb as per the app’s necessities, and remotely locking my automobile.
The setup course of takes some getting used to and entails a number of on-screen steps earlier than the iPhone is lastly positioned contained in the housing. That is when the gadget creates a vacuum and a three-minute stress test is carried out to verify your telephone is secure earlier than you’ll be able to dive.
I made the error of gloving up earlier than organising the telephone, which meant I needed to take away the watches from over my gloves to be able to take them off in order that I might provoke the setup. It was all a little bit of a faff, however with a little bit follow – and very similar to the complete gearing up course of for any dive – it turns into a superbly choreographed routine.
For the aim of taking photographs with the gadget, my buddies and I caught close to to the floor the place visibility was affordable and the sunshine had not pale.
Though I used to be sporting 5mm gloves through the dive, I used to be nonetheless in a position to make use of the four-button keypad to modify digital camera modes and test a extra detailed view of my dive. My solely gripe concerning the bodily interface is that there’s little suggestions from the buttons, so whereas it’s simple sufficient to press them, it could generally be unclear if you happen to even have.
As soon as the picture shoot was over, we headed deeper to the place the sunshine had virtually pale and visibility was a meter at greatest. Usually, circumstances like these suck the enjoyable out of leisure diving, and having any sense of bearing turns into an actual headache.
I discovered that the iPhone 15 Professional’s digital camera was capable of see greater than my very own eyes might because the 6.1-inch show become a tv in entrance of my face. You’ll see from my photographs that the stirred-up sediment from different exercise within the quarry-turned-lake did nothing to assist visibility. Navigating by way of this further pair of eyes was a refreshing expertise, and the on-screen compass couldn’t have been extra welcome.
I’m removed from a professional photographer, so I ditched the RAW format and caught to Apple’s HEIF, which permits the software program to mechanically color-correct photographs and movies. I used to be happy to have the ability to use the iPhone’s full 4K 60fps performance – the upper body fee permits divers to take stills of something fascinating throughout a video with way more accuracy. The entire time, I caught to utilizing the 12MP 0.5x ultrawide lens, and didn’t discover a serious drop in imaginative and prescient from the 120-degree discipline of view in contrast with my DJI Osmo Motion 3’s 155-degree discipline of view.
I did discover that, in shallower waters and the place daylight is especially robust, a mirrored image can generally seem mid-shot as a result of the iPhone’s lenses sit a number of millimeters away from the outer case of the Dive Housing. Nonetheless, circumstances had been poor and even the skilled digital camera getting used to {photograph} me with dazzling 20,000-lumen lights was struggling. It’s additionally not a singular drawback to the Oceanic+ equipment, and lots of different telephone housings undergo from this too. Huish Outdoor instructed me that adjusting the place of the iPhone can assist eradicate this, notably transferring it to the left.
Having sense of your environment, circumstances, and dive parameters always is essential to a profitable dive, and whereas staring by way of a display screen is unquestionably not advisable, having that further software in my arms was a game-changer. A daily underwater digital camera or motion digital camera wouldn’t be capable to put all of this info in a single place.
Will I proceed to make use of the Oceanic+ Dive Housing?
Let’s get the value out of the best way, as a result of at practically $500 it’s an extremely costly piece of equipment. Add that to the iPhone 15 Professional’s $999 / £999 / AU$1,849 price ticket, and one other $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 if you happen to’re after the newest Apple Watch Extremely 2, and it turns into costly in a short time.
Regardless of this, I believe the Oceanic+ Dive Housing remains to be good worth for cash. That’s as a result of you’ll be able to simply spend over $300 / £300 / AU$500 on a DJI Osmo Motion 3 or GoPro Hero 12 earlier than including dive-specific equipment, and that’s a tool that you simply’ll probably wish to change pretty commonly as digital camera expertise improves.
I change my iPhone yearly – or most years – anyway, which suggests I can have the newest digital camera expertise inside the identical Dive Housing a number of years later.
If studying about my success with the Oceanic+ Dive Housing has bought you wanting one, you’ll be able to order the gadget from $490 within the US, £519 within the UK, and AU$979 in Aus.
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