A lot of people consider SCUBA diving to be one of the most gorgeous outdoor activities out there. There’s a lot to see under the Sea, as they say. When you go to depths, however, most of the so-called “waterproof” cases just don’t cut it. Many are only rated to a depth of a couple of metres, which is more suited to holding your breath in your swimming pool than taking a dive to see what lies beneath the waves.
This is where the Seashell SS-1 comes in. With this little moulded transparent case, your front-lens compact or ultra-compact digital camera can go down up to 40 metres. Plus, it’s very compatible with most of the digital cameras on the market today. Here are the requirements your camera needs to meet in order to be compatible with the Seashell:
- Be at or below 101mm x 65mm x 29mm
- Have its Power button and Shutter button on the top panel
- Have a zoom lens not exceeding 5x
The Good
The Seashell is an extremely simple design consisting of moulded plastic for the main body, a glass viewer through which your picture is taken, and silicone rubber gaskets that keep it water tight.
The body is clear, designed to be bright and cheerful in its four colors: orange, red, purple and blue.
Overall, the simplicity of the design is quite nice.
As well, the Seashell can be customized through the use of its included foam rubber inserts. All you have to do is place a couple of those, position your camera and close it up. After that, you’re good to go. Also, if you ever happened to lose the foam inserts, you can easily jury up some of your own with ordinary foam and double sided tape.
It’s operable to a depth of 40 metres. That might be the deepest general-use underwater case available for miniature digital cameras.
The Bad
You’d better bring your forethought when you pack the Seashell in your diving bag. While it has buttons for activating your camera and operating the shutter, those are the only two features you are going to be able to use while your camera’s in there.
As well, every time you want to take out your camera you are going to have to carefully reposition it. In some cases this only takes a minute, but occasionally it can be a bit frustrating to get your camera back into an operable position, after changing the configuration slightly. Forget to check, and you might find yourself with the perfect image staring straight at you under the waves… but the button doesn’t quite get your shutter to work. The depths of frustration will become the worst pun you ever thought up.
The Ugly
Truth be known, the only ugliness you’re going to encounter with the Seashell is the odd picture you mess up taking and you’ll end up deleting anyway. There’s nothing that bad about it overall.
