Made a new photo taking tool - check it out!

[aural]

well i kind of bit this idea off of a friend of mine at the LFS - but i went a step further.

the idea was to be able to get nice top down or high angle shots in the tank. seeing that i dont have an extra 3 grand to part with for an underwater housing for my D70, i improvised.

so i went down to the local plastics store and got myself some acrylic and started building. here is what i came up with

This is me assembling the box. the sides are made out of 1/8" black acrylic.

here is the bottom being attached. it is made from 1/8" clear acrylic

here are some shots after everything was assembled. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the longer piece of black acrylic and jerryrigged a tripod mount. I have a tripod mount screw somewhere, but this will do for now

 

[aural]

and here are a few quick tests shots i took with it. this should be a fun thing to play around with

red monti cap

indo blue tort

some kind of pink acro

no idea what this one is. forgot to rotate and i'm too lazy to do it

clam and tubs blue zoa

bright green zoa

what do you guys think?

 

[gregr]

I think it's really really cool.

 

[Mchava]

This is the only way to take top down pictures. here are some I took with my photobox. Not from my tank but Gcarroll's tank just a few

 

[DebsSisterFlo]

now THAT is cool! Gorgeous pics!

 

[aural]

Mchava: you have some NICE looking SPS there, mate!

 

[levine_ari]

great idea

 

[gho]

I got my box from Marc - no way can I make one of those things myself

 

[Kinetic]

omg, I'm building the same thing!

I got the idea when I went to AtlantisAquarium.net, they had a big pvc tube (black) with the clear acrlyic front.

My build is going to be a totally clear acrylic box, then a "sleeve" box with the bottom and top open, with black acrylic sides. The camera mounts inside the black box, which then can be put into the clear acrylic box to show the bottom, or sides.

good stuff!! are you ever scared the box will start leaking? =)

 

[aural]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7201363#post7201363 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by koden
good stuff!! are you ever scared the box will start leaking? =)

not really. i used a really good amount of the weld on and leak tested it for 12+ hours - i figured if it would hold water in, it would hold it out. so far so good.

 

[T Man]

I WORK WITH A GUY THAT IS HAWIIAN, HE TOLD ME THAT HIS GRANDMOTHER USED TO MAKE THE KIDS SIMILAR BOXES TO LOOK AT THE WONDERS OF THE OCEAN WITHOUT DISTURBANCE.EXCELLENT CLARITY, NICE WORK! TINMAN

 

[rbaker]

Very cool! I think I might have to fire up the tools this week...

 

[piberoptikz]

very nice.

 

[PowderBlue518]

That works out great, That is a very good idea LOL