DIY dirt/weather resistant case for DC-S5

mily20001 wrote:

Hello,

I'm thinking about making some kind of case for my DC-S5, that would protect it during my underground trips (like caving).

So I think there are 3 problems there:

• High moisture and water droplets coming from ceiling. For this I think stock DC-S5 weather-sealing should be good enough, but some more protection could be beneficial.
• Parts with a lot of water. I this situation I'll probably just put camera in my waterproof bag and won't take photos. There is not much more I can do here, other than buying true waterproof case for DC-S5.
• Dirt/mud/sand everywhere. This is the part I want to address the most with my diy case. So when I'm underground it's impossible to keep my hands really clean. And I'm afraid that when some sand will get into knobs and buttons, they will stop working.

I was expecting #1 to be occasional impacts with rock walls. I suspect some well-placed silicone bumpers could help a lot with that.

As long as you don't have those, even one of the cheap underwater camera bags can suffice. The catch is that you have to be very careful about what's trapped in the bag with the camera. Warm, humid, surface air trapped in the bag will condense as the bag is brought into cooler environments.

I was thinking about just not using knobs and prepare some kind of silicone cover for buttons, but I found those knobs quite useful (who would have thought :D), so I'm thinking about making them usable (at least some of them, like the one around shutter button). I wonder how it is done in diving cases, where you have some of the knobs available. I'm especially interested how knobs in those cases are connected to camera knobs.

I can (awkwardly) operate knobs through my cheap waterproof bags. The DiCAP one makes that harder, but it does have an optical glass port to shoot through.

Although I have an Olympus TG-860 waterproof camera for really wet shooting, I usually don't worry too much about my Sony E bodies. If it starts getting too wet, I pat them dry and stuff them in a waterproof backpack (and dry them completely as soon as I'm in a safe environment). My general experience is that dry and wet are easy, but alternating is a losing battle because of water droplets, and better cameras don't improve IQ much with water droplets on the lens. Hoods can help a lot if the water is directional (typically falling almost straight down). Incidentally, I generally wear a hat, and that helps keep water from between my face and the camera.

I started preparing silicone case for whole camera (except screen). I've done 3D scan of my DC-S5 (using photogrammetry) and recreated 3D model (as much as I could) in Fusion360. My plan was to model and 3D print form, which I would fill with RTV silicone. However I'm not sure if RTV silicone will be durable enough (usually silicone cases are done with HTV silicone, which is not really diy-friendly as far as I know), and it does not solve the knobs problem.

There are such silicone wraps for the S5 on eBay in various colors for under $30. For some reason, yellow ones are $8 cheaper than other colors?

So I'm looking for some other ideas about protecting my camera in such conditions and/or improvements/comments on my current idea

It all depends on your shooting style and how nasty the environment is.

I think most camera wraps/protectors/cases tend to do more harm than good by trapping water in contact with the camera. BTW, never sit your camera where it might end up in a puddle as water drips off because most cameras are way more vulnerable to water from below than above. I'm not a big fan of clear or UV filters as lens protection either unless it's very nasty -- just dab off the worst spots (DO NOT RUB!) and clean things for real when in a safe environment.

I live in Kentucky, so I have had some experience exploring wet caves, but not much... so don't take my word on this stuff as Gospel.

i doubt that a silicone cover will protect any gear.

as soon as dirt and moisture get between the silicone and camera the particles will act like sandpaper.

moisture will stay for longer time in between and spread on a wider surface.