Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

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1733554913_840_560 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

The first underwater photographic record dates back to 1856, the year in which the British adventurer William Thompsonwith a camera inside a waterproof box, took the first aquatic photo.

However, Louis Boutan is the name of the diver who opened the door to underwater photography. He is recognized as the first to capture scientifically useful photographs in the late 19th century.

How they took the first underwater photo. Boutan had two enormous challenges ahead of him: pressure and light. Although Thompson had beaten him to it, his experiment worked only half-way. The British man’s box only managed to descend five meters, and the photograph he took was of very low quality, without any validity for scientific purposes.

450_1000 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same
450_1000 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

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450_1000 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same
450_1000 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

Boutan, together with his brother, created a camera in a waterproof iron box. The shutter was activated by a lever, and by means of an internal globe the internal pressure could be balanced with the external one.

The camera was placed on a tripod on the seabed, and required the diver to be submerged to operate it. Once the problem of pressure was solved using the box and tripod mounting, it remained to control the light.

375_142 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

To do this, a kind of aquatic flash was developed: a glass bottle with oxygen and a magnesium cable capable of turning on for half an hour thanks to batteries.

450_1000 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same
450_1000 Almost 140 years ago, an adventurer took the first underwater photograph. Now, Android manufacturers want to achieve the same

Photograph taken with the Realme GT7 Pro.

How current manufacturers are doing it. Without a doubt, it has rained since the century and a half that has passed since the first underwater photography was achieved. This is one of the new challenges for phone manufacturers. And, curiously, it has quite a few limitations compared to Boutan’s invention.

Realme and OPPO have been the first manufacturers to incorporate an “underwater” photography mode. In the case of OPPO with its Reno 13, the depth to which we can submerge the phone is up to 1.5 meters. In the case of Realme with its GT7 Pro, they talk to us about two meters.

The key is that the new IP69 protocol allows phones to withstand pressure jets, a significant advance over IP68. Despite this, they do not recommend using phones underwater for more than 30 minutes, nor do they cover any type of damage resulting from this use under warranty.

Image | Commons

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