By Evan Ackerman
Water and electronics tend not to mix very well. It’s shocking, I know. Solutions to this problem are certainly available, but most of them require some significant usability compromise. Golden Shellback is a coating of some kind (a polymer) that can be applied to virtually anything, and completely waterproofs it (“splashproofs” it, technically) on the outside and inside. How’s it done? Uh, something involving a vacuum, that “produces a uniform, continuous, near hermetic coating that resists rain and humidity.” Details are relatively scant, but the video demonstration is impressive:
My first question was, can I get this done to my DSLR? Northeast Maritime Institute (the developers) say it should be possible, although they’re not yet sure how it might mess with the optics or the small and precise moving parts that cameras tend to have way too many of. $50 – $75 would be a small price to pay to be able to use my camera around water or in inclement weather without risking disaster, even if I’d probably never be able to get the stuff off without using sandpaper. There are no details on the exact price, release date, or mode of distribution (although it’s likely you’d have to mail them whatever you wanted to have coated). A pain in the ass, true, but that video demo is making me drool and I have all kinds of things that could really use- crap, too late.
[ Golden Shellback ] VIA [ gCaptain ]
