Underwater camera enclosure including sonar range finding device

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to the drawing, in particular FIG.
1, the underwater photographic system including cylindrical housing 10 is shown according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Housed within the enclosure 10 is a self-developing camera with air-sonar automatic focusing control 12, represented here by the Polaroid camera Model "Pronto" sonar series.
The underwater enclosure 10 comprises two main sections, the front section 14 providing a housing covering substantially all of the components of the camera and the additional apparatus described hereunder, and the back plate 16 which is fixedly mounted by retaining screws 17 or other suitable closure means to the front housing 14 forming a watertight enclosure.
The back plate 16 further comprises shelf elements 70 and 72 for retaining the electronics (contained in electronics compartment 48) and the camera 12, respectively.
The underwater enclosure 10, comprising the elements 14 and 16, provides a watertight or first medium environment in which electrical or mechanical devices, such as a conventional and unmodified camera, may operate therein.
The back plate will also provide the appropriate transparent apertures positioned as necessary to utilize the focusing, picture counter, view finder, low light level detector and other viewing ports inherent in the body and design of the camera 12.
The front housing 14 will have at least one optically transparent surface 18 providing a viewing port for the camera 12; furthermore, it is desirable to provide additional surface sections of the front enclosure 14 to be transparent to allow the operator of the camera to view the exposed pictures as they are ejected from the camera 12.
This may be provided by allowing the front surface 18 to be transparent over a sufficiently large area to permit the above-described viewing or the entire housing 14 to be transparent.
The underwater enclosure 10 includes various mechanical and electrical through-connections which enable the operator to operate and adjust or otherwise communicate with the enclosed camera, as well as to permit external signal connections to communicate with the camera therein