Does Outex Float? Buoyancy, Air Control, and What to Expect Underwater
Apr 18, 2023
Yes — the Outex underwater housing system floats, even with a heavy camera and lens inside. The trapped air inside the sealed cover creates enough buoyancy to offset the weight of the gear. Here's everything you need to know about how buoyancy works with Outex and how to manage it for your specific setup.
The video below shows the system floating in use:
How Buoyancy Works
When you seal the Outex cover around your camera and lens, air is trapped inside the housing. That air acts as a natural float — enough to keep the entire system — camera, lens, and housing — at or near the surface even in open water.
This is a meaningful safety advantage over rigid housings, which are typically negatively buoyant (they sink) and require external float arms or buoyancy compensators to stay at the surface.
How to Control Buoyancy
You can adjust how much the system floats by controlling how much air you seal inside the cover when you close it:
- More float: Seal the cover with more air trapped inside. The system will ride higher at the surface.
- Less float / neutral buoyancy: Squeeze out air before sealing. The less air inside, the closer to neutral buoyancy the system becomes — useful for shooting at depth without the housing pulling upward.
- Negative buoyancy: With very little air sealed inside and a heavy lens, the system may become slightly negatively buoyant. This can be useful for stationary underwater shooting but requires a tether or strap as a safety backup.
Experiment with air volume before your shoot to find the buoyancy that suits your shooting style and conditions.
How Dome Ports and Large Lenses Affect Buoyancy
The weight and volume of your lens and front port affect the overall buoyancy of the system:
- Flat ports add minimal weight and have little effect on buoyancy.
- Dome 120mm adds some weight but the system typically remains positively buoyant with most camera and lens combinations.
- Dome 180mm is larger and heavier — buoyancy will vary more depending on the camera body and lens used. Test your specific configuration before shooting in open water.
- Large or heavy lenses (e.g. 70-200mm f/2.8, cinema lenses) reduce positive buoyancy. With very heavy configurations, the system may approach neutral or slight negative buoyancy even with air sealed inside.
As a general rule: the heavier the lens and port combination, the less air you need to squeeze out to achieve neutral buoyancy — and the more important a wrist strap or tether becomes.
What If It Sinks?
If the system does become negatively buoyant — either by design or by accident — the Outex housing remains fully waterproof to its rated depth of 10 meters (35 feet). Sinking does not compromise the seal. However, recovering a sunk camera from depth is obviously undesirable, so we strongly recommend:
- Using a wrist strap or lanyard attached to the housing whenever shooting in open water
- Testing buoyancy in a controlled environment (pool, shallow water) before open-water shoots
- Using a float line or tether for shoots where the camera may be released from hand
Wrist straps and tethering accessories are available in the Accessories section.
Buoyancy in Action
The video below shows the Outex system in real-world water conditions, demonstrating how the housing behaves at the surface and during use:
Ready to Get in the Water?
Browse the full Outex system — including Pro Kits, dome ports, and accessory add-ons — in the Camera Kits section. If you have questions about buoyancy for your specific camera and lens combination, contact the Outex support team at support@outex.com.