The 5 gold-plated wet sensor contacts are located on the inside bottom right of the housing. The leak alarm will activate if anything conductive (i..e. water drops, your finger, etc.) touches the wet sensor contacts.
If the leak alarm is activated, a “Leak Detected” message will appear on the display for 5 seconds and the housing will beep 5 times. If this happens during your dive, surface SAFELY in accordance with safe diving practices. Power off the housing. Use a cotton cloth to clean and dry the housing and phone. Inspect the O-rings for damage, twisting and sand/hair/debris. Clean and lube the O-rings or replace if damaged.
The purpose of the Leak Analysis is to check if the housing maintains an airtight seal before diving. After sealing the housing and applying the vacuum pump pressure, the housing monitors the internal air pressure for any changes. If the housing loses internal vacuum pressure, the phone will display “Leak Detected” or “Keep Pumping”, depending on the amount of pressure change. If the housing maintains vacuum pressure, the leak analysis will be successfully completed, and the housing is ready for diving.
Here are the most common causes for a loss of vacuum pressure resulting in leak analysis failure:
If the above information does not fix the issue, please contact the SeaLife Service Center in your country for assistance. For a list of dealers/distributors that can offer repair service, please visit the SeaLife website at www.sealife-cameras.com/dealer-locator/.
After preparing the housing and applying vacuum pressure, the app keeps displaying Please Prepare Housing message and status LED continuously flashes red, yellow and green. This issue is most likely caused by exceeding the SportDiver’s high altitude pressure limit. The SportDiver housing vacuum pressure check (leak analysis) works up to altitude of 6500 ft / 1980m (11.6 psia). At higher altitude, the SportDiver Leak Analysis will malfunction, and LED status indicator will show red/green/yellow error code.
The internal vacuum pressure must be released before the housing can be opened. Unscrew the vacuum check valve cap. Use your dry fingertip to move the rubber yellow 1-way valve sideways to release the pressure. Do not push down the valve as that will not release the pressure. You may also use some dull object, like a pen cap, to move the valve sideways. Never use a sharp object near the rubber 1-way valve.
The housing wrist strap included with the SportDiver Ultra attaches to the housing as shown below. Attached the looped end of nylon cord through the housing strap connector (A). The clip (B) is used for attaching the camera to your BCD (buoyancy Control Device) D-ring. Adjust the sliding lock (C) to tighten around your wrist.
Humid air or water drops trapped inside the underwater housing may condense on the cooler glass lens port and cause fogging. Here is the best way to prevent fogging:
Glare in the upper left corner may occur when a bright light or sunlight is behind you and there is an air gap above the phone. Light is passing through the air gap and reflecting off the inside of the glass lens port. To eliminate the gap [and glare], use larger rubber grip tabs along the bottom.
If there is still a gap after changing the grip tabs, attach one self-adhesive, anti-glare strip to the inside top of the lens port. Do not stick the anti-glare strip to the glass lens.
The volume button is being pressed accidentally. Move the rubber grip tabs around so they do not touch the iPhone buttons. Refer to page 14 of the manual.
Move the rubber tip sideways to release internal vacuum pressure. Pushing the yellow 1-way valve down will not release pressure.
Here are some common causes and solutions for the rear housing buttons not working:
If the above information does not fix the issue, please contact the SeaLife Service Center in your country for assistance. For a list of dealers/distributors that can offer repair service, please visit the SeaLife website at www.sealife-cameras.com/dealer-locator/
We recommend using two standard alkaline AAA batteries, which will last about 50 hours of continuous use. Single-use lithium and NiMH rechargeable AAA batteries may also be used in the SportDiver with no known side-effect. When using non-alkaline batteries, the housing battery strength indicator on the top right of the SportDiver app display may not be accurate because NiMH and lithium AAA batteries operate at slightly different voltages than alkaline batteries.
SportDiver App (see above for underwater housing troubleshooting)
SportDiver iOS app version V3.4.3 was released to the App Store on May 8, 2024. Before updating the app on your iPhone, it is important to uninstall the previous SportDiver app. Deleting the app will not delete any photos or videos. The update includes the following:
If you are experiencing any app issues after installing the update, please email us at quality@sealife-cameras.com. Please include a description of the issue and include your phone make/model and the operating system installed on your phone.
If the SportDiver app does not open or crashes, please follow these troubleshooting solutions:
If you are still experiencing any app issues after following the online troubleshooting, please email us at quality@sealife-cameras.com. Please include a description of the issue and include your phone make/model and the operating system installed on your phone.
This issue only affects older iPhones running iOS 15 or earlier. The SportDiver iOS app supports iPhones running iOS 16 or 17. Please check your phone’s operating system and update it to the latest available iOS version.
The smartphone camera’s auto focus system requires sufficient lighting and contrast to focus on the target subject, as well as good visibility for the camera to “see” the subject. If the subject is in low light or blending in with foreground/background (i.e. low contrast), the camera will struggle to focus. If you are experiencing focusing issues, please try these troubleshooting tips:
When video resolution is set to 120 fps (frames per second) or 240 fps, the playback will be in slow motion. This is useful when recording fast moving subjects and adding a dramatic effect to your videos. Recording videos at 30 fps or 60 fps will play back at normal speed.
Some Huawei smartphones have a special factory Android version installed that blocks out Google Play Store. You may install the SportDiver Android app directly to your Huawei phone by following these instructions:
Note: Dropbox prohibits opening APK, so that is why you need to save the file to your phone’s Files app and then open it from the Files app.
We have recently discovered that some iPhone models may automatically undim the display even though the phone is in Power Save mode. The phone will normally go into Power Save mode if no buttons are pushed within 1 minute. The display will dim and camera turns off [showing a frozen image] to conserve battery power. Pushing any button brightens the display and “wakes-up” the camera. Some iPhone models may automatically undim the display when moving the phone without touching any buttons. The camera does remain off until a button is pushed. Changing the phones Display settings or SportDiver app Power Save settings does not fix the issue. App programmers are investigating the cause and solution for this issue and will release app update ASAP.
The SportDiver app will save the first photo or video in Playback mode. You may delete the other files by pushing the OK button and selecting YES, however, the first photo/video will always be saved. This is necessary to prevent the app from becoming unstable and potentially crashing.
This is not an app bug - There is an iOS systems limitation within the iPhone SE and Xr that blocks out the zoom function.
Back tap is an iPhone feature that performs select tasks when tapping on the back of the phone 2 or 3 times. Back Tap should be turned Off when the phone is inside the housing because it may accidently perform the task and close the SportDiver app if the housing gets bumped or knocked.
We recommend using the VLC Media Player, which is a free download at https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
There is a slight delay when selecting video mode or when changing lenses. This delay is necessary for stable app performance.
The SportDiver housing vacuum pressure check (leak analysis) works up to altitude of 6500 ft / 1980 m (11.6 psia). At higher altitude, the SportDiver LED status indicator will show red/green/yellow error code.
When diving at altitudes higher than 6500 ft, you will need to disable the leak alarm in the SportDiver app Settings Menu. Make sure you carefully set up the housing to avoid a leak – inspect, clean and lube O-rings, and properly seal the waterproof door. You also need to add two pumps of vacuum pressure after sealing the housing even though the leak alarm is disabled. The vacuum pressure helps the waterproof door to fully seat itself into the housing, creating a strong seal.
The SeaLife SportDiver app includes on-screen exposure & settings data feature, which can be enabled or disabled. To enable the on-screen exposure data feature on your iPhone, go to your phone Settings, scroll down to the SportDiver app and turn on “On-screen Settings”. For Android phones, the on-screen display setting is located at the bottom of the SportDiver app Settings Menu.
Check that SeaLife SportDiver app permissions are set correctly. The following screenshot shows the correct app permissions. Access to Photos must be set to “All Photos”. App permissions are located under phone Settings -> SportDiver [app].
Phone notifications may still appear if exceptions are allowed. For iPhone, got to your phone’s settings and select “Focus” to review and update your Do Not Disturb settings. For Android, remove any Do Not Disturb Exceptions.
Here is some information from Apple on how to import photos. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201302. For PC, use Windows Photo App. For MAC, use Photos app import tool.
The SportDiver iOS app includes a Triple lens setting, which applies to all iPhone Pro and Pro Max models with 3 lenses. The Triple lens setting allows you to quickly change lenses when zooming up/down. 0.5x is Ultrawide, 1.0x is Wide (normal) and 2.0, 2.5 or 3.2 is Telephoto lens. The other zoom steps in between lenses are using digital zoom.
Notes
The manual white balance setting is not supported by some Huawei and Redmi phone models. The live view will appear green and result image capture will be black. See below screenshots. This is a limitation with those phone models and app update will not fix this issue.
For Android phones with two or more lenses, the SportDiver app may not show all available lenses in the Lens settings menu. This is not a bug. Some Android phone makers block out access to ultrawide and telephoto lenses. The SportDiver app will display all lenses made available by the phone maker. In most cases, it is possible to access the Telephoto lens by using the normal Wide lens and zooming to 2.5x or 3x – the lens will automatically switch to Telephoto.
Some Android phones include a high photo resolution of 48MP or higher. The highest available photo resolution setting with the SportDiver app is 12MP. This is not a bug or oversight. Most Android phone makers will limit the maximum saved photo resolutions to 12MP. This limitation applies to all Android camera apps, not just SeaLife. We are monitoring this closely and will update the SportDiver app if and when higher photo resolution options are available.
One thing to note – The SportDiver app will utilize the full image sensor size that the Android phone is capable of capturing. For example, if the phone’s true image sensor resolution is 48MP, the phone will convert the 48MP to 12MP using a technology called “pixel binning”. The result is an ultra-sharp 12MP image because it utilizes all the pixels available within the image sensor.
Some Android phone makers position the ultrawide lens in the upper left corner of the phone, causing the SportDiver lens port to appear in the photo or video (i.e., Vignette). This issue only applies to some Android phones but not iPhones. iPhone has the ultrawide lens is positioned away from the corner, so there is no vignette.
SeaLife released SportDiver app update for Android phones on June 5, 2023, which fixes a RAW mode storage bug affecting some Android phone models.
The SportDiver housing is designed to automatically connect to your iPhone or Android smartphone running the current or previous version operating system. Older phones that cannot update to the current or previous operating system released by Apple or Google are not supported and may not connect.
It may take up to 1 minute for the phone to automatically connect to the SportDiver housing. The blue status LED will blink with the phone is not connected and will be solid blue when it is connected. You will also see the Bluetooth icon on the bottom right of the app turn from white to blue when the phone connects to the housing. Please follow these troubleshooting tips:
SeaLife Cameras (Division of Pioneer Research), 97 Foster Road, Moorestown, NJ 08057
(856) 866-9191 service@sealife-cameras.com www.sealife-cameras.com