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If you've ever watched a late night talk show and wondered why the photographers were shooting with a giant suitcase, there's a good chance you weren't hallucinating from sleep deprivation. These big boxes are called Sound Blimps and are designed to keep those loud shutters a little more quiet during live TV or movie production. Although simple in design, these suckers are known to cost a pretty penny...Enter the DIY crowd who are determined to make it work for a small margin of the price. Dan Tabár decided he was up for the challenge of creating an inexpensive housing for his D800 after finding the "quiet" mode to be a bit comical for sound stage use. Taking cues from a few online tutorials, he figured out a way to create an inexpensive sound blimp out of a rugged Pelican case and some extension tubes. Total cost including the case, PVC tubes, silicon sealant, a little epoxy: Around $80 opposed to the $1000+ these can easily go for.
Interestingly enough, he found out his sound blimp also doubles as a underwater housing since it's air-tight with the sealant. The video above shows him testing it out in his pool, and thankfully the D800 stays nice and dry (whew). I don't think I would be as brave to trust my own craftsmanship, but if you're up for the challenge check out Dan Tabár's blog for step-by-step instructions.