Puerto Galera 50mm Macros

I flooded my housing on the first dive of 9 days of diving. Major bummer!

Wetpixel saved the day! It pays to read some of these posting. Many goodies here. The goal was to get the ETTL electronics working in the Ikelite housing and use my backup Canon 20D.

I recalled reading an incident that happened to Karl D. when he flooded a Ikelite D70 housing. At the time I couldn't remember whether him and Jim Watt used alcohol or vinegar or both, one for surgical consumption...

Anyhow, I opted for vinegar and spent 4 hours trying different soaking and brushing methods and retesting. I knew I might have been close because I got some of the LED lights to light up. I placed a fan within 6 inches of the bare circuit board and let it dry for 4 more hours. Voila, ETTL worked.

I lost my 100mm and had to shoot with 50mm for 8 days. I didn't want to risk my 16-35 at that time.

A small underwater gallery from PG last week is at: http://www.pbase.com/wychen/uwphil2006

and some topside at: http://www.pbase.com/wychen/phil2006

comments welcomed.

Hard to believe, but the following are uncropped shots:

Sorry to hear about your flood.

Amazing you managed to get close enough with the 50 for that first shot. You must have used a diopter and got really close.

Very impressive, especially with the 50 mm.

Sorry to ear bout the flood, do you know the reason?

Great that you saved the equipment and could continue shooting.

Nice save Will.....you have some excellent shots....your exposures are dead on...did you use TTL for the macros?

Sorry to hear about your flood, but you rmembered how to revive your equipment...WTG... What happened?....must have been minor since you used the housing on later dives.

I also noticed that your f stops varied a lot....did you use shutter priority or just changed for the conditions?

You captured some really cool critters.....thanks for posting the topside shots also

Karl

Love the eggs on that mantis!!!

Sorry to hear about the f.....

Good job on gettin it back up and runnin

Herb - I didn't use a diopter. I just got huggy close to the critter without smashing him.

I actually had my macromate with me on the trip but the few tests I did with the 50mm lens and port didn't show much magnification so I left it in the room. I'm going to do some more tests with because this would be a very practical combo for medium and small stuff.

Karl - kudos to you. you saved my trip! Without your posting about your flood I would have been hosed. btw - half of my housing was full of water, so this was a major issue.

I have weird shooting habits which I have to break. I do constantly change shutterspeed and aperture depending on conditions. f stop should really be used for depth and composure but I often use it to adjust exposure within a range for each lens. In the heat of the moment I tend to change the fstop over the shutterspeed.

half of my housing was full of water, so this was a major issue.

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Did you isolate where the leak occurred? user error, cracked port or loose fitting, etc.?

You must have fixed it since you took lots of great pictures after you dried out the TTL module.

Karl

The leak occurred with a kinked port o-ring. The ikelite 100mm manual focus port for Canon fits extremely tightly over the lens. It takes a little force to get that port on. I must have got careless and pinched the o-ring while installing the port. I actually had the housing submersed in a rinse tank 5 minutes before the dive and it revealed no leak.

After the flood I removed the port and I could see a crease in the o-ring. my bad. I'm going to see if Ikelite can replace the circuit board before my next trip.

Also I think the port for the Sigma 50mm will also fit the Canon 100mm lens. I never did use the manual focus much except for some dabbling with the macromate. I think I will leave my 100mm port at home next time, it's one less port to carry, it's a pain in the ass to install (half the times the mf/af and range switches on the lens gets changed when slipping the port on). - the switches are not visible which means that after installing that port, it must be tested and half the time I had to remove the port, reset the switches and reinstall the port.

Love the eggs on that mantis!!!

ditto

Herb - I didn't use a diopter. I just got huggy close to the critter without smashing him.

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Will,

I wonder how big the image on the sensor is if the port is touching the subject!? Besides everyone says, "Get close, and then get closer!" I guess you took this to the extreme.

Herb - I didn't use a diopter. I just got huggy close to the critter without smashing him.

 

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That pygmy must be bigger than ones I've seen. At 1:1 the critter will have to be 1 cm curled up to fill half the frame.

If the TTL electronics is replacable in the field it might be worth taking a spare just in case Murphy shows up again. Electronics & seawater just don't mix. Even if you can dry it out & get it working it could fail again next week.

The leak occurred with a kinked port o-ring. The ikelite 100mm manual focus port for Canon fits extremely tightly over the lens. It takes a little force to get that port on......

 

.....the switches are not visible which means that after installing that port, it must be tested and half the time I had to remove the port, reset the switches and reinstall the port.

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Will...The Mantis is my favorite. Many models don't pose that well !! Wonderful shot ! I'm going to have to dig up Karl's post for saving the TTL module.

I fretted over trying to slide the port on as well. I had to use so much force I was afraid of damaging the lens or camera. I found out if I rub the pads inside the port with my finger tips the port goes on much easier. I guess the little bit of oil from my fingers lubricates the pads. Doesn't seem to hinder the manual focus operation. I can be more careful this way when getting the port over the switches as well since I don't have to fight it going on.

Sorry to drag your post even further off subject.