Yes, longwinded: personal, camera/housing feedback, then trip feedback
Just had to tell somebody that I'm back from a trip on the Bilikiki with my new HC1 and Ocean Images housing. Made it through the whole trip and no floods. I don't have a history but it was high on the pucker factor for such a significant investment and use on the "big trip". So a major hurrah is heard for that alone.
Second, it had a somewhat charmed life, as it started it's first dive with a full size manta ray in it's sights! Not swooping on me but cruising by above. I don't just get to see manta rays, so that was a big hurrah as well and I really enjoyed getting to see it myself, besides record it.
I think I got some pretty good stuff, at least for it's first trip and real use underwater. A lot of agonizing decision went into that purchase in the trade off between non-professional use(no monetary ROI) and wanting as good as I could get.
I'll share when I get the time. I'm reviewing video I took at Mary Island, a remote island about 50 NM from an underwater volcano. Serious pounding your chest thundering and cracking sounds going on during the dive. Near deafening at times. That was cool. Head spinning over all these editing possibilities.
Initial feedback on the camera/housing:
The camera seemed to get good sharp video. I don't use lights.
At times, it up to 7-8 seconds for STBY to blink before going to REC. unknown cause. But it never failed to record.
MWB was indeed a problem at what appeared to be related to lower light areas. It would just blink when attempting to set using touchscreen and a warming card. I used Outdoor underwater, using the UR Pro filter at depths greater than say 40 feet. I tried to facilitate later color correction by videoing the warming card when I videoed my subject, doing this at some point in shots or when I stayed at the same depth for an extended period. I felt the main key to get some auto whitebalancing was knowing what was white in the shot, thus video the warming card. We'll see, I'm about to take a helluva lesson in color correction.
Otherwise, it seemed to get some great video. Unfortunately could not capture an incredible night sky of orange moon, clouds, moonlit foreground islands. That shot is only in my memory.
The housing was good but was bit rear heavy and almost bouyant feeling, though I adjusted the weight location. This was no problem at all in shooting but when trying to hold with one hand and warming card in the other, it could get unruly.
Otherwise, the housing worked very well, though the control wands on top were under serious pressure at anything over 70 feet for example. It took some effort to pull out and use them in a specific spot on the screen. Again, holding the housing while doing this smoothly was difficult. Worked on my videoing technique and tried for slow/no movement, exaggerated shot lengths so the viewer can see what it is, etc.
Diving:
Diving was good. I would say quality of Fiji, though not everywhere. Probably the inverse as well in places I never saw. I was disappointed in the viz overall. We never got over about 60 feet, at times, down to 30-40 feet. I expected better than that though not always of course. Lots of particulate in the water. For example, we were diving a shipwreck at 35-40 feet below the anchored Bilikiki but couldn't see it at all on the surface. That wasn't always the case but was an example of a surprising lack of viz for me.
I was also a little disappointed to not see more larger things like sharks. Got in the jacks stream, saw a few larger sharks and all that but wanted to see more big stuff. Palau apparently ruined me.
The special experience on the Bilikiki was the native people that visit the boat daily. You see people lifted out of National Geographic, for those of us handicapped to live in the US. Amazing people. Kids just as happy as can be, and talking and joking constantly. Adults were friendly once you met them but not the "everybody friendly" the Fijians. The simplest pleasures overjoyed them. We threw bags of popcorn to a native village that dugout canoed out to us on the way back home in an apparent regular event for the boat's return from charter. The kids swam like fish to get them, coming up beaming with a bag of popcorn in their mouths. Dad with junior paddling alongside returning big smile when you tossed it to them. And we better hope those guys never join the NBA because their agility and skill catching or using the paddle to scoop a bag was amazing.
Coming out for your night dive to see 25 little native kids, who just came out to watch the people on the boat, nothing else, sitting around on the tinnie watching the nuts prepare to jump in the ocean in the dark. Thinking of what they were thinking, I looked at the nearest kid when leaving, everybody silent not knowing what to say, and pointed to my temple and with a sly smile, I said "We're crazy." That elicited a big laugh from all. You know, experiences you don't buy.
Weather was good, with a mix of sun and serious rain for a couple hours maybe.
The trip report will come, but my head is filled with experiences right now, so I'm rambling... :-)
