Canon S40 with Housing

One more thing about the S40/S30 housing; it's only rated to 100 feet/30 meters by Canon. I doubt that means the seals will fail at 101 feet; given the way the fiddly bits work I imagine you start having trouble working the controls at 4 atmospheres.

I'm diving Cabo may 1-3, and plan to do Gorda Banks, which gets you to 130+ easily, so I'll test it then.

Don't disappear at Gorda Banks...I've heard some SCARY stories from there...

James

What stories have you heard? I've already been diving there twice, but the second time was a bit nerve-racking. There were a *lot* of fishing boats hanging out there; one of our group narrowly dodged getting hooked.

This happened to me at the Socorros, not Gorda BanK. You have the same basic flora though not as prolific so I think it's appropriate. Near the "broilers, famous manta site" out boat spotted a large pool of dolphins. We all jumped in to snorkel with them. In the confusion I went the opposite way of every one else. I saw plently of dolphins. The problem was the sharks. A school of 8 to 10 man size Galapogos/Silky sharks circled in on me from the depths. I actually fractured a toe kicking them away. As photographers we are always trying to get close enough to sharks to photography them. This however taught me that you don't want to isolated by yourself with them in the open ocean as they CAN be as dangerous as depicted to the movies.

What I am getting at is that you go to Baja to see "senior big"; but you don't want to be caught away from the group or the pinnacle as you may get more than you bargined.

Accidentally went down to 107 feet, and the controls still work with no leak.

So who is going to push the envelope next and tell us what happened???

I went to the Revillagigedos on the Solmar V; we saw dolphins at Roca Partida, the only time I've ever seen them u/w. I also set my personal depth record of 146 feet -- on accident, whoops. Well, we'd meant to go to 120-ish, so I wasn't *that* off, but still. And that was also the only place I've seen hammerheads and galapagos sharks. It was a very intimidating day! Just the day before we'd been at the boiler, with the gangs of mantas. That was quite a trip for big stuff.

Actually the shot for my avatar was taken at Roca Partida. There was an enormous school of some smallish jack (bigeye?), something like a million, just astounding. This brought in the bigger jacks, who were aggressively hunting in the school, and sharks...

One of the DM's carried a billy stick that whole day, though we didn't get any close encounters I have heard that it pays to be wary of the silkies.

From what I've seen the Sea of Cortez is a lot more fished out, frankly I'm more worried about bozo boat drivers than aggressive sharks, but I'll keep an eye out!

Hmmph, I probably should post this in the fish-stories section of the boards...

Hi there.

I'm really new to digital underwater photography. But, I wanted to provide a link to some of the photos I took with my Canon S40 and the WP-DC300.

Mind you there are no added flashes or lenses or anything. Add to that: the operator isn't 100% certian on how to fully operate the camera yet. But for a first timer, low-budget guy like me, I think it did a great job. I guess the only bit of advice I'd give to someone is to take care of the seal (apply the silicon gel and dunk the case in fresh water after a sea or pool dive) and to get close to your subject material (@#$^ fish won't hold still.) Otherwise, I'm really happy witht he combo. Hopfully this will be a start to a very expensive hobby.

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=19020658303&n=1939382814