Your Save-a-(photo)-dive kit

Just dropped a large bundle on an Aquatica setup for my D80. Not content, I'm looking for more stuff to buy. So, question for all you seasoned vets out there - what's in your photo Save-a-dive kit? Extra o-rings, zip ties, strobe sync cords, toolkit, etc? Mostly looking for those items I won't be able to borrow/replace at the other end of the earth.

If you just want to brag, I'd also be interested in those MacGyver moments when you constructed a back-up housing using a zip-lok bag, some duct tape, and a drysuit inflator hose. Figure I might learn something if it ever happens to me.

Tim

Just dropped a large bundle on an Aquatica setup for my D80. Not content, I'm looking for more stuff to buy. So, question for all you seasoned vets out there - what's in your photo Save-a-dive kit? Extra o-rings, zip ties, strobe sync cords, toolkit, etc? Mostly looking for those items I won't be able to borrow/replace at the other end of the earth.

 

If you just want to brag, I'd also be interested in those MacGyver moments when you constructed a back-up housing using a zip-lok bag, some duct tape, and a drysuit inflator hose. Figure I might learn something if it ever happens to me.

 

Tim

nothing special with me: silicon grease, oring for housing&strobe, extra battery and battery charger

nothing special with me: silicon grease, oring for housing&strobe, extra battery and battery charger

I don't take the battery charger on the boat, but spare batteries, yes.

Spare o-rings for everything. Housing back, port, strobe, sync cable.

Also I take plenty of microfiber towels to dry everything if I need to tear it down to change something.

I hate having to do any kind of maintenance on camera gear but have forced myself to become involved doing a fair amont of preventative work on my housing and nikonos stuff. I always carry two extra sync cords, extra AA alkaline batteries that I seldom use and usually give to the crew at the end of the trip, a small role of "gorrilla" duct tape or heavy water proof "mastic" electricians tape, a clear plastic water resistant flash card holder / wallet, a dry bag, several very soft old jockey T-shirts, o-ring tools, zip lock bags, silica gel packets, a Copperhill sensor brush and a rocket blower to clean it, oring rebuild kit for the housing, wrenches, screw drivers and allen wrenchs to fit every nut, bolt and set screw on my housing, a flash card recovery software program, a large soft sided cooler that I pack with these things for shipping and use to carry and protect my kit when I am on the dive boat and a third strobe. All of the stuff I mention have been used at one time or another. I zip tie my pelican boxes and soft side cooler and ship them inside extra large Landsend or Eagle Creek duffles that don't advertise themselves. Art Wolfe ships his stuff this way. DEPP and most importantly DAN insurance. I hope this helps. Good luck. v/r Andy

Think about a back-up body, sync cords, bulkhead, and a spare strobe is nice when on a ten day live-aboard and yours looses it little mechanical mind.

I'm probably extreme on this - at least that's what everyone says. I carry a toolkit that generally contains:

Tools: adj spanner (aka crescent wrench); assorted screwdrivers, allen wrenches (aka allen keys) - metric and imperial sets; tweezers, needlenose pliers; bent needlenose pliers; small files; cutter; shackle wrench; brass regulator tools; dentists' scaler (aka pick); intermediate pressure (IP) gauge;

- Where possible, go for SS. (My stainless steel adj. spanner - made in New Zealand, for yachties - has been with me for almost 20 years.)

Spares and consumables: O-rings; several kinds of o-ring grease; small tube of Christo-Lube (oxygen-safe grease); extra Nikonos strobe bulkhead port; various UltraLite clamp and fitting bolts and other spare bits; tri-glide fasteners (for harness); plastic ties; various lengths of thin nylon cord, kevlar cord, shock cord, surgical tubing, and bicycle inner tube; Neoprene cement (good for more than wetsuite repair); 2-part epoxy glue; duct tape.

Other spares: One extra camera body. Full set of camera housing o-rings. One spare for each regulator hose, one spare 1st stage; one spare 2nd stage; one spare SPG, spare computer, spare mask (prescription). (If I know the boat/operator has good rental/lending gear, I dial back on some of these items. If I'm travelling with a buddy and we using the same gear, the regulator spares are shared.

Some of this gets used by someone (often another diver) on every trip.

You don't want to know about my meds kit.

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)

One thing that we do is label the various allen wrenches for the different set screws inside housings that hold the knobs. Some manufacturers apparently use whatever is on the bench at the moment and have 4 or 5 different set screws in a given housing. Putting the correct allen wrench in a labeled bag saves lots of time. Same for external screws, but these typically are much larger and easier to get the correct fit by trial and error. We also put a little bottle of 100% methanol and some clean room Qtips in a bag for cleaning crud off of various bits, plus some clean room (lint free) wipers in the bag and some talc free rubber gloves so you I can put my rather fat fingers on the port/lens without leaving a trace. Also quite helpful when replacing HID or other quartz lamps that can burn out more quickly with finger print oils on them.

BVA

a guitar pick

It's a great way to dig out an o-ring and won't get me thrown in TSA jail for having it in my carry-on.....and it's wafer thin!

Do you have Ike DS 125 strobes?

You can buy extra batteries for it, i know several people who have 2 batts for each strobe

I'm probably extreme on this - at least that's what everyone says.

 

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)

If you're extreme, I am too - I usually carry two full sets of allen wrenches (one inch, one metric, the round-head kind for using at weird angles), crescent wrench, small wrenches sized to 1st/2nd stage, pocket knife, dental pick, rope, cave line, surgical tubing, bungee cord, zip-ties, waterproof tape, SS double-ended clips (w/ these + zip-ties, you can attach anything to anything, even underwater), spare 1st/2nd stages, regulator port plugs, mask/fin straps, DIN/yoke converter, and tons of o-rings.

Thanks for all the other great ideas - wouldn't have thought of spare bulkheads or a flash card recovery program for sure, and lint-free Q-tips are brilliant; I can never get O-ring grooves perfectly clean. Also excellent idea on the anonymous duffel for transport - I do that for my dive gear, but never thought of it for my pelican cases.

Besides all of the above I never leave without a solderkit. I have repaired already several synccords/connectors divelights with it on a trip.

Besides all of the above I never leave without a solderkit. I have repaired already several synccords/connectors divelights with it on a trip.

Ooh, great idea, and very small/portable. I usually keep a small roll of conductive metallic tape in my box for worn contacts on dive lights, but that won't help much for other connectors.

Besides all of the above I never leave without a solderkit. I have repaired already several synccords/connectors divelights with it on a trip.

I was going to add this <_< . Have had to repair a boats electrics as well as sync cords. I now take a little pencil gas torch / soldering iron and resin core solder.

Shrouder (?sp) valves and tool for removing from feed houses.

Charles

I had a dual-sync cord failure on my memorial weekend trip on the first dive. I was able to keep on shooting because I had:

1) Single strobe cable

2) Manual controller as optical slave for the second strobe

Having these backup items saved the whole weekend for me!

Dave