Shooting Pelagics: WB, Filter, Focus and Lighting Tips needed

They had stopped doing the rebreather dives when I was there last Sept, they will still accommodate you if you have your own but wil not train you

Pakman, I suggest you do the intro to rebreather course during the crossing if you're not inclined to sea sickness. Try one day with the rebreather, then you'll see the difference and never go back to open scuba again.

You're evil Drew ... Bad enough I've got a bunch of local club members who dive every RB from Sports Kiss' to heavily modified Mk15's trying to convert me to the darkside...

They had stopped doing the rebreather dives when I was there last Sept, they will still accommodate you if you have your own but wil not train you

That's a pity. I always assumed they had it even last year. But I bring my own when doing Cocos so I don't bother to check. I suppose the maintenance and liability of such units would be an issue for rentals.

Pakman, it's only evil if it's detrimental. A semi-close draegar course is $400. It's crap but for the purpose of shooting up close and personal it works. I'm not saying do 300ft dives with them. In shallow water, they are much less complicated to handle.

If you want to get some shots and need to stay underwater for a long time, it's the only way to do it besides training like Pepin, which has its own dangers.

Have seriously considered it, but talking to RB folks its just a PITA to travel with your RB around Asia, and these guys aren't bringing cameras...! As more liveaboards and shops in the region become more RB friendly (sorb, O2, etc), I might start looking into it.

Pike tend to remain around the shallows, so you can have the joy of either using the 'sun icon' setting on the white balance (no filter) or manual through a green water filter then flip the filter when between 1-3 metres. But this also depends on the clarity of the water and whether the sun wants to come out.

I tend to make it up as I go along then mess around with CC in post...

Dive safe

Dean(eating toast whilst messing in post)B

thanks Dean... will print your post and laminate it to my housing for the Cocos trip...

Have seriously considered it, but talking to RB folks its just a PITA to travel with your RB around Asia, and these guys aren't bringing cameras...! As more liveaboards and shops in the region become more RB friendly (sorb, O2, etc), I might start looking into it.

How are you getting to Costa Rica? Via the US? That's PC system. So do the course ( 2-5 days) then rent one in the US for the CR trip. Or borrow one from your RB friends in HK. Assuming you even buy one (say a cheapo unit like the Dolphin or Evolution), you can now get sorb no lime in Phuket, Bali and Manila, the 3 main hubs of liveaboard diving. Only PNG is a bit more expensive and difficult but the Golden Dawn supplies it if you want it.

Seeing how you'll be in Bali for the Molas... you will get closer with a rebreather more often than open scuba

Oh and remember to save some change for the XDCAM EX or HVX replacement next year too

Dean... you really should stop drinking that early in the day.

You can talk people into spending some cashola Drew can't you!

Minidive- thanks for the HC7 specific advice. And yeah that startup time is a killer when the camera goes to sleep... Which port were you using with your Gates HC7?

pakman,

I have the SWP25 port. I had no problem white balancing, even on Alcyone at depth using the white slate from Gates.

As everyone has said, try several things and see which works best for you.

OK Drew, you are officially now on my ignore list... j/k

XDCAM, lol...

OK Drew, you are officially now on my ignore list... j/k

 

XDCAM, lol...

I believe Drew is what they call an enabler

Like his style though, having third party support when you spend money is always appreciated and helps prvent buyer's remorse

XDCam is for posers...HDCAM SR all the way baby...or Mark your turn "RED ONE" rules!

OK, I now have my new Gates HC7 housing in my hands (with WP25 port and MWB option)

I have a trip coming up & hoping to find whale sharks among other things, so have been reading this thread with lots of interest. All the advice is extremely useful.

I think I have most of it sussed out but I have a couple of questions that people with the housing might be able to answer-

Is there a way to autofocus on something - e.g. a fin, then lock the focus? or do you just stick it on manual focus before the dive and lock it at a set distance? I guess if I do this using the touchscreen menus then I can leave the wheel for manual exposure.

Can I switch between the assignable wheel being for manual exposure/focus during a dive?

Any updates on what the best fixed focus distance seems to be with the WP25 port? I will try it myself in a pool hopefully before I go, but till then I'm stuck to playing with it in the living room.

And any more advice on the image stabilizer on/off issue?

Can't wait to get it into the water!

Fergus

Can I switch between the assignable wheel being for manual exposure/focus during a dive?

On the HC3 in the Gates you can switch and I would guess )99.99% sure) the same applies for your rig . (Make sure the camera is not in Easy Mode) To go to Manual Focus, press the selector for focus and use the roller. To go back to auto focus, press the selector and use the wheel to reset in the menu.

Great, got it. Holding down the selector gets the menu to come up. Pressing it quickly switches between manual and auto of whatever it is you're on. Maybe I should go back and read the camera manual a bit more carefully

and don't forget to rearrange the LCD menu so that the manual white balance button falls in the bottom right corner. You might want to add the telemacro button as well right above it as the Gates MWB plunger will reach that too.

As for that roller/ assign button... play around with this on land until you get comfortable with it and how the settings show up in the LCD. There were a few times where I tapped it too much or too long and knocked it out of lock focus while switching to manual exposure.