night diving

ok, so as mentioned in another forum, we're in the midst of our annual squid run here in sunny san diego but I've found a huge problem in my camera rig that I'm hoping someone can help me out with.

I use a ds-51 strobe an no focus lights so I have NO light at all without a dive torch. I've tried (and failed) mounting a C4 light on my camera so as to have full use of at least one hand, but with so much weight on my camera framing shots is impossible. every attempt I made I start in a level position, composing my shot and my upper body would be pulled down by the weight of the camera.

Tried ankle weights, still not enough, slid the tank down, no good. I have 12lbs fixed on my back (6lb stainless bp and 6lb single tank adapter) so i dont dive with any movable trim weight either.

how does everyone else cary a large camera setup and a light at once? I'm tired of coming back with awefull, cutoff shots from night dives.

What the heck are you using? If you find the camera to be too negatively buoyant, add some flotation.

I think you already know the answer to your question. Add floats to your rig so that it is roughly neutral and add a focus light. The focus light can serve as your primary dive light.

I have a Nocturnal lights SLX LED focus light and although it isn't nearly as bright as my Light Canon, it is plenty to dive with, and since it has a nice diffuse beam, it aids peripheral vision.

any recomendations on floats perhaps? I know they exist but I've yet to actually find any.

and its an Ike housing

There have been a lot of threads lately about buoyancy arms. There are three approaches.

1. Buoyancy arms. ULCS has a nice new line.

2. Foam floats (pool noodles, or corecell foam)

3. Cappped PVC tubes.

Option 1 is the most elegant and streamlined. Options 2 has problems with buoyancy changes with depth or trapping water against the arms causing corrosion, but it is pretty streamlined. I went with option 3 because it was inexpensive and worked pretty well. Here is my rig.

and here is a recent thread http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17347&hl=

You can search for others with the keyword "buoyancy"

....how does everyone else cary a large camera setup and a light at once?

If none of the methods above work, you could always try a buddy-slave...

I'm not a huge fan of night dives in general - I am very nearsighted, so either a flat corrective mask gives me incredibly narrow fields of view which seems somehow worse at night, or if I wear my Hydro-optix mask now my field of view is great, but this is a problem at night because every other idiot's light always seems to magically aim right at me as it bounces at the end of a tether when they don't aim it. So I end up with accomodation difficulties getting my eyes to switch focus and have my dark vision destroyed so I can hardly see outside the main light cone. I've considered several times (but not yet tried) just grabbing hold of the boat's downlines and riding out a night dive in the middle depths, 20-25 feet or so. Wonder if a) you'd get some good shots with everyone else cruising around below, kind of wide-angle gestalt (assuming very good vis and stable conditions), or b ) if there's much to see up there to just shoot laterally as things go by...do the cuda etc come and visit, or are they all hunting by diver light down below?

I know this seems like at least a partial hijack, but I think it's related. During the day I'm more comfortable with body position much closer to the reef, so I tend to shoot 'horizontally'. By night due to limited vision I think I tend to stay further 'above' the reef, which prompts 'shooting down' and thus the head-down drift the OP mentioned. Strangely I don't mind being inverted at all during the day, but at night it really adds to my disorientation. So maybe it's not just a matter of buoyancy, but also your comfort at night like I suffer??

One additional thing others haven't mentioned but I'm sure you've seen is the way the night critters (brittle stars and the like) will 'retreat' from dive lights - so for a focus light a red filter might help limit this, but also obviously limits it's utility as a main dive light somewhat...

ok, so as mentioned in another forum, we're in the midst of our annual squid run here in sunny san diego but I've found a huge problem in my camera rig that I'm hoping someone can help me out with.

I use a ds-51 strobe an no focus lights so I have NO light at all without a dive torch. I've tried (and failed) mounting a C4 light on my camera so as to have full use of at least one hand, but with so much weight on my camera framing shots is impossible. every attempt I made I start in a level position, composing my shot and my upper body would be pulled down by the weight of the camera.

 

Tried ankle weights, still not enough, slid the tank down, no good. I have 12lbs fixed on my back (6lb stainless bp and 6lb single tank adapter) so i dont dive with any movable trim weight either.

 

how does everyone else cary a large camera setup and a light at once? I'm tired of coming back with awefull, cutoff shots from night dives.

I managed to glue a metal YS mount for a focus light (with epoxy) to my plastic housing. Worked great for diving. Fell off when I took the camera in the housing out in the snow. The different thermal expansion coefficients did me in ... but I will re-epoxy it again for the next dive trip.

I was amazed that a little 8-led Fantasea Nano Focus light was bright enough to be my only light on a night dive. I brought a bigger light with me, but ended up turning it off within minutes once I realized I could easily get by with just the tiny little Nano.

Steve's pic of his system shows Inons with, I think, the built-in focussing lights. I've found them really good as make-do night dive lights. No need then to hand hold a dive light. Add a focussing light on the housing and you've got more night dive lighting options that you will ever need!

I use 2 DS-125 and the Hartenberger Nano focus light. With the DS125 foucs light on and the Nano at 100% (which is not the max output), I actually lit up more coverage then most handheld dive light including the UK100 Light Cannon. It's never an issue to consider extra dive light. Heavy ? Sort of but managable. I think I am going to try Dr. Steve's option 3 next week. It's sounds interesting but I'm probably too lazy to paint it black though

I ordered the StiX Flotation arms.....apparently more buoyant and much less heavy than the new UCLS version. Here is a review;

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/review-of-s...-by-cor-bosman/

For me, it sounds like an ideal arm for someone who wants a less negative rig with less bulk than weight to deal with when travelling.

I emailed them directly. They were very helpful. They recommended a 6"(SX-206) x9"(SX-209) for a D300 housed in a S&S housing with 2 YS-110 strobes, UCLS clamps and a Fisheye HG20DX light. With a 100mm Macro setup, they claimed that it would improve buoyancy by 60%.

Here is their website;

http://www.4gdphoto.com/catalog/index.php?...amp;cPath=11_12

Here's my solution; two underslung aquatecs attached to an Ike housing with custom delrin and aluminium mounts. They act as perfect w/a focusing lamps as well as dive lamps. HTH, Tim