School time, Koh Tao

Hi all, newbie here,

this is my first contribution in WP, do not hesitate hammering hard or being harsh... I'll recover...

Coming back from a trip on Koh Tao Thailand, then Nha Trang Vietnam (the second location being far beyond my expectations, I'm sure I'll come back to it soon).

it was the first time I used my new rig : Oly 4000Z/ PT010 and Epoque 150DS strobe. (Though I was more or less used to Nik V before). Flooded a bit on the ascent (!?), somewhere near the 8th dive, fortunately not enough to hurt any part. I read what happened to another member (Stephane, very oddly, I think I had a flood on the same day at almost the same location : is that a curse?) with the same equipment and I'm getting quite worried about the PT010 reliability.

However, this is Chumphon Pinnacles, by far the best spot around Koh Tao, which was globally disappointing. Lots of fish schooling off coral pinnacles, there was also a couple of grey reef sharks, unfortunately, I could not shoot them : viz was not at its best.

Exposure info 1/125 at F/4.5, 100ISO, beefed up the contrast slightly with PS7 Curves, sharpened.

Another one, all same-same : location, equipment, exposure...except the fish...

Hi Luko,

mmm... looks like there was a bad current in Koh Tao for that dive since we both flooded the housing

I had 2 floods in more than 150 dives these last 6 months and believe me the conditions are far from the one you have in a livebaboard. I think that any other expensive setup would have badly suffer from the treatment.

Each time was unexplained, I could not see any reason.

I did not see any bubbles coming from the housing after noticing water.

The o-ring is still as new.

I'm not over-servicing the o-ring but only clean it and grease it when it gets dirty.

However I can say that the housing is showing some serious tearing from sand on the external part of the polycarbonate (basically the one in contact with water just before the o-ring contact, this one is still soft and clean) and the fact that the metallic callback broke due to corrosion lead me to believe of a conception problem about this part. The PT-015 uses a different system for the zoom callback (learned the lesson ?)

I had confirmation from Olympus today in Singapore that they do not have spare parts, so basically I can throw mine in the bin.

ps: I'm glad that I'm not the only one considering that Koh Tao is absolutely not a good dive spot.

Stephane