Number 1
OK, so I'm doing my first dive at Darwin. Whalesharks are out there. I install the brand new 12-24mm dx to go really wide. With each shot, the viewfinder gets darker and darker. I can't get a proper exposure at ISO1250 and f4. The whaleshark swims right up to me. Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I switch back to the 17-35mm. No problems.
The last day I switch to the 16mm just for the whalesharks. No whalesharks show up. Argh!!!!!!!
While doing a brief land tour, I do a lens switch. Now these other two lenses go dark. It's not the 12-24mm lens, it's the camera. Can't get it to work. Back on the boat, I finally figure out whats wrong. The metal switch in the camera body for the DOF preview is bent. Apparently when I was installing the 12-24mm through the housing port opening, I bent it. I did the best I could to unbend it and the lenses worked. But for some reason the 12-24mm would not work. More home repair in order
Number 2
The lame spring I noted in my AD100 review came back to haunt me. It started sliding up the shutter release lever until it would come off completely. I had to manually yank it down and up to fire. Half depressions were hard to do.
Number 3
I received 3 brand spanking new DX125s just before leaving. I always take 3 strobes, because one always fails. I switched to these new strobes for their smaller weight, profile and faster recycle times.
I charged one at a time. One battery pack would not charge, I could not maintain a good connection with the battery charger. It finally just gave me a blinking green light and no charge. One of the strobes would not allow the battery pack to be re-installed (clamped) back on. It stayed in the suit case the rest of the trip. That is why I take three.
Number 4
Why must I always screw up a dive through my own stupidity? I hastily switched to macro for one dive, the only macro dive of the trip. In my haste, I forgot to slide the bulkhead connector into the hot shoe. Hmmm, the strobes are testing OK. Why won't they fire? Where's the red lightning bolt?
Ambient light macro photography is difficult and not very rewarding. Changed to ISO800, tweaked the shutter speed up and opened up the aperture. Worth a shot, but the results were pathetic.
Miscellaneous ramblings:
The 70-200mm VR lens is a beauty. Used with the 1.4x TC, it worked quite well. With the battery pack on the camera, climbing steep trails at 2200 meters, it's really heavy. Tyring to hand hold the lens while trying to suck the thin air isn't very easy. Sure, the tripod helps, but I was too busy leaning on it to rest.
I have some great shots of where the hummingbird was when I began to hit the shutter release button. Note to self: Take camera off vibration reduction (sort of like mirror lock up) when shooting moving objects.
One of my 1gb microdrives wouldn't down load all the images at the end of the trip. When I finally hooked the camera directly to the computer, it got all but two images.
My laptop mysteriously quick accepting a charge. Bad battery perhaps. Gaz Cooper had a Toshiba (nice of all the mfgs to make brand specific AC adapters) also, so I tried his AC adapter to see if that was the problem. No luck. We were going to swap out batteries, but they were different sizes. I put the battery back in mine and voila! it worked.
Maybe film isn't such a bad idea after all.
Oh, Dr. Craig, the recommendation not to have your film processed on the Aggressor remains in full force. Ken had a roll screwed up as a test. Funny how Richard's always come out OK.
Experimented with a completely new way of shooting. With the pace of action so fast and furious, the normal shoot and adjust doesn't work. I needed something more point and shootish. Switched to shutter priority at 1/60, exposure compensation at -.3, strobes at full or mostly 1/2 depending on situtaion. It worked pretty darn well, except you need a faster speed for those darn sea lions.
