How to you carry you dome?

I've been on a number of dedicated photo liveaboard trips and I have yet to see someone intentionally enter the water with dome cover intact. The covers always come off in the skiff and stay there until the photographer or a member boat crew replaces them.

Dealing with a buoyant cover underwater is more hassle than it's worth in my opinion. In addition, with the cover removed I am able to verify by the position of the shade that my port has not rotated.

I'm a bit surprised with the number of responses stating that they intentionally leave the cover on.

-Brad

I've been on a number of dedicated photo liveaboard trips and I have yet to see someone intentionally enter the water with dome cover intact. The covers always come off in the skiff and stay there until the photographer or a member boat crew replaces them.

 

Dealing with a buoyant cover underwater is more hassle than it's worth in my opinion. In addition, with the cover removed I am able to verify by the position of the shade that my port has not rotated.

 

I'm a bit surprised with the number of responses stating that they intentionally leave the cover on.

 

-Brad

While I've never had a DM mishandle my camera accidents do happen so why risk possible damage to a $1,400 dome and possibly ruin a trip as well?

Say what? Any salt would dissolve once it gets wet. Or are you talking about never, ever rinsing the cover and letting it dry out?

 

Mine goes back on underwater - no chance of "salt accumulation" - just before I get out of the water and it stays on until after I take the whole rig out of the fresh water bath after the dive.

Just so we're clear we're talking about a conformal cover right, not those square cornered hat covers that don't touch the dome. Ultimately I'm thinking that whether we leave it on until we're in the water depends on the situation. If I'm diving off a liveaboard, 5 dives a day, each time I bring up the neoprene cover that's been soaking in the ocean for an hour it's full of salt. If I rinse it in the camera soak tank with my dome covered I'm not getting all the salt out. (and oh by the way all that salt is now in the tank, so I just think I'm rinsing the salt out). An hour later a now dry slightly crusty cover goes back in the ocean and we do it all over again. I'm suggesting that after a day of this treatment, much less a week it's very probable that my cover has enough salt embedded in the cover that it would leave micro scratches on the acrylic dome. Done over a period of time, pretty soon I've got sand paper. After a couple of hundred dives like this hold your dome up to the light and tell me what you see. We can relieve some of this by trying to wash the cover thoroughly in clean water and maybe make sure we replace it regularly. I think it comes down to making the call on the diving situation. A nice big boat with clear decks and an experienced crew, I leave it off. If the rig is getting handed into a smaller boat, or inflatable it stays on. Diving off a ponga in Mexico where the young man handing me the rig has never seen a DSLR- the cover stays on and I give free camera holding lessons. I think we make the best call we can given the circumstances.

The biggest problem I have with leaving the cover on though has nothing to do with possibly scratching the dome. Upon entering off a boat I've developed the habit of immediately descending with the rig held above me, dome down, so I can see any potential water before it has a chance to damage anything. I learned this from watching Alex and it's a great way to do that final system check. If I'm screwing around with the dome cover on descent I'm not doing that and I'd be very uncomfortable. OK, so I'm paranoid, I can't help myself.

Cheers,

Steve

Come on..... Show some picture

You asked for it. Don't mind the Popeye like forearms!! Hahaha!

You asked for it. Don't mind the Popeye like forearms!! Hahaha!

 

Cool man ... You should bring 2 cover, one on left one on right and look more gorgeous. Hahahahahahahahah

Guys,

I keep mine on until im in the water but i wear a shorty wetsuit so it either goes up the sleeve (like ur gran does with her tissues) or up the leg on my thigh. I know its not going anywhere, its out the way but as soon as im done shooting it goes back on. On my safety stop i clip off my camera (cetacea shortening bungee clip thing) and put the cover back on so i can concentrate on my safety, not my cameras. it gives you something to do in those 3 mins if ur out in the blue.

I dont use a bcd pocket as there is other items in there. if u constantly open and close pockets u are bound to lose something along the way, esp if ur mask doesnt allow u to see the zipper!

Keep it on to protect from unconcerned boat boys.

Never concerned about salt build up - you wash ur housing, you wash your ports, you wash the port cover...

And yeah always descend with port down for final check (although leak detectors are at the back on nauticams)

Olly

p.s i think its funny how we all have been playing with our kit/expensive toys that we are so ingrained with a technique that we adhere to every dive - and noone is gonna change that!

I always leave the neoprene on until I'm on my way down or on my way up.

I'm suggesting that after a day of this treatment, much less a week it's very probable that my cover has enough salt embedded in the cover that it would leave micro scratches on the acrylic dome. Done over a period of time, pretty soon I've got sand paper.

Except that the salt won't accumulate into "sandpaper" over time. Sure- you'll probably never get all the saltwater out of the neoprene with just rinsing, but you'll wash out the vast majority of the salt every time. Otherwise, putting on your your wetsuit would be horrific after several years... and when's the last time you saw any salt buildup on your wetsuit?

An anecdotal story - I've been keeping saltwater reef tanks for more than 15 years now - mostly with acrylic tanks, and there's always the concern about scratching the acrylic. (Recent picture below of my current tank). In 15 years, I've never had any instances of salt causing scratches on acrylic. Sand and rocks, yes. Salt, no. Which leads me to believe that the hardness of salt is less than the hardness of acrylic. I'm not saying that it's not possible, but with as much as I deal with salt and acrylic, you would have think I'd have seen evidence of salt scratches by now...

Either way, I think the risk of scratching by a boat operator or other divers is far greater than the possible salt buildup.

I too am worried about twisting my port (and causing a housing leak) whilst getting the cover on or off but I've seen a few people have their domes scratched even on liveaboards with experienced divers & crew, mine is glass so unlike an acrylic port one large scratch will kill it because i don't think you can polish it out I leave the covers on for hand over. Float on the surface with my knees up, cradle the camera in my lap and take off the cover. Clip it to my bcd (and stick it under my arm strap out of the way) then descend dome down.