Blue Water Dive recommendations

I have signed up for a "Blue Water" dive trip this Sunday. 3 dives down the anchor line in 2000' of water (I probably will hang around 60-80' though). Never done it and don't quite know what to expect. Should I take my wide-angle lens (which I have always used so far, as it is full zoom-through capability) or my flat port? What kind of focusing strategy? What light intensity should I plan for? MWB, etc...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Are we talking about the Black water night dives where you hang off the boat looking suspiciously like bait? For starters there is a previous discussion on this thread with a couple of links. Have a great time! It's way up there on my list of dives I want to do.

Cheers,

Steve

No, it's going to be an early morning departure. And "Blue Water" is probably a misnomer. I expect it to be pretty green off the coast of LA...

Thanks for the link.

I've done a few bluewater filming dives and can offer this:

Focus - you should use manual to avoid hunting and I would choose the distance you hope for the best possible shot. I you are hoping for a buzz within a meter, then set the focus at that distance. If the vis is rubbish then set it even closer.

Lens - wide as you have, especially with zoom through.

MWB - always manual, take something white - I don't for regular diving because there is always something to balance on but in the blue (or green) there is nothing other than your buddies and they will be in all black and their tanks could be any colour. Balance constantly as you descend (I do it every time I equalize) - eventually, it won't work any more because the light will be too low, but at least you have the closest possible balance. Also, in the blue, there isn't much colour, the viewer expects blue so shooting a bit cooler than usual only matters with models, not the sharks, rays, whatever else you are expecting to find.

Good luck.

I'm interested to hear what you are planning to see.

On my occasional excursions from the reef I've been looking for things like Sailfish, Wahoo, Manta etc and have found that, knowing your target gives you the direction.

I would echo what Aussiejosho said about MWB and focus, lens etc

The blue is a huge place and you can search for an entire dive and only get fleeting glimpses of activity just at the edge of your visibility. Will there be baiting or are you planning on diving near a Fish Aggregating Device (FAD)?

Have fun!

Richard

Not sure what we can hope for but I have heard mostly jellies and lots of other translucent pelagics. If we are lucky, a Mola Mola, a shark or a whale (just dreaming here...). This is Eastern Northern Pacific, the water is VERY green (actually red today in the Marina, or so I have been told!) and cold. I don't think there will be any baiting.

Those sound like good advices to think about.

I've got white fins, but as discussed elsewhere, the CX550V is very red tempered as far as MWB is concerned, so I may just use auto and hope my lights will provide the color, or MWB on the sun from 30' deep... I have 3 dives to experiment.

Lights? I have 2 bright 1300 lumen white/flat LED lights, but could bring another AquaSun eLED... or 3 of them.

Back from the blue...which expectedly was green. The best recommendation I ever got about it (not from this forum, but by the guy in charge) was to bring a tether line. The current was so awful that divers who had used a float with minimal weights to tether themselves to (the float being attached to the boat), ended up unable to go as deep as planned, because their weights were basically flying up in the current. I was attached to the anchor chain, which was heavy enough to drop vertically, so I was able to go down to 80', but apparently I did not see much more than the others. Things were just zooming by (several jellies got destroyed when hitting the anchor chain). A total failure then, but that motivated to try again when the conditions will be better.

Back from the blue...which expectedly was green. The best recommendation I ever got about it (not from this forum, but by the guy in charge) was to bring a tether line. The current was so awful that divers who had used a float with minimal weights to tether themselves to (the float being attached to the boat), ended up unable to go as deep as planned, because their weights were basically flying up in the current. I was attached to the anchor chain, which was heavy enough to drop vertically, so I was able to go down to 80', but apparently I did not see much more than the others. Things were just zooming by (several jellies got destroyed when hitting the anchor chain). A total failure then, but that motivated to try again when the conditions will be better.

I managed to put together a few shots from that memorable trip...

http://www.youtube.com/DBuwBW9nxRU

I hope this makes the comments above more palatable. I will definitely try again, as I was told this was pretty much the worst blue water dive in recorded history (local history at least)