Diving in Malapascua

Guys,

i have a trip booked for malapascua next month - hopefully it won't rain too much!

can you advise me the best divesites for macro photography and wide angle - i know we have the thresher shark dive but i am trying to decide what lenses to pack. We are going Qatar Airways and they can be a bit stingy with the weight allowance.

I was thinking to take the 60mm, 105mm, and my 10.5mm Fisheye and leaving the zooms behind and just adding wet diopter and teleconvertors. id the 10.5 good for thresher sharks or am i better with my 17-55m or 10-20mm?

thanks in advance for all the help!!

regards,

Alastair.

Hi,

Macro dive sites are everywhere with the house reef in front of Exotic producing a really comfortable high yield area. As for the Threshers, go for the zooms, the 10-20 probably being your best bet but it's also worth taking the 17-35 too. Many an interaction with these beautiful creatures is at a distance of over 6 feet making the 10.5 a frustrating lens to use on it's own, shooting in natural light won't make such a difference when you utilize the upper end of the zoom here.

Enjoy the early starts and lying on the bottom waiting for the "silver fox".

Cheers

Richard

Thanks Richard.

Really lookng forward to (early start included) it as it has been on my wish list for a while.

Monad shoal is also possible for mantas in the afternoon. further out, kemod shoal has been known for hammerhead sightings though i didn't see when i was there.

All around malapascua there are pretty good macro sites. Around the area of exotic resort is their house reef, sort of like a personal dive site for the resort guests so not likely guests from other resorts will get to dive there. forgofish, ghost pipefish and flamboyant cuttlefish are known to be sighted there. Lighthouse is a great site for mandarinfish when i was there, they were big sized and not shy of divers.

For Monad shoal and the threshers, the guides will usually say no flash photography allowed. Usually the threshers won't come too close either unless you're lucky so a zoom lens is a better bet. Dive nitrox if possible as it'll give you more bottom time at the site where the cleaning stations average 18-25m.

These two photos were taken in Lighthouse two months ago:

Like howeikwok said, they were big sized and not shy of divers. More photos of the trip is here: http://nauticam.smugmug.com/HousingTests/N...17377780_rHwvJ6

We saw one Thresher shake (in the early morning dive) out of 2 trials; and one Manta in a afternoon dive (out of one trial). But the visibility was too bad to produce any good photo. Lots of interesting marco opportunities other than Thresher shake and Manta.

Edward

The 17-35mm and 17-55mm lenses are expensive professoinal lenses. Wouldn't the cheap kit lens that came with your camera (18-55 or, possibly, 18-70mm) do the job just as well for the thresher sharks? According to Ken Rockwell, the optics of the 18-55mm lens are fully comparable with those of the professional lenses.

i have the 18-70 but i have never found it very sharp when it is behind the port whereas the 17-55mm is sharp.

Edward,

is there macro on monad shoal or only the threshers? i could just go maco and just enjoy seeing the sharks.. as we are not allowed to use flash it seems a shame to go all that way and take some blue shots of sharks in the distance.

i have the 18-70 but i have never found it very sharp when it is behind the port whereas the 17-55mm is sharp.

 

Edward,

 

is there macro on monad shoal or only the threshers? i could just go maco and just enjoy seeing the sharks.. as we are not allowed to use flash it seems a shame to go all that way and take some blue shots of sharks in the distance.

Hi Alastair,

There is no macro opportunity on Monad Shoal. Could be very boring if the Thresher/Manta are not coming.

Edward

Edward,

thanks for the advice - i will keep that in mind..... i may try it once and then stay at more productive sites as mentioned above.

thanks all.

Monad is great for Macro too but you don't go there for that.

Richard

Edward,

 

thanks for the advice - i will keep that in mind..... i may try it once and then stay at more productive sites as mentioned above.

 

thanks all.

According to Ken Rockwell, the optics of the 18-55mm lens are fully comparable with those of the professional lenses.

"According to Ken Rockwell", fish have wings...

... he has absolutely no knowledge of underwater photography, where the match between lens, port and low-light performance become very much more important than in the photographs he seems to take himself. I haven't used the 18-55mm, but the 18-70mm wasn't a great performer in the water, although it was adequate. The 17-55mm, a great lens out of the water, is only so-so behind a port. None of these lenses will go close enough to a large subject, like a shark or a diver, to avoid the "blahs".

Tim

A recent video I saw taken at Monad shows that it is barren. Too many divers sitting on the bottom away from the viewing area has destroyed a lot of coral, it's simply a debris field. There's talk of viewing stations for the threshers but not sure how it will be implemented. Good macro at the wreck of the Marilyn and at Gato.

Camera advise from KR is like taking medical advise by watching Grey's Anatomy....

S.

What, when are you gonna get your lazy ass to Palau....you WILL need your 10.5 there!