Where/how do you stow the neoprene dome cover?

Even if I thought I'd been rather careful with my camera and housing, I've gotten a few light scuff marks on the glass of my (Nauticam m43 4") dome port. It's probably happened on entry/exit during shore dives, when I occasionally have had to have the housing just hanging from my BCD, and I guess the dome has rubbed against my BCD on occasions. So far I haven't noticed any image deterioration underwater, so the scuff marks are probably masked by the similar refractive index of the water and the dome material. However, from now on I'm keeping the cover on the port until I'm safely in the water and have descended, and I remove it when I recover buoyancy, do the post-descent check on myself and the gear and extend the strobe arms which I keep "wrapped" around the housing while I'm on the surface.

The problem is: Where do I stow the port cover while underwater? My suit's thigh pocket is occupied by my dSMB and spool, and I'm worried I'll lose the port cover when I pull out the dSMB to shoot it. My BCD harness is already pretty cramped with "stuff" (octo on the right shoulder D-ring, backup light clipped to the left shoulder D-ring and bungied to the shoulder strap, SPG - and camera safety tether - on left hip D-ring and right hip D-ring is a bit unaccessible due to a gear pocket mounted on my right side). What do other people do with the cover when they're diving - unless they leave it topside?

Also, since I'm diving dry, my current suit is... let's say "not too big" (I've ordered a new one, by the way) and I'm wearing a rather thick hood and 6.5mm 3-finger wetgloves, my dexterity and freedom of movement is a bit restricted compared to you guys diving a 3mm shorty with no hood or gloves. That calls for a simple solution which I just haven't been able to find yet.

Any tips or ideas?

Does the dome cover have any where you can attach some 2-3mm bungee cord?

I would just tie a small length of bungee cord to the cover and to the housing/handle somewhere and then, when using the camera, stuff it in your hand or just let it float out the way (obviously it won't float way due to being attached

Just stick inside your neck seal. That way you never forget where you put it.

Put a little hole in the cover and tie string through it and attach to something close by where it won't get in the way, e.g. strobe arm.

I would just tie a small length of bungee cord to the cover and to the housing/handle somewhere and then, when using the camera, stuff it in your hand or just let it float out the way (obviously it won't float way due to being attached

*slaps forehead*

I ought to have thought about that. I guess I'll try with a piece of cave line first, the bungee cord I've got in my drawer is the thick type (4-5mm).

The wristband trick was neat, too, but I've got my diving light on my left hand and computer+compass on my right wrist, so I don't think that's ideal solution for me.

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Sent from my Android phone

Typos are a feature, not a bug

I use a tupperware like plastic container instead the neoprene cover as it scuffed badly my acrylic dome during a longer, bumpy boatride.

The container mus be so hard/stiff that he can't touch the glass in any case because of the slightly longer sun shades on the dome,

and is mounted with 2 bungie cords going behind the dome and during the dive they are clipped to the bcd.

Looks not very fancy but does the trick for a few bucks.

Chris

P.S. This kid of protection works also on the boat (and everywhere) to avoid that a crew member or whoever bumps the dome
against the boat while lifting the rig it out of the water.

 

Put a little hole in the cover and tie string through it and attach to something close by where it won't get in the way, e.g. strobe arm.

The truth is, it will always get in the way. Trust me on this. Buy a small pocket to fit onto one of your webbing straps, maybe. I find the OMS double-zipped pocket useful: safety bits in the big compartment, cover in the small.

 

The truth is, it will always get in the way. Trust me on this.

I do.

Tried the tether thing yesterday, and on 50% of the shots the cover got in the way for the strobe light. Gonna try clipping it on to a different part of the rig next time.

--

Sent from my Android phone

Typos are a feature, not a bug

When i use the minidome and the neoprene cap (i still did not find a right sized tupperware);
once the rig is in the water i give the cap bak to the crew and ask for it before i hand the camera back after the dive.
When i use the 17cm Athena dome with the plastic bowl as cover i just clip the bungie cords to the lower d-ring of my bcd and the cover is out of the way.

A nice thing to have for photographers is cargo pockets on the wetsuit. There are glue-on types you can glue to your wet/drysuit and they become very

handy for stowing smaller stuff.
Scubapro has a cargo pocket bermuda shorts called Hybrid Shorts, they may be a solution as well

Chris

once the rig is in the water i give the cap bak to the crew and ask for it before i hand the camera back after the dive.

Nice tip and basically what I do myself when I'm boat diving. Unfortunately, it's not very relevant for shore diving.

A nice thing to have for photographers is cargo pockets on the wetsuit. There are glue-on types you can glue to your wet/drysuit and they become very handy for stowing smaller stuff.

As I said, I dive dry. All drysuits I've seen so far come with at least one thigh pocket, and the better (trilam) suits have a large cargo pocket, often with a smaller pocket on the outside, on each thigh. My suit has one thigh pocket, and it's already occupied by my dSMB, as I mentioned in my OP. If/when I get a new suit I might have pocket space to spare, however I'll probably move my safety whistle and mirror and my wetnotes/slate from my harness pocket (which is kind of kludgy to access) to the right thigh pocket, per DIR requirements (safety/emergency equipment should be in the right-hand suit pocket), and move my dSMB to the left thigh pocket.

For wetsuit resort diving, it's probably a good tip, though.

Clip it to yourself, not your camera. Mine lives on my right hip D-ring. If the cave is small and it's dragging against the roof I put it in the drysuit pocket instead. Alternatively clip to a hip D-ring and then tuck under your waist band - works well for me in the tropics with no pockets.

One can easily add an additional pocket to a dry suit. Mine has two pockets that I installed. Short of that I would rig it so that I could wrap it around a strobe and use a cord toggle lock to secure it.