Philippines Threshers and Dugongs GH5

Traveled to the Philippines in Nov 2017, Coron and Malapascua. Here's a short video showing a few highlights of the trip. Some fantastic diving with great guys. Shot using a Panasonic GH5 camera, panasonic 14-42mm lens, +10 Diopter (+3 in water), CMC-1 diopter and WWL-1 Lens in a Nauticam housing. Surface shots taken with a Panasonic VX870 camcorder, aerial shots with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone.

Same video on Vimeo here -

-Roger Uzun

rogeruzun@gmail.com

Roger,

Very nice indeed!

I particularly liked the opening sequences of lizard cuts, and the drone/boat footage. Looks also like the visibility was quite good, too.

Extremely envious of the thresher...

Tom

Nice work, thanks a lot for sharing it.

Where did you see the dugong? I've yet to find one here

I'm impressed with the thresher sequence. When I've been there, it's been so dark at 0530 and 30m that I've had to use very high ISO and get some pretty noisy shots. Case in point, I had to convert to mono to get this barely acceptable:

what are the chances to see the treasures in Malapasqua actualy? and can u confirm that flash is not allowed?

The threshers were present every day I dove there (in the shoal area). There are no lights or flashes allowed in the AM dives that are specific to threshers. I was on a rebreather and they would approach me quite closely. There was a lot of particulate in the water and the only footage that came out really well was shot from less than 6' away or so. Viz was good but it was always kind of hazy, and they are pretty deep so light was an issue.

The Dugongs were off Busuanga Island, the North center area. There is a dive center there called Dugong Dive Center they can arrange trips to the areas with dugongs. There is a "Dugong police" guy who has to go with you. There are several dugongs in the area but most are very wary of people.

-Roger

Loved it! Thanks for sharing.

Hi,
great to hear that with the dugongs!

Yes the sharks are tricky there without lights....

Regards,
Wolfgang

I also saw threshers on every dive, but they didn't approach closely enough - maybe 6m to 8m - for good shots (except for one that came from behind and passed right over my shoulder!) Perhaps closed circuit vs. open circuit is indeed a factor. They are still magnificent to watch at any distance. Definitely no lights allowed.

If you go deep enough there are threshers in that area most of the time. I believe you can bring lights except at that one specific site they go to very early in the morning. I never brought any (lights) but I'm pretty sure the no lights is just for that one restricted area for the very early group dives. The entire shoal had Threshers on it most of the time, not just that specific plateau in the morning.

called threshers not treasures....uuupsss!

Great video! And nice color. Did you slow down any shots shot in 4k 60p? Did you use zoom in any of the thresher shots or reef fish? Or was ISO high in any of those shots?

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what ISO settings is required about for the treshers at Malapascua on that specific site for the early morning dive for no flash? And using Auto ISO settings, and if so matrix, spot or center weighted exposure mode? what aperture and shutter speed for a rectilinear wide-angle lens like 16-35mm at FF?

Thanks for hints from actual experiences. No guessing please, that I can do myself...

For the photo I posted above, the sharks were skittish and did not approach very closely and it didn't help that conditions were overcast so it was very dark at daybreak. And the sharks are moving fast so you need a decent shutter speed. I was shooting with an Olympus E-M5 and 12-50 lens at the long end, and limited to f6.3, therefore my shutter was at 1/250 to 1/400 and ISO was at 1600 and exposure center weighted. Obviously not a great low light combo nor the right lens for the job in this case. I have a few others from that trip where the sharks came in closer, so I was able to shoot at the short end of the range at f3.5 and 1/160 and ISO 800. When I go again I'll be shooting at f2.8 wth a 7-14 lens and a better performing sensor.

thanks for the input. Is there a preferred season?

The threshers are not seasonal, so preference comes down to the usual Philippines factors: the sea is calm and cool and from December to about April, best vis is usually Feb-April, above the water ambient temps get very high in March-May, the rainy season starts around June to October. Just avoid the Easter and Christmas holidays, it gets very crowded.

There's lots of discussion on ScubaBoard if you search over there.

thanks, will do so.