D70 Galapagos pictures

Hello Fellow Divers!

Keri and I just returned from the Galapagos aboard the Sky Dancer. This was my second outing with the D70 and Ikelite housing. I added a 12-24 DX lens but had only a few keepers. This lens is big and has to be mounted AFTER the camera is already installed in the housing from the front. Removing this lens is not as quick as changing between the 60 mm and 18-70mm. All 3 lenses can share the same port.

Whale Sharks were plentiful but with 40 foot viz and plankton like pea soup wide angle was not too good. The 18-70 lens proved useful for macro and those occasions when a Whale Shark emerged from the gloom. Scalloped hammerheads were all over but very shy, or, I just dont know how to approach these fellows yet...

Pictures at the following link:

http://homepage.mac.com/mikepalasz/PhotoAlbum10.html

Michael and Keri Palasz

Great Job Michael

Just what I needed to see as we are packing to leave Saturday for Wakatobi....our first trip with the D70's

Great detail with the 60 and 18-70....the 18-70 is looking like a very versatile lens....the angel shot with the 12-24 is stunning

Wow..Wow...Wow

Karl

Hello Michael,

The pictures are great, and I was very happy to see that whale sharks are still there :-) I hope to see them too... I’m going to the Galapagos on Sept 26 with the Deep Blue.

I have very similar setup you have. D70 with Sea&Sea Housing with Fish Eye dome port. I wonder what housing you use. Are you using any close-up diopter with these Lenses?

(I have 12-24mm, 18-70mm, 60mm too)

I have few other questions if you don’t mind :-)

How cold was the water? I saw in the picture, that the person did not dive with hood.

I wonder if you can recommend on any items that are must to take. Did you have to pay extra on luggage when flight to the Galapagos?

How did you take the camera and the lenses to the plan? One bag, two bags?

Do you know if I can have more then one bag as carry-on to the plan? What about check-in?

Thanks in advance

Gadi Porat

Hello Gadi -

The water was freezing (for us)... It was 66 in the south but warmed up to 75 at Darwin and Wolf. My friend in the pictures dives Monterrey and is used to the cold water...Most of us where in 7mm with hoods. I had 7mm farmer john which was fine for 66 degree water but too warm for 75..

I always take 3 bags..1 large rolling duffel, 1 camera backpack (Tamrac) and one medium sized backpack. The camera and medium sized backpack go on the plane with me. Aerogal and Ecoventura did a really, really nice job moving us around Guayaquil.. They were with us every moment at the airports and handled all the luggage for us! We just showed up on boat and everything was there...nice!

Check in was handled through Ecoventura (Peter Hughes) so we bypassed all the normal lines...

Bring long pants, windbreaker, sweatshirt and a hat that does not blow off your head!

We saw over 20 sharks! I stopped counting.

M.

Michael, nice stuff.

I have fond memories of that big whale shark you've rendered in B&W.

One question; why did you go to Shutter Priority in one of those shots??

Hi Craig-

I was trying to shoot hammers up above (lots of light) and whale sharks down below..the action was so fast i could not change fstop and shutter speeds fast enough so decided to set shutter speed and let the camera figure out everything else! Normally, Im only shooting macro or wide angle but you just never knew what was going to show up around the corner. The water was so dark I could not see the whale sharks approaching to setup...there was just the ring a ding ling from the dive master and the blurr of everyone diving to the depths.. This shark appeared right in front of me and I was only able to shoot 1 picture.. Im not sold on S-priority...just used in this unusual environment.

M.

I was trying to shoot hammers up above (lots of light)  and whale sharks down below..the action was so fast i could not change fstop and shutter speeds fast enough so decided to set shutter speed and let the camera figure out everything else!

Yeah, I remember those fun times. 15 foot safety stop... tink tink tink: dive to 70 feet and swim like hell.

Computer going bleep bleep bleep

Hmmm, why are the hoses on my regulator going slack. Oh, I'm down to 150 PSI! :shock:

OOooh OOOooh OOooh, more hammer heads

Swim swim swim...

Very nice. I see that you got some very good results with the 18-70. That's a focal length that would fill a need for me. I've been looking at the 17-55DX and 17-35 but the price on both of those is a little tough to swallow.

What kind of port did you use ( d0me or flat) and if you used a dome did you need an extension and/or diopter.

Larry

Hi Larry-

I use the same Ike dome port for the 60mm (no diopter), 18-70mm (+4 diopter) and the 12-24DX (no diopter). I use a smaller dome for the 10.5 FE. I have a flat port for 60mm but have not used..

M.

Hmmm, you use the port designed for the 12-24 for all but the FE?

Now I'm wondering why I bought 3 ports for the 12-24, 18-70, and the 60mm....

Even knowing that the 12-24 and the 18-70 can share the same dome is good new to me, even if I did waste money. Just one less thing to pack.

Actually, now that I think about it... I'm pretty sure I read about someone trying to use the kit lens in the 12-24 port, and near 70mm the diopter was hitting the dome, and actually caused damage to the dome.

Great photos, Michael - what incredible clarity & sharp focus! Your sea star is a color morph of the "blue" sea star Phataria unifascialis.

Thanks Leslie! I dont think Paul Human has a "Galapagos Creature" guide at the moment...

So, the common name is Blue Starfish?

M.

Hello Fellow Divers!

 

 

but with 40 foot viz and plankton like pea soup wide angle was not too good.  

 

Michael and Keri Palasz

40 foot, I am lucky to have 5 meters (approx just over 15 feet for the metrically challenged) on the east coast of UAE and 1 meter locally off Dubai.

The whale shark shots are excellent all the same, it's about time I made the effort to get to the right place at the right time ... one day