Galapagos Sept2004 Nikon D70

Hello,

I just came back from 10 days in Galapagos on the Deep-Blue, it was AMAZING, best dive ever.

I recommend to anyone that wants to go there, go with the Deep-Blue team. The crew is great, food excellent, Darwin Island the best dive ever.

If you want to see some pictures go to: http://www.gadip.com/galapagos

You can see some pictures of:

Seals on Day1

Whale-shark on days 3,4,5

Macro on day 5 and 6

Thanks,

Gadi Porat

You forgot to mention the Hammerheads!

Looks like you had a great trip, and had some awesome encounters. The more I see of the Galapagos, the more I want to go. I'll keep Deep Blue in mind when I start making plans.

Dave

Looks like a great trip....how did you like the D70?

Karl

I like the D70 a lot, I had some small “Issue” at the first time, but over all I like it a lot. It is less with the camera and more with what to take when you go to dive in place like Darwin Island, other then the Hammerhead and the WhaleShark, you can see Turtle, Manta ray, tons of other small creatures, and the big question is what lens you take with you?

The condition of the dive were not easy, the water not that cold as I was afraid, it is more the type of dive that we did, the dives are deep 80-90 feet every dive for 50 minutes. (we use to laugh that we do not need to worry because we use the Ecuadorian Decompression Table) and when you see whale shark, and this is at the end of the dive, you find yourself again deep (and some people can tell you how deep they went ). And the current are strong 2-4knts, and most of the dive is in the BLUE.

So the big question is what lens to dive with?

I want a wide angel lens (12-24mm) for the Whaleshark, but then it is too wide for the hammerhead, also when you dive the blue in strong current, is what you do with strobes?

Are you take both of the strobes or only 1, or dive without strobes at all?

It is strong current and I found that I can’t swim after the Whaleshark with the strobes as I do without them, I have hundreds of dives for more then 16 years experiences now, and I felt when dive with strobe that I can not stand in the paste of the Whaleshark, so I decide not to take the strobe any more, and the true that for the Whaleshark pictures I’m pretty happy with the result, I got faster to them, less bubble from other divers in the group (this is a big issue) when you have a lot of divers it is harder to get the composition that you want and could get without the other divers in the area of the picture, and of course their bubbles.

Another issue that between the Whaleshark rounds of the arch the “rattle alarm” (the sound of the dive master when whale shark arrive) when everyone swim like maniac to the blue, you “sit” in the theater (shelf) and wait for the Whaleshark to arrive, this is where the hammerhead arrives (some time 10-20), and they afraid from bubbles so they are 20–30 feet, and this is where I wish I was using the (18-70mm) it is too far for the 12-24mm to get good pictures without the strobes.

I also had a problem in one of the MACRO dives that I forget to set the 60mm lens from Manual to AF, and it was stuck, I only find it underwater so I can not change it anymore, at this point of course it was too late to change, Of course that at this dive we saw 3 Sea Horse and other amazing Macro creatures, but I guess that this is part of the price you need to pay when learn to use the equipment.

I will try to pick some of the best pictures, and repost them in full resolution so you can see the best pictures.

Thanks for looking

Gadi Porat

Hey Gadi -

Glad to hear you had fun in the Galapagos.. I found the 18-70 very helpful for shooting the small stuff and the big stuff. That was frustrating for me hanging on the rocks watching all the small critters and not having a "real" macro lens.. only to have the whale shark swim by and need the wide angle!!

I like picture ..404.. whale shark and diver.. very nice!

M.

Hi Michael,

I wonder what Housing you use? Sea&Sea or Ike? Did you find it hard to swim with it? Or it is only me spoil 

What Gear Zoom you used with the 18-70, the same one that you used with the 12-24mm? What Port? And did you use Strobes in Darwin Island dives?

What I found on the Sea&Sea that for the 12-24mm with the Fish Eye Dome Port with the original Zoom Gear I got the best performance.

When I used the 18-70mm, I rather have the Flat Port and not the Fish Eye Dome Port the problem that when I go under ~20mm I can get the black angels in the corner.

It also did not work smooth with the zoom gear of the 12-24 on the 18-70mm, it is really hard to change zoon with the wrong Zoom Gear.

Look like a good idea, to buy the right Zoom Gear for the 18-70mm lens, at list for the Sea&Sea model.

BTW,

Picture 404 is the forth picture in a row, after the first one you can see the Shark arrive, then the diver and whaleshark and it come closer and then closer, and then end up with the 90 degree to the camera, so you can actually see how big it is.

Thanks,

Gadi Porat

Gadi -

I use Ike's setup with one dome port for 3 lenses 12-24, 18-70 and 60 mm. I think Karl uses the same setup.

Diving at Darwin is just hard work...current, chasing sharks, big camera.. I left strobes on did a little less whale shark wrangling!

M.

Mike, I actually use different ports for each lens....the 18-70 and 12-24 use different length domes and the 60 uses a flat port....makes for a lot of packing....I can see using the 18-70 and 60 out of the same port and only giving up a little magnificaition out of the 60...but I wouldn't think the 12-24 would do as good, since Ikelite's recommended dome is about 1/2" shorter....I would like to see some of your shots with that combo

Karl

Hey Karl -

when i spoke with Tom at Ikelite about this he said it "should work".. I only have a few shots I took in galapagos with the 12-24..one is posted on previous thread...it's the King Angel shot.. Im headed to Key Largo this weekend with the rig so I'll shoot some more with this setup.. did you use a diopter with your 12-24 ?

m.

I used a B&W +4 diopter with the 18-70 and the dome recommended by Ikelite.....I did not use a diopter with the 12-24 and Ikelite recommended dome....sorry I don't remember the dome port numbers....the longer one is for the 18-70 and the shorter of the two is for the 12-24

The proper dome for the 12-24 should show up at the 12mm end more than the 24 end....IOW, corner softness should be exaggerated if you are using the wrong port.....be sure to use F8 to F11....the lens definitely loses sharpness when it's more wide open...don't even think about F4

I'll be anxious to see what you find out...BTW, if you don't have all the ports, etc. , I'll be happy to send you mine to try out

Karl

Gadi, you've got some wonderful stuff there, can tell you had a great trip.

Looks like a lot of your whaleshark encounters were fairly shallow. We were there about the same time last year and found them consistenly in the 50 to 80' range.

Water temp maybe? I had the same experience and forgot to swith focus ring for macro dive. It is unforgettable diving, thanks for the opportunity to relive it through your photos.