Tips for Norway Orca trip?

Hi,

I will be heading to Norway in a few weeks for an orca & whale snorkeling/freediving trip.

• Strobes/lights are not allowed during this trip

• It will be dark (4h of daylight per day)

• I shoot on FF, and expect of bringing a Fisheye (Sigma 15mm) and a rectilinear WA. I also have Nauticam WWL-1 but i fear it will be too cumbersome to freedive with (+significant drag)

  • Big or small dome?

• With 6/7mm glove (mitts), i don't think I can count on dexterity to quickly modify settings on my camera

Thank you!

I've no experience of dives like that. However if you are using FF and rectilinear you really need a big dome. If the lens is in the 16-35 range, I'd suggest a 230mm dome - nothing smaller or you risk really rubbish edges. Preferably add the Sea&Sea correction lens if you want to avoid the necessary aperture setting too of f11 or smaller to get sharp edges. Although you might be able to bump up the ISO to compensate?

Using the Sigma (which I used regularly with a Nikon D800) will let you use a much smaller dome.

I've got no direct experience of this trip either, and whilst Tim is correct with his corner comments on the big dome, are you really going to notice soft corners for these shots? If its going to just be plain sea in the corners I'd be thinking far more of taking the smaller dome for the fisheye and the WWL-1 for the other shots. 

I would have thought the  WWL-1 would have significantly less drag than a big dome

Mike

It's a fair point on the edges, Mike. As you say, good chance they might just be of blue.

That said though, I'm not sure with these sort of-a-once-in-a-lifetime shots I'd want to take the risk of not worrying about the edges. Orcas and whales are, presumably, slightly slower, but my experience with dolphins zooming about in the Red Sea was I wanted every inch of the image in focus!  

It sounds an amazing trip.

The boat will drop you where the skipper hopes they will swim and you hope for the best. They will move faster than you can. Plan to be  maneuverable and warm rather than fast in the water. Get some dry gloves and practice using the housing while wearing them. Take a decent snorkel.

Any full animal shot will be beyond strobe range and dependant on dingy natural light. As already said, high ISO. If you are allowed strobes, they will only be of use for smile shots if they swim close enough.

I did a trip a few years back and had some excellent wreck diving, but no luck with orcas in the water. We only saw orcas on 2 days and never close in-water for good pics. Most trips are luckier than I was. Take a second camera with tele lens for surface shots.

Thank you all for the tips and good advices! I think I'll go with the smaller dome and the WWL-1 and leave the larger dome for calmer seas!

I don't expect split shots to be fantastic there

might be worth adding a 1.4 converter for the sigma 15 to give a bit more reach.

I would think the WWL would be king for this work with variable orca distances and the ability to shoot at around f5.6.  I think opening up the aperture always give you more flexibility than pumping ISO.  You might want to consider a short leash strapped to your wrist for the camera - I have used a body boarding fin keeper in the past. 

Thank you all for the insights and for the leash advice - definitely don't want to drop a camera there..!

On 11/2/2021 at 9:28 AM, waterpixel said:

Thank you all for the insights and for the leash advice - definitely don't want to drop a camera there..!

 

Looking forward fro a report once you come back.