What's in your Field Repair and Maintenance Kit

Hello, I am interested in seeing your field repair and maintenance kit for your underwater camera.

1. What items and tools do you bring? i.e. zip ties, hex wrench, spare fiber optic cables? What do you consider essentials?
    
2. Where do you keep it all? i.e. what pouch or organizer do you use to keep them? or do you just dump them into the camera bag?

A plastic Ziplock bag with just the essential Allen keys (bear in mind though if you're using a dive operator or on a liveaboard they are very likely to have them anyway); couple of zip ties, a spare fibre optic cable and plugs, spare LED trigger/Vacuum detector battery(batteries), small Swiss Army knife. And that's about it.

Whether land-based or liveaboard my general experience is that most things that will give you a temporary fix are available somewhere or other. Travel weight/volume has become so precious that I am now loath to take lots of backup/repair bits and pieces. 

In addition to what Tim listed, I have a couple of tiny “jeweler” screwdrivers because there are some of those tiny screws on my gear.  Spare housing and port O rings, the tool used to remove/install the vacuum valve and an M14 or M16 port cover to install in case I need to remove the valve.  I take a couple spare O-rings as used on Nauticam and ULCS arms and a tiny aaa flashlight (torch in UK language).  I don’t take a swiss army knife,

I would note that previously, it never occurred to me to take a spare flash trigger, but I had a trigger die on a recent trip before ever getting camera in the water.  That was it.  No photos.  Dive shops and liveaboards do often have tools, but sometimes they are ill-sized, and so old, rusty, and nasty, you don’t want to use them, so I try to take what I need since it is small and light.  A photo-dedicated liveaboard is  likely different.

My emergency toolkit is a combination for camera and diving gear (two cameras, housings and diving gears (me and my wife)):

#1.: Small sized toolset in a pouch (goes with check-in lugagge): combination pliers, side cutter, two sets of Phillips and Slotted screwdrivers, two adjustable wrenches, and tweezers, set of Allen keys (metric and imperial).

#2.: Spares (dumped in camera bag and check-in lugagge): Spare flash, two spare fiber optical cables, spare small camera flash (in case the optical trigger fails), spare complete regulator set, spare mask, spare ribbons for mask, knives and fins, spare diving computer, spare O-rings for housings, (dome)ports and flashes, six CR2450 (for Nauticam housings, flash trigger and diving computers), four spare Eneloops (AA and AAA each), spare Nauticam grease, cabel ties of different size, spare accus for cameras.

I have needed so far almost everything on several occasions and it would not have been available at the location. No spare housings and cameras, when a failure happens, my wife and me share one rig during the dive (the diving is then more like in the old days, before we started UW-photography, and much more community experience and communicative...)...

Wolfgang

I take two small margarine tubs with me. One has dive spares (fin strap, mask strap, computer battery and allen keys for regs (if not diving with a centre) the other is for camera spares. It has cable ties, o rings for housing, strobe, and ports, , trigger and vacuum batteries, spare grease, and some basic kit to clean the camera with (alcohol wipes/blower brush, sensor wipe, microfibre cloth, and a role of insulation tape and one or two silica sachets to absorb moisture).  Sounds like overkill, but there have been occasions when other divers have found my box of spares pretty handy- especially the sachets and computer battery!

I use airline amenities pouches, they are about the right size, with allen keys, mini screwdrivers etc.  Another pouch has spare o-rings, vacuum pump, battery for vacuum system and zip lock bags.  Also carry spare dive o-rings, mask strap and other essentials.

@TimG, @Draq @ChrisRoss thanks for this. From the items listed I think I have my basics down.

@Architeuthis woah you seem to have a redundant system for all your gear. I am guessing its easier bec you share between yourself and your wife. How is travelling with that kit?

@JustinO Curious at how big are the tubs? Do you just pack that in with your dive gear? 

53 minutes ago, Pomacentridae said:

 

@Architeuthis woah you seem to have a redundant system for all your gear. I am guessing its easier bec you share between yourself and your wife. How is travelling with that kit?

 

 

 

Yes, redundance is very important and already several times this saved a divetrip. Beeing a couple certainly helps (although for a solo UW-photographer travelling with a second one would also be better, also for the diving itself)...

Regarding the travelling lugagge it sounds worse as it is: We get away with one extra diving lugagge (usually 30 kg). In addition to this, both have the regular lugagge (usually 23 kg) plus cabin lugagge (everybody has a camera rucksack plus a camera bag). We restrict the clothing to the absolute necessary and also the identification literature to a single set, avoiding redundance here...

When it goes to less warm destinations, where we need our drysuits and more clothing, a second check-in diving-lugagge is required. When I will switch to FF, probably also a second diving lugagge will be needed...

Wolfgang

To be fair, my list was just the photo-related stuff.  I also carry a "save-a-dive" type set of stuff such as computer batteries and O rings, spare transmitter, hose wrench, BCD repair goop, etc.  That will vary depending on shore vs boat dives, local availability of dive shops, etc.

Still, I keep it small and light weight.

11 hours ago, Pomacentridae said:

@JustinO Curious at how big are the tubs? Do you just pack that in with your dive gear? 

 

 

 

They are small - about 12cm x 8 x 8cm. Then I seal them with insulation tape and throw them in the dive bag.  I am still using the same tub from 2016!  I tend to pack the few clothes I take around the harder stuff/stuff that could get damaged.  All my camera gear goes in a backpack - yes, it's heavy, and depending on how conscientious the gate staff are on weight limits of carry on, bits get decamped into pockets of a photo jacket. Fashion statement I am not....!