DS-125 on the Empress of Ireland

I returned from diving the Empress of Ireland last week and thought I would post here so that others wouldn't have the same experience that I did.

I have a housed point and shoot - no DSLR for me. So I depend on a manual controller with my Ikelite DS-125.

Well, if you're diving the Empress, you had better have a sync cord instead of a controller!!! The water is so dark and so dense that the controller could not see the preflash of the camera!!!! I tested it immediately before I went in the water, at the surface, and after I returned to the zodiac. It worked all those times.

But when I was at depth, the strobe WOULD NOT fire.

I used the camera with the internal flash on the first day, but dragged along the whole deal on the 2nd day. I have to admit that the modelling light cut through the poor visibility better than my buddy's HID, but that's the extent of its use underwater

Oh well - maybe Ike will pay for me to go back next year

By the way - I found the conditions (besides the darkness and extremely poor visibility) to be a lot better than I had expected from all the tales I had heard and read. I guess divers stretch their experience just like fishermen!!! Virtually no current, bottom temp of 43F, and hit the deck (midship) at 85ft. Got to see everything I wanted to (on the outside of the wreck) in 2 days.

Cheers,

Kim

Kim, sorry to hear your story....I can't imagine that the sensor wouldn't pick up even in that water

I assume your controller is switched for the DS-125?

Karl

I had the same with my slave sensor.

The problem is not the visibility, I think the controllers work better with limited visibility (more reflection due to backscatter).

The problem lied within the sensor, it was quite a *** in the *** before I eventually found the problem (I tried numerous setups, clear water, murky water, different strobes, replacing batteries). At the surface and till 10m of depth, it worked, but getting deeper, the sensor stopped functioning.

Eventually I send it to Ike, who replaced it. Now it works fine, even in our Dutch soup.

To test: get it in a pool at 3m and cover the sensor with some cloth (imitating the murkiest water), it still should work, so sensitive the device is.

It has nothing to do with depth - it's been deeper than on the Empress and worked fine. And the setup has worked on previous dives - it was just this once that it ignored the preflash.

Even looking directly at the camera's internal flash on that dive, I could barely notice it!!! It was dark down there!!!

Wow that's interesting as I had just read Dark Descent last year and the stories made it sound like 130ft with ripping currents. Granted you may have hit it on calmer days. Vis was, as they state, and temps a little bit warmer. Can I say warmer at 43 degrees.

Very interesting.

A wreck few heard about. Luxury liner sank in 14 minutes and was it 700-1000 people died? Right before the World War I and the Titanic so it did not get the press as the war tended to overshadow it.

I hope I have my facts correct. Anyway something I always found interesting.

Thanks for posting and I wish you had pictures to show.

Todd

Wow that's interesting as I had just read Dark Descent last year and the stories made it sound like 130ft with ripping currents. Granted you may have hit it on calmer days. Vis was, as they state, and temps a little bit warmer. Can I say warmer at 43 degrees.

 

Very interesting.

 

A wreck few heard about. Luxury liner sank in 14 minutes and was it 700-1000 people died? Right before the World War I and the Titanic so it did not get the press as the war tended to overshadow it.

 

Thanks for posting and I wish you had pictures to show.

 

Todd

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can say "warmer" at 43 degrees!!! The day before our Empress expedition started, we visited Les Escoumins- a national underwater park in Quebec - temps were 33F (BRRRRRRR) and currents were extreme to say the least!!! Apparently we did hit the Empress at a good time - low tide changes due to the lunar calendar or something.

14 minutes is correct. Over 1000 - more than the Titanic, although I'm not certain about specific numbers. And it was 2 years after the Titanic disaster, but was not on it's maiden voyage and that much closer to war taking over the headlines.

I did take some photos of the museum that you may find interesting. They're at Empress of Ireland Museum

And since you read the book, you'll be familiar with the name "Dany St-Cyr" - he was our charter operator and host for the weekend. Here's a photo of our group with Dany 3rd from the right. There are also some pics of the artifacts he has managed to keep at his house here.

And for the hideously snow-stormed photos I took with the internal flash of the camera, look here. Don't say I didn't warn you that they were HORRIBLE!!!!