Advice to newbie about BCD suitable for future photography needs

[nivla80]

TOTALLY...

NEW camera, NEW housing. Virgin dive with both of them, AND my VIRGIN dive in Bahamas. No shots taken for the rest of the 12 dives.

Prolly narcosis do happen in 40 ft of water... Or maybe IDIOtisis..

 

[nivla80]

Sorry, din mean to hijack your thread, but being a fellow S'porean, sure you won't mind yeah? LOL

Anyways, i read somewhere that you outta be V comfy with your diving b4 bringing down the camera. Made that mistake and paid a huge price. Nevertheless, IMHO, i think that once you attain comfort and confidence in buoyancy control, the BC shouldn't matter that much.

Most trays come with adators for storing your wide angle, macro lenses, so they can be changed U/W i think... You might not wanna put expensive equipment into your BC pockets, where they could easily be scratched, damaged, etc. Also, the donning of gloves MIGHT make it hard to grope and search for these in your BC pockets. My 2 cents worth..

Happy diving and photography!

 

[djanni]

Just a little variation on what the others have said.

I've heard a lot of people say the Jacket style is the photographers favorite because of the wrap around air bladder. I can't testify to that myself but if you roll onto your side I can see how having the air automatically move with you could be a benefit. Both of my BC's are back-inflates. BP/W's are also back-inflates but with a metal back plate. Back-inflates tend to be more open in the front.

I've been using a DiveRite Transpac lately and the a crotch strap helps if I invert or roll over. I also have a Zeagle Stiletto and with it I never thought I needed a crotch strap. That may be because it has a cummerbund and the Transpac does not.

At depth I have very little air in the bladder and rolling on my side or back is easy and I'm reletively stable. Assuming you're not grossly overweighted at depth you're not going to have a bladder full of air that's going to cramp the pockets so don't worry about that.

Both of those BC's are rock solid stable - no tank movement. Yes, that assumes they fit correctly. Both have plenty of D-rings. The Stiletto has pockets built in and you can add pockets to the Transpac. I added 1 small pocket to it.

Advice.... Take out insurance on that camera!!! Take no shortcuts on the care and feeding of the housing. Do all the recommended maintenance and then some. If you do that you're less likely to have a flood, which happend to me on the 9th dive and it was all user error. I knew something was wrong when I closed the back but dived anyway. The housing had completely filled up by the time I reached 20 feet. I have about 100 dives on it since then.

You might also look at the Scubapro Classic Sport.

 

[HowardE]

Just try not to be an idiot like me and LOSE the camera...

also covered by DEPP

 

[loko]

Just a little variation on what the others have said.

..........
Advice.... Take out insurance on that camera!!! ..................................

........... The housing had completely filled up by the time I reached 20 feet.

Does DEPP cover this as well? Must cost a bomb to take that type of insurance.

 

[Quero]

Does DEPP cover this as well? Must cost a bomb to take that type of insurance.

It's not too bad. With DEPP you have to insure a set of scuba gear in order to add cameras and flood protection. But I have two full sets of gear, a pile of wetsuits, my camera/strobes/housing and assorted accessories plus flood insurance on the camera and strobes, and it's about $200 a year, IIRC. That's nothing compared to the cost of a flooded camera. The coverage is for loss or damage, so if your dive bag goes missing on your flight, or a boat sinks (as happened with a Singapore/Malaysia group not so long ago) and all your stuff goes to the bottom, you've covered. The one thing they don't cover, (which I think they could), is a laptop computer. Many of us take our laptops with us on LOBs so that we can download and view our shots at the end of the day.

 

[HowardE]

Does DEPP cover this as well? Must cost a bomb to take that type of insurance.

I pay $151 / year to insure my D200 ($1699 for Body) and Lens (valued at $400) against flood/damage/loss - The flood premium itself is $84 (so more than 50% of the policy)...

Just go to the website, and approximate the values of your stuff. The housing, you only need to insure against damage or loss, since if you flood the housing itself, it should still be ok. Well worth it.

One way DEPP keeps the premiums down, is by offering replacements for the equipment, rather than cutting a check outright. This helps keep fraud to a minimum. If you insure a D200, and it gets ruined, they'll get you a D200.

 

[djanni]

Does DEPP cover this as well? Must cost a bomb to take that type of insurance.

Mine is through a DAN affiliate. Firemans Fund I think. Seems like I pay about $150 (??) for camera and dive gear. I had to use it that 1 time and it was easy as pie. Of course my canera is cheap relative to yours and after the $250 deductable I only got about $300 from them. Yet I maintain the policy.

BTW: DEPP replaces and DAN pays.

 

[Warren_L]

It's not too bad. With DEPP you have to insure a set of scuba gear in order to add cameras and flood protection.

I do not believe this is the case anymore. It was that way, but I've been able to take a lot of my scuba gear off my policy.

 

[HowardE]

I don't have my dive gear insured... just the camera stuff.