I could be out there Saturday.
Blue Hole March 15th - 16th
- Thread starter Divedoggie
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OP
Chopped liver? NO!!
Your statement, "I can dive Saturday. I will then leave Sunday morning for SoCal. (Maybe, get in a dive before leaving) Still working on the details for SoCal but the idea is to dive kelp forest the following Saturday."made me think that you would be on the road by the time we got there.
If we get out of here early enough Sunday morning, I will certainly find you when we get to BH.
RonFrank
Contributor
I want to, but just can't get down.
Dan will be there tomorrow I'm guessing in the mid afternoon.
My wife lost her Aunt today whom she was close to, I've been putting in very long hours and working weekends, and it's just the wrong time to disappear for a quick trip down to the Hole.
Have fun guys, and dive safe!
Dan will be there tomorrow I'm guessing in the mid afternoon.
My wife lost her Aunt today whom she was close to, I've been putting in very long hours and working weekends, and it's just the wrong time to disappear for a quick trip down to the Hole.
Have fun guys, and dive safe!
My condolences to you and your wife, Ron.
I just got back from another awesome trip to Bonaire late last Sunday, and have a bunch of things to catch up on this weekend.
I'm hoping for next month though. I need lots more experience with the dry suit. I've really got my weighting and buoyancy down with 12 pounds in my shorty in warm water - now to accomplish the same in cool/cold water.
Drive safely - it's really snowing hard here in the springs right now - and no plows or sand trucks are out yet.
Well plans sometimes are as solid as jello. I had to postpone my trip to CA again. But that did mean I got to spend the weekend at the Blue Hole. To my surprise, my wife changed her plans and joined me for the weekend. 
The weather was pleasant for Saturday, with only a slight breeze in the late afternoon. Sunday was cooler and breezier. On my first dive I tried my new weight pouch on the upper tank band. I did not think about that when you add weight in one place and reduce the weight else were you are doubling the effect. I put in 4 pounds but that is an effective shift of 8 pounds. I spent most of the dive nose down. :yuck: Next time I will try with less weight.
I did take some practice pictures with my ReefMaster Mini. I am frustrated that I have so much trouble seeing on the screen what I am trying to take a picture of. On land it is easy, underwater the screen always looks bright, all washed out or dark and no image.
Near the end of my dive on Sunday I saw the Piranha. It was my first time to see it.
The weather was pleasant for Saturday, with only a slight breeze in the late afternoon. Sunday was cooler and breezier. On my first dive I tried my new weight pouch on the upper tank band. I did not think about that when you add weight in one place and reduce the weight else were you are doubling the effect. I put in 4 pounds but that is an effective shift of 8 pounds. I spent most of the dive nose down. :yuck: Next time I will try with less weight.
I did take some practice pictures with my ReefMaster Mini. I am frustrated that I have so much trouble seeing on the screen what I am trying to take a picture of. On land it is easy, underwater the screen always looks bright, all washed out or dark and no image.
Near the end of my dive on Sunday I saw the Piranha. It was my first time to see it.
RonFrank
Contributor
Sorry to hear your CA plans did not work out. There is a thread open with initial plans to go out to CA sometime between June and October! Not sure how that will play out, but CA Kelp diving and/or some shore diving at Catalina is something I'm very interested in doing this year.
This may sound like a foolish suggestion, but have you checked to see if your camera LCD has a brightness adjustment? However I'm guessing the reason the screen is dark is that there is not enough light? Unfortunately bumping up the ISO will result in noise, and likely not very acceptable at ISO 400, but I have not done much research on the camera you are using.
As to why the screen then grows bright, that is a bit of a mystery. What are your settings? Does this camera have any manual adjustment at all? It could be that you are shooting in some shutter priority setting, and there aperture can't stop down far enough. Most of the PnS variety have an min aperture setting of f8, IOW's not much.
I'm planning on attending the Shark Bait club meeting tomorrow.If you want, bring the camera, flash, and manual with you, and we can take a look. It *might* be an operator error, but it also may be that you need to shoot in a different mode, I'm thinking aperture or shutter priority or whatever they have decided to name those modes for your camera. Shooting in Aperture mode may solve the issue, but you may also get unacceptably slow shutter speeds. RU using your flash? Unfortunately you really need just manual settings for flash photography, but I'm fairly sure your camera does not support that.
So what was the vis, and the PH of the water like at the Hole? Something sure changed there coinciding with the dredging, but difficult to say if it is related. I continue to get a white residue on gear after diving there, or at least I did in Feb, and December.
Cool that you saw the Piranha. I'm surprised you have not seen it before. There was two, but I have not seen two for some time, so maybe one is Dad food, and lying at the bottom!
Were you able to hook up with Kent? Does not sound like it.
This may sound like a foolish suggestion, but have you checked to see if your camera LCD has a brightness adjustment? However I'm guessing the reason the screen is dark is that there is not enough light? Unfortunately bumping up the ISO will result in noise, and likely not very acceptable at ISO 400, but I have not done much research on the camera you are using.
As to why the screen then grows bright, that is a bit of a mystery. What are your settings? Does this camera have any manual adjustment at all? It could be that you are shooting in some shutter priority setting, and there aperture can't stop down far enough. Most of the PnS variety have an min aperture setting of f8, IOW's not much.
I'm planning on attending the Shark Bait club meeting tomorrow.If you want, bring the camera, flash, and manual with you, and we can take a look. It *might* be an operator error, but it also may be that you need to shoot in a different mode, I'm thinking aperture or shutter priority or whatever they have decided to name those modes for your camera. Shooting in Aperture mode may solve the issue, but you may also get unacceptably slow shutter speeds. RU using your flash? Unfortunately you really need just manual settings for flash photography, but I'm fairly sure your camera does not support that.
So what was the vis, and the PH of the water like at the Hole? Something sure changed there coinciding with the dredging, but difficult to say if it is related. I continue to get a white residue on gear after diving there, or at least I did in Feb, and December.
Cool that you saw the Piranha. I'm surprised you have not seen it before. There was two, but I have not seen two for some time, so maybe one is Dad food, and lying at the bottom!
Were you able to hook up with Kent? Does not sound like it.
I did not have as much chalky residue on my stuff like I have the last couple times.
As for the camera, I can simulate the problem on land by changing the angle I am viewing the screen but it is not quite the same. However, I spent a lot of time this weekend holding the camera at different angles. That was how I was able to make it go 'dark'. But most of the time it just looks washed out and I could not hold it at an angle to 'fix' that. This makes it very difficult to know if your subject is centered, for that matter it makes it hard to tell if you have your subject.
I am planning on going to the club meeting as well. I will bring the camera and you can see the pictures. There is not much for settings. I put it on external flash and no other changes.
As for the camera, I can simulate the problem on land by changing the angle I am viewing the screen but it is not quite the same. However, I spent a lot of time this weekend holding the camera at different angles. That was how I was able to make it go 'dark'. But most of the time it just looks washed out and I could not hold it at an angle to 'fix' that. This makes it very difficult to know if your subject is centered, for that matter it makes it hard to tell if you have your subject.
I am planning on going to the club meeting as well. I will bring the camera and you can see the pictures. There is not much for settings. I put it on external flash and no other changes.
Dan,
I have the same problem with my new camera. I am very, very disappointed with it. The LCD screen is very tiny - I can't hardly see it underwater. Also, with two big strobes attached, I needed to add 3 pounds of weight to make it slightly negative. Otherwise, I thought I had a lift bag attached to me! The batteries (brand new and charge-cycled several times before the trip) only lasted about 5 shots. I finally took the strobes off, and put alakline batteries (non-rechargable) and they lasted the rest of the trip, but I still didn't use the camera much since I couldn't see what I had taken. I have an external viewfinder, so I could kind of "aim" it, but I couldn't see what I shot underwater. That was the main reason I went to a digital. My 35mm camera takes much much better pictures. And, if I can't see what I capatured until I surface, the digital doen't do much for me. I now know I need a very large screen. Mine is probably less than 1.5"
That said, I'm sure I had much better diving conditions in Bonaire than you did at BH :mooner:
I have the same problem with my new camera. I am very, very disappointed with it. The LCD screen is very tiny - I can't hardly see it underwater. Also, with two big strobes attached, I needed to add 3 pounds of weight to make it slightly negative. Otherwise, I thought I had a lift bag attached to me! The batteries (brand new and charge-cycled several times before the trip) only lasted about 5 shots. I finally took the strobes off, and put alakline batteries (non-rechargable) and they lasted the rest of the trip, but I still didn't use the camera much since I couldn't see what I had taken. I have an external viewfinder, so I could kind of "aim" it, but I couldn't see what I shot underwater. That was the main reason I went to a digital. My 35mm camera takes much much better pictures. And, if I can't see what I capatured until I surface, the digital doen't do much for me. I now know I need a very large screen. Mine is probably less than 1.5"
That said, I'm sure I had much better diving conditions in Bonaire than you did at BH :mooner:
RonFrank
Contributor
Rick,
I'd try and get those battery packs replaced. I assume they are NiCad, and they likely sat on the shelf for a few years. That kills NiCad batteries as they have memory, and if they go dead, and are not charged, they will no longer charge. If you have a refresh or recondition mode on the charger, you could try that.
As for the camera, yours is about 100 years old in doggie digital years! :11:
If you want advice on a good camera for UW use that is maybe a generation back (will save you some $$$) I can help, or you can post in the digital forums. One of the biggest improvements in PnS digital camera over time is... you guessed it.. the size of the LCD. You camera was out of date 5 years ago!
I'd try and get those battery packs replaced. I assume they are NiCad, and they likely sat on the shelf for a few years. That kills NiCad batteries as they have memory, and if they go dead, and are not charged, they will no longer charge. If you have a refresh or recondition mode on the charger, you could try that.
As for the camera, yours is about 100 years old in doggie digital years! :11:
If you want advice on a good camera for UW use that is maybe a generation back (will save you some $$$) I can help, or you can post in the digital forums. One of the biggest improvements in PnS digital camera over time is... you guessed it.. the size of the LCD. You camera was out of date 5 years ago!
