Changing batteries on a 2nd boat dive - yes or no?

[bennedc]

Good batteries should last you a couple of dives, no problem...

I can get probably at least 300 or more shots on a pair of freshly charged NiMH AAs.
I have never had to open my housing until I got back to dry land...Sad...to ever have to go back to dry land!

 

[Gilligan]

I have an Oly 5050 with Tetra housing and my BF has a PT 015. We are going on several boat dives in Brazil where the boats aren't set up for U/W photography. I would like to change batteries in between dives so that I don't miss out on anything. What is the best way to do this? Rinse it a bit with freshwater and dry it out then carefully open the housing? I heard some people say never to open your housing on a boat and go with the same set of batteries for the whole dive. I use 2400 to 2600 mAH NiMH rechargeables.

Do you change batteries between dives on a boat? What precautions do you use?

Thanks!

I did open my PT-010 housing on the dive boats (bancas) in the Philippines to change batteries and memory cards, the latter being a requirement as my camera only uses the Smart Media Card. I brought along a small dry bag with a towel, O-ring grease, batteries and extra memory cards. I shot between 75 and 125 photos per dive. I don't trust the batteries to last for the second dive and I have to change memory cards anyway. If you are not comfortable changing the batteries, turn of the camera's monitor between shots. However, the biggest consumer of power is the built in strobe. So it's not just the number of photos you take but the number of strobe shots you take. Experiment and see if turning the monitor off does it for you.

 

[Larry C]

I open the case when I'm on my own RIB, but be really careful. Gloves off, hold it away from you to prevent dripping or dropping. Wipe your hands first. Inspect the seam with your dive light or open sunlight before closing. Don't lay the camera open on a towel on the seat like I did, when a young lady who was a dive buddy of one of my friends pulled it off and knocked my camera/housing upside down on the deck. I don't need to change my battery between dives, but in RAW I fill a 1G memory card in less than two dives. I can't wait for the bigger faster xD cards! It would have been nice to have both SD and xD like the older models.

 

[NW_DiverDude]

In addition to the great advice above, here is my 2 cents worth:

IMHO the key is checking that the housing is not leaking before any dive after opening the housing so have a bucket of fresh water on board where you can submerge your camera after changing the housing to replace batteries or memory cards.

On my most recent dive trip to Hawaii the dive operator, which uses a very fast hard bottomed Zodiac geared for a small group of experienced divers, did not have anything set up for U/W photographers. I simply secured a 2 gallon bucket, created a dedicated space for it on the boat (away from all the people action, and filled it with fresh water before each trip. I did 22 dives over a 7 day period and had no issues. Had to change batteries and/or cards a few times.

So, if an operator is not "set up" for your photo gear, set yourself up if at all possible. Better to get all the photos you wanted rather than wishing that you had...