Entry with camera - how do you do it?

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I'm a big guy with lots of gear, so I make a big splash and concusive wave. Therefore, either someone hands me my camera, or I reach back up and take it off a low platform, or I clip it to a line that I lower into the water before-hand.

I fold the strobe arms so that the strobes are close to the housing when the rig is not in use. When it's handed to me (or I retrieve it), I clip the rig to my left chest D-ring and descend. At depth, I extend the coiled lanyard and position the strobes.

Generally, when I ascend, I again fold the strobe arms and shorten the lanyard, either at or on the way to my safety stop. If I used a line, I clip it off before exiting. If it was handed to me, I hand it off before re-boarding the boat.
 
I clip my rig to a carabiner attached to the boat. A bolt snao on a leash from the housing is clipped to a loop in the carabiner so there are two clips for backup. When I get in the water I unclip the leash and clip it to a D-ring on my harness before unclipping the carabiner. That way, there is never a time when the housing is not clipped to either the boat or me. It's too much money to see dropping into the abyss.
 
Clip it of to a rope hanging from the boat, then roll/jump... or have it handed after roll/jump..
DID do some backrolls with camera up untill "that one time" i noticed a major housing leak due to this.. never doing that again :wink: regarding arms, same way as you.. packed up on boat, fold out on decent/bottom, fold back up at safety stop, or before assent (clip it of to crotch strap)
 
Be careful clipping off to a line from the boat. If the boat is tossing, you can seriously damage your stuff.

I prefer to have the camera handed down to me. In the places where that isn't possible (hot drops in FL, for example) I clip off the camera with the arms folded up, and giant stride with one hand on mask and reg, and the other on camera.
 
But to go abit of topic.. how do you guys stove away the camera while not in use ?
Myself i hang it from the front d-ring on crotch strap.. not really ideal in shallow water... thinking i might make the housing slightly(!) positive and hang it of the back D-ring on crotch strap... but.. hm.. not shure... i know some guys store it with two snap clips like a stage bottle, on the side. Haven't tried that one tho.
 
I don't have a monster dSLR rig, huge dome port and two strobes with 5 foot arms -- just a simple EVIL camera and housing (half the size of dSLR) and two strobes with 24" (?) arms (in other words, a lot bigger than most p-n-s's but smaller than dSLR -- a "Goldilocks" camera setup!).

I generally keep it on me unless the giant stride is really big AND there isn't much current. Arms are folded in and locked, camera is clipped off to left chest D-ring. I am a bit leery about giant strides but back-roll -- absolutely no problem. Now when I do a Giant Stride with my Scooter -- THAT is a hoot!
 
I use a spiral wire tether similar to this one, however I've switched the suicide clip for a big-a$$ bolt snap. The bolt snap goes either on my left hip D-ring, or the right chest D-ring, the split ring is threaded onto my tray. In addition, I've tied a bolt snap to the shackle on one of the clamps closest to the tray.

For shore entry, I clip the tether bolt snap to my left hip D-ring and the bolt snap tied to the clamp shackle is clipped to my right chest D-ring. Sometimes, if it's an easy entry, I forgo clipping in the second bolt snap and just carry the rig by the left hand tray handle. for boat entry, I usually clip the tether bolt snap to the left hip D-ring, but sometimes (read: when wearing thick 3-finger mitts) I have some slight problems reaching and manipulating the hip D-ring, so I just clip the tether to the right shoulder D-ring. If I need my camera to be close to my body, I just re-clip the shackle bolt snap to the shoulder D-ring.

The tether is clipped to my harness from before I splash until after I'm standing out of the water, so if I need both hands for something, I can just let go of the rig. I stressed out a girl on one occasion when I needed both hands to communicate with her and just let go of the camera. She was a lot more concerned about my sinking camera rig than about watching my hand signals...

I dive a LH/BO setup with only one backup light, so my right shoulder harness is clean. That helps. I also use an OM-D E-M5, so the housing isn't that huge, but of course two strobes on 5"+7" arms make a bit of a difference.

---------- Post added December 22nd, 2014 at 08:04 PM ----------

thinking i might make the housing slightly(!) positive
Ugh. Don't. Just... don't.

My housing is slightly positive without strobes, so I've had a dive or two with a slightly positive camera. It sucks. Big time. It took me exactly one dive to decide that "this sucker is gonna carry some lead until I've gotten a strobe to weigh it down".
 
I use a spiral wire tether similar to this one, however I've switched the suicide clip for a big-a$$ bolt snap. The bolt snap goes either on my left hip D-ring, or the right chest D-ring, the split ring is threaded onto my tray. In addition, I've tied a bolt snap to the shackle on one of the clamps closest to the tray.

For shore entry, I clip the tether bolt snap to my left hip D-ring and the bolt snap tied to the clamp shackle is clipped to my right chest D-ring. Sometimes, if it's an easy entry, I forgo clipping in the second bolt snap and just carry the rig by the left hand tray handle. for boat entry, I usually clip the tether bolt snap to the left hip D-ring, but sometimes (read: when wearing thick 3-finger mitts) I have some slight problems reaching and manipulating the hip D-ring, so I just clip the tether to the right shoulder D-ring. If I need my camera to be close to my body, I just re-clip the shackle bolt snap to the shoulder D-ring.

The tether is clipped to my harness from before I splash until after I'm standing out of the water, so if I need both hands for something, I can just let go of the rig. I stressed out a girl on one occasion when I needed both hands to communicate with her and just let go of the camera. She was a lot more concerned about my sinking camera rig than about watching my hand signals...

I dive a LH/BO setup with only one backup light, so my right shoulder harness is clean. That helps. I also use an OM-D E-M5, so the housing isn't that huge, but of course two strobes on 5"+7" arms make a bit of a difference.

---------- Post added December 22nd, 2014 at 08:04 PM ----------


Ugh. Don't. Just... don't.

My housing is slightly positive without strobes, so I've had a dive or two with a slightly positive camera. It sucks. Big time. It took me exactly one dive to decide that "this sucker is gonna carry some lead until I've gotten a strobe to weigh it down".

"it sucks" ?

Kinda sounds like you had it tooo positive. But, why does it suck ?
 
Since I had tethered the camera on my left side, it got tangled with my BCD inflator hose and started interfering with my snorkel as well when I let go of it so it floated up. And it was just ever so slightly positive; it rose gently and slowly when I let go of it.

After that experience, I'm not carrying anything that's positive. Except for a dSMB in the few fractions of a second after I've inflated it and before I release it.

EDIT: I've just formulated Storker's 1st rule of SCUBA gear: If it isn't negative, it will cause entanglements when you're not holding it.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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