First Liveaboard Trip...

[Lizard Leg]

We are about to do our first liveaboard trip (Flower Gardens, only 2 days on the boat), and I have some questions. So far I've always managed to get through a day of diving without opening the housing to change batteries/cards. On this trip however, I feel I will be burning through images much faster than normal. Any tips or tricks to opening a housing in between dives to change batteries/cards would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DavidFL]

The liveaboards I have been on (Belize Aggressor III and M/V Spree) have 'camera tables'....a dedicated area for underwater photographers to deal with charging batteries and providing a reasonably good place to do things like opening the housing to change batteries and swap out memory cards. Once everyone has loaded aboard, the various U/W photographers more or less 'stake out' the spot for their stuff. With a few very minor exceptions, I haven't run into any turf problems, and, to my surprise, there have been more than enough outlets for all the chargers for camera batteries, strobe batteries, light batteries and the like. Even on these longer trips with the boats transiting (sometimes fairly long transits) between dive sites, I have been able to leave my stuff in my spot and use it 2x a day for battery/memory card swapouts.

 

[Lizard Leg]

The liveaboards I have been on...

What process do you use for drying off the housing around the seal before opening? I've been extremely cautious to date with my camera rig. I've always had time to dry it off and let it sit for hours before opening - until now.

 

[James R]

I bring a pretty large microfiber towel with me to quickly dry the housing and strobes. When I open the housing, I do it with the dome or macro port facing straight down. The o-ring channel may have a small bit of water in it when you take it apart, I dry it with the microfiber towel and then run a triangular makeup sponge through it to clean the channel. Same clean process for back of the housing. No cotton swabs or cotton balls, ever. Make sure o-ring channels and such are clean, no hairs or sand, etc. Clean & re-lube the o-ring, reset vacuum electronics, re-assemble, pump the housing down until green light comes on. Make sure it stays green until the next dive.

For strobes (Inon z-240), dry them off take batteries out, clean/lube o-ring, replace batteries, re-assemble. pretty easy...just don't get complacent.

It's a Nikon DSLR & Nauticam housing, if that matters.

 

[DavidFL]

My camera housing is an Ikelite; after each dive I either rinse it with fresh water or dunk it in the camera tank (depending a lot on the boat), then set it on the camera table in my spot. I usually leave it for a half hour or so; then I open it, change batteries and card, check the o-ring and the other side of the housing where the o-ring seats, and close it back up. In my opinion, a drop of water or two on the o-ring or on the o-ring seal surface isn't going to make any difference.

I used to leave the housing clamps connected but not clamped down...some notion of not keeping the o-ring compressed all the time...until the more-or-less inevitable happened, so now I fully close, clamp, and inspect the o-ring through the housing (it's clear polycarbonate) and leave the camera rig there for the next dive.

My first U/W camera was a Nikonos II in 1973; I've been dealing with cameras and housings and o-rings for awhile. The only flooding problems I have had have been operator error on a fairly major scale, but that could be 40+ years of good luck.

 

[Lizard Leg]

Thanks for the tips guys. Camera is an Oly E-PL1, Oly housing with Zen Dome port, dual D-2000 strobes, big blue Black Molly as a focus light, lenses 14-42mm, 60mm or 9-18mm. Microfiber towels I have - adding makeup triangles to packing list.

 

[James R]

Make sure they're plain, not the pre-oiled triangles.

 

[Darnold9999]

Create a routine and always do it the same way. Two floods - one because I was in a hurry and missed a twisted o-ring. Second was forgetting to check the latches on the dome port. Thought I had left the camera ready to go - which is what I always do - in retrospect I had not decided which lens to use and left the camera ready to change lenses not ready to dive.

 

[Lizard Leg]

Have a routine down pretty good, but this trip will be breaking that routine. Normally after the dives I can rinse, towel dry and let it sit on a towel overnight to be totally dry before changing lenses/batteries/cards the next morning. Not this time.

 

[James R]

I doubt you will need to open the housing as often as you think. On the last two liveaboard trips we took, I didn't open the housing at all between dives most days, only changing the strobe batteries every two dives (4 dives/day). Assuming you don't change lenses, you may be fine to leave it. The few times I changed lenses, the above process is what I did -- same as at the end of the day. Good advice above to come up with a process and follow it every time.

I use 64 or 128GB cards, camera flash on lowest power possible and manual strobe power (not TTL).