First Liveaboard Trip...

[Lizard Leg]

Same here for the most part. Strobe batteries seem to last me a long time - I've never run them all the way down. Camera is good for 3 dives - shortly into the 4th dive, it's kaput. Camera strobe power set to lowest most of the time. Plan is 2 morning dives, rinse and towel dry the rig, put on our bunk on top of a towel. Let it dry as long as I can before changing batteries/cards/lenses.

 

[Cali_diver]

You always have more time between the 2nd and 3rd dive so just plan to do your regular maintenance during that time. Eat lunch then take care of your camera. Then once again at the end of the day. I would still rinse and dry your camera after every dive.

 

[coldfire22x]

Just to echo what others have said, always rinse and dry the housing when you can (don't ever leave it in the rinse bucket).

As far as changing batteries/lenses, as long as you give it a good fresh water rinse I wouldn't worry too much about letting it sit for a while before opening it. Just take a towel, blot off the excess water, and pop it open. Your only worry is getting water on the electronics ... water on the o-ring will be fine.

And I just posted this on another thread too: I only clean/re-grease the o-ring if I see that it has any sand or debris on it. Otherwise I just seal things back up and haven't ever had a flood doing this.

 

[jameseg]

Agree with Cali_divergirl. If I'm taking lots of pictures on the first two dives of the day, I let my camera dry off over lunch and take care of it before the third dive. If I haven't taken many pictures in the morning, a lot of times I won't change batteries and just use it again for the afternoon dives. Usually good for four dives that way (I have the E-PL1 also).

I always change batteries inside the cabin to avoid potential condensation issues inside the housing.

James

 

[scubadada]

I have my Canon G7X in a Nauticam housing with vacuum check and leak detection system. Just finished 2 weeks, 47 dives in the Red Sea. The system certainly gave me confidence that everything was intact. Worth every penny

 

[Lizard Leg]

Thanks for all the tips! Trip went without incident, other than a battery issue. I think rough seas contributed to my charger for the 8 AA batteries needed for the strobes getting unplugged just enough to not charge and I had to use alkalines, 2 different sets of 4. One strobe fired great, one took 3 times as long to cycle. Live and learn. I'll be posting a trip report and links for pictures as soon as get through sorting.