fresh Pics from Red Sea

[scipionems]

Amazing shots , lucky lucky you ! What route did you take ?

Thank you Tippytoes12,
i made a 3 weeks liveaboard.
The first week we went to Ras Mohamed and the northern wrecks (Thistlegorm, Dunraven, Carnatic, Giannis D) ... I was so lucky to see even a Baby Whale shark .
The second week we sail from Hurghada to Marsa Alam (and we were so lucky to see a LOT of Dolphins)
The third week we went to St.John's marine park area (Zabargad island, Shaab Claudio , Rocky island)

 

[Dan]

So you went pretty much the whole Egyptian Red Sea.

 

[scipionems]

So you went pretty much the whole Egyptian Red Sea.

Yeah Dan ahahah... You are right

 

[deeper thoughts]

Wow wow wow!

 

[gypsyjim]

Gorgeous pics!
Thanks for sharing.
We are thinking of doing a Red Sea trip, and wondering if anyone has any recommendations or advice.

 

[scipionems]

Gorgeous pics!
Thanks for sharing.
We are thinking of doing a Red Sea trip, and wondering if anyone has any recommendations or advice.

Hi Gypsijim ,
Thank you...
It all depend what you are looking for in Red Sea....
If you want gorgeous and colourful coral reefs , but less big fishes, a quiet navigation and it is the first time you go on a boat, probably you have to choose a liveaboard in St. John's Marine park area. ....
If you want to see hammerheads, thresher shark or big animals... you have to go to Brother's island , Dedalus reef.... but here sometimes the sea is very rough.... because these island are in the middle of Red Sea...
If you want a mix , so good coral reefs, some wrecks , big school of fishes, you can go in the area of Ras Mohamed national park....In this area, for example, Shark Reef and Yolanda reef, are amazing, colourful and with a lot of fishes.... And in this area you can see even the Thistlegorm wreck and it is fantastic ...
For me the best period to go there is June-july or September-october, because the temperature is perfect, the sea is not so rough and there are less tourists....
From November - December the risk is to find a lot of wind and the temperatures starts to go down in the sea and outside ....
Ciao
Scipionems

 

[Neilwood]

Hi Gypsijim ,
Thank you...
It all depend what you are looking for in Red Sea....
If you want gorgeous and colourful coral reefs , but less big fishes, a quiet navigation and it is the first time you go on a boat, probably you have to choose a liveaboard in St. John's Marine park area. ....
If you want to see hammerheads, thresher shark or big animals... you have to go to Brother's island , Dedalus reef.... but here sometimes the sea is very rough.... because these island are in the middle of Red Sea...
If you want a mix , so good coral reefs, some wrecks , big school of fishes, you can go in the area of Ras Mohamed national park....In this area, for example, Shark Reef and Yolanda reef, are amazing, colourful and with a lot of fishes.... And in this area you can see even the Thistlegorm wreck and it is fantastic ...
For me the best period to go there is June-july or September-october, because the temperature is perfect, the sea is not so rough and there are less tourists....
From November - December the risk is to find a lot of wind and the temperatures starts to go down in the sea and outside ....
Ciao
Scipionems

Agreed.

I would second the comments about Brothers and Daedalus reef as well as Elphinstone - they can all be questionable due to currents and weather. We were supposed to visit elphinstone but conditions would have made diving near impossible so the skipper chose something nearer the coast.

One thing I found about Brothers & Daedalus was we ended up spending a lot of time in blue water away from the reef walls to try to see the bigger species - it sometimes works but sometimes you see nothing. We ended one such dive under the boat only to find 3 longimanus (Oceanic White Tips) waiting for us on our stops - I admit to only getting back on board with about 30 bar as I extended my stop to about 10 minutes between 5-10m.

The Northern trips are probably the best for seeing a good variety of things (I did Wrecks and reefs which was a good mix).

 

[WS007]

Hi to all,
here Mar Rosso 2019
you can see some fresh pics shot for the most with a Nikon D850 in Nauticam housing and a 15mm Sigma fisheye lens
Scipionems

Great photos as always!

I have a question scorpionemes: I see that you use now Nikon D850. In former trips you were using Pana GH5. I use Oly EM1II, but have no practical experience with large sensor, but I am thinking about upgrading to Sony ARII or III.

Can you tell me how much better the large sensor performs in comparison to the smaller one? In particular it would be extremely useful if you could point to some example photos (from both cameras) where one can see benefits of large sensor and shortcomes of small one?

Thanks, Wolfgang

 

[WS007]

Gorgeous pics!
Thanks for sharing.
We are thinking of doing a Red Sea trip, and wondering if anyone has any recommendations or advice.

I know the Red Sea since the 80ies (Egypt is very close for us Europeans). The others made already very good recommendations where to see what (Brothers, Deadalus, Zabargad and Elphinstone is best for sharks; wrecks in the North and caves in South). My two cents: when coming from so far, do not go for a one week trip. Select a Safari that goes for two weeks in one piece (not two one week Safaris, where you will loose three precious diving days). At least stay for an additional week in a resort (if not a two week Safari).
In case you go for the sharks, autumn and winter is the best time (although I have seen them also in other seasons, but never in summer).

Wolfgang

 

[scipionems]

Great photos as always!

I have a question scorpionemes: I see that you use now Nikon D850. In former trips you were using Pana GH5. I use Oly EM1II, but have no practical experience with large sensor, but I am thinking about upgrading to Sony ARII or III.

Can you tell me how much better the large sensor performs in comparison to the smaller one? In particular it would be extremely useful if you could point to some example photos (from both cameras) where one can see benefits of large sensor and shortcomes of small one?

Thanks, Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang,
yes I have even a Pana Gh5 and from May I passed to Full Frame Nikon D850....
There is a huge difference with my Gh5, especially when you push up the ISO....
For example I was so lucky to see several times the dolphins in early morning and I made pictures with Gh5 using only the camera without flash.... using high iso (1400-1600) .... The pictures are horrible..... blurry with a lot of grain....
In other occasion I used only the D850 with high ISO and obviously the pictures are better and without grain....
So if you use the Gh5 or other micro4/3 camera at low ISO you have no problem ... but if you push up ISO and in condition of low light , like inside a wreck or caves, or very deep with hammerheads , using a full frame sensor helps a LOT....

The only inconvenience of Full frame cameras is that they are HUGE, HEAVY and horrible to fly in charter air company..... (a lot of extra luggage to pay) Sigh sigh.....


If you want to upgrade with a Sony, in my opinion, is better to point to A7RIII, because the autofocus is better than A7RII.... I have several friends that changed from ARII to ARIII for this reason....
The only problem with Sony full frame is that there is not a real fisheye lens from Sony... probably you can use with some Metabones other fisheye lens frame Canon.... or other brand....
For this reason I purchased the Nikon D850 , because it has several fisheye lenses perfect for underwater use... like 15mm Sigma , Nikon 8-15mm or Tokina 10-17mm
But these are my personal opinions... I am not so expert...

here you can see two pictures , one made with Gh5 at 2000 ISO, one with D850 at 3200 ISO.... you can value the difference ....