Just back from Sharm...

[chippy]

Clive - The home page still needs some work - the photo's on there are still far to large which is why it's taking an age to load - I presume you're not on broadband?

Reye - I sold the housing and C5050, as well as my old topside rig (an Oly E20 and lenses) to pay for the S2. housing and lenses).

Dee - Thanks....the shrimp and crab were taken in the UK last year though. I like the clam one too though. I think my fav is the soft coral with the sunburst.

Mandrake - once I've unpacked my gear, I'll try the battery pack from my other 125 on it and see what happens - thanks for the tip!

Marl - You'll love it!!!!!! I found the 12-24 was great to use. The only prob I had, was that a number of pics were ruined by a kind of reflection on the inside of the dome, caused i believe, from a reflection off the "plate" that the dome is glued into - thew plate is a semi gloss finish. I think aquatica should have finished it off in a matt finish. The only thing I really did miss, was being able to swap lenses UW. There were a number of dives where I had my WA on, only to come across a great macro subject or vise versa.

Oh, I saw my first Nudi there too....a little black fella. Luckily I had my 60mm macro on at the time. I'll add the picture later on once I've had a good sort out of them.

 

[chippy]

Changing the battery doesn't seem to help either - I think the strobe must be goosed too

 

[ReyeR]

Changing the battery doesn't seem to help either - I think the strobe must be goosed too

Sorry to hear about that, mate.
Unusual, because Ike states that in the event of a flood only the battery should get affected as the strobe head is fully sealed. But I have heard of one other person with the same result : http://www.wetpixel.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=18735

At least you'll be dealing with a very responsive Ike. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[iflyprops]

Unusual, because Ike states that in the event of a flood only the battery should get affected as the strobe head is fully sealed. But I have heard of one other person with the same result

I just got an Ikelite substrobe 200 and from what I can tell this only applies if the battery compartment floods. The flash is sealed but...where the modeling light screws in through the battery compartment could flood if its not maintained IMO. I might be mistaken...so if anyone else has something to add...

 

[chippy]

That's for the info. I'll drop Ike a line and see what my isurer has to say in the morning.

 

[clive francis]

That's for the info. I'll drop Ike a line and see what my isurer has to say in the morning.

chippy, eventually it loaded, some cool pics, but the gear button didn't work.

not on broadband yet, they have only just got combustion engines in the south west (that was the one thing i miss from being in London.....broadband) getting it soon though!

i had a look at the 300D today, the only thing i didn't like was the view (or lack of) on the LCD, have you had any problems going from viewing on screen to take picture and viewing through the eye piece?

have you got a magnifying eye piece?

how did your mid range lense work out?

doesn't that cover the same focal length as your macro?

 

[chippy]

chippy, eventually it loaded, some cool pics, but the gear button didn't work

Yeah sorry, still have that page and the digital darkroom pages to do.

Viewfinders, yeah that's the thing with DLSR's, no "live" view on the LCD. I never really liked that way of composing a shot anyway. People say that the S2 viewfinder is small, but I found it to be ok, although it was tricky to see the exposure info along the bottom of the frame at times. The Aquatica has an optical glass viewfinder "lens" that makes life easier.

I didn't really get to use the midrange lens (24-85mm) much, and on the dive that I did use it the strobe flooded, so difficult to tell really. The 60mm is pin sharp though (the brighter clam shot was done with it). It'll be a great lens for here in the UK, although there were occasions that I wished for the 105mm in Sharm. If i find a good deal on one I'd maybe take that with me on the next trip too.