A couple of weeks ago my family were diving on Paradise reef in Cozumel. The AA's in my son's POS Pixtreme digicam had gone flat moments before we finally spotted a seahorse, which he'd never seen in the wild before. I handed him my Canon so he could take a few pictures, then he handed it back. I took a bunch of my own because I've never had a camera with me when I've seen a seahorse. When I looked up, I realized the group had moved off and were several hundred feet away so I hustled to catch up.
When I caught up with the group I saw that my son had found a Splendid Toadfish out in the open in great sunlight. I reached for my camera only to realize the strap was not around my wrist. CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! !! I really didn't want to lose the camera, but even worse to me was that the whole day's pictures were on it and I'd never be able to download them to my computer and would lose the seahorse pictures.
My heart sank as I swam back in the general direction from whence I'd come. I figured the camera was zooming along the surface propelled by the winds of the day's el Norte but felt as I must try. The entire field of turtle grass looked about the same in all directions. My only clue to where the seahorse had been was...
My camera floating midwater, about 5 feet above the bottom, neither ascending nor descending. I grabbed it, PUT THE STRAP AROUND MY WRIST, and noticed the seahorse was still directly below it. I took about 10 more photos of the seahorse and rejoined the group just as they were wondering where I was.
Later, my 13 year-old remarked that if he'd done something like that I'd probably never let him forget it. He's probably right.
I knew Canon claimed no weights were necessary for this camera/housing combo but I always wondered just how neutral it was. Now I know.
When I caught up with the group I saw that my son had found a Splendid Toadfish out in the open in great sunlight. I reached for my camera only to realize the strap was not around my wrist. CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! !! I really didn't want to lose the camera, but even worse to me was that the whole day's pictures were on it and I'd never be able to download them to my computer and would lose the seahorse pictures.
My heart sank as I swam back in the general direction from whence I'd come. I figured the camera was zooming along the surface propelled by the winds of the day's el Norte but felt as I must try. The entire field of turtle grass looked about the same in all directions. My only clue to where the seahorse had been was...
My camera floating midwater, about 5 feet above the bottom, neither ascending nor descending. I grabbed it, PUT THE STRAP AROUND MY WRIST, and noticed the seahorse was still directly below it. I took about 10 more photos of the seahorse and rejoined the group just as they were wondering where I was.
Later, my 13 year-old remarked that if he'd done something like that I'd probably never let him forget it. He's probably right.
I knew Canon claimed no weights were necessary for this camera/housing combo but I always wondered just how neutral it was. Now I know.
