St. Vincent 9/09

[dbh]

I did an 8 day trip to St. Vincent (9/18-9/26) and dove with Bill Tewes (what a character).

Trip Report here:
Untitled 1

Gallery here:
St Vincent 2009

Dave

 

[Gaviota]

Nice shots.

Was down there a few years ago. Don't remeber many dive guides from other trips but, Bill is to say the least - unforgetable. With Bill as your 'guide' it is a real UW Photo paradise. I would guess he still does not wear any wet suit or weights.

 

[Sully3]

Bill is the MAN!!!
We love Billl
we have dove with him 5 times.

Awesome shots
was that your first time diving with him.

matt

 

[dbh]

Gaviota - still no wetsuit nor weights

Matt - first time w/ Bill but it won't be my last.

 

[Sully3]

I don't know how he does that with no weights or wetsuit.
I also don't know how he finds some of the stuff he does.
And he teaches you how to find stuff, so that you can
see more on other dive trips.

We are thinking of going for our sixth trip nxt august.
here is the link to some of my shots from our last trip in
august 2008
St. Vincent, August 2008 Photo Gallery by sully3 at pbase.com

matt

 

[Evie G]

very nice! Read your trip report & viewed all pics. )

 

[Larry C]

Nice, Dave. I especially liked the Eel with shallow DOF.
I've been debating S & S or Seatool (when our budget finally allows!). Any pluses or minuses on the Seatool? I like the compact dimensions, but once the strobes and everything are on there, it can't make a whole lot of difference. Control access? Port mounting system? Ease of camera installation?

 

[dbh]

Larry,
The only negative that I have found w/ the Seatool is that you cannot switch between AF & MF during a dive. Basically you have to decide which you are going to shoot when you put your camera in the housing. I shoot AF w/ 60 & WA and MF w/ 105....just personal preference. I LOVE firing my Inons via FO. I have always felt sync cords were the weakest link in a system. My last 2 housings were Subal, so I already had ports. Seatool makes different adaptors for different port mfgs. The camera slides in easy (mounts on a little tray-like aluminum piece) and have never had to do any adjustments. Controls are all accessible and you can raise / lower the cameras flash without opening the housing. I don't know if you saw this review that I did on the Seatool:

SeaToolND300

SeatoolND300-2

I was able to fit everything that I needed to shoot my 105 w/ 2 strobes in my carry-on...plus a few other items. I have NO regrets going with Seatool and would recommend it to friends.

Dave

 

[dbh]

I've been debating S & S or Seatool (when our budget finally allows!)

Larry,
Are you thinking of housing the D300? With it being discontinued, housings will soon disappear. Are you going to look for a used one when people upgrade? Maybe you can sell your D300 and get a D300s .

Just curious of what you are thinking.

Dave

 

[Larry C]

Hopefully, they won't dissappear too fast. I've seen a couple of used ones-was about a day late for the Hugyfot w/spare camera advertised herein and elsewhere. When he dropped his price to $2800 incl. camera and ports I was ready to jump all over it, but he had a buyer the day I PM'd him. I know there are some differences in controls on the "s", but perhaps they'll make the "s" housing retrofit to both. The 300 housing fits the "s" just fine, but lacks controls for the video. There's talk of a back-only upgrade for current D-300 owners.
Unfortunately, our current plans for an $80K kitchen and bath upgrade limit opportunities for a $5k camera housing upgrade.