Tuesday's Dive (UK)

[chippy]

Managed to squeeze a short dive after work yesterday, and wore the wetsuit, and it was freezing cold!!! - back to the drysuit for a month or two yet I think!

I think I've managed to flood the bulkhead on the housing for a 2nd time!! The strobes fire but won't work in TTL, same case as the first flood - I hate those Nikonos type connectors, they really are a weakpoint IMHO. Marlo (or anyone else using Nikonos connectors) have you had an problems with them? I'm seriously considering trying to find an Ikelite type bulkhead and bite the bullet and suffering the cost of having to get new sync leads, as I feel they are a mucher better type of connector. Any more floods and they will pay for themselves in no time - a new double bulkhead is costing me $200 a flood!

Thanfuly when it does go belly up, it seems to work fine using the manual power settings on the strobe, so the dive wasn't a complete waste photowise.

Anyway, a few pics, all taken with the 105mm macro, single DS125.

A Shanny:-

This was a tiny little flatfish about an inch long:-

This little chap is a Montagues Blenny. According to my book, they are rare in the UK, even down here in Jersey, I've never seen one in the 30 years I've been here:-

A Black Goby:-

 

[Dee]

I love the first one best...just look at that puppy dog expression! "I'm so sorry I piddled on the rug!"

 

[boney]

Awesome pics chippy!!! It amazes me how close you get to these little guys...

How cold was it??? Is it better to dive dry all year round in the UK?
Does any of the insurance for UW camera's cover floods? If its a frequent occurance it might be worth while looking into it... just a thought...

 

[Gilligan]

Great shots. I like the rare Blenny.

 

[marpacifica]

Hey Chippy,

I think you should just post photos and allow everyone on the board to provide captions for your funny characters.

Shot #1: "Dad, is the insurance still good on the Mustang?"

Shot #2: "I really should get this psoriasis under control."

Shot #3: "The travel brochures said this beach would be crawling with women and all I'm doing here is freezing my eyebrows, alone!"

Shot #4: "Susie Hopkins heard from her neighbor's best friend's hair stylist that Mr. Johnson is having an affair with Kathy Rowes who sits in the second row of church, but I heard from a good source that he's actually sneaking around with his babysitter!"

Anyway, sorry to hear about the SECOND flood. One of my dual bulkheads died on my recent trip to the Philippines. I usually test fire the strobes and camera before each dive to make sure everything is in order but the strobes weren't responding, so I just switched to the other bulkhead and everything worked fine. When I got back for the night I put a few drops of CCD methyl alcohol cleaning solution in the problem bulkhead, inverted it to drain, cleaned it with a Q-Tip, made sure it was dry, and tried it again. Worked fine. I think it got a drop or two of seawater in it before, but I can't be sure. What I try not to do is disconnect any bulkhead attachment when the rig is moist. Preferably I'll leave it in an a/c room for a day or two, then remove the connector upside down. If I can't wait that long, I'll towel dry everything and use a blower brush to get into the crannies before opening anything.

Ever since my first "flood", I've been wrapping teflon plumber's tape around the threads of the connectors and haven't had a problem. It's worth a try. I hope it doesn't happen again!

Marlo

 

[chippy]

Awesome pics chippy!!! It amazes me how close you get to these little guys...

How cold was it??? Is it better to dive dry all year round in the UK?
Does any of the insurance for UW camera's cover floods? If its a frequent occurance it might be worth while looking into it... just a thought...

A little top that I find that works for getting close (the majority of the time) , is to not to look at the fish directly - keep the camera between your eyes and the fish and use the LCD/viewfinder to view through, as you make your SLOW approach. Stop a little way away and take a shot, then a litle closer, another shot, then closer, another shot, etc etc. This will allow the fish to get used to the flash before you get really close. It also means that you'll still have a shot should the fish decide to make a run for it (which you may be able to crop slightly later). Also, make sure you make any adjustments to your strobes etc BEFORE you make your approach, as making adjustments when you are close will almost certainly scare the fish off.

The sea temp was 13 Degrees C (not too sure what that is in F).....a bit too nippy for a 5mm wetsuit!! I usually dive in my 5mm crushed neoprene drysuit with lycra/thinsulate undersuit - I look like a ballerina out of the suit but at least I stay nice and warm!! Last August I was able to do 90min dives in the 5mm wetsuit without feeling the cold, but really I can only sensibly dive wet for couple of months a year.

I have insurance for the camera, etc (would be mad not too!!) but I don't want to push next years premium up even further by making a relatively small claim.

Marlo - I think the water actually gets in between the inner cabled section and the outer threaded ring, so I'm not sure the PTFE tape would make a great deal of difference. After the last flood I got to the stage where I only remove the sync lead if it's totally necessary. I did undo the sync lead just before the dive a 1/4 or a turn, just to make sure it hadn't seized and then retightened. I think that must have been enough for a tiny bit of water to enter the bulkhead. I'm going to email Blake @ Aquatica and see what the story is with Ikelite bulkheads. As I'm only using a single strobe most of the time now, I might just buy a single bulkhead and leave the 2nd one disconnected.

 

[marpacifica]

I think the water actually gets in between the inner cabled section and the outer threaded ring, so I'm not sure the PTFE tape would make a great deal of difference.

Eeek. Didn't realize that was the weak link. Maybe it's a unique flaw to the sync cord you used, unless you've seen this problem with another cord, in which case it may be a design flaw.

5 mm suit in 13C water???? I'd be freezing above water!

Thanks for the tips on approaching fish and setting up the shot before getting really close. I usually use the John Wayne approach, which allows for one shot if I'm lucky.

 

[chippy]

Eeek. Didn't realize that was the weak link. Maybe it's a unique flaw to the sync cord you used, unless you've seen this problem with another cord, in which case it may be a design flaw.

It seems to be the same case with both the dual T cord and the single cord.

I'm going to order a single nikonos bulkhead as I'll still be able to use single or dual strobes off the one connection, and they are half the price of the dual ones. I'll just leave the broken redundant 2nd blukhead in place.

Hopefully I'll have more luck with this one!!

 

[KrustyTheClownFish]

Very nice website Chippy!

 

[chippy]

Very nice website Chippy!

Thanks