What I learned when I lost my camera

[Kimela]

Sorry about your loss. I assume it was a much more expensive one than mine. I got a yellow camera as a gift (uses film). I took it on my only tropical dive trip (Panama). Nothing IMO worth photographing in Nova Scotia, though many will disagree.
So, I figure I lost it on the dive. It wasn't flopping around on my BC. I knew I had it tethered to me somewhere. It was above my head floating. Still can't figure why a camera would be positively buoyant when it's for underwater. Can't even recall how I "tied it down" for the rest of the dives, but got some good coral pics.

A lot of cameras are positively buoyant until you add a tray, and a light/strobe with batteries. The weight of the tray and batteries more than makes up for the air in the housing. I think it was @scubadada who said the best hard drive we have is between our ears. He's right. Just keep taking memory shots!

 

[kelemvor]

Still can't figure why a camera would be positively buoyant when it's for underwater.

If you ever open up a camera, you'll find that there's a lot of empty air space inside. Even more air space if you use one with a housing.

 

[tursiops]

If you ever open up a camera, you'll find that there's a lot of empty air space inside. Even more air space if you use one with a housing.

Kinda like divers, especially divers in dry suits.

 

[TMHeimer]

If you ever open up a camera, you'll find that there's a lot of empty air space inside. Even more air space if you use one with a housing.

Yeah that's what I figured back then. But this was an el cheapo plastic camera. No strobe, tray, etc.-- so I guess anything like that would always be positively buoyant.

 

[ATJ]

I take a picture of a hand written note with my name and phone number as the first photo on my camera and "delete protect" it so it is always on the card. That way if anyone finds the camera and looks at the pictures they can hopefully contact me if they are honest.

I make it even easier. I have a piece of paper stuck inside the housing (or both my main rig and my GoPro) with my name, mobile and email address. That way if someone finds it they can obviously work out who lost it.

As far as honesty is concerned. A friend and I went for a five last Thursday for her birthday. It wasn't all that rough (well, quite a bit of surge on the dive) but she got knocked over by a wave at the exit and her $600 torched got knocked off her camera rig. It was rough enough to make it impractical to search for it. The following days the seas were very rough - swell of up to 6m - and we figured that it would probably be gone. I dived at the same site yesterday (exactly one week later) and this was basically the first day that was diveable after the rough seas - and it was calm as. I had a look for her torch as I was exiting but there are so many holes and crevices I thought there'd be slim chance of finding it.

I messaged her later to say how great the conditions were but that I hadn't found her torch. She told me that someone else had found it and a mutual friend had it and would give it to her when next he saw her! (Of course, that's why I couldn't find it. They'd found it before me. )

 

[SlugLife]

I wasn't sure where to post this - hope this is an ok place.

I lost my camera on the first day of a two week dive trip in Cozumel (night dive on Paradise). Not gonna lie – it was a bit heartbreaking. But keeping things in perspective is important. We all lived, with all limbs attached and no medical issues. The camera can and will be replaced. But man oh man, I learned some cool things.

People are amazing. My husband’s first words when we got back to the dock after losing my camera were ‘One thing I know for certain – you’re getting a new camera. It means too much to you to not have one.’ He’s a great guy. (that was the only time I came near tears). Everyone around me was so compassionate and helpful. We quickly began to laugh about all the amazing shots I was missing – miming taking photos of things that seemed to ‘come out of the woodwork’ and I’d never see if I had my camera!! I flooded my mask a few times smiling or laughing so hard at myself and fellow divers miming getting that ‘perfect shot’.

I got lots of great advice to avoid losing another camera. I still think the best advice is to somehow hook me up to a generator, so if I hit the water without my camera hooked to my BC, I’ll get a powerful electrical shock – but I haven’t figured out the logistics of it yet.

Without a camera in my hands I took better stock of how my BC was set up. I moved some things around – changed where my secondary and SPG were attached to create a more streamlined and compact profile.

I realized I really am a ‘do-er’. If I’m not ‘doing’ something I feel like I’m somehow wasting my time. I’m a THERAPIST for pete’s sake – this was a good lesson for me, and opportunity to practice at human ‘being’ rather than human ‘doing’. I wonder how many critters I saw withOUT a camera, that I wouldn’t have seen WITH it. When I’m taking photos, I have my nose down, looking at one specific thing. Without the camera, I see the critter, wave and say hello, and move along. It was kind of cool.

The funny thing about underwater photography is that the ONLY people who really appreciate what they’re looking at are other divers. So, you folks here, and a sub-group I created on my facebook account are the only people who understand that when they’re looking at a painted elysia it’s not the size of a pumpkin – it’s no bigger than a small piece of rice. Non-divers look at the pics and yawn. So truly, the pics are for me and for a few other divers who will celebrate with me when I get that really great blenny shot. And that’s enough for me.

As much as I enjoyed my time without my camera, I ordered a new one today.

Have you licked a 9-volt battery before? You don't need a generator to get a shock.

As far as your camera, was it in your hands when you jumped in the water? I'm perhaps a bit paranoid, and always have everything clipped at all points in a dive (unless moving from 1 d-ring to the next). Look up "ankle straps" on a site like Amazon or Ebay. You can strap those to your wrist, and then you have a d-ring on your wrists, that you can clip items to. Just get cheap ones, mine haven't worn down with over a year of use, but for $5 to $10, it wouldn't really matter if they only lasted a couple years.

I also advocate putting a piece of paper with our name and email address inside the housing next time. I find cell phones, sunglasses, iwatches, etc all the time, and only occasionally find the owner.

 

[Kimela]

Have you licked a 9-volt battery before? You don't need a generator to get a shock.

As far as your camera, was it in your hands when you jumped in the water? I'm perhaps a bit paranoid, and always have everything clipped at all points in a dive (unless moving from 1 d-ring to the next). Look up "ankle straps" on a site like Amazon or Ebay. You can strap those to your wrist, and then you have a d-ring on your wrists, that you can clip items to. Just get cheap ones, mine haven't worn down with over a year of use, but for $5 to $10, it wouldn't really matter if they only lasted a couple years.

I also advocate putting a piece of paper with our name and email address inside the housing next time. I find cell phones, sunglasses, iwatches, etc all the time, and only occasionally find the owner.

Yes, I have licked a 9 volt before! Doesn't generate enough shock to get through to my brain!!!

Yes, the camera was in my hands when I hit the water. This is one of those things like proper child rearing, dieting and exercise. It's not for lack of knowledge of proper procedure that I lost my camera. It was just one of those things. I think I was a bit discombobulated still from a cluster of a travel day the day before - should have waited to do a night dive for a couple of days. Just screwed up and forgot to clip it on.

I didn't mention this in my original write-up but our boat captain contacted all the other boat captains and dive ops to tell them I had lost the camera and there was a $200 reward out there. I posted something on a couple of Cozumel FB groups the very night I lost the camera. If an honest person found the camera they would only have had to say to their boat crew "hey, look what I found" and the camera would have found its way back to me. I will have labels on every conceivable interior surface in the future, but I know those can be peeled off, and just like I deleted the picture I once had on my camera that said "If lost please contact me at ...", a dishonest person can delete that picture. The camera is gone. I suppose there's always the possibility it will find its way back to me, but I doubt it at this point.

 

[DaniDives]

A guy I met on a liveaboard lost his gopro during a dive, as he didn't attach it to his BCD and it had a floatie attached... All his honeymoon photos were still on the SD card.
On the last day, the divemaster of another ship joined us aboard and brought the camera back.

So on one hand, a floatie sucks, on the other hand it could make your gopro drift by the right person...
Why don't you get an extendable bungee so you don't have to take the camera off your BCD at all to take a good photo?

 

[Kimela]

A guy I met on a liveaboard lost his gopro during a dive, as he didn't attach it to his BCD and it had a floatie attached... All his honeymoon photos were still on the SD card.
On the last day, the divemaster of another ship joined us aboard and brought the camera back.

So on one hand, a floatie sucks, on the other hand it could make your gopro drift by the right person...
Why don't you get an extendable bungee so you don't have to take the camera off your BCD at all to take a good photo?

I have a coiled lanyard that extends about 3 feet (further than my short arms can reach) - that isn't the problem - as long as the camera is attached to the lanyard! This was all on me. A floatie wouldn't keep my camera afloat at the surface because the weight of the batteries (4 AA's in the strobe) and the tray makes it negatively buoyant (I'm using a TG6 on a try with an INON S2000 strobe - quite a bit bigger and heavier than a GoPro). When I've used a wrist strap it ended up IN my pictures and that irritates me. The only problem I need to fix is the 'operator error' one!!

Nice story about the fellow diver!

Here's my lanyard. It is permanently attached to my BC and it clips onto my camera rig.

 

[DaniDives]

Looks good, it's one of those things that happens to all of us once and then never again