Andrew Newton Underwater

Melbourne Downunder Book

2011-12-10T16:30:00.001+11:00

Over the last 18 months I have occasionally been hired by Sheree Marris to shoot for her book Melbourne Downunder.

Its a wonderful square format coffee-table book focussing on marine life in and around Port Phillip. Available for $40ish at Melbourne Downunder.

She also bought quite a few shots from my collection for the project, including this one of schooling mullet at St Leonards.
Also the seadragon and seal shots featured on her websites.

D7000 camera in D80 housing

2011-11-10T10:44:00.000+11:00

OK I was wrong about the D7000 not fitting in the D80 housing. It actually does fit. Must have not cleared one of the controls at my first attempt.

Front and rear control dials, +/- EV, On/Off and focus lock work but there is no access to video switch. Some of the buttons to the left of the screen would be useable with a small reshaping of the rubber push button ends.

It's a tight fit with the camera pushing hard against something at the front so I would strongly advise a test in fresh water before jumping into the sea.

Ozone Paddle Steamer split level

2011-06-25T17:26:00.001+10:00

Just 50m offshore from the Indented Head caravan park and in 3m, lies the paddle steamer Ozone.

It's a great spot for a snorkel or shallow dive and a great spot for split level photos. Some days the vis is even better than this.

The Ozone was sunk in 1925 as a breakwater for the little beach nearby.

Triggerfish remote strobe sensor

2011-05-29T09:02:00.000+10:00

Continuing on with remote strobe testing.

Triggerfish is a wonderful little slave trigger made by Hedwig Dieraert. Here's a review on Wetpixel

To test how sensitive it is underwater I toddled off to St Leonards for a dip.

Vis was maybe 6m and Triggerfish worked perfectly 10m away where I couldn't even see the strobe anymore.

Just need to design some method of positioning the sensor like a spike, clamp or mini tripod.

Gregarious Giant cuttles

2011-05-24T09:01:00.002+10:00

Winter in southern Aus is giant cuttle mating season. These normally secretive relatives of squid and octopus become all outgoing and inquisitive.

They will often follow divers around and even occasionally come in for a hand shake, like in this video.

I was shooting stills at the time then quickly switched to video when the cuttle showed interest. With a bit more time i would have done a manual white balance and used -1.0 ev in Aperture priority for better colour and exposure.

Bounce flash underwater

2011-05-10T20:59:00.000+10:00

I don't hesitate to use bounced flash when photographing above water but it had never considered it underwater.

On a recent dive on the ex HMAS Canberra frigate, in less than perfect vis, I tried a few shots with the strobe pointing up at the ceiling of the wheelhouse. The results were a great improvement over direct flash which produced bad backscatter.

Top image is direct flash, single strobe.
Lower image is the bounced flash version.

D7000 split levels

2011-03-28T17:47:00.000+11:00

One thing I was busting to try was split levels or under/over shots with the D7000. I had big hopes for the low noise and fast AF.

With my D80 noise is quite obvious in the underwater half at 400iso after some exposure increase adjustment.

The AF on the D7000 is brilliant. In these river splits I was blindly locking focus on something underwater and shooting a few shots while lifting the camera up with great results.

During overcast periods I bumped up to 800iso and although noise is visible in the smooth underwater subjects it can only be seen at 100%.

Here's a shot of Pt Lonsdale on a magic calm sunny day, converted to B&W from a Raw file.

D7000 underwater

2011-03-10T18:44:00.001+11:00

First underwater test today so naturally the conditions were poor with silty 3m vis at St Leonards.

First issue was fitting the camera into the housing. The right side triangular neck strap ring tends to flip up and sit on top of the camera and won't fit under the AE lock shaft in the housing. It must be flipped down to fit the mounted camera into the housing. It also flipped up during the dive which meant I couldn't pull the camera out of the housing until it was jiggled down. I may cut it off or stick it down somehow.

Underwater impressions.....the bigger 3" screen is excellent and live view is definitely usable but AF slows down and is more fussy. In normal use the AF is much faster and more accurate than the D80, a delight.

Setting PRE or custom white balance is easy and works well. It's not something I have ever used before but it gave nice results for the timelapse photos using my glove palm as a grey card.

The intervalometer will be a feature I use a lot being addicted to timelapse now, apologies to any future dive buddies. Will have to sort out DOF and AF better next time.

Video worked well, but I don't know which AF mode to use yet. I was using AF-S but will try a continuous mode next time.

Maybe tried too much this dive, actually this will be an issue, this camera can do too much. I can see myself looking for still, video and timelapse subjects on all dives in the future.

D7000 Ikelite housing

2011-03-09T12:50:00.002+11:00

I marvel at the ability of housing maunufacturers to make all those tiny camera buttons, levers and and control wheels available in the housing.

The D7000 Ikelite housing gives access to everything except the DOF preview button and dioptre adjustment. There's even a button for popping up and adjusting the internal flash, which doesn't make a lot of sense because the flash can't pop up enough to work.

The movie record button/lever has been moved all the way out to the right side of the housing and is easily operated by thumb without letting go of the handle. This makes movie recording smoother than with the camera itself.

There is enough space around the camera, especially on the right side, to fit my leak alarms.

You do need to retract some controls when inserting the mounted camera to make sure it sits in place.
The view through the viewfinder seems to include more of the frame than my D80 housing, but I'll have to check that underwater, hopefully tomorrow.

D7000 hands on

2011-03-05T12:16:00.002+11:00

I ordered the camera from Digital Camera Warehouse for a gold coin under $1300, delivered.

When it arrived the first test was to see what worked in my D80 Ikelite housing. Nothing was the answer, couldn't even close the housing with the D7000 inside. The camera body is just too thick, front to back, to fit at all. I was always going to buy a new housing but in the pursuit of knowledge I had to try. I have since ordered an Ikelite housing from Digital Diver for $1672 delivered. It arrives in a few days.

Why Ikelite? Well, I have all the ports, like the see-through acrylic and extra space for tweaking and I can afford them. Other housings like Nauticam, Subal and Aquatica may be smaller and sleeker but they are also thousands more expensive and wouldn't improve my photos.

One drawback with an Ike housing is that you can't pop the camera flash up and use fibre optic flash sync, but there are stirrings in my little grey cells that may overcome this. A future project.

Initial impressions of the camera.

The larger 3" screen is wonderful. The INFO button which fills the review screen with all the camera settings will be nice underwater for ageing eyes. I'm starting to find the top LCD screen difficult to read.

AF during video will be an issue. SLR lenses make lots of noise while autofocusing and that is all perfectly recorded by the mic, so you either have to ditch the audio track or prevent continuous AF for video. AF-S will be the way to go for me. You start and stop recording with the dedicated video button but you can tap the shutter button at any time to refocus.

I'll be leaving the "sticky buttons" or "Release button to use dial" option (f7 in the control menu) permanently on. That means you tap and release a button, like ISO or WB, and then make changes with the control dial. Much easier in a housing than trying to use both hands.

f6 in the control menu is another must for me. That's the "Menus and Playback OFF" setting, which means you can make A and S changes with the dials while image review is still on. With my D80 I was always trying to make quick exposure changes after a shot but would actually be flipping to the next image, very frustrating.

There are 2 user settings available on the mode dial which are used to save sets of commonly required settings. I have set U1 for intervalometer recording where I want the image size small, and U2 for RAW underwater with WB 5260K. Then I can leave the camera on jpeg fine and Auto WB for normal use.

The intervalometer is a blast. You can choose the shooting interval, say 1 shot every 5 sec, and how many shots up to 999. Using Quicktime 7 Pro you can turn the image sequence into a timelapse movie at frame rates ranging from 10sec/frame to 60frames/sec. Here's one of me painting our front fence. 3hrs in 17sec.

A playback frame rate of 25fps would give a 40sec movie from 999 frames.

AF for stills seems very fast and the shutter action seems lightning fast too. I keep expecting the second clunk of the mirror returning but it has already happened.

That's what has exited me so far. I'll chat about image quality and functionality underwater in the next instalment.

Nikon D7000 SLR

2011-03-03T18:34:00.001+11:00

I bought myself one of these recently released beauties as soon as the price dropped in Aus. The D7000 comes highly recommended by some serious underwater photographers and I felt it was a worthwhile upgrade from my D80.

Here are some of the features that attracted me.

Full 1080p video with continuous autofocus. Don't know how effective that AF will be, I suspect it will be far from perfect and I'll be using it as single AF rather than continuous.

Live view, looking forward to trying it underwater.

Very fast AF for still shots (not live view), I'm expecting this to be great underwater.

14bit RAW which apparently means much smoother sunburst rendition.

Startlingly low noise at higher ISOs, which will be good for my split levels at 400ISO.

Intervalometer for time-lapse recording. This will be fun underwater and above.

2 SD card slots, for backup or overflow or separating jpegs and RAWs

3" screen and 100% viewfinder, both bigger than the D80.

More on how it all works in real life in the next post.

Sync cord end clip

2011-02-20T11:20:00.001+11:00

Here's a little refinement after the initial test dive.

This clip allows the raw end of the sync cord to be fitted and removed underwater. This will allow much easier rolling out of the long cord now that the little hooked clip is not permanently attached.

The clip is stuck to the strobe by double sided tape.

I have also made up a short optical sync cord for use with a slaved on-camera strobe. This means I can just use a single electrical sync cord for the main strobe instead of the annoying double electrical cord.

Remote strobe underwater

2011-02-15T12:56:00.000+11:00

So here's my first attempt.

The sync cord worked flawlessly, but it's so awkward dealing with 10m of coiled cable attached to strobe and camera.
It gets hooked and tangled on everything, not as bad as a reel and line but still frustrating.

Conditions were not great with 5m vis green cruddy water and heaps of dive classes in the vicinity.

Fibre optic sync cord from audio cable

2011-02-12T16:29:00.001+11:00

Fibre optic sync cords are a great option for underwater strobes but they are expensive and delicate. A 0.5m coiled sync cord costs around A$70. Digital audio cable, which is basically the same thing, costs maybe A$2.00 a meter.

Here's how I adapted a 10m toslink audio cable ($20 on ebay) to work with my Inon strobes. I'm intending to use the long sync cord to setup some remote strobe lighting in sites like wrecks, under ledges and behind pier piles.

First to make the slave strobe end I cut through one of the Toslink plugs leaving a lip which would sit inside an Inon sensor cover.

I carefully shaped the lip diameter and depth to hold the cable in the sensor cover and allow the sensor cover to be screwed over the sensor.

To make sure the cable didn't pull out of the lip I used plumber's PVC pipe glue.

That seemed to work very well but I also used heat shrink tube and cable ties to secure it even more.

The sensor cover can still rotate freely.

Finally to fit the master strobe end of the sync cord.
I cut the plug off leaving a raw end and made a PVC bracket to hold it in front of the master strobe.

The bracket fits around the sensor and the PVC material is thin enough, about 1mm, to allow the sensor cover to screw down securely, holding the bracket in place.

Here's the whole setup, now all I need is some decent vis!

Inon strobe on Gorillapod

2011-02-06T11:50:00.001+11:00

Here's how I mounted the strobe onto the tripod.

A piece of aluminium flat was shaped to fit the gorillapod mount with a cutout slot to accommodate the locking lug.

The strobe and gorillapod combination is negatively buoyant but I added a 0.3kg ankle weight for a bit more stability.

Off-camera underwater strobe

2011-02-06T09:32:00.001+11:00

I have started mucking around with a remotely triggered strobe underwater.

The aim of this is to create more interesting lighting. Using an off camera strobe to add rim lighting or even back lighting can add depth and drama to an image.

The tricky bit is actually getting the remote flash to fire. Water absorbs light much more than air so the in-built Inon slave sensor is only effective over about 1.5m. Any further back and the main strobe will not trigger the remote strobe, at least in our murky sub-temperate water.

There are a couple of solutions.

1. Use a really long sync cord, either fibre optic or electrical.

2. Use a more sensitive electronic remote sensor. These are available for Ikelite strobes but not my Inons, although one should be available very soon.

I have ordered 10m of fibre optic audio cable to try a long sync cord. One end will sit in front of my main strobe and the other will connect to the remote strobe. This means the cable will be visible in the shot of course.

Stay tuned for new developments.

AndrewNewtonPhotographer.com

2011-01-01T16:33:00.000+11:00

Just purchased this new domain name with unlimited webspace from JustHost.

AndrewNewtonPhotographer.com

The aim is to showcase some of my better images and maybe promote some sales, who knows.

I'll keep you posted.

Above and Below with Tokina 10-17 FE

2010-12-09T18:34:00.000+11:00

Aha! This is the lens to use for split level shots.

I'm now getting consistently better shots using this technique with the wider fisheye lens and 8" dome.

Results are better on a sunny day but this shot was taken under cloud.

Above and below shots

2010-11-21T17:51:00.001+11:00

Also called half and half, under over, and split shots.

These are among the most challenging underwater images to capture.

On this snorkel I set out just to shoot under overs and this is the only decent one from 80 or so.

This is what I learned....

Need glassy calm, shallow, clear water

Must have a big dome port (8" Ike)

Use the widest lens you have (Sigma 15mm, but wider would have been better. I actually came home and ordered a Tokina 10-17mm soon after)

f/9 is not enough for sharp above and below, need more like f/16

Shoot manual exposure just making sure not to blow out above water highlights. RAW helps a great deal and the graduated filter in CS5 Camera Raw works wonders.

Focus on the underwater detail and lock focus it for the shot.

To reduce water drops in the image, spit on the dome and rub the saliva around the top half.
Start with the dome fully submerged then take the shot within seconds of lifting it up and framing.

Sigma 17-70 with 6" dome

2010-10-07T17:08:00.000+11:00

One issue with this lens is that you need to use the 8" dome port for full zoom range.

I much prefer the smaller 6" domes which allow you to get closer to the subject and to the sand. They are also much more manageable on crowded dive boats.

So I tried it with the 6" dome (for the Nikon 18-55mm) and it works very well BUT you can't zoom longer than 50mm where the lens hits the inside of the dome.

Sigma 17-70 HSM macro

2010-09-21T12:30:00.001+10:00

Now with the dome port polished and decent conditions and no more winter bugs I finally had a good go with this new lens.

Results were very nice, much more contrast and sharpness than the Nikon 18-55 kit lens.

More photos here

This lens is actually a little too fat to fit the Ikelite housing using the spring zoom ring supplied. An easy work around is to add sticky-back velcro to the inside of the gear ring. This provides enough grip to operate the zoom.

Dome port scratch repair - Micro Mesh

2010-09-21T12:22:00.001+10:00

My Ikelite 8" acrylic dome port was quite scratched up, bad enough to show in the photos.

I bought it second hand and it was in worse condition than I expected.

Micro Mesh NC-78-1 is a surface restoring kit used for aircraft windows, among other things.
I ordered mine from www.thesandpaperman.com.au $59 including freight.

It's quite daunting to attack your dome port with sandpaper but the end result is well worth it.

Here's a video of the process.

St Leonards octopus

2010-08-07T18:13:00.004+10:00

So what happened in July?

This little pale octopus has taken up residence in a metal pipe under the pier.

Here's a video of this engaging cephalopod.

Trying to test a new Sigma 17-70mm macro zoom lens, but conditions have been awful for a few weeks now. Patience.

Drysuit dryer

2010-06-06T17:14:00.004+10:00

Here's an idea I've been thinking about for a while.
My drysuit doesn't leak often but when it does it's always through the ankle valves.
All our shore dives are quite sandy and it doesn't take many grains of sand to prevent the seal working properly, usually on the next dive.

This rig suspends the drysuit upside down and blows warm air into the boots.

Constructed using 3m of 50mm polypipe, 2 elbow joints, 2 T-junctions and an $18 blow heater. All up cost under $50.
The heater hood is made from old poly tarp material.

Also means I can give it a good wash inside and out and have it dry for the next weeks diving.

More photos here

Merimbula Divers Lodge - Eden Tugs

2010-05-27T11:22:00.003+10:00

After Jervis Bay we headed down to Merimbula (4hrs) to stay at the Diver's Lodge and dive the Eden Tugs. The Tasman Hauler and Henry Bolte tugs were sunk as artificial reefs back in the mid 1980's in 25 to 30m. The Tasman Hauler is intact while the Henry Bolte has collapsed but boasts more fish life. They're only a 5min boat ride from Eden wharf and about 150m apart.

The diver's lodge has 3 large two bedroom apartments for $29/person, 4 bunks per room. Absolute luxury as dive lodges go, and walking distance to great restaurants and the main shopping drag. We've stayed there twice and always had an apartment to ourselves. Excellent washing and gear storage facilities are provided.

Dive time was 8.30 at the Eden wharf, 20min drive, where we geared up with a Pro Dive mob from Sydney. They were also staying at the diver's lodge and doing a wreck course. The dive boat is a Niiad RIB with just enough space for 12 divers and 2 crew. It's a fast narrow boat that has no storage space for cameras, have to be very vigilant to protect cameras in the pre dive melee.

The vis was 15 to 20m allowing for great wide angle shots. A big school of 60cm kingfish provided thrills on the Henry Bolte. Much better than the 5m green snot we had last visit.

First dive was on the Tasman Hauler then back to Eden for the surface interval, then back out to the Henry Bolte.

$120 for the double dive with your own gear.

Tug dive photos here

For this trip I really wanted to concentrate on wide angle and video. I used my Nikon D80 in Ikelite with 2 Inon Z220 strobes all on manual and Sigma 15mm fisheye, and Virg's Panasonic Lumix LX3 in my old Coolpix 5000 Ikelite housing with a UK Light Cannon HID torch for video.

I took Virg's Macbook and edited video as the trip progressed. This gave me something to do during down time and show off to the non photographers each night.

Rich and I used drysuits, highly recommended, and although the water temp was 20c in JB and 18c on the Tugs, it made the between dive times warm and comfortable. Wetsuit divers shivered.

Next time I'll take my ali backplate rather than heavier SS just for easier handling out of the water, and use an occy neck sling or velcro retainer rather than the useless mouthpece plug.

Jervis Bay - Ocean Trek 5 day trip

2010-05-27T09:53:00.005+10:00

Spent the last 10 days on a diving road trip to Jervis Bay and Merimbula.

Buddy Rich Misquitta and I drove from Geelong to Goulburn (8hrs) on the first day, staying at the Alpine Heritage Motel, $85 budget twin room, right next door to the down market Carlton Hotel. The $10 steaks were excellent but the 3 vomiting Canberra teenagers (also our motel neighbours) were not.

Next morning we drove (2 hrs) down the steep windy road to Huskisson staying at the peaceful Jervis Bay Caravan Park (Bushmans Cabin $80, no ensuite). It's a few ks outside Husky on the river and very pleasant. We could leave our car there for the 5 days of the Ocean Trek live-aboard dive trip. The only alternative is to leave your car in the council car park next to the bottle shop. Apparently it's quite safe but Rich wasn't too keen with his new Sportiva. Dinner was at the local RSL. Large meals served extremely fast, kitchen closes at 8pm.

8.30 Monday morning saw us waiting with all our luggage on the Husky wharf. The other Ocean Trek passengers slowly assembled. First Joy from Eden arrived then a minivan with the mob from Whyalla SA pulled up, making 10 divers and 1 non diver.

Eventually a wild haired seafarer in a small dinghy tied up to the wharf and introduced himself as Mick. 3 trips in his precariously overloaded tender saw us all on Ocean Trek, our home for the next 5 days.

Ocean Trek is a big old 18m catamaran with beds for 23. Many years ago Lee Marvin was a guest on Marlin fishing expeditions. Now it's perfectly setup as a diving liveaboard.

Captain Mick is also the director of entertainment, Lyn runs the diving and Bob is the chef. They make a great team and obviously enjoy it. Dive videos enthusiastically narrated by Mick, stories of their many dive adventures and a game of "Million Dollar Riff" using Mick's iPod kept us entertained during the evening meals.

Speaking of meals, Bob did a magnificent job. I have done a Taka trip on the GBR and the food didn't come close to Bob's efforts. Home cooked, fresh ingredients, amazing variety and nutritionally perfect for a strenuous dive trip. Lasagne, fettucini marinara, roast beef and veggies, Tom Yum soup, 3 course every night with creative desserts, with no course ever repeated. Hot breakfasts, post dive snacks and fruit always available. Just superb.

Lyn's dive operation was thorough, well run and safety conscious. Any diving incidents were dealt with strictly and professionally. Some of the problems experienced were unplanned and missed deco (no diving for 24hrs), possible saltwater aspiration on 2 consecutive dives, headaches, , dehydration (me), earaches, nose bleeds and some sea sickness. All survived and left the boat smiling.

Each day 4 dives were planned with 2 on the last day making 18 in all. Breakfast at 8.00am was followed by the first dive around 9.30, another at 11.30, lunch then 2hrs snoozy time, arvo dive around 3.30 and night dive at 6.00.

Only 1 diver managed to do the full 18 dives, but he had a pit crew non diving partner, who just happened to be a part time masseuse, lucky bugger!

Weather was not kind to us for the first 2 days with rain, wind and swell, but inside the bay behind Bowen Island there are excellent sheltered sites.
Eventually the weather improved allowing us to move outside the south head. Better vis, big schools of fish and a sea cave made these sites memorable. I have no interest in fresh water cave diving but these sea caves and splits are my favourite dive sites.

Each night we moved inside to anchor off Murray's beach. We also did a brilliant night dive here filming a baby PJ shark mauling a scallop, 3 species of seapen and a walking gurnard in full display.

We also dived around the Docks, Split cave (another fave) and Point Perpendicular. The marine life of Jervis Bay is really spectacular. Swirling bait balls, squadrons of squid, bow riding dolphins, wobbegong and Port Jackson sharks, sea eagles, Navy ships, planes and parachute drops kept the photographers busy. Also saw a very long water spout (mini tornado) reaching up hundreds of meters to the clouds.

Most sites were dominated by big boulders and urchins barrens with big clusters of stalked ascidians and striking sponges remaining. But the amazing abundance of fish and spectacular walls, splits and caves make Jervis Bay the brilliant dive destination it is.

For all this we paid a little over $150/day. You could barely sleep and eat for that without diving at all. Amazing diving, amazing value and I will return.

Can't think of any negatives really, unless it's Mick's very daggy sense of humour and music tastes, but they can easily be forgiven.

10 min trip video here
Dive photos here

Panasonic Lumix LX3 underwater

2010-04-11T17:26:00.003+10:00

I have an old Ikelite Coolpix 5000 housing (circa 2003) which doesn't get much use these days, so I thought I'd try to fit my wife's wonderful Panasonic Lumix LX3.

It's a great still camera but also does 16:9 HD video and has a really nice 24mm wide lens.

With a minimal amount of tweaking, the camera now fits and I can start and stop the recording.
I tried the flat port first but that gave too much fringing and pincusion distortion so changed to the dome port with excellent results.

After 2 dives, one video and one stills, I'm thinking this is a brilliant compact underwater.
With this bodged together housing setup I don't have any controls other than shutter release (and manual flash output on my Inon Z220 optically triggered) so I used Aperture priority (f/8) with -2/3 EV (to reduce ambient exposure) and Forced Flash (which limits shutter speed to no longer than 1/30th)

Results are sharp all the way out to the corners thanks to the dome port.

Getting the camera into the correct position involved moving the tripod mount hole (and the base plate) to the left and further forward. The the camera had to be as far forward as possible without clashing with the long shaft of the knob on the left of the housing and the lens had to be concentric with the dome port.
This took a little bit of gouging and fiddling of the hole. Once I got the position right I flipped the base plate over and drilled one accurate hole.
Then added some thin plastic strips and tape to to the base plate lift the camera up a little.
I then carved a shutter release knob extension from an old nylon chopping board.

More photos and video here

Close encounter with a fur seal

2010-03-12T18:23:00.004+11:00

Had a wonderful 30 minute solo dive with this big inquisitive fur seal at Cottage Reef.
I have seen seals here a few times but never this close.

It was obviously feeding under the deep ledges, then darting out and peering into my dome port.

Luckily I had the Sigma 15mm lens on, but there was lots of suspended sand in the water. Seems to be a feature of Cottage these days. A fair bit of clone stamp and healing brush was needed.

More shots here.

Setting sun

2010-02-07T09:18:00.008+11:00

Rich and I have been doing the odd after work dive at St Leonards. At this time of day the sun is low in the sky which opens up different lighting possibilities.

You can shoot a subject more horizontally and still include some background sunbursts. As the sun sinks lower the sunbursts become warmer and more diffuse.

Also captured this fish-ball shot.

D80, Sigma 15mm and 6" dome.

Another Ripview Classic swim

2009-12-27T18:49:00.003+11:00

It's that time of year again. Bit too close to Christmas I must say.

This year we swam into a decent southerly which pushed up an annoying confused chop.

Felt like a struggle all the way but my time and position was much better than previous years. Almost up to average pace!

Ikelite housing upgrade

2009-12-06T08:27:00.004+11:00

My upgraded housing has just returned from Ikelite.

They were offering the upgrade, which involved replacing the entire front section of the housing and swapping over all the hardware, at a very reasonable US$200 plus $60 for a full service.

The housing now has 4 port locks instead of just 2 and a focus light mount on top. Also got a free swap for the new 4 lock short port body including an anti-rotation lock for the 8" and they sent back my 3 leak alarms.

More photos here

12th Dec

I have just discovered that this Fantasea LED 360 focus light has been discontinued. Apparently there have been production problems leading to flooding. Mine is still going OK but buddy Rich's has flooded.

ex HMAS Canberra scuttled

2009-10-08T08:00:00.005+11:00

Sunday 4th October.

This very exciting event drew crowds of many thousands to every vantage point between Pt Lonsdale and Barwon Heads. All carparks were overflowing from early Sunday morning.

However the actual sinking did not happen until 2.00pm well after many had given up and gone home. Luckily I checked my sources, here and Marg B, an OG local with views from her window, to find that rough weather overnight meant it would be delayed by hours.

Virg and I wandered down to Ocean Grove aroun 12.00, met Rich M, and Mary Malloy, and Kim and Josh in the dunes. After a pleasant 2hr wait the first orange flare was sighted. I hit record on the video camera and flexed my shutter finger ready to shoot.

Spurts of water shot up the sides of the Canberra and the boom arrived a few seconds later. Over the next 2 minutes she gently settled lower and lower then with a final whoosh of spray disappeared below the surface.

Depth is around 27m with the masts just 6m under the surface.

Poly pipe RC landyacht

2009-09-17T18:22:00.002+10:00

Still no decent diving so here's the latest landyacht design.

This one is cheap and quick to build using poly pipe and shopping trolley wheels. It's the best yet. Fast, controllable and it fits in the back of the car unlike the previous version.

Full details here

RC Landyacht

2009-08-28T12:23:00.002+10:00

Here's another non-diving project that keeps me busy when weather and winter bugs intervene. It's also a way to go sailing without having to get out on the water.

You need a big open empty carpark somewhere to sail and nice steady wind.

This page describes how to make a radio controlled landyacht reasonably cheaply.

Using dioptres behind a dome port

2009-07-02T11:52:00.002+10:00

Lenses used behind a dome port may require the addition of a +dioptre. The dome creates a curved image that sits 25 to 30cm out front and if the lens can't focus this close then a dioptre is needed.

My 18-55mm does work behind the 6" dome without a dioptre but performance improves with a +4. At the 18mm end there is less barrel distortion and the corners are sharper.

I never knew whether it also allowed you to get closer to the subject so some pool testing was required.

Adding the +4 brought the closest focus from 21cm to 13cm, and sharp corners only required f/16 rather than f/22. Of course you can use wider apertures if the corners are not critical.

Close focus wide angle CFWA

2009-06-11T18:35:00.005+10:00

Here's another example of CFWA using the 18-55mm with a +4 dioptre.

St Leonards Pier again with better vis this time.

Short tailed nudibranch (Ceratosoma brevicaudatum). This is the most common nudi in Port Phillip growing to 150mm, which is big for a nudi.

Leaky shoulder valve this time! Got a cold wet left arm.

Drysuit leak

2009-05-29T16:51:00.003+10:00

Amazing how a few grains of sand can ruin a dive.
The second I stepped into the water there was the dreaded cold dribble down my ankle.

The photo shows how little it takes to turn a drysuit into a not so drysuit.
I persevered with the dive and ended up with a very wet foot, leg and groin...yuk!

These ankle valves are not a great idea.

Mares Puck dive computer

2009-05-14T16:39:00.005+10:00

My Aladin Sport went "ERR" last week meaning a new battery is required. S'posed to last 10 years but ours have not gone much more than 5 years each. Problem is you have to send it away and pay more than $200 for the replacement. So, it was it time to upgrade.

I looked at scubastore.com, based in Spain, and found this Mares Puck for 158 Euro delivered. That converts to $289!! Locally you would pay $690.

This computer does Nitrox, Bottom timer and displays water temp. All features the Aladin didn't have.

Ordered it Saturday and it arrived today, 4 days, via Germany, London, Melbourne, Geelong.

Amazing.

Here's a short video of it's first dive.

Bad vis, Wide angle

2009-05-07T11:15:00.001+10:00

A perfect flat sunny day above but sandy 3m vis below and I had the Sigma 15mm fisheye on.

Luckily this lens does excellent CFWA close focus wide angle.

Just have to hide the backscatter in a busy background or position strobes out wide. The problem then of course is getting light on that close subject.

Fantasea LED 360 focus light

2009-03-21T14:40:00.001+11:00

Just bought one of these Fantasea LED focus lights to replace the flawed Nano Fix (every one of these I know of has flooded)

Anyway the 360 has 36 LEDs and an On/Off switch so hopefully will have a longer life.
It's much bigger and brighter but still has the "Auto Off during flash" function as well as a handy continuous flash mode in case you ever get lost at sea!

I tried the focus light under the deep ledges at Cottage Reef and it worked very well allowing me to focus quickly on a seadragon in the darkness. It would be an excellent night dive torch also.

Purchased from Underwater.com.au in Byron Bay for A$84.95 + $5.50 shipping.

Additional: Price has just jumped to US$81 from Fantasea or $140 from Underwater.com.au!

Update
This light has now died (lasted 12 months). No obvious flooding but rust appearing around 2 of the LEDs. Buddy Rich's died a few months ago and the light is no longer being sold.
I'm back to using a Princeton REC 1 LED torch.

Squid-bait cam

2009-02-15T18:44:00.000+11:00

Here's a bit of underwater video fun. Tweaked the Stingray housing so that I could leave it on the seabed with some bait dangling in front.

This 2 min video is the first attempt. Next time I'll extend the rod and position it to be more central.

Ripview Classic and Blue water Challenge

2009-02-05T13:53:00.000+11:00

Virg and I competed in a couple of ocean swims recently.

The Ripview Classic 1.4km from The Springs to Pt Lonsdale and the Queenscliff Blue water challenge 1.2km around Queenscliff Pier to the Pilot Pier and back.

The Blue water challenge was a real challenge with very delayed starts putting us into bad current and whitecaps. What was the problem? No explainations given. It meant that many pulled out before and during the race but we struggled on and finished with times 30% longer than expected.

Here we are before a training swim around the sticks at St Leonards.

D90 in Ikelite D80 housing

2009-01-02T18:12:00.000+11:00

It fits and is perfectly usable!

Dive buddy Richard bought a D90 so I mounted it in the housing to see what worked.
All my usual controls - On/Off, shutter release, front and rear control dials (shutter and aperture) and focus lock work perfectly.
AF, self timer/multi frame and exposure compensation also work.

You probably would be able to push Menu, WB, ISO and QUAL although they don't line up exactly.
The Mode dial knob just doesn't reach but a little rubber washer and some glue would fix that.

There is no access to the 4 way selector or OK button but that's no drama.

So that means this housing can outlast the D80 if disaster strikes down the track.

More photos here

TAKA Great Barrier Reef trip

2008-11-20T08:57:00.000+11:00

Just returned from 5 day live-aboard trip to the Ribbon reefs and Osprey reef off north Queensland on TAKA.

This was my first venture into tropical and live-aboard diving in 10 yrs and 600 dives! In the past I have always preferred to spend money on scuba and camera gear.

Used the 15mm fisheye and 60mm macro. Started with 2 strobes then switched to 1 to make it a bit easier. Would have been better to have a serious photographer buddy.

Loved the diving, 27c and up to 40m vis in the water, mind-blowing marine life and very well run dive deck.
Wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Things they could improve on the boat are:
Food - German chef 's last trip after only 3 weeks. Great breakfast and salads but the dinners were like poor quality pub food. Grey/bleeding meat and deep fried crumbed things.
Water urn and brewed coffee was left empty too often.
Noise level in the lounge between dives was annoying. Chef's cd player and lounge cd player competing!

However these are just minor things, the boat and crew were very good. 29 divers and about 8 crew.
The video pro Ben from Scubapix did a brilliant job of the DVD.

Photo set here and my video of onboard life here.

Back to diving at last

2008-10-19T17:17:00.001+11:00

Got to go out to Popes Eye with Jan "Hydroids" Watson, Trev "The slug snapper" McMurrich and Bob "Nudibranch" Burn today.

Conditions were crap with lots of current, short slack and poor vis. It was a cool 14c above and below!
However there were lots of slugs to snap and nothing leaked so can't complain too much.
It was definitely a macro day so the 60mm got to come along for the dive.

Here's the collection from today.

First sailing day

2008-10-07T10:42:00.000+11:00

Finally got a chance to launch the cat.

I also bolted on my underwater video housing to record the event.

What fun it was, great to be sailing again after a few years out of the sport.

Here's a short onboard video

Tyro catamaran repair

2008-09-18T21:01:00.000+10:00

Still very little diving due to weather and family dramas.

In the mean time I have been restoring this 12ft catamaran, given to me by a mate to stop it rotting away in his yard.

After one month of gluing, painting and repairing it's now ready to hit the water again. Not too sure how strong the hulls are but we will see.

Progress photos here

HSP Atomic Warhead 4WD nitro buggy

2008-08-15T18:12:00.000+10:00

Well, no diving for a couple of weeks due to weather and bronchitis but I did get time to whip up a webpage about the HSP Atomic Warhead nitro buggy.

My nephews bought it on eBay and uncle Andrew willingly became the chief mechanic.

I posted some videos on maintenance on You Tube and they have turned out to be the most popular by far. I get emails weekly asking for advice so this page is aimed at answering some of those regular queries.

It was a blast to play with, so fast and such great 4WD traction.

Atomic Warhead buggy webpage

Lots of buggy action videos on my YouTube site

Drysuit has returned

2008-07-29T07:36:00.000+10:00

All fixed now hopefully. Seatec were very apologetic, paid for postage and re-glued the wrist seal very quickly.

Now to test it out in the coldest water this year. 10c in my semidry was not fun last Thursday. Brrrr!

This is Jan measuring her beloved hydroids at Popes Eye.

Drysuit repairs

2008-07-13T17:30:00.000+10:00

I'm really not happy about this.

The drysuit has just returned from Seatec in Sydney for replacement of neck and wrist seals and general checkup. It took 6 weeks to come back to me and this happened on the second dive.

The seam has just peeled open. No torn neoprene, just glue letting go.

I'm waiting for Seatec's reply.

Macro at Blairgowrie

2008-07-06T15:24:00.000+10:00

Recent gale and even storm force winds have restricted diving and the water temperature is in free fall. Down to 11c now.

However calm conditions on Friday meant we could head over to Blairgowrie to look for nudibranchs and the soon-to-be-named hydroid.

I was armed with the 60mm macro and naturally found a good wide angle subject as soon as I flopped out of the boat. This small keeled octopus hung around for just long enough to get a few shots. Lighting was difficult due to poor vis, strong current and lack of contrast between octopus and sand.

Here are some more shots of hydroids and nudis.

Fibre Optic recording indicator

2008-06-15T09:05:00.000+10:00

Here are the latest tweaks to the Stingray housing.

The previous magnet record switch was somewhat unreliable due to alignment and flexing issues. It was also very difficult to hear the camera beeps so I was never really sure whether it was recording.

Handles and a flexible loc-line strobe arm have been added.

The magnetic switch now works by pushing or repelling a "finger" through the housing-back and I have added a fibre optic "light pipe" so I can see when the red record indicator appears on the LCD screen. This fibre optic bundle comes from a $10 fibre optic lamp found at Toy Kingdom in Geelong West.

More photos here

Magnetic record switch

2008-06-05T18:21:00.000+10:00

Here's what I came up with to stop and start recording underwater. The magnets came from Jaycar, a magnetic handy strip for less than $15. This plastic hanging strip contains about 8 magnets encased in a long plastic strip which can be cut to length.

An external magnet attracts the internal magnet operating the right angled lever. More photos here.
Works like a charm, if everything lines up properly.

The camera beeps to let me know if it's starting or stopping record mode.

UK light cannon 100 as video light

2008-05-27T10:04:00.000+10:00

I adapted a stingray housing to fit my Canon MVX430 DV camera, which worked pretty well, but it really needed a video light.

These excellent HID dive torches are available for around $300 posted on ebay from lightcannontoys

Here is a 5 min video from Cottage Reef showing the Light Cannon in action.

I'm now working on a magnet switch to operate the record button while underwater. At the moment I have to start recording before the dive and just let it run for 1 hr. Makes editing a pain.

Photo book

2008-05-22T13:07:00.000+10:00

After my sister Viv suggested we create photo books instead of buying presents for Christmas, what a brilliant idea, I started looking around at what was available.

Photo books are offered at most printing outlets now like Camera House, Office Works etc.

The business I decided to try was Snapfish
You go to the website, create an account and upload your images, then start laying out the book.

As a first trial I created a 10 page, that's 20 sides, A4 hardback book choosing a variety of image sizes and backgrounds.
The book arrived less than a week later and I was amazed at the printing quality. The images looked just like they did on my iMac screen and were printed using proper publishing quality offset printing. Just beautiful!

The book cost $39.95 with about $5 post. If you order more than one at a time the subsequent copies are 20% off.
I'm now trying a 20"x16" poster print to check their normal printing quality....watch this space.

+4 dioptre investigation

2008-04-06T08:39:00.000+10:00

Flickr contact Rikke Lind commented that it would be interesting to see a comparison of DOF, zoom level etc. with and without the +4 dioptre and I had to agree. I have always wondered whether dioptres actually magnify or just allow closer focus, so here's a series of images showing what happens.

The tests show that adding a +4 dioptre.......

Set focus of 1m reduces to 38cm and Infinity changes to 39cm.
Closest focus of 24cm reduces to 22cm, giving 1.44x mag.
So the focus range Infinity - 24cm changes to 39 - 22cm. Interesting, I thought the closest focus would be a lot closer not just by 2cm.

If the camera stays in one spot, the +4 gives a little bit of magnification, resulting in slightly reduced depth of field,
But if the camera is moved back to keep the image size constant then the depth of field is not reduced.
Note: Depth of field only depends on image magnification, (and aperture and sensor size) not which lens you use.

At 18mm zoom, aperture 3.5, the +4 changes barrel distortion into pincushion distortion and reduces corner blur and vignetting! Didn't expect that.

The reason we use dioptres underwater is mainly to enable your lens to focus on the virtual image created by the dome port, many lenses cant focus close enough on their own.
Or, as with my 18-55mm, to bring the closest focus to about 10cm from the dome for our rich but murky sub-temperate water.

18-55mm with +4 dioptre

2008-03-25T18:42:00.000+11:00

I bought a Hoya +4 dioptre 52mm to try with the kit lens and the results are excellent. I can now focus 10cm from the dome. Perfect for our murky sub-temperate water.

Behind the 6" dome this lens gives reasonable macro magnification with useful wide as well.

Of course it's not as pin sharp or as fast focusing as the 60mm macro or Sigma 15mm Fisheye but it's definitely a useful middle range zoom lens.

It means I wont need to buy a Sigma 17-70 and 8" dome to fill the gap.

On this dive I photographed nudibranchs and sharks, however the nudis were big and the sharks small!

Cuttle colours 18-55mm

2008-03-20T10:33:00.000+11:00

These shots were taken at The Springs near Pt Lonsdale. Vis was only 3m with heaps of sand stirred up by the strong current and swell. I was surprised at how little backscatter showed up with the strobes out wide and balanced background exposure.

This is the same giant cuttle over a fun 15 min interaction. Wonderful inquisitive critters.

I used the 18-55mm kit lens with a +2 dioptre behind a 6" dome. Will try a +4 dioptre for closer macro as soon as the wind subsides.

Fix LED mini focusing light problems

2008-03-11T17:08:00.000+11:00

Reports are surfacing on Wetpixel about unexplained floods of this little focus light and I have to agree.
Mine partially flooded but was rescued by spraying the electronics with WD40 but 2 mates have not been so lucky.
Theirs have been ruined with no replacement being offered by the supplier.

So I now wouldn't reccommend buying one. Unfortunately there does not seem to be an alternative focus light available for the same price with the light quenching feature.

Strobe arm floats

2008-02-12T17:45:00.000+11:00

The housing and strobes are still quite heavy underwater especially with one strobe positioned for rim or back lighting.

To add a little buoyancy I cut 80mm sections off a pool noodle ($3.99 from Rebel Sports) and slipped them over the strobe arms. This made the rig much easier to handle underwater. The foam does compress a bit with depth but works beautifully for shallow dives. Could be improved with even longer foam sections.

This photo also shows the white velcro strips used to hold the sync cords to the strobe arms and the green lanyard and clip for hanging the rig from my shoulder d-ring.

The flags in the map behind mark Portsea Hole, Portsea Pier and Blairgowrie Marina.

Inon repair

2008-02-07T08:26:00.000+11:00

The strobe has returned all fixed, no charge.
Yay Sea Optics, my new best friends.

Inon sync socket replacement

2008-02-03T09:46:00.000+11:00

In a previous post I mentioned that one of my Inons needed a replacement sync socket.

The problem probably originated 4 yrs ago when I bought one of the first Ikelite to Inon sync cords. The finish on the Inon end of the cord was awful with razor sharp edges and vice crimp marks. I brought this to Ike's attention and they replaced it no questions.

However the damage had already been done. The few times I used the original cord had scratched the o-ring sealing surface of the Inon. I smoothed and polished the scratches fairly well but I guess over the years enough salt water seeped through to cause corrosion of the contact pins.

This came to a head in Tassie when I didn't undo the sync cord for maybe 36 hrs and the photo shows the result.

Anyway I sent it off to Sea Optics for a replacement. Total cost was $330 including $135 for the socket, $127 labour plus o-ring kit and pressure test. Way more than I expected but this ain't a cheap hobby! Strangely the socket was installed 180 degress rotated to where it was, meaning the brass locating pin was at the bottom.

It worked well for the 10 or so dives since but then the socket started to rotate when screwing and unscrewing the black plastic locking collar on the sync cord. Apparently the socket must have sustained a knock or I have tightened it up too much (neither of which I am aware of) wrenching the locking pin out of it's hole behind the socket.

The strobe is now holidaying again in Adelaide and I shudder to think what the bill will be.

So that's why I haven't posted many images lately.

Housing handle knob

2008-02-02T17:41:00.001+11:00

When you put the housing down it balances precariously on the knob at the bottom of each handle.

I guess these knobs are for attaching accessories to the tray. The handles are secured by a thin nut not the knobs, so I removed them and now the housing sits on the tray base and is much more stable.
The blue covering is heat shrink tube just to cover the sharp thread. One day I may add a second nut just for peace of mind.

I also fixed the slipping control wheel problem.
I pulled off the slipping rubber ring then stuck it back on using thick, strong, foam backed double sided tape. This means the rubber ring now pushes harder on the camera control wheel.

D80 sunburst

2008-01-11T08:41:00.000+11:00

Digital cameras generally don't capture sunbursts as well as film cameras. With just a little overexposure you end up with a big ugly cyan blob around the sun.

To get this image I had to reduce exposure as far as possible.

iso 100
1/200th
f/22
Sigma 15mm at 5m depth
Mid morning sun in about 5m horizontal vis.

Brain issue of the day: Just realized that because I wasn't using flash I could have used a shorter shutter speed. Fool!

Housing issue: The dial that operates the front control wheel has started sliding across the wheel rather than turning it. Will have to give the rubber ring more grip somehow.

New year, great vis

2008-01-08T18:02:00.000+11:00

Well it's 2008 and so far the diving has been excellent. Vis has been better than average everywhere so I've been giving the Sigma 15mm quite a go.

I've also changed the colour mode from Vivid to Custom (sRGB 3a and normal saturation). Looking back at some of my earlier shots I realized that they looked a little too saturated, now they are looking more natural.

Popes Eye photos

Ripview Classic Swim 2007

2007-12-29T17:06:00.000+11:00

This has nothing to do with the D80 but it is ocean related.

I competed in my first ocean swim today. 1.4km (current assisted) from The Springs to Pt Lonsdale with about 1200 swimmers.
My goals were first to make the distance and second not to come last. Even though I wore the wrong brand of wetsuit and goggles I achieved both and even picked up the pace after the halfway buoy and passed a few of my fellow 44 - 49 age Black Cap Masters.

I staggered back onto the beach in 23min with the leaders doing it in just over 14 min. Even got to ID a few fish along the way.

Next year I move into the Grand Masters 50 - 55 group.

Coolpix 5000 in the surf

2007-12-23T18:09:00.000+11:00

My nephew Caleb's class teacher wanted some shots of their surf class and I was volunteered. I thought that surf was not the place for my precious D80 with it's push and clip port system, so the cheaper and more robustly housed Coolpix was dusted off and charged up.

I fitted the wide adapter and screwed on the dome port, set the focus manually to 2m, the exposure to Aperture priority f/8 for max depth of field and the ISO to 200 for shorter shutter speeds and the shutter release to high speed continuous. I could take 3 or 4 shots in quick sequences as the kids stood up on waves.

The day was very grey and dull with poor surf but the results were great. I smeared saliva on the dome port to reduced water drops but that produced some patchy blurring. May have been better to dip the camera under between shots.

This is an example of downgrading to get the results.

Coogee Wreck and Castle Rock

2007-12-16T16:45:00.000+11:00

I was invited to dive on Freediver, Alan Beckhurst and Mary Malloy's excellent dive boat.

Surface conditions were not inviting at all with up to 20kn SW and rain on the forcast. There was a nasty short steep swell with wind chop making the heads quite exciting.

I used the 18 -55mm kit lens because I didn't know where we were diving. Should have used the 15mm FE in the wonderful blue 15 to 20m vis.

Many of my wide shots were underexposed using 1/60th and f/8 at ISO200 but salvagable. Could have increased the ISO and aperture maybe.

Camera issue of the day: At 32m I found one of the buttons was stuck down preventing any speed or aperture changes. I was probably a little narced so it took a while before I found the offender and freed it up. That was the main reason for underexposed images.

Technical issues on the Tassie trip

2007-12-09T16:18:00.000+11:00

Had no problems with the D80 and my lens choices were perfect. Just the 60mm macro and 15mm fisheye.
But how to store and backup 10 days worth of images. I considered buying more SD cards, an image storage device or an iPod/camera connector but found that basic laptops are so cheap these days that there was the obvious solution.
I bought an HP Compaq C710 for $750 and with the current $150 HP cashback that made it $600. It only has 512 RAM but that was fine for saving images and running Photoshop Elements 2.0. The laptop became hot property after each dive as everyone gathered round to view images.

I found Vista to be a very nice, almost Mac like OS. This PC wont be connected to the net. On return I slotted in 2GB RAM for $130 and it runs better than my iMac 20" G5 now.

Now here's a list of gear problems on the trip:
Virg's Aladin Sport wrist computer went "ERR" - meaning Trevor had to borrow one from the dive shop.
Leaking drysuit chest valve - got wet thermal tshirt and jocks every dive. Drysuit needs valve overhaul.
Leaking Inon Z220 strobe socket - now realize this has been going on for a while so the strobe is getting the socket replaced at Sea Optics for $88 plus labour
Port o-ring sucked into the housing - after opening the rear door on the boat to switch back to autofocus. Glad I saw this as it would have meant a severe flood. So didn't take the camera in for this dive at Waterfall Bay split and enjoyed it so much I called this my best dive ever.

Eaglehawk Neck - Tasman Peninsula

2007-12-08T08:57:00.000+11:00

After Bicheno we traveled down the east coast to Eaglehawk Neck dive centre to link up with the taxonomists.

The diving here was on spectacular walls beneath towering cliffs and in enormous caves and splits. Big swells and surge are the norm and sites had to be carefully selected by Mick the skipper.

We found numerous new nudis, hydroids and pycnos and had a wonderful 6 days.

The accomodation was a bit cramped and basic with a big group but the spectacular diving made up for it. The dive lodge needs more cupboards and benches and that Tongtel TV needs to be dumped. Oh, and the electricals need an upgrade to stop the regular circuit breaks whenever the fridge started up.

Even though we were only 1hr from Hobart there was no Optus or 3 mobile coverage but Telstra mobile still worked.

Photos here.

Bicheno Tasmania

2007-12-06T18:31:00.000+11:00

Well I'm finally getting organized and have some images to show.
Just from Bicheno at this stage, Eaglehawk Neck to come.

Bicheno is a small fishing village on Tasmania's mid east coast with spectacular rocky coastline and kelp covered boulders underwater.

Water temp was around 14c and the weather was a perfect 20c most days with cool nights. We were woken nightly by noisy male fairy penguins returning to the nests, some of which were in our front garden.

Saw mother and calf humpback whales swimming only a few hundred meters off the beach.

Sometimes we were diving in a thick soup of salps and comb jellies.

Photos here.

Back from Tasmania trip

2007-12-04T12:33:00.000+11:00

Just returned on the ferry this morning from 10 days diving in Tasmania.

We split the trip into 4 days at Bicheno, just myself, Trevor Mc and Richard M,

then another 6 days on the Tasman Peninsula at Eaglehawk Neck Dive linking up with Jan Watson (hydroid taxonomist), Bob Burn (nudibranch taxonomist) and Dave Staples (pycnogonid taxonomist).

Right now I'm tired to the core, have no clean clothes and have to go to work in about an hour so that's it until I can sort out some images.

Oceanic Shadow frameless mask

2007-11-09T17:54:00.001+11:00

I've been keen to find the best mask for looking through the viewfinder and settled on the Oceanic Shadow after asking here.

This comparison shows the problem, you can't see the whole frame when composing the shot. Even without a mask this is about as much as you see. So you need a mask that does not make it worse by placing your eye too far from the eyepiece.

My Mares X Vision is a very comfortable wide view mask but the glass slopes forward at the top (to give better down view when diving) which puts your eye to far away.
My old Oceanic mask was better but has a deepish frame in front of the glass which clashes with the knobs and protrusions on the back of the housing.
The Oceanic frameless has a lower profile silicon rubber lip in front of the glass and one big wide glass lens. This means the you can put the glass right on to the eyepiece and even move around a bit to take in the whole frame. The black silicon blocks out light from the sides also. Mask photos here.

18 to 55mm kit lens

2007-11-03T16:15:00.000+11:00

Conditions were good enough to give this lens a decent tryout. Blairgowie marina is a site where you can spend hours underwater being shallow but choc full of macro life.

As this collection shows it is a quite useful closeup and mid wide lens and works well enough with the 6" dome. The aperture sequence shows that at f/5.6 and f/8 the extreme edges are very soft but smaller apertures give acceptable results.

Camera issue of the day: Occasionally the image does not show on the screen immediately after shutter release. The image has been saved but for some reason doesn't appear automatically. I suspect it's actually a second very underexposed frame recorded due to my holding the shutter down for longer than necessary. Maybe I need to set the shutter to single shot.

Cottage wide angle

2007-10-28T12:33:00.000+11:00

Strong northerlies, 30c, nothin else to do. Let's go to Cottage by the sea Reef.

Swell was up a bit and vis was bad at 3m, and slack was late so we had a bit of current to battle at first.

Didn't expect any decent shots but by putting the strobes out as far as they could go and keeping them well behind the port, backscatter wasn't too bad a problem. Photos here.

Also there is much less sand in the water under the ledges.

FIX LED mini focusing light.

2007-10-21T10:48:00.000+10:00

Ordered one of these from Yuzo last week and it arrived yesterday. Cant believe how good the service is from this business.

Anyway I made up a bracket to fit the Ikelite arm extention and took it for a dive at St Leonards. Vis was, you guessed it, bad again at 2-3m. Photos here.

This little light, which takes 4 AAAs not AAs like it says in the blurb, is bright enough for night macro and sped up the autofocus under the darker sections of the pier. The D80 handles low light levels very well but the light just made it better. The light also momentarily switches off when the flash fires so does not affect exposure.

Wide angle settings 15mm Fisheye - Cottage Reef

2007-10-19T07:49:00.000+10:00

Strong N wind and early high slack meant Cottage was the site for today's dive. Cottage must be dived when the tide is ebbing. The flood tide creates dangerously strong current here.

The water was flat enough but vis was bad due to continuing strong winds which stir up the bay. However it was a beautiful warm sunny day so there was no stopping Trevor and I.

With wide angle you can open up the aperture to about f/8 - f/16 and still have heaps of depth of field. Camera shake is less of a problem so slower shutter speeds like 1/30th - 1/90th can be used.

All of this means lighter sunlit backgrounds and water can be captured. You have more scope to balance the background exposure with the flash lit subject in the foreground.

Ideally you need good vis for wide angle so today was a struggle.
Strobes need to be placed further out from the lens to avoid backscatter. Not many keepers from this dive.

Issue of the day was .... loading the camera into the housing with the shutter release lever rotated 180 deg. This meant the shutter could not be operated. Had to pull the camera out and rotate the lever into the correct position. Lucky I tested it before leaving home.

Macro settings - St Leonards

2007-10-14T17:23:00.000+10:00

St Leonards Pier. Strong off shore (W-NW) meant flat water and good vis for a change. New buddy John Mc checked the vis earlier and gave the thumbs up.

It was a real nudi finding day with 6 different species and one of them new to me, some sort of Polycera maybe. Have a look here.

The 60mm lens aperture can stop down to f/32, way smaller than the Coolpix f/8. This means much more flash power is needed. To increase flash power I have removed the diffusers from the Inons and turned them up to -2 or -3. With the Coolpix I was struggling with too much power at the minimum -5 power setting even with diffusers.

My standard macro settings are 1/125 sec, f/22, ISO 200, WB Auto.
To lighten the background water I might use 1/60th and for really dark subjects I'll increasing the strobe power.

18-55mm kit lens with +2 dioptre at The Springs

2007-10-11T17:26:00.000+10:00

St Leonards was flat but had zero vis so I toddled across the peninsula to The Springs, Pt Lonsdale. From shore the water looked calm and clear-ish but this is a shallow exposed site. The surge and stirred up sand made photography tricky. Vis was no more than 5m.

This is a great site for marine algae, or seaweed, having tons of different species. I am currently building up a collection of marine algae images for a proposed Port Phillip ID guide so seaweed it was for today. I also wanted to try the kit lens with +2 dioptre for middle range close ups.

The +2 brought focus plenty close enough, maybe 10cm from the dome. At f/8 there was corner softness in some shots but certainly not excessive. These are the keepers.

I had one issue to begin with. I couldn't turn the camera on. After a few panicked seconds I realized the button that activates the self timer was depressed. Once I lifted it and worked out how to cancel the timer all was well.

60mm macro at Popes Eye

2007-10-09T10:10:00.000+10:00

Sunday 7th saw us heading out to Popes Eye in a cold choppy SW wind.

Half way out we paused to watch a seal pup flinging something tasty around tearing off big chunks. Looked like a big cuttle or snapper.
There was another big male seal snoozing on the rocks at the entrance to The Eye.

Vis was about 5m and the current added lots of suspended sand to the water. Still hanging out for a nice clear calm day.
The macro once gain performed nicely with a few interesting nudis around. Here are the results.

Tried a few fish shots which is now possible with the excellent and quick auto focus.

60mm macro at St Leonards

2007-10-06T16:36:00.000+10:00

Vis still crappy at 2m with some wind chop. Northern pacific seastars are persisting but when you're desperate anywhere will do. Some photos here

Still awkward looking through the viewfinder and realized today that it was my reg clashing with the sync cord socket preventing getting close enough but will look for a lower profile mask also.

Sigma 15mm and 6" dome at St Leonards

2007-10-02T14:25:00.000+10:00

Vis was still poor at 3m and NE wind chop was building. Not ideal conditions for first try of the fisheye but results were very encouraging.

This lens is perfect for close focus wide angle. Images here.

Could focus as close as I could get composing carefully through the viewfinder or point the camera in a general direction at arms length and shoot away.

Couldn't really assess corner sharpness but I suspect it's not something I'll be taking much notice of anyway. It certainly wasn't obviously bad on this first test.

Leak detector instructions

2007-09-29T14:08:00.000+10:00

Here are step by step instructions for putting together your own leak detector.

This one fits in my Coolpix 5000 housing. Just needs minor reconfiguration to fit other housings.

Sigma 15mm FE arrived today

2007-09-27T13:16:00.000+10:00

The first thing needed was a comparison of angle of view. How wide is this lens with the DX sensor?
Being a fisheye lens the normal angle of view ratios dont apply. With a rectilinear lens you just multiply by the crop factor so a 15mm film rectilinear = 15 * 1.5 = 22.5mm on the D80. A 15mm fisheye is much wider than a 15mm rectilinear lens.

Nikon Coolpix 5000 with WC-E68 wide converter - TOP
Nikon D80 with Sigma 15mm FE - BOTTOM

The Coolpix wide setup gives the same angle of view as a 19mm lens on a full frame camera.
Calculation - 7.1mm Coolpix = 28mm film, multiplied by .68 (Wide adapter) = 19mm

D80 with Sigma 15mm FE gives a slightly wider horizontal view (maybe like an 18mm lens on film) and slightly less vertical view. So the equivalent would be about a 12mm rectilinear lens.
Calculation - 18mm divided by 1.5 (Crop factor for D80) = 12mm

Pay no attention to image quaity. Coolpix image cropped top and bottom from 4:3 to 3:2.

Redesigned leak detector

2007-09-23T14:32:00.000+10:00

This is a simpler design, actually just has shorter leads, positioning the bare wire ends directly below the buzzer. I figured the ends didn't need to be in the front corner and there would be less chance of the wire fouling o-rings. It would not be smart to increase the risk of floods with a device intended to reduce the consequences.

More photos here

If anyone knows where to get battery holders for 23A 12v batteries please let me know.

Leak detector

2007-09-23T10:59:00.000+10:00

This is something I have been thinking about for a while. An audible alarm to detect the first few drops of water entering the housing would provide an extra safety factor against killing the camera.

A simple design by Glen Cowan in Sportdiving Issue 94 Oct/Nov 2002 provided the info.

The bare wire detector tips are in the corner that would collect water given the way my camera hangs most of the time and there was plenty of room between camera and housing on the left side. Let's hope it works but I will still be looking closely as the housing submerges.

Blairgowrie marina 60mm macro

2007-09-22T18:23:00.000+10:00

Jan, Trevor, Rich and I set off in the boat to Blairgowrie. It was a choppy trip over with 10kn easterly but conditions were great at the marina. This is probably the best pier dive in the bay. So many nudibranchs, gobies, blennies, crabs, cephalopods and abundant fixed life.

The 60mm macro was sensational here. 75 min and 100 shots passed too quickly. Here are the results.

We called in to Portsea Pier on the way back but recent pile works and annoying surge detracted from the dive. 2 dives at Blairgowrie in the future.

This was the first decent dive with the new rig. In a word.....awesome.
Now I feel like I am only limited by what I can find rather than whether the equipment can capture it.

18-55mm kit lens with 6" dome port

2007-09-21T18:16:00.000+10:00

Aengus sent me two of his 6" domes to try which arrived yesterday. Many thanks Aengus, I owe you. So today was the day to test the kit lens behind the recommended dome.
St Leonards was the spot but vis was still rubbish at 2m. Closest focus was about 20cm from the dome, not ideal for bad vis but the results were surprising. I had selected Vivid in the camera settings, most other users do this I discovered, and the combination with the correct dome gave punchy saturation and contrast and sharpness. Could even back off a little.
Have a look.

18-55mm kit lens at Cottage, flat port.

2007-09-21T18:06:00.000+10:00

16th Sept 07

Strong northerlies so St Leonards was out but tide was right for Cottage. This time I wanted to test the 18-55mm kit lens. All I had was the flat port for the 60mm macro but that would have to do. I was keen to try anything.

Once again the camera was a delight to use and I could see much more of the view with my old mask. The kit lens still focussed quickly and accurately even though a dome port is recommended. Again vis was not brilliant at 5m maybe.

Here are the images. Some nice bright and saturated images but some looked a little flat. Internal reflections became visible at 35mm when the lens was at it's shortest physical length.

First test in the ocean. 60mm macro

2007-09-21T17:04:00.000+10:00

15th Sept 07
St Leonards Pier
Now for the real thing. The wind was in the right direction so the sea was flat but vis was bad, maybe 2m.
Most of the shots from the pool were underexposed so I darkened the review screen for this dive and of course most of the results turned out overexposed. I was checking the histogram occasionally but need to interpret it better next time.

Here are the results which I thought looked low contrast and washed out unfortunately. Needed a fair bit more Photoshopping than I'm used to.

First test in the neighbours pool. 60mm macro

2007-09-21T16:42:00.000+10:00

14th Sept 2007

Time to get wet!
I asked over the fence if I could jump in the pool (still unheated from winter - 13c, so donned the drysuit and scuba gear) and after checking the orings too many times took the first slow steps into the water.

I took a few colourful objects to photograph like Nuditor the test nudibranch and Fragmento the test great white shark.

Using the 60mm macro and flat port here are a few of the first shots.

First impressions

The very first thing I noticed was the restricted view through the viewfinder! I was not expecting this! With my Mares X vision mask, which slopes forward at the top, I could not get my eye close enough to see the full view. Note: Next dive try my older smaller mask. (This improved the view markedly but could still be better)

Once I accepted this issue I started to have fun with the lightning fast and accurate autofocus. It was like using a real camera again, just brilliant.

Nikon D80 arrived

2007-09-21T16:24:00.001+10:00

13 Sept 07 pm - D80 arrived
Woo Hoo. The camera and lenses arrived. But of course the batteries needed charging before i could do anything. While waiting I attached the kit lens and peered through the viewfinder at an unfocussed and very grainy image. Even twisting the manual focus ring would not bring the image in to sharp focus. Ah, it's the eyepiece dioptre adjustment I thought, but that did not fix the issue either. Virg said "Just wait for the batteries to charge." She was right. I inserted the fully charged battery after an agonising 1.5 hrs and there it was, a bright, clear and sharp image in the eyepiece.

Housing leak test

2007-09-21T16:21:00.001+10:00

13 Sept 07 am - housing leak test
Dunked the housing in water for the first time just to be sure. Needless to say there were no leaks.

Ordered the D80

2007-09-21T13:01:00.000+10:00

2 Sept 07 - Nikon D80
Ordered a Nikon D80 (+3yr warranty) with 18-55 kit lens and 60mm macro with spare battery and 2GB Sandisk Ultimate 3 SD card from www.camerasdirect.com.au on the Gold Coast. Very impressive service and communication and prices that can only be beaten by risky ebay imports from Hong Kong. Later ordered a Sigma 15mm fisheye as well.

The lenses I bought were: Nikon 18-55 kit lens - surprising good review from Ken Rockwell, Micro nikkor 60mm macro - It seemed like this macro lens is the most used of any lens underwater, Sigma 15mm fisheye for wideangle - I contemplated the Nikon 10.5 DX fisheye but it seemed way too wide for my needs and A$300. dearer.
The Sigma 15mm, equivalent to a 12mm rectilinear on a DX sensor, is a full frame lens as is the 60mm macro so both are "future proof".

Decisions about lenses and ports were helped/confused by this info at Wetpixel, Splashdown divers , Cameras Underwater,
and by talking to Bruce, Anthony, Aengus and Dave.

The beginning. D80 Ikelite housing

2007-09-21T12:52:00.000+10:00

16 Aug 07 - Ikelite #6806.1 housing
Ordered the housing with #5502.41 flat port (Nikon 60mm macro lens) from www.digitaldiver.com.au in Cairns. Great people to deal with and the cheapest prices for Ikelite gear. They also ship straight to you rather than a dive shop. You could try importing from BHphoto but if you factor in GST then prices are comparable.
Here it is beside my Coolpix 5000 housing. It's a fair bit bigger and heavier.

Digital Diver gave me a very good quote just before the Aus dollar took a big dive. However they honoured the quote even though my payment deposit would not have cleared till a few days into the lower Aus dollar. The housing with flat port arrived safely 2 weeks later on 30th Aug.

Why did I decide to upgrade to a DSLR?
Well, I had gone as far as I could with the Coolpix 5000 underwater. It was and still is one of the best compact digitals for underwater featuring... Full manual exposure control and macro at all zoom settings as well as manual focus. The autofocus was not great but I developed a technique using macro framers and manual focus which helped greatly.

I chose the D80 over the Canon 400D for it's bigger brighter pentaprism vs pentamirror, Degrees Kelvin white balance, 3200 ISO max, more solid build. I also had a Nikon lens and flash. This info came from dpreview and Dave Harasti.
I chose the Ikelite housing because it fitted my budget, and I was very happy with the Ikelite Coolpix housing used for the last 3 yrs.