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jackyl posted:Did you just do the truck thing with a bunch or tanks and randomly drive around? We drove around but had some idea of which sites to hit just from asking around and from friends who had been before. The driving to easy shore diving all over was tons of fun! I'm one of those people who would happily dive 4-5 dives a day, but my friends were a bit more sane so we averaged 3/day. Like I said earlier, if I go back I'll probably only (or almost only) do shore dives.
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Oct 30, 2015 03:50
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jackyl posted:the strobe is only important for close ups, at least as far as I can tell. I respectfully disagree with this, here's an example:  This is a not particularly great wide angle shot, but you can see that the diver in the foreground (who was probably 15' away, so hardly a closeup) has enough flash to accurately depict skin tones, while the diver in the background looks quite a bit bluer. The challenges are getting enough strobe out there without backscatter, and avoiding completely blowing out anything between you and the target. It requires a relatively powerful flash and bit of practice though, but I've seen good flash pictures even of very large subjects, like mantas, that aren't closeups. jackyl posted:I'm assuming someone with skill could make those look better If you'd like I could try and pull a bit more color information out of the RAW files for you. edit: You can actually tell the difference in the color between his hands and his face (my strobe is on the left, so there's a bit more strobe light on the hands) DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Oct 30, 2015 |
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Oct 30, 2015 05:54
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ZoCrowes posted:No way that diver is 15' away and that well lit. Most likely this is just shot with a wide lens. You are really only going to get good strobe coverage of subjects less than 10' feet away in good viz. Diffusion is going to take care of any light after that. Maybe I was 10' away, but that isn't how I remember it. Could probably calculate it, but  What you're missing is the magic of white balancing. Here's my (crude, since I started with a jpg) crack at your picture:  The diver actually looks fine, but the foreground is a bit wonky. In my picture everything but the diver is background so I can just let it go blue. For reference, here is the original unedited version of the picture I posted before, alongside the adjusted version.  ZoCrowes posted:It's about more than just the camera. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Oct 31, 2015 |
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Oct 31, 2015 02:50
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ZoCrowes posted:You actually made a fairly common mistake when trying to white balance an underwater photo which is why the foreground is magenta. That's not how the she looked at that depth and range. While that may be closer to her actual skin tone at the surface it's not how she would have looked underwater at that range. Mine may be a bit cool and could be warmed up a bit but it's closer to the actual colors of that scene. This is why having a grey card comes in handy. A tank usually works OK as a grey card, if it's getting hit by the same light. That's what I used previously. In this case I probably shouldn't have used the tank since it's shielded from your flash. I redid it using the BCD button as my grey. My point though, is that even in your original picture there's enough flash there to pull out quite a bit more color information. "Flash is only for closeups" is not right at all.  pupdive posted:Actual colors, diving, strobes lights, white balancing.... The ocean is 'blue'... It's a balance. Your eye is not a CCD, and uncorrected camera images are way bluer than they actually appeared in person, especially shallow. I also dive with a flashlight 90% of the time because I like seeing the reds on various animals and because there are a lot of interesting things under overhangs. And because, frankly, at depth it's frequently quite dark where I dive most of the time. pupdive posted:The cool new toys of all are the UV lights which seem to paint everything in new colors, even though those are just as "true" a color representation as we get when using a different underwater light or a strobe, just a different light source color temperature. Not quite: when you illuminate a subject using a white light you're seeing what it looks like under a different light source. When I paint a lot of coral with a UV light the light I see is actually what it is fluorescing. You're not seeing a UV image, you don't have the receptors for that. pupdive posted:My favorite dives are night dives using only full moon lighting, and no artificial light. But trying to convince a person new to night diving to stop 'ruining' the dive by turning on their flashlight is a hard sell. Where I dive it's frequently dark enough during the day that a flashlight is just about mandatory. Even under an extremely bright moon it would be a non-starter in more than the most shallow water. Could be fun in the tropics, but I'd miss the ability to look into holes and under overhangs. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Oct 31, 2015 |
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Oct 31, 2015 16:17
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pupdive posted:{tech dweeb talk on} Amusingly enough this is a large component of why I'm not a tech diver. I'm an engineer, and the religious arguments about gear are insufferable.
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Nov 3, 2015 21:11
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Ropes4u posted:Is a thigh pocket a bad idea? I am thinking about buying one to store my tablet, smb, and reel. I hate having things flopping around but am open to suggestions. I love mine. I have a backplate and don't have bcd pockets anymore, but when I did I found them really difficult to use and usually ended up having to rely on a buddy for help. I'm sure it's a bit easier in warm water bit I still find thigh pockets a much more natural position.
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Dec 1, 2015 20:36
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pupdive posted:This is because the newer BCDs try and do too much with that area, and why Zeagle got the weight integration right. Once the weights are there, the pockets become fiddly, and small. A zip pocket in particular is hard to deal with. The pockets on my old BCD were pretty huge, as I recall, just not in a great position. I think the thigh is a more natural position when you're diving, but maybe I have long monkey arms.
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Dec 2, 2015 08:14
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Trivia, those pictures are incredible!
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Mar 10, 2016 07:56
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pupdive posted:I assume everyone reading this already knows about the Deep Sea thread, with current updates about diving the Marianas Trench (and finding a can of low salt Spam 7 miles down, of course, because Guam is Guam). I did not know about this, it's incredible, thank you! Also, this thread needs a bit more California love :-)     Regarding finding octopus: it also helps to keep an eye out for piles of shells near a crevice or opening in a rock. They tend to leave their trash pile right outside their front door.
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May 10, 2016 08:35
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legsarerequired posted:Can you see nudibranches like that at any California coral dive?! They look amazing! Not every single dive, but they're not uncommon :-) The purple guy is a Spanish Shawl and tend to be a bit more common off of Southern California, but we see them in NorCal too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flabellina_iodinea The white bodied one is a Hiltoni (no cool common name I know of) and a bit more common up north. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidiana_hiltoni There are a decent number of colorful nudis around, so it's quite normal to keep an eye out for them and see a couple in a dive. If you dive off the west coast "Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs" by David W Behrens is the reference.
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May 11, 2016 05:45
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Many people here will use a separate argon bottle for drysuit inflation. Argon is pretty cheap, but you can also fill it with air and save a bit as well. It's especially important if you're breathing a mix with helium in it.
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Aug 5, 2016 19:22
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I have decided that I love macro photography, it's easy and so much fun :-) Also, I'm overdue for my regular message that cold water is not so bad! These pics are from Carmel and Monterey, in Northern California. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to live so close to such wonderful diving, and if any of you folks are in the neighborhood I'd love to show you around.  China Rockfish, one of my favorites  Blue-ring topsnail (Calliostoma annulatum). These guys look like little gems, if I'm rigged for macro I have a hard time resisting getting a picture.  Chestnut cowrie. Just goes to show that cowries aren't exclusive to warm water :-)  These are really interesting, this is a "tuna crab" but is actually a squat lobster (Pleuroncodes planipes). This is actually the first time I've seen them in Northern California, and they're in Monterey Bay en masse. People around here are blaming El Nino, which I suppose is possible. When I saw them before in San Diego I was told they seldom make it that far north... in any case, they're free swimming and super cool looking.  My all time favorite nudibranch, Hermissenda crassicornis. These guys are gaudy, and beautiful, and I love seeing them. They were out in force this weekend, which was nice to see. I hadn't seen a big group in a while.
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Aug 9, 2016 06:00
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Zauper posted:In my area (just got certified), we had to buy mask/fins/boots/snorkel, but not gloves. But -- they allow you to return those items at full price for an exchange within 30 days of completing the OW certification. We wound up spending like $300 apiece on top of the class costs for the gear. A good mask and fins will last a really long time. I'm still diving with the fins I got certified in, although they're starting to finally show their age. It's a lot of money, but a longer term investment (at least if you continue to dive) Gloves and boots wear out a lot faster in my experience.
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Aug 9, 2016 19:40
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lord1234 posted:I go through a pair of gloves once a year at most. I dive dry, so don't know about boots. I am diving 40 year old Scubapro Jet Fins. I dive dry too, and now that I have dry gloves they last a lot longer. I've worn out the rock boots in my drysuit though. Jet fins are super popular with the tech/DIR crowd around here, but I've never cared for them personally. I am a little bummed my fins are starting to show their age, but if I get 500+ dives out of them it's hard to complain. I've never had a problem with my back-kick, which is the big selling point I've heard.
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Aug 9, 2016 21:07
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lord1234 posted:Also help with balancing your rig since they are reasonably heavy. Yeah, I took fundies and they had conniptions when I had much worse trim with jet fins or ankle weights. My big gripe is that GUE is so insistent that one size fits all.
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Aug 10, 2016 04:38
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lord1234 posted:Definitely untrue. At least untrue of the GUE of today. I'm betting it's regional. I was told "that's not the uniform" on the last GUE dive I did. It wasn't super aggressive or anything, but my fins are pointed out every time. Squashy Nipples posted:Speaking of dry suits, I'm still saving my pennies for a custom one. A friend of mine suggested a p-valve or a crotch zipper... what did you guys get on your drysuits? If you have neither, has it ever been a problem? I'm a lady so the options are a bit... more limited. I've been fine, I just make an effort to pee before every dive. I have cut short dives due to a full bladder, but it's very rare. There are apparently people who instantly feel like they have to pee as soon as they're in the water, so if you're like that it may be more of a necessity. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Aug 10, 2016 |
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Aug 10, 2016 16:55
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lord1234 posted:Definitely not by an instructor. There definitely are old GUE divers out there still preaching the GI3 gospel, but I know the instruction has come quite a long way. What part of the country do you live in? Yes, I got grief from an instructor about my fins. I tried them (he insisted) and they were obviously worse for me than my regular ones. Even after that, it was brought up over and over. Afterwards I actually asked about fins for potential tech training and was told jet fins weren't in the standard, so he was apparently aware, but very very strongly pushed them. The uniform comment was not an instructor. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that popping off with "definitely untrue" and "definitely not an instructor" with pretty much zero background makes you come off poorly. I know GUE takes a lot of grief, but sometimes it is legitimate, and categorically dismissing it just leads to more ill will. I don't have a huge bone to pick with GUE. Of the four people in the fundies class I was the only one who passed ("strong pass" was the phrase used iirc). But a huge part of the training I got was focused on the one correct way to rig gear, including fins. It was absolutely presented as a one-size-fits-all rig, and that just doesn't work for me. I'd love to do tech some day, so maybe I'll bite the bullet in the future. I'm in the San Francisco bay area.
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Aug 10, 2016 20:30
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Thank you! I use an Olympus E-PL6, with a 30mm macro lens and a couple of Sea&Sea YS-01 flashes. It's a nice compact setup, and I'm super happy with it. The 45mm or even 60mm macro lenses are a bit more popular, but with the 30mm I can get nice fish portraits in addition to the tiny stuff. I shot a Canon S95 with a wet wide angle until pretty recently, and while I miss the versatility of being able to switch lenses underwater, I could not be happier with the quality of the camera. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of wide angle setup to use with this camera. Once I do I'll post a few more pictures.
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Aug 11, 2016 04:18
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jackyl posted:Huh, thought I had to change ports for either fisheye or macro. Guess I will be getting the macro lens now, thanks! Be a little bit cautious: the 60mm macro has a tiny FOV. Something like a fish portrait would be really difficult due to the working distance. I'd recommend the 30mm or 45mm (with a macro port) over the 60mm for that reason. Screwing with the housing really isn't bad, I switch between ports without any issues. Or you could just stick with one port. I dive with the 30mm lens and macro port ~90% of the time. http://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/zen-45mm-port-olympus-pen this port will work with either the 30mm or the 45mm. The stock port works too (I think, didn't try) but this lets you get the flashes a bit closer to the camera body. SuitcasePimp posted:drat, that is inspiring! I just got the housing for my E-PL5 last winter but only took it diving once, now I need to get some lighting. I do love how it performs on land, for the price and size it brings a lot to the table. Anyone have an opinion on starting with a single strobe before going to 2 or just going all in? I know there would be some limitations with 1 strobe but is there any benefit to incrementally introducing complexity? Strobes aren't cheap, so I dove with one until I upgraded my rig recently. The benefit of a second strobe is the ability to avoid harsher shadows, but there's no reason not to increment. Plus a single strobe keeps the overall camera rig small, which is great (and is the biggest reason I don't dive with a DSLR). I love the ys-01, and I'd stick with something that does TTL. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 06:32
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Bangkero posted:Exactly what you think it does - adds the red colours back into the video and pictures. This isn't quite right. A filter can't add back anything, it can only remove light. What it does is remove some of the greens and blues so what red is there is more visible. This results in darker images, and with color correction that isn't quite right. This is especially true at different depths since the red/blue ratio of the filter is fixed and the amount of red light changes with depth. Red filters can do an ok job if you aren't carrying a light or doing any post-processing, but I tend to be unhappy with the results. Bangkero posted:The only way to get the reds back when you're greater than that depth is to either 1. create artificial light (strobes), and/or 2. use lens filters, and/or 3. be a wizard with photo/video editing software. Unless you're quite shallow, #3 doesn't work very well either. The deeper you are the more off things will look, even after correction. There simply isn't enough red light there. I think bright lights or strobes are by far your best bet if you're trying to get red color back in underwater photos.
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Aug 17, 2016 17:27
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GORDON posted:I'm not at my main workstation at the moment so I can't just try it..... does adding red to green pictures I took in the ocean... will that do anything? I can't place those fish, is that freshwater?
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Aug 22, 2016 04:08
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I dove with a wider angle lens this time. I'm not particularly happy with this dome port, the edges of the pictures get pretty blurred, but I was able to get some good pictures out of it. Cabezon!  This is the biggest sunflower star I've seen since the big starfish die off a few years ago. It had to have been 6"+ in diameter. Very, very cool to see.  Kelp Rockfish  Gopher Rockfish and some nice reef.  My dive buddy. This was shot without a flash, and is a good demonstration of white balance underwater. There is actually a closed form solution to adjusting the white balance of a picture if you have a white or gray color to work with. This was balanced using the gray of his tank. The picture then becomes more or less the way it looks underwater, and the spot from his light becomes visible. Here's the original (no adjustment at all). It's interesting how his flashlight beam isn't visible at all. 
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Aug 22, 2016 04:41
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Icon Of Sin posted:the quarry we train at gets too cold to go any further around 60 ft (it was 51F at 63ft yesterday Drysuit! The dives I just posted pics from were 52 degrees (which was warmer than expected). If you develop the skills to dive cold water a whole bunch of interesting opportunities open up. There's wonderful diving off California (north and south), and British Columbia can be beautiful too. Not to mention beyond the Eastern Pacific: there are supposed to be some cool wrecks in the great lakes
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Aug 22, 2016 19:54
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Different strokes I suppose. I love tropical diving, and the Caribbean is beautiful, but if I had to pick one place to dive over and over, I can guarantee it'd be somewhere in the Eastern Pacific. 88 to 51 is one hell if a difference, is there a gradient or just a monster thermocline?
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Aug 22, 2016 20:56
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Boot and Rally posted:I feel like this describes the EANx certification process, but they never actually say it directly. Rather, there is no absolute guarantee that nitrox is safe, but there are ways to manage the risk. I don't think this is a valid comparison at all. Nitrox is incredibly widely used (especially compared to deco diving) so there is a huge amount of data on the safety of, say, 32%. It's very rare, in my experience, to encounter a dive operation that doesn't offer 32% There is no absolute guarantee any dive is safe (even air models are quite empirical), but I think we are beyond the point where we need to treat nitrox like it's some poorly understood thing. It's been covered by all the major agencies for 20 years. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 19:16
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lord1234 posted:LOL...come to Austin TX, where we have a rich vibrant dive community, but not a single LDS can be hosed to both with 32%. Unless you want to wait 5+ days to get your fill. Those of us who care enough have just switched to our own fill stations Gross. Do you guys make the drive to the gulf, or dive inland? Aside from 1-2 lake dives all my dives have been in the ocean. What sort of fill stations do people use? Boosters, or full on compressors? DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 22:01
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lord1234 posted:I have a Bauer Utilus with a 6 tank, 2200CF bank in my garage and I bank 32%. What prompted me to go there was when a local shop told me it was 20$ to fill an AL80 with O2 clean air. That's awesome! I have a friend who does something similar, although the shops around here all fill 32% (he's just particular about good fills, which is nice). I'm always a little bit fascinated by what people far from the ocean do to dive. Cave diving scares the hell out of me though. I'll take surge and current and sharks over getting lost in a dark abyss any day ;-)
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Aug 23, 2016 22:56
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lord1234 posted:Anyone here use Scopace? I know some will say "Oh I have the scopolamine patch", but I am specifically talking about the pill form of scopace? Tried it once and got incredible cotton mouth. Went back to meclazine, I'd rather be sleepy.
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Sep 8, 2016 17:50
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Best gear advice I ever got was to make sure I got a wetsuit that fit like a glove, regardless of brand or style. Makes a hell of a difference. Anyway, I did some more glorious California diving (southern this time) so it's time for more pictures as part of my never-ending California dive evangelism :-)  Green sea turtle! In California!!! I'd heard of them, but never seen one anywhere but the tropics. Not the greatest picture, but it's a California sea turtle, so whatever.  A big old majestic male sheepshead. We were diving in reserves, so it was great to see giant guys like this with zero fear.  Cute little horn shark  Remember that scene from Transporting with the baby on the ceiling?  Female sheepshead being aggressive with each other  California's marine fish, and the largest damsel species, the Garibaldi! This guy is an older juvenile so he's losing the blue, adults are solid orange. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Sep 22, 2016 |
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Sep 22, 2016 06:48
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jackyl posted:That's an interesting point, pupdive. We used to dive with baggy shorties and it didn't really matter. Now, though, I've been cold in Turks and Caicos, Bimini, st Lucia, basically anywhere with more than 40' depth with a full 3.5mm wetsuit, same with my wife. We actually were miserably cold doing a night dive in key largo with those. The 3.5 full would be my recommendation, with the caveat it be one that fits really well. The addition of a hooded vest can be nice too: it adds another layer, makes your suit even tighter at the torso, and makes water circulation more difficult. jackyl posted:E2: My real question is how the hell you can dive a west Caicos wall or something similar with no suit? Be a big heavy guy.I did an hour long dive in 50 degree water with a huge dude in a 3/5 wetsuit. I was sure he was going to freeze and call it as soon as we hit the water, but he had no problem at all. Same trick seals use.
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Sep 23, 2016 06:13
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Time for more California diving evangelism! These are from some of the oil rigs off of San Pedro:  A falling star  A female sheepshead, and some beautiful invertebrate life  Oil rigs are big.  Grass rockfish and Corynactis  More Corynactis and cool structure DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Nov 2, 2016 |
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Nov 2, 2016 06:26
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Red_Fred posted:How common are those? Do any agencies recommend them? I feel like it's a small chance to use it but when you need it you really need it. I occasionally see people carry them on dive boats in northern California, but it's unusual (smbs are quite common, in contrast). I've heard they're sometimes required by dive boats in very remote places like the Galapagos.
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Nov 15, 2016 22:38
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Trivia posted:Don't bring a camera until you've got your buoyancy down right. Don't buy a camera until you've got your buoyancy down right.
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Nov 25, 2016 05:01
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Squashy Nipples posted:First day diving on vacation (Virgin Islands). On second dive, suddenly had some nausea. Retched a few times, thought I was going to puke, but then it passed. Never had anything like that happen before. I've puked while diving (I'm quite susceptible to motion sickness, it's usually because of bad chop on a surface swim). My advice: puke through the reg, and try and get it all out before you breathe in. It's also OK to switch to your backup reg to take a deep breath if you're worried about bits of puke in the reg. I've also had a bit of puke stick in the exit valve of a second stage once, and it breathed wet until I figured it out. I don't think it's that dangerous. Also, the fish love it and you'll feel better afterwards.
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Nov 28, 2016 05:29
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Does anyone have recommendations for a dive outfit in Oahu? I'll be in town for a friend's wedding but was hoping to sneak in a day of diving beforehand...
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Dec 1, 2016 08:59
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MrYenko posted:[Whining]Why are OW classes always on the weekend?[/whining] Same reason the conditions are always better in the middle of the week. I think you come out ahead on this one ;-)
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Dec 5, 2016 02:15
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SithKitty posted:I did a two tank with Reef Pirates out of Hawaii Kai few months ago. Small boats, small groups. They leave really early, which means you get back before lunch and before the waves pick up. I'm actually already booked with them based on another recommendation. That's awesome to hear
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Dec 11, 2016 22:39
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Trivia posted:I recently got my dry suit spec. There's a balance between too tight to be comfortable and too loose to not leak, and latex seals stretch out a bit over time. All that being said, I my experience if you're noticing how tight the seals are during the dive they're too tight.
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Dec 22, 2016 23:34
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Trivia posted:What if they were so tight your hands were getting really cold outside the water, and you were light headed everywhere you walked (never mind IN the water)? That's insane. You're going to put too much pressure on your carotid artery and could potentially end up unconscious underwater. If you were doing this as part of a class then your instructor dropped the ball in a very dangerous way.
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Dec 23, 2016 02:00
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It's a bit harder for women. I've called a dive early because I had to pee. Now I'm religious about using the head before I get in the water, but it can be frustrating if I'm shore diving somewhere there isn't a public restroom.
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Dec 24, 2016 19:11
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