May 23
My wife was watching, So You Think You Can Dance last night and told me that I had to see this. This guy is a street performer with almost non-human body control and flexibility. Just watch it.
May 22
The problem with most underwater camera housings, besides potential flooding, is the eye piece. The standard viewfinders usually don’t magnify the image and usually reduce the image size so you can see the corners and picture data on DSLRs.
See example below:
This is a pain as you can’t critically focus the image and most of the time are left to just guess on the composition and framing. And compounding all this, you are wearing a mask between the eye piece and your eye. Sometimes you get very lucky and get the shot, other times need to have Mr Photoshop help you fix those images or get out focused, poorly framed pictures that you just end up deleting.
Some very high-end manufacturers have started to build larger non-vignetted eye pieces for their housing but that’s not an option if you are already invested in your camera/housing combo.
Not anymore, Backscatter a specialty underwater imaging company in Monterey has modified two off-the-shelf eye pieces from Inon that bolt onto almost any underwater housing. There eye-pieces extend the eyepoint without changing image size in viewfinder so that 100% of camera’s finder image is seen without any vignetting, even underwater with a mask.
Backscatter has the Inon 45, macro/wide angle and the Inon Straight Viewfinder, which is designed for fast moving wildlife. Both are available now, $900 each.
Guess I’ll need to start saving my pennies.
May 20
It’s time again for my annual pilgramage to the centoes of Mexico to do a little cave diving. The group will be heading down for a week of underwater exploring in the freshwater caves in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
It’s going to be great and I plan on shooting still photographs again this year, same as last year.
Here is out proposed itinerary:
Day 1: Warm up dives at Sac Actun. Spend the day there. Do two different stage dives: 1) Box Chen up and back 2) Boca Restriction down and back.
Day 2: Naharon morning. Set-up for Jailhouse Naharon traverse. Mayan Blue afternoon. Lot’s of two team possibilities including B to E to A and A to B to E to B. Could instead do downstream Mayan Blue to Cenote of the Sun and back on a stage.
Day 3: Traverse from Jailhouse to Naharon. 3.5 hour dive.
Day 4: Stage dive in Chan Hol in the morning. Prettier the further back you go. Really good video. Dos Palmas downstream in the afternoon.
Day 5: Spend the day at Tux. Sloth Bones. Fire pit. Gamaphor bones and upstream stage dives all possible.
Day 6: Spend the day at Minotauro. Maybe split into two teams and alternate upstream and downstream. Could also split up in afternoon to get shots of Chinese Garden at Taj for example.
May 18
Cave diver, Marc Laukien, was diving Madison Blue Cave system in Florida when we was electrocuted underwater. He was able to complete his dive and make it to the surface where they exited the water and were told by bystanders that there were several lighting strikes during the time period they were diving.
…I was diving Madison Blue, together with John K. (jkaterenchuk). We first did the short traverse to Martz sink, and then started the Godzilla circuit.
When I placed the jump for the circuit, I suddenly felt a strong electric shock through my right arm. I was touching the cave wall with my right hand at this time. I was a little bit disoriented for a few seconds, and didn’t really know if I imagined what just happened, or if it was for real. In any case, it was definitely a very “refreshing” experience, to put it mildly.
We completed the circuit without any further incidents. When we reached the basin, it became clear to me what happened: there was a huge thunderstorm above us. Staying in the water during such a thunderstorm wasn’t a good idea, and neither was getting out really, given that we had lots of metal on our backs. Since the thunderstorm could last a long time (and it did), we got out of the water, and after dropping our gear, we made a run for the bathhouse, where other divers and the park warden already took shelter.
Once we arrived there, the others told us, that they had seen several lighting strikes very close to where the Godzilla room must be located. One of these lighting strikes must have made its way through the cave wall and my right arm.
Crazy, I guess it’s another lesson for all of us to respect mother nature. You can read the rest of the account here and the subsequent discussion.
May 15
Divesigns, a UK company, has a line of stock and custom stickers for your dive gear. They range from MOD stickers, Rebreather specific decals and custom name decals. They also have a light visible sticker they call “Stealth Stickers” that reveals it’s text when you shine a light over it.
The custom name stickers are cool for marking you dive gear on a busy boat deck or liveaboard.
May 12
Hugh Bradner, a UC physicist whose love of the ocean and curiosity about everything in it led him to revolutionize diving by inventing the neoprene wetsuit, died at his home in San Diego at the age of 92.
May 08
Just got two of these Oxycheq Raider 3W LED backup lights to replace my current ones. Mainly, I got these to replace my older backup lights that were a bit too big on my dive harness, I wanted something a bit shorter without giving up burn-time or brightness.
These lights are bright, as bright as a 10w HID cannister light for 1/10 of the cost, i.e. $700 for a HID cannister and $70 for one of these LED backup lights.
I’m taking them on a trip in a couple of weeks and plan on putting then thru there paces.
Check out this YouTube video comparison.
May 08
May 02
I don’t have a GPS; not an in-car navigation system, integrated into a cell phone nor a hand-held version. I don’t really see it as necessary in this day and age mainly because:
1) I can print directions out on my computer
2) My cell phone has Google Maps on it with a “location” feature.
Having Google Maps Mobile was a game changer for me, it made a GPS-like experience by using cell-phone towers and known wi-fi networks to estimate your location, it even works well while driving on the freeway.
Blackberry has a GPS radio in it’s popular smart phones and Garmin is coming out with a GPS phone, but I don’t see a need for full blown GPS with the cell phone integrated Google Maps.
So I ask you my few readers, do you think having true GPS is necessary in your cell phone?