9 replies to this topic

[debersole]

I am heading to Kona in a couple of weeks and planning on doing a few "Pelagic Magic" night dives with Jack's Diving Locker. I will be shooing a Canon 7D in an Aquatica housing with dual Sea & Sea YS-250 strobes. I would be interested in any Tips and Tricks from anyone who has done this dive. Manual or auto-focus? White or red focus lights? Lenses (60mm or 100mm)? Thanks in advance!

Doug

[diver dave1]

Lots of threads on this very topic. Do some searching and you should find a lot of info already posted. 'Black Water' would like be a good search selection, among others.

[debersole]

Thanks, but I did a search in the forums for "black water", "black water night dive", and "pelagic magic". None gave me any results. If you have any other ideas or if you find something I did not, I would really appreciate it.

Doug

[debersole]

I left the "forums" page and went to the "home page" to search and lots of threads came up. Thanks!

[bvanant]

We have done that dive quite a bit. My best pics came with the 60 mm set to manual focus at about 10 inches away from the port. Have a big strong focus light (and a second one if you can swing it). Whenever something floats into the light then move the camera to get it in focus and fire away. I have tried autofocus with mostly miserable luck.
Check out our website for a cool video of some of what you might see.
Bill

[debersole]

Thanks!

[rramaley]

Hi Doug,

Can you let us know how your experience went? Still umming and awwing about which operator to go with when we go in Feb...

[rramaley]

So we ended up going with Jack's Diving Locker.  Was a pretty amazing experience - we went on their scheduled night and it was just the 2 of us on the boat, and chartered the boat for a second night (again just us 2) - if you can wing it that you are the only ones on the boat, it is a very special experience.  The dive guides were in the water but for them it was a pleasure dive since they didn't have to worry about us.  Each dive was ~75 minutes and some fantastic things floated by.  Matt D'Avella (JDL's resident expert) takes a bit of warming up to (and likewise him to us) but we had a good time diving with him.  He'll also give you good tips if you listen....

 

Here's a video I pulled together of my footage - pretty happy with the results though I wish I had a week of consecutive diving to work the kinks out.  One big recommendation: bring a sh*% load of light - Matt the dive guide had 5 lights on his rig!!!  My 2 Sola 1200s were woefully inadequate.  

 

 

[SwiftFF5]

Very, very nice.  You had me smiling all the way through.  Thanks for sharing.

[debersole]

Very nice video.  Thanks for sharing.  Somehow I missed your original post.  We went out two nights with Matt from Jack's Diving Locker as well.  Glad you also had a great trip!

 

Doug