digits1981

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Hi, I'm selling an auto/manual focus Aquatica macro port. This is Product # 18426 in the Aquatica catalog. We used the port with a 60mm macro lens. It's in great condition with a bit of the black coating scraped off from abrasions with coral perhaps but the glass is in excellent condition. Retail price is $460. Am attaching the Aquatica photo. Please let me know if you need an actual photo but the port is really in good condition other than a few little spots where the paint is worn. Please let me know if you're interested. $350obo.

Just bumping this back up. Someone was meant to buy it but there were too many problems with the transaction and shipping so I still have it available. $3,700

Sorry, I just saw this question. I don't know what size pelican case it would all fit in. There were two of us and we carried it hand-wrapped in carry-on luggage.

Lowered price: $3,700 Thanks for looking.

This housing setup contains everything you need to get in the water and start shooting except lenses and the camera itself. It is a wonderful set, but we are selling it because we recently returned from a very long SCUBA trip and won't be diving any time soon It is in very good condition(see notes). Aquatica D300 Housing 3-section strobe arm Used Sea & Sea YS-110 NEW Sea & Sea YS110a Sea & Sea synch cord Dome Port for wide angle - Aquatica 18405 + hood (it has scratches that may disturb the picture if your wide-angle lens is wider than 17mm - A boat crew member on a dive mishandled the housing in rough water and gave the outer part of the port some rather bad scratches) Zoom gear Aquatica 18711 - For 17-55mm 2.8 Nikon lens Extension Ring Aquatica 18457 Aquatica 18426 - this is the Manual and Automatic port - NOTE: we didn't purchase the manual focus ring but you can if you'd like. New set of 8 re-chargeable AA batteries with charger 1 Sync cord silicon, spare parts, tool set, spare o-rings If you want to buy the NEW Sea & Sea YS-100a separately,, we'll sell it for $550 Whole kit price: $4,000 Location: Central California - Monterey Bay area A few disclaimers: The wide-angle port is scratched - see item description for details This sale does not include any lenses - We were using a 17-55 2.8 with the wide-angle port and a 60mm macro with the macro port - See this chart for details on your lenses and port use: http://www.marinevisions.com/Assets/aquati...ikon_type_2.pdf We do not have the manual focus ring for the macro port. It will work auto-focus or you can purchase the focus ring yourself The housing has only about 100 dives on it.

In retrospect it was a bad dive to take a new camera on. Perhaps if someone in the diveshop had been nice and conversed with us we would have known...knowing nothing other than that the GWW is a famous dive on the Rainbow Reef we had no clue. I'm not blaming them but we had no clue. Didn't overstate any ability. I, as well as my wife, will be the first one to tell you we're none too fond of strong currents. We even mentioned it on the boat I'm sure and the guide said it wouldn't be too strong. My wife wasn't being cocky at all, just inexperienced with a professional housing for the camera. We're the ignorant students...you can't learn if you're not taught. Know what I mean? Those who are preaching how it was all our fault would do well to realize that...we learned more than a few lessons but the hard way, there was perhaps and easier one...the dive guide could have suggested hopping in with weights to test the camera, but instead the crew was rather unattentive and unfriendly and didn't suggest anything. We were ignorant about that fact and now we're not. Cheers and thanks...you put your criticism in a far less snide and rude way than others and for that I can thank you.

As it was we were told that others had complained about this particular dive guide previously. Who knows as we weren't there but I wouldn't doubt it based on the way we were treated. Normally I would live and let live but in this scenario I honestly do feel that what the divemaster did was so careless that(if she really has been a divemaster for 10 years) she should lose her license. I've seen divemasters do things that made me shake my head a number of times but never something that seemed to put someone(or the group for that matter, by splitting us up before going to look for my wife) in such a position as leaving their position unknown for the duration of a dive without alerting anyone. I feel worse than anyone as I now know that I should have surfaced with my wife instead of descending and sticking to the group. I am still inexperienced to a large degree and I know that...it's why I pay someone a good amount of money to supervise for our safety. My wife spent some time crying and quite a while totally shaken up about the incident but luckily came to realize that it was a particular instance of something gone wrong. It wasn't a small mishap but a huge problem that luckily didn't turn out to be a person lost at sea. Cheers.

Thanks for the replies. I take all of them to heart. Regarding me messing up and not sticking with my wife/dive buddy that is correct, I was partially at fault and learned a valuable lesson. The divemaster only went up to the boat to check for my wife at my insistence underwater and repeatedly told me to stay and I was stuck to a rock in a strong current holding on. I am not nearly as experienced as my wife or the divemaster and I erred as well. Her seeing that my wife was not on the boat and knowing that she was not on the boat and not doing something other than continuing with the dive was inexcusable. If you were a divemaster and you knew that one of the members of the group, the only one who's position was unknown, was not with the group or on the boat in a strong current would you carry on with the dive as usual? If you don't answer that question please don't bother responding. My wife and I both learned valuable lessons. The dive guide was in a horrible mood from the get-go Steve...sorry to disappoint you. Also, regarding your lightly veiled slight at me regarding what three people said about it being our fault, one wasn't in our group and had no idea what happened and the only other responded that way out of defensive posturing which was later confirmed with the real manager of the dive shop. Again, sorry to disappoint you. While it's clear that we made some misjudgements, you should probably ask any divemaster who has a clue whether they would split up the group(in this case sending the 3 women through the tunnel) before going to look for my wife. Up to that point the only separated party was my wife, the divemaster is the one who split up the group herself. In response to the question about the weights, my wife used 8lbs the following days. The first dive was without camera and therefore the housing was positively buoyant, the following dives with the camera it was negatively buoyant. Thanks for the all the replies and I'm not looking for backpatting but I'm not looking for Steve-like-replies which turn the incident on its head. The divemaster is a group leader who should keep the group together(especially if one party is missing) and is only leading people who are unqualified to lead themselves in a location that they don't know. Some people seem to forget that this is a recreational sport. Thanks and while there are lessons learned I staunchly know the divemaster was heavily in the wrong since the one thing she did know was that she DIDN'T know where my wife was and went on with the dive anyway.

Hello all, wanted to pass this info along to see what people think and perhaps get the word out about the way my wife and I were treated after a nightmare dive in the Somosomo Strait: If anyone is familiar with the Great White Wall that will make this easier to explain perhaps. My wife has about 90-100 logged dives and grew up diving so she's not an unexperienced diver just to preface. We were on our first outing with Aqua Trek Diving which is located at the Garden Island Resort in Taveuni Fiji. The morning of our checkin the staff, especially one woman, was rather unfriendly which is unusual for a diveshop but quite a few people from a returning group of divers had stated how good the dive shop was so we trusted their advice. We were heading to the Great White Wall which is a big wall dive where you go around a coral formation, through a small nook in the coral formation, and then descend through a hole and out through the face of a big White Wall. We had just purchased a new housing for our D300 and were pressure testing it without the camera and my wife had it. The unfriendly woman in the dive shop was going to be our group leader on the dive and she tried to give my wife 12lbs of weight(my wife is 5' 7" and weight 120lbs) but my wife took 8lbs instead as she didn't realize how buoyant the housing would be. Anyway, as we descended in a current(a strong one to be fair) my wife couldn't descend due to the buoyancy of the camera so she went back up to the boat to give the camera back to the captain and continue the dive. The divemaster saw her and my wife made an "I'll be right back signal" and we rounded the coral formation and headed into the crevice in the coral formation towards the tunnel which you swim through to go to the tunnel. As we arrived my wife still hadn't returned. The divemaster sent 3 women together through the tunnel in what I deem a fairly strong current. I was somewhat uncomfortable with the strength of it but I was with the divemaster and clung to a rock. I motioned that I didn't know where my wife was and the divemaster told me to wait. She swam up to the boat apparently, came back down, and told me to partner with her and head through the tunnel. MY ASSUMPTION: The housing had a big problem, my wife didn't want to leave it on the boat if it leaked without rinsing it, or something. I FULLY assumed that my wife was on the boat since the divemaster told me to partner with her and go through. We went through the tunnel and were diving for a total of about 30 minutes when my wife appeared out of nowhere, the void that is. I could tell she was peeved but assumed it had something to do with the camera and just tried to enjoy the dive. Our divemaster ran out of air a full 10 minutes before any of the rest of us and left the group in the current alone as we finished our dive. When we surfaced I could tell my wife was angry, she was really pissed. Apparently what happened is that she went up to hand the camera(this took a total of 4 minutes), when she returned below she couldn't find us since the divemaster chose to go around the first coral head without waiting, and my wife had to resurface. The boat captain told her that there were bubbles below and that she should dive there. So my wife descended again and started searching in the wild blue for us, in a rather strong current mind you. When the divemaster had ascended while I waited outside the tunnel she saw no sign of my wife, went up to the boat and saw that she wasn't there, and continued with the dive anyway. To me this is disgustingly egregious. In a current that strong my wife could have been easily 1 mile from the dive site after 30 minutes. We confronted her on the boat and she snapped back "I told you to take 12lbs, it was your fault!" Then some other guy who wasn't in our group decided to interject and state that it was my wife's fault...I later learned from the dive shop manager this guy has some strange love for the dive shop workers and was just being emotionally defensive it seems. Anyway, post dive we tried to talk to the dive shop "manager" so he told us and he told us that others in the group (the emotional man) told him it was our fault which he couldn't have possibly known anything about since he was in the 1st group and not our group. The three women in our group also said they felt very uncomfortable with the divemaster. The dive shop "manager" told us never to dive with them again, etc. I asked the divemaster for her certification card so I could report her to PADI. She didn't have her card and refused to bring it the following day. She did however write down her number. This was all an uncomfortable point of staying where we were even though we found another dive shop and had a boat to ourselves with two wonderful guys the following few diving days. Am I crazy to think that the divemaster was completely in the wrong to know that a diver was lost in the water by herself and just continue on the dive? Isn't it her responsibility to take care that people are safe? Granted, I was alone but she knew exactly where I was and the 3 other women who went through the hole had been diving with the diveshop for a few days and were indeed all together and near to the 1st group of divers. My wife was certainly the only one who was "lost" and the divemaster let it slide and went on with the dive anyway. Any input or comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for all the help. I'm up in the Yasawas and can't really do much calling as of now but the info is great, thanks for your help, will phone Oz next week and order up another. Thanks for all the replies. Cheers.

Hi, hopefully someone can provide a bit of information. I'm in Fiji and my Ikelite strobe's sensor went dead. I'm at the very beginning of a three month dive trip and really need to find a place to replace the strobe's sensor or get a new strobe unit. Does anyone know where I could go in the country? I tried searching endlessly but couldn't find a single shop selling camera equipment. Nandi would be best, but really anywhere would do. Thanks in advance for any advice. David

Thanks a lot for the Tonga tips. They will definitely be taken into account. Looks like a wonderful spot, excited about going. RE: NZ, I spent 2 months hitch-hiking and backpacking there about 5 years ago and love love love the islands. Would move there in a hot second if it weren't so far from family and Europe where we're aiming to move as is. Anyway, my wife hasn't been but I feel that NZ is at least a 2 month journey and I'd almost feel bad spending less time than that there as silly as it sounds. That being said, I would assume that some of the flights we book will require us to land in Auckland and fly out of there at least once and I wouldn't be opposed to spending one or even two nights in that area, but anything more would make me drool at the chance of heading back down to the South Island or going on a trek. See, now you even have me wanting to go more! Thanks for the advice.

Okay, just in case anyone is interested, our plans have grown quite quickly due to a number of reasons: Tonga Fiji Vanuatu Solomon Islands Indonesia 2nd Leg Micronesia - Chuuk Lagoon - Yap Palau Once we hit Indonesia we're going to do some overland travel for a while before hitting Micronesia on our way up to Japan. For now, we're only buying a packaged ticket involving the first 5 places. Cut out quite a bit to get our ticket price down and places like Tonga and Fiji look like we can get a pretty large variety of experience out of them and might as well spend a bit more time somewhere nice than hopping around too much. Thanks for everyone's help.