AengusM

WTF? Relax Dude ....

ExPat, Sydney diving is great but to experience it at its best you really need either a car or a local to drive you to the various sites. Sounds like you are keen to see Weedy's? When I think Weedy I think Kurnell or Jervis Bay ... if you had 5 full days and were particularly keen to dive, you might like to go to JB which is a few hours south of Sydney. Take a look at the live aboard Oceantrek http://www.oceantrek.com.au/frames.html for a 2 or 3 day trip? It is an older boat, not flash (and an old style website) but a good stable platform with a very friendly and knowledgeable crew. Re Weedy's in Sydney, sightings for the past few years have been down (Sydney is at the top of their range) but you can on occasion see them at Shelly (Manly). I've never known one to make it to Ship Rock but I guess it may have occurred .. the Sydney site with best Weedy prospects would be the Kurnell dive sites (The Leap, The Steps, The Monuments, Inscription Point....) Michael McFadyen's web site, www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info is a great reference site for Sydney diving. If you are on facebook you can also view my dive clubs page (need to be a club member to join the group) https://www.facebook.com/groups/208786489161552/ where amongst the posts you will find fresh dive reports that will give you a feel for conditions closer to the date (although not many reports at the moment as it has been raining all week with associated wash out). Re accommodation in Sydney, if you are not fussy and want to be in the city, definitely try and get into the YHA in the Rocks! http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/nsw/sydney-s...sydney-harbour/ Hope that helps. Aengus

Nice site Matt, but I'm finding it slow to load.

I did but I posted this between the first and second email to you (and I don't think you can delete posts)

Want to buy - Aquatica 4 inch dome, glass needs to be in perfect condition. Thanks

Thanks Jean, looking forward to it

Any update Jean, or are you guys saving the announcement of the shadeless macro dome for DEMA

Alas Peter we didn't have the best weather and I'll use that as my primary excuse as to why I don't have any pic's I'm willing to share :-) Wow, great lens, really like it, huge learning curve for me personally as I haven't used a fish eye underwater before, really excited now, lots I want to do with it. Jean, are we going to get a 4 inch dome from Aquatica without a shade?

Finally got my 8-15 Looks like a second big shipment has occured so hopefully others will get theirs soon as well. The 18708 zoom ring fits the diameter perfectly but yes, the lens release is not viable (5D/Aquatica). I do note that by simply removing the plastic cap on the lens release lever I can turn the lever down and past the Dof button (ie get it out of the way). I suspect the solution is to simply make a 18708 with a shallower set of teeth but same depth where the ring attaches to the lens, indeed you would probably replace the 18707, have the teeth turned in for the likes of the 17-40 and turned out for the 8-15. Gudge and myself are off to a great Grey Nurse (Raggy Tooth/Sand Tiger) site called Fish Rock for the weekend ( http://southwestrocksdive.com.au/ ) not the best time of year to go but hopefully we will have some decent images out of it. Gudge hopes (if he is nice to me, ie buys lots of beer) to give the 8-15 a go in his Nauticam/7D setup so hopefully we'll have some useful show and tell over the next few weeks. Aengus

Great shot Jean and thanks Tom for all the info and awesome shots! Thanks Drew for the L series warranty info. The God's don't like Australia, I've now been told October for my Canon Aussie supplied 8-15 so I'll be scraping that order and buying from o/s. Jean, appreciate you probably haven't done lab tests yet but are you willing to divulge port extension and zoom ring #'s from Bonaire? Aengus

I'm feeling so teased No 8-15's yet in Australia and local price very close to import price (rarely the case) i.e. better to wait for Aussie warranted units.

Thanks for those Tom. Have you used a zoom ring and if so which one? Cheers, Aengus

Looks like the 8-15 is finally starting to ship all be it limited stock :-)

I'm so excited about this lens, I really hope it lives up to expectations and I'm loving the short focus and the price is lower than I expected (although of course lower would be even better). So any Aquatica users seen it or touched it...any idea's which zoom ring or extension (5DII in my case)? I'm hearing July for production units, delayed due to Tsunami affected supply chain, anyone know more on availability? Cheers, Aengus

Tiger are similar to RyanAir but JetStar are no way near as bad but still are a no frills airline. Virgin and Qantas are the main operators and reasonable rates if you take the off peak flights. If traveling from overseas it is most likely (but not always) cheaper to book the internals with your international flights but if booking once here, it is 98% of the time cheapest to book the flights online yourself.

Like! Would be great to repeat every 6 or so months and you could have an even interesting movie after a few years?

WOW!

Hi, anyone used the Mangrove MVS-4L40 LED yet? Any feedback/comments? Cheers, Aengus

Hi Jim, I've had grief with one of the named magasines also re slow payment and I know that has been the case for several years for many people. Indeed I know of at least 2 people who have never been paid and just gave up on them (that was under the previous owners). I had a pic with SDAA last year but did it on the basis of a contra, couple of years subscription for the pic, I don't know why I bothered, SDAA has definitely gone down hill, although not as bad as the Australian Scuba Diver magasine, yet. Aengus

What did the people who sold you the housing have to say? What did Aquatica have to say? Surely you haven't just jumped on this forum for a rant without first contacting them?

Great Video Matt! Well captured and a valuable piece on nature in action. I've seen those LJ's in plague at JB before, I'm gonna be scared of them in future !! Aengus

A number of people in NSW have done Masters or PhD's on Weedy's/Syngnathids but I can't find much online right now, except for these; http://sims.org.au/research/Booth-UTS-seadragonsuts.cfm and you can get Booth's full report here for AU$25; http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF05220.htm and also related to that research, http://weedy-seadragons.blogspot.com There was a group in South Australia called Dragon Search and they are now Reef Watch, couple of reports here; http://www.reefwatch.asn.au/reports.html#ds Aengus

Steve, Check payment options...Damien and myself both wanted Aquatica housing a few years ago, a guy at Backscatter called Dave was really awesome with pre-sales, but when it came to ordering they wouldn't take a credit card (from non-US), wanted payment by some method from the dark ages, but we wanted to use CC for rewards/insurance reasons...not happy giving the order away after Dave's great service but he was understanding. Hope Backscatter are now operating in this century. Also, if there is an Aussie distie, give them a go, tell them the US price, if they can match it great, if not, their loss. Aengus

Ah... I'm talking within a metre of one another, almost side by side, like you Andrew have seen them a couple of metres apart but rarely side by side (only 3 or 4 times) even if one was feeding on a mass of mysids within sight of another. Elanor.....if only we had Leafy's on the East coast Scubadiva, I'd echo Andrew's comments...give us more info and we will point you in the right direction. Aengus