marksm

I have a Aqua View viewfinder for Aquatica housings. It has some scuffs on the outside but is optically perfect with no issues. I am selling for 750.00. I am willing to trade for a Canon 100mm 2.8 IS Macro lens in perfect working order. I also might be interested in trading it for a Canon mount Sigma Fisheye 15mm plus cash. Text me at : 7 three 4 - 6 three 6 - six zero 8 one Mark

Book 'em Danno: Kleptomaniac Manta Mugs Cameraman - What began as another exhilarating manta ray night dive off Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on an August evening in 2010, quickly turned into the theft of the century. Cameraman Travis Matteson was capturing footage for the scuba diving travel television show "Into the Drink" aboard the Kona Aggressor II. Suddenly, one of the manta's cephalic lobes hooked his lighting system, and darted off with the nearly $10,000 worth of gear. Underwater videographer Johnny Reidt caught the entire theft on camera, and the manta, carrying the stolen rig, captured some amazing footage of the nighttime reef. Remarkably, the camera rig was found completely intact after an eight-minute run by the manta, just yards from the dive boat. Case closed. The video can be seen here on Into The Drink's youtube channel Let me add a note for those who care like we do at Into the Drink about our marine environment. As the DOP on this shoot, I was there and Travis was obviously shooting the school of small fish and had his attention on them at the moment the manta decided to swim at his lights and hooked the light cable. Travis is the most heartfelt, mindful person for the environment and the sea life I have ever met. His first thought was of the manta not getting hurt by this when he came up, even with a $10,000 rig out on the ocean floor. At NO time does any of the film crew do anything harmful to the marine life that provides us with our passion and our livelihood. If one of the cameramen did so intentionaly, they would be fired on the spot. I encourage you to look as this freak occurrence for what it was. A freak occurance we can only laugh at now. We thought the manta night dive in Hawaii was amazing. It caught all of us off guard with the quantity and quality of the experience. When the Hawaii episode airs, we hope that all the great operators, who share the Manta's waters each night, will benefit from the exposure. More plankton for the mantas please.

http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/content/id/11967...rveContext=true Careful what you wish for... Imagine how you can push colors in the direction that you want. This is different than the color space shift of white balance. Be careful you dont create broadcast illegal colors. The matrix combined with color adjusting is like the butterfly effect. Don't say I didnt warn you. Some would argue that doing this in post is better. I believe that simply isnt true. Even with the 10bits of the Nano, you would still rather capture truer colors using the entire bit depth of the camera. Using this feature of the camera allows you to push or change the colors as processing occurs off the CMOS and then the 8 or 10 bits gets pushed out during recording closer to what you finally want. This is preferable to trying to push an 8 bit 420 or even a 422 color space. My water presets are to deal with different color water and depths. My land ones are for sunsets, faces, landscape, Indoor/Outdoor, etc Save your hard earned profiles to a text file on your computer as well. Mark

Thank Shawn Heinrich for telling me about it a few years ago. It might be discontinued but im sure you can find the specs and match them with their latest model. It is the sturdiest one I have ever had for this sort of thing. Of course you need to remove the extra zipped on pouches before traveling with it to keep it "looking" small. Eagle Creek EC10051 Voyage 65L Here is an out of stock listing so you can see what it looks like. https://www.mountainsports.com/MSmain.asp?O...p;Detail=051540 You just unzip the top piece and leave it off. You can also read the specs. The housing WITH the SWP44c will fit in here at an angle and it is a REALLY tight fit. So if you get a replacemnt model, make sure the dimensions are the same or slightly larger. With the 44c on, you will have to remove it from the backpack to fit it under a seat. I do it all the time but it isnt pretty. Dont get emergency row. They wont forgive the amount it will stick out with the 44c on it. The flat port slides right in under the seat. I've been asking for a blank slug to screw in the housing to keep dust off and make travel easier but it hasn't happened yet. One more item when backpacking this. Always set the backpack down on its back. The controls are vulnerable so be extra careful when turning around. (2 years with no issues for me). When going thru security, the housing needs to go thru in the backpack, back down. It will not fit in a tray. Dont let them tell you to remove it form the backpack. Be couteous but explain that it is a 30,000 dollar camera and the only way to properly protect it from vibration and the rollers is to leave it in. Let them know it is very heavy, to carry it with the back down, and to set it down that way. Smiles and courtesy have always got me right through. Ive never avoided the swab test leaving the USA. The entire front will zip open and expose the camera for them to swab. In two plus years I have had to open the housing once. All this seems like a lot but watching the inspection rather then checking the camera appeals to me. Plus I know I'm not going to let a client down. I can always rent scuba gear but the camera and components stay with me. The added benefit of not having a big Pelican case and pro camera rig entering a foreign country should be obvious to those like us. BTW, this is also how I take the housing on/off the boat. You have to remove the handles and monitor first of course. But it sure beats a long walk with a pelican. I think if you find a supply of the backpacks, post it here. If you get a diff model and it works. Post it here. Mark Santa-Maria PS. Two bottles of liquor fit perfectly in the two side bottle pouches for when you hit the duty free on the way into the islands. Priorities ya know.

Unfortunately, and unless someone has discovered a work around, there is no way to play anything other then the last clip recorded. Anyone got one? You can scroll with the knob through clips but no "play" button is accessible. It would be a benefit but the control would have to be in the track the monitor mounts in. Not very convenient. This last clip playback is good enough most of the time and I use it all the time with talent shots. When last clip is played back, the nano just sits there.

Let me add a few thoughts of my own since you asked. This is a great camera lens combo with the SWP44. I mean top notch. I too shot with the PD150 for years and there are still days I look at that footage and I am amazed at what a camera that was and is. The Gates housing and my EX1 is in the water with me shooting tv. 13-16 locations a year, 15 days a month, up to 5 dives a day, in and out of the housing, tossed, carried, and abused, much to my chagrin, by lots of customs, immigration, inspectors, boat handlers, divemasters...you name it. It has held up and when I messed something up. Gates was right there sending me whatever piece I managed to knock off or screw up. I have nothing but praise. The most common issue I have is knocking off the little control rubber ends from being in a hurry to insert or remove my camera. Now Gates just ships a bunch of replacemnts with the housings for impatient people like me. I carry my housing in a backpack on the plane. Amazingly, with the flat port on, the housing will fit under any airline seat. I also, against many peoples advice, I always keep the camera in the housing while traveling without ever an issue. I keep the monitor, handles, lights, battery, charger, and nexto recorder in the small carryon. In other words, I travel with everything I need to shoot into the cabin with me. Im going to give you some of the harder lessons: Since you are moving from a PD150 to the EX1 as I did...here were the big adjustments for me. 1. The minimum focal distance of the camera combined with the standard port make this a real bear in the water.To get the kind of close shots you would normally have gotten with ease from your PD150 will require diopters and a very steady hand. You just can't get inches from the subject like you could with the PD150. So as others have said, the SWP44 is a must for bringing the minimum focal distance under control. 2. Even shooting with the achromat diopter and the flat port, you need to get the camera further back then you would be used to and then zoom in to your subject. So junk in the water gets a little frustrating but the results are pin sharp minus the atmospherics. I really like this combo but it'll cost you another 1K. It just isn't anything like the PD150. 3. It is infinitly frustrating not to have zoom focus, histogram, zebra, peaking, etc not displayed through the external monitor. This is Sony's doing and nothing to do with Gates fine design. But now with the nano, you have to have it off anyway. BTW...the nano fits in the EX1 housing no problem. 4. The matrix on the camera is very powerful. Learn about it and get some profiles saved. I keep a card with 5 land profiles and a card with 5 underwater profiles. When you get it dialed in. WOW! 5. I switch between manual focus and auto focus all the time especially with the 44c and I want to be certain I dont hunt. Getting your fingers in there with dry gloves or 6mm can be tough. I put a little cclamp on my control when doing full dry so it is easy to change. It also lets me easily identify the knob. 6. The camera will whitebalance quite deep without the red filter. However, don't do it. Use the filter anything more then 15 feet. Add 3db gain to compensate and, in the end, you will be happier with the results. If you want to shoot at zero db, then you will need to work with the matrix. 7. The camera, out of the box, appears noisy underwater. The full auto mode of the camera increases gain upto 18db. You need to learn this camera and shoot it in manual exposure mode for best results. Leave the AF on but drive the rest. This means calibrating your 43 monitor as best you can and then using zebra and histo in the viewfinder until you get a feel for what the camera is recording and what the 43 monitor is capable of showing you. 8. It's a manual housing! With that bullet proof design comes a little care a feeding of the seals and mechanics. Make sure your seals are snug and you always inspect your housing after travel. Gates recommends dry diving the housing each trip before loading the camera. I don't but should. Sinking that bad boy empty is quite the challenge. I've told you these things so you can be better prepared. This is a serious rig and yields quite impressive results. Pro results. The 44c is very forgiving. Very! So getting it is a must. I too was an early adopter of the Gates EX1 housing and they have listened and constantly made improvements to the design. Others have already mentioned some of them. The housing is just so nice in the water. Put two 8 ounce weight on the left side of the housing and one 4 on the right and BINGO! neutral balanced housing. Feel free to ask anything else. Mark

Win a dive trip in the Philippines with the "Into the Drink" Crew Click here to enter: http://www.intothedrink.tv/abyssworld LiquidAssets.tv, the producers of "Into the Drink," is teaming up with AbyssWorld to give away a dive trip of a lifetime for two in the Visayas, Philippines. The lucky two divers will join the crew of LiquidAssets.tv in the Philippines Oct. 19-29 as they film another episode of their new dive travel television show, "Into the Drink." You've heard rumors about how great the diving is, now see for yourself. The Philippines is a magical archipelago of more than 7,000 islands which host an authentic and captivating population. A sense of adventure and evasion prevails in the country surrounded by warm coral seas. Discover Cebu, Moalboal, Apo, Siquijor and Panglao. Dive the drop-offs, be amazed by the color and rich marine life, great visibility and enchanting surroundings. No purchase is necessary to win, however you must agree to receive both the LiquidAssets.tv and AbyssWorld's email newsletter to be eligible. The winner will be selected on or after June 1, 2010, and will be contacted at the email address and phone number that the contestant provides below. Winner will be announced on this web site in Summer 2010. Retail value is $5,390 US. This prize is transferrable to the divers of choice should the winner not be able to make the allocated dates. You can enter only one time per day.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Into the Drink" Premieres on Tuff TV, Retro Television Network and Resort & Residence TV This Week "Into the Drink," the new dive travel television show produced by LiquidAssets.tv, premieres this week on Tuff TV, Retro Television Network and Resort & Residence TV. "Into the Drink" is a hosted travel show made up of 13 half-hour episodes. Filming locations for Season One include California's Channel Islands, Costa Rica, Fiji, Grand Cayman, Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California, Honduras, Wakatobi, Indonesia, St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Turks & Caicos. The show premieres Sunday, Feb. 7 at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. EST on Tuff TV in Wichita/Hutchinson, Kansas (KGPT-D4, Channel 49), Little Rock/Pine Bluff, Arkansas (KKYK-DT, Channel 49) and Fort Smith/Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers, Arkansas (KFDF-CA, Channel 10). Also, look for "Into the Drink" on Tuff TV coming soon in Tyler/Longview, Texas (KIVY), Dallas, Texas (KHPK), Memphis, Tennessee (WBII), Atlanta, Georgia (WYGA), Austin, Texas (KVAT), and Charleston, West Virginia (W31CA). "Into the Drink" will premiere on the Retro Television Network (national feed) every Sunday at 9:00 a.m. EST beginning Sunday, February 14. A list of stations that broadcast Retro Television Network will be available soon on the show's official fan web site, http://www.intothedrink.tv. "Into the Drink" will also be televised on Resort & Residence TV, DirecTV Channel 354, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. EST, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and Sunday at 4:00 p.m. EST starting Thursday, February 11. Distribution for "Into the Drink" is growing weekly and updates will be made as they become available on the official show web site's "Watch It" page, located at http://www.intothedrink.tv. LiquidAssets.tv also leads "on-location" trips to join them as they film episodes in exotic locations. Upcoming trips include Belize April 20-24, Kona, Hawaii August 14-21 and the Philippines October 19-29. For more information about their on-location trips, please visit http://www.intothedrink.tv/travel. Contact: Randy Harris Executive Producer LiquidAssets.tv (903) 432-4646 randy@liquidassets.tv http://www.intothedrink.tv

Put the "You" in Utopia! - Utopia Village: Utila, Honduras: Enter to win a unique dive vacation for two at Utopia Village on Utila in Honduras's Bay Islands. Package includes 7 nights accommodations, three gourmet meals daily, five days of diving, and much, much more. http://intothedrink.tv/utopia/ Enjoy! Mark - LiquidAssets.tv

They have a rocket? Sweet. Well rockets don't impress me as much as finishing my shoot and making the client and the network happy.

Well just a public thank you to the team at Gates. Capturing an episode of the show here in Cayman Islands , I just had an issues that could have prevented me from finishing the shoot with my EX1. First on an amazing dive through cut passage ways; beams of glorious light were cascading through cuts in the coral ceiling. The plan was to have the host move through the beams, breaking the light as he passed. So I went to dial down the iris and nothing! Arghhh I had lost control. Getting back to the room I realized the end of the control had gotten chewed up. This was operator error from engaging the servo motor before disengaging the control. I had only 30 minutes back at the dock. I ran to the laptop and fired off the most cryptic of emails to John & Pamela at Gates. It was something like this. "John, my iris control is chewed up. Can you get me one to Sunset House in the Caymans overnight. Thanks. - Mark Santa-Maria" The next day, the control is there at the front desk. Overnighted to me despite me not giving them even an address. Not only did I get the part but they through in the allen wrench to do it! I think that is amazing customer service. I still have three more days of shooting before we move on to the next location but right now Im just waiting for a nice break in the weather to get back to those streaks of light. Mark

Flooding sucks I'm sure...my time has yet to come..yet. So with that in mind. I'd like to hear from other EX1 housing owners or John on how to properly inspect these controls. I'd love some pictures and instructions. What to look for, be worried about, etc. I'd like to thank all in advance for their time in doing this. Mark

As mentioned previously, I too agree that blowing dry scuba air into the enclosure is a great solution and one I employ whenever I have had to open a housing on the deck. It has worked every time. Just recently, I had to open the housing on a dive deck in very warm moist air and then jump into 42 degree water. Not a problem using this technique. This has been my experience: Assuming moisture content does not change in a sealed housing, then you need to seal the housing with as low moisture as possible. If you can seal your housing in an air conditioned room with low humidity, then it should not matter the outside temp or humidity. If there was no fogging of the lens inside the room, and the water temperature is equal to or higher then the room temp then I don't think it is possible to fog. Colder air can hold less moisture so as a housing cools moisture will begin to condensate once the housing air reaches a temperature that it can no longer hold the moisture. Now here is something I'm not sure of...Does the speed or the temperature delta speed affect how condensation occurs? If that were true then covering the housing would lesson the difference in housing vs water temperature. And here is another unknown for me: I use to see guys put their housings in ice chests? Why if the moisture stays the same in the housing? Now I have had a fogged lens clear up after a while but I have always attributed this to rising temps in the housing due to the camera heating it up. And the higher temps allowed more moisture content in the air and thus it evaporated from the condensed lens. Now imagine if there were something that cooled faster then the port that protruded inside the housing such as a piece of steel or thin conductive material. I wonder if this could be used as the "moisture magnet" instead of the port and it pulled the moisture out before it condensed on the port or lens. That would be nice as long as someone could prevent a drip of water from falling on the camera. Well there is my million dollar idea...someone send me a check Mark

http://www.diveshow.tv/category/featured/ Enjoy! Mark

Order a scope cover from BASS PRO SHOPS...they work awesome and dont get lost. Here is a pic of my old EX1 viewfinder with one attached. Sorry about your loss though. That sucks. Mark