scuba spark

I tried signing it today, I'm pretty sure it worked, but it looks like it just takes some time for the web page to update.

Ya, it's cheaper but I thought the olympus housing for 620 was right around 1k plus another couple hundred for a port. I know I would eventually need more than one port, but you have to start somewhere. I'll probably go with the wet lenses though and continue to work on my "skills" until I get to the point where my camera either stops working or I've reached the limits of it's capabilities. Thanks again for all the information given in this thread, it's been helpful.

Ah, but the savvy diver will be able to convince his wife that the extra photo equipment is needed so you can share the experience with her. Because you don't want her to feel left out by not diving Thanks for the condolences. It was our first attempt at having a child and the doctor said that the fact that she got pregnant so quickly is a good sign. He also said that many people have miscarriages on their first attempt. It's disappointing, but the practice is fun, and practice makes perfect. So hopefully things will go more smoothly next time.

An interesting topic. I was in bonaire about 2 months ago with my wife on a diving trip. About two weeks after we got home, my wife found out she was pregnant. We just went for our umpteenth checkup with the doctor today and he confirmed that she's had a miscarriage. My first concern was that she may have been pregnant while we were on vacation. He's fairly certain that the pregnancy happened after the trip due to the size of the embryonic sack and that her diving had nothing to do with it. He then asked how deep we had gone. well he was more concerend with the pressure than the depth. I told him we didn't go deeper than about 105-110 feet, and he said that we would probably have had to have gone deeper for it to be an issue, but that if it were his wife he would not allow her to dive while pregnant. So, to quit rambling, I would have to be in the don't dive if you're pregnant category. There's just not enough information out there regarding what effects it may have on your unborn child. In my mind, the risk is too great.

Thanks for the link. That was a big help. So it looks like around $300 give or take for two of the macro lenses. Then another $350 for this Inon wide angle lense .That's still about half of what I'd pay for a housing and ports for the dslr I was looking at, so I guess it's a bargain in someones book.

Thanks Stew, those are some great pictures that he took with his g9. I hope to get shots like that one of these days. I'm fairly certain that my uw case is threaded for 67mm lenses. I guess I need to start looking around to see what it would cost to get a lens or two, I guess one for macro and one for wide angle and figure out if it's worth the cost. I'll probably pick up a dslr at some point this year for top side photo's if nothing else. If I can spend a couple hundred bucks on lenses and get the shots I want instead of spending big bucks on a case and ports for a dslr I know that'd make the wife happy.

I first started playing around with underwater photography about 3 years ago. I purchased my future brother in laws old Olympus 5050 with the Olympus underwater housing and an Epoque ES 150 DS strobe. As I take more and more pictures, I'm finding that I really like taking macro photos. My trip to Bonaire a few months back showed the short coming of my setup. I can't get the small critters the fill the frame. The best I can seem to do is get a decent shot then crop it to get the picture I envisioned while taking the shot. Is it worth it to get wet lenses to attach to my housing? That's assuming that there's still something being made that I can attach to it. My other option would be going the DSLR route. I like what I've seen with the new Olympus 620 so far and I like the fact that they make a housing for it as well. If not that one, then one of the other entry level dslrs out there. I'd probably keep the old camera for my wife because she's showing some interest in taking photos too.

Thanks for the ID.

I don't know if there are any anemone experts out there, but I came across a few of these while doing a night dive on the Bari Reef in bonaire. They were all found in sand flats without any coral or rocks near by. I'm sure it's a fairly common anemone, but I had never seen one this open at night before.

I can't really offer any suggestions for the non fiction side, most of what I would recommend has already been suggested. You said you liked Weber, so I'm guessing you like hard science fiction, do you read any fantasy as well? Like Robert Jordan, his wheel of time saga was pretty good for the most part, unfortunately he passed away before he finished the last book. Another author named Patrick Rothfuss wrote a great novel (at least in my mind) called The Name of the Wind or Stephen Eriksons Malazan book of the Fallen series is another good set of books to read. Especially if you'll be gone for a month. I'll have to go through my books to pick out the good science fiction that I have laying around my house.

I've never had a problem diving with a goatee. It usually ends up getting fairly bushy by the end of my dive trips as well because I can't be bothered to shave, too much diving to do . I use one of the newer atomic masks with a soft skirt that seals very well. I remember diving with someone down in florida a few years back that looked like a younger Jerry Garcia and he didn't seem to have any problems with leaking either. Well, his mask leaking at least......

If you have a strobe as well, I'd suggest a hard case too. I purchased the camera I use from my brother in law and he already had a pelican case with foam cutouts. It adds a decent amount of protection to all your gear and makes things easier by having a single place to store everything (minus the arm, i have to pack that with my dive gear).

I'm sort of in the same situation that you're in. I've been using an olympus 5050 for two years now. My skills definitely haven't outgrown my camera yet, but my wife wants to start taking pictures while we dive as well. That pretty much gives me the green light to purchase a new camera and housing for it before we head down to bonaire next spring. That said, the 5050 is capable of taking some great pictures and I probably would have waited another year or two before upgrading if my wife wasn't constant taking the camera out of my hands. My only complaint with the 5050, which has been said a few times, is the speed when shooting raw. If someone can come out with a compact that shoots raw at a decent rate with a sensor larger than a postage stamp, I'd probably pick it up even if it were pricier than the lower end dslr's. If that doesn't happen, I'll probably go with an olympus 520 or maybe one of the new micro 4/3's depending on when they come out and their image quality. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to step up to such a huge rig while I'm diving.