in_minsk_we_trust

I just spent a couple of days diving in Tulamben and was horrified by both the guide's and diver's behavior there. Almost all the divers I saw were shooting large DSLR's which made their lack of buoyancy and concern for habitat all the more unforgivable. Almost every photog there would have their fins digging into something behind them, or their knee on something else and both guides and divers were going completely overboard with their pointers. I left feeling a great despair about our community as a whole. It seems to me lately that when you see divers carrying lots of photographic equipment they are probably on their way to break, bother or kill something. It sucks.

For sale is a Canon G10 with FIX Fisheye Housing, Super Wide port, Standard port and Diopters. Asking for $1200 or best reasonable offer. Body is functional and comes with batteries and charger. The camera has spent more time being used at sea than on land. It's never been flooded but has been subjected to some salt spray. You can see some salt deposit here as well as a stress fracture around the shutter button. There's a small hair in the lens that doesn't affect image quality to my eyes. There are also some small scratches on the ports that do not affect image quality. We just got back from a trip to Timor-Leste so here are some pictures taken with this housing combo within the last month, just to show the image quality and that it works. And more here... I'd like to sell everything as a package. Please PM me here on WP. Thanks for looking! Chris

Hey guys, Not sure if anybody has posted this before, but I found it on Vimeo and thought it would be a good share. http://vimeo.com/46485171 From the Vimeo page: Sue Austin, from Devon, is a disabled artist who aims to change perceptions of the wheelchair. For her, after spending years bedbound, the wheelchair gives her freedom. She 'flies' a NHS wheelchair underwater. She has adapted the chair with battery powered propellers first developed for the US Navy divers and large perspex aerofoils to control turns. She is in the process of applying for a patent and hopes that one day these chairs will be made available at diving centres across the world. Shot around Sharm el Sheik, Egypt on a Canon 5D and available in full res HD, 1080p. Filmed, edited and graded by Norman Lomax of Moving Content. Original Music by Jack Martin

Thanks for the input. We ended up booking with Seraya. We'll do a few boat dives to Liberty in the morning and then shore dive till our computers pop and fizz after that. Our flights arrive/depart at decent hours for the travel, but we were in Bali 2 weeks ago and can confirm that leaving the airport does suck pretty bad. K. Cheers to all of you. Chris

I bought two tickets from Denpasar to Dili last night on Batavia's website for 133 each. The website is legit and uses Paypal for the transaction.

Elmer and Drew, You guys are rockstars. I'll email those contacts now. Cheers.

Hello helpful friends, I have a 4 day layover in Denpasar next month and I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble to try and dive while I'm there. I fly in on Friday afternoon and then back out on Monday night, so I'm thinking we could get in a handful on Saturday and Sunday. Is this a realistic timetable for getting over to Tulamben? I searched around for an answer to this topic before posting with no luck, but if you know of a similar post feel free to link it. Cheers! Chris

Hey guys, I in no way had anything to do with the production of this video, but I wanted to share it just the same. For me, the incredible editing shows waht is possible with our footage. So often we put together little videos of dives, and that's great, but there is a chance to tell stories with our footage. This video makes me think outside the box. Hopefully you enjoy it too. PS Paul Heinerth and Brian Kakuk provided the deep footage on top of their duties as safety. http://vimeo.com/45075681 This is the visual poem of William Trubridge's world record freedive to 100 meters (one hectometer, basically one football field length and back) in order to bring light to the plight of the world's smallest cetacean, the Hector's Dolphin of New Zealand. With one breath of air and diving without weights, fins or any propulsive assistance, William descended to 101 meters in the waters of Dean's Blue Hole, Bahamas, the deepest blue hole in the world. This short documentary of the record attempts to transmit what it is like to freedive deep beneath the surface, and how we can return to explore our potential as an aquatic mammal in the search to help our endangered cousins of the seas. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Directed and Edited by Matthew Brown Written and Produced by William Trubridge verticalblue.net Director of Photography - Matthew Brown UNDERWATER CAMERAS Jason Sapp Paul Heinerth Brian Kakuk Charlie Beede Brian Pucella Alfredo Romo Paolo Valenti Igor Liberti SURFACE CAMERAS Matthew Brown Nic Rowan Dolphin Footage - Liz Slooten, Steve Dawson, and NZ Whale and Dolphin Trust Music Composed by Christopher Ward Voice Coaches - Linda Trubridge and Gerry Dinnage TEAM VERTICAL BLUE AIDA Judges - Ute Geßmann and Ben Weiss Coach/Timekeeper - Brittany Trubridge Deep Safety Divers - Paul Heinerth, Brian Kakuk, and Jason Sapp Safety Divers - Charlie Beede, Brian Pucella, and Alfredo Romo Still Photography by Igor Liberti and Paolo Valenti whaledolphintrust.org.nz/nihectors.html Here's sort of the making-of/behind the scenes (basically bloopers) of the video, hehe tinyurl.com/73n99pz shot on the naked Canon HV40 (R.I.P) and edited with Sony Vegas

For "in the field" dumping of files, I'm still using LaCie rugged drives. They weigh almost nothing and can take a little bit more of a beating than others, although I wouldn't test it too much. Anyway, 3 of the bus-powered 5200RPM drives at 1 or 1.5TB is where I dump the files, then when we get home I can swap them to my 7200RPM drives here for editing. For local film shoots and the like, the most popular drives right now seem to be the G-Technology G-RAIDs.

Congratulations, Mark! I'm sure you will receive tons of support from this side of the border. The diving around Vancouver Island is some of the best in the world, and a liveaboard based out of the south seems like a great idea to me. I don't have a whole lot to add except that I hope it can cater to the huge tech diving community here. I think southern wreck safaris from a liveaboard would be really fun and easy to charter. Good luck my friend! Chris

That's a hilarious post. Chavala, My wife and I will be in Dili from Aug 25th to Sep 23rd. I think things have changed since that last bit of info. There's still only a few dive ops, but the hotel scene seems to have developed a bit and if you want I can forward you some links. There's a fair bit of diving around Dili and Auturo Island. We could probably put together some boat trips to the good stuff, or maybe even something more exploratory, if we have enough people and our schedules align. PM if you're interested. Chris

Stephen did a test a ways back. You can find it here. Also, Liz Rogers has posted some pics here and on her website.

Just in case anybody has been looking at these, it appears that SmallHD has dropped their prices on the DP4 by $100. Not sure if this is just a temporary thing or if they plan to keep them at this price, but it may help somebody "pull the trigger".

Also, what port were you using? And were you using the AF-ON button? If so, how did it handle the low light? Thanks!

Review here