cmdasia

Stu, yes Apo is really beautiful, but it was not "buzzing" with life. The seahorse was actually in Dauin at about 30 meters but the grassy areas of the house reefs and the sanctury had some quite spectacular creatures! James, That shot was on a Nik 105 (coupled to an F80) with a compact port and 2 C&C 90s mounted 2 inch back from the end of the port and about 2 inches above the centre of the port on a ring mount - 1/60 F32, Velvia scanned on a Nik 4000. My gear is in for servicing at the moment but when I get it back I will post a pic of the setup - I find using the ring mount keeps me concentrated on shots which the setup can acheive as I dont have any real ability to move strobe position very much at all - I get less less selection in what I can photograph but better results (i hope ) as it forces me to go after just one specific style/type. I am also getting more used to the higher colour temp of the C&Cs close up as well for this style of shot.

Has anyone any experience with the Sangalaki area and where to stay. I am thinking of staying in Derawan and then diving Sangalaki, etc from there for a week with a group in April. Any advice on hotels etc would be warmly appreciated.

I have just had my first experience with Ike's customer service and I have to say I was stunned by the swiftness of their response and assistance. I had a problem with a local dealer (Thailand/Singapore) taking forever to get things repaired and had a repaired 125 strobe go belly up on me. I contacted Ikelite directly with the problem last Thursday - on Friday morning I had an email asking if I could send some pics of the strobe - this morning I had an email from Ike asking for my address as they were going to send me a brand new strobe No charge. Really impressive!!

Stunning images!!! Breath taking.

I have put up a small gallery of shots I took from a trip to Dumaguette in the Philippines a week ago. Still macro I am afraid, my continuing foray into WA is not a success to date (probably another reason for me to go digital soon!) and my DS125 drowned big time on the first dive. Hope you enjoy Dumaguette Gallery

I share your sentiment - I am praying that C&C will go back to the something compact akin to the NX80 - it will save me a fortune.

I was wondering if anyone has an idea or information regarding Sea and Sea design policy on its future housings? I am locked into a whole host of C&C ports from my NX80 and had been pretty depressed at the offerings from C&C for DSLRS (D100 and S2) - it seemed their design policy had gone to a "one size fits all" strategy, which would not have been too bad if the base housing they were using was not so physically large and unappealing. Whilst mooching their site lately I have noticed that they have not adapted the standard box for the DX1DS http://www.seaandsea.co.jp/products/digital/dx1ds/index.html or the DX10D http://www.seaandsea.co.jp/products/digital/dx10d/index.html Would anyone have any idea/info of intended C&C's direction? Thanks!

I think it is an Henshaw's snake eel (Brachysomophis henshawi) - BUT that eye?

#5 really is a shot I wish I had took - superb!

Have just posted some shots from a trip to Lembeh Straits in September, it been 5 weeks since the trip and I am still scanning away slowly F80, 2 x C&C YS90, NX80, Velvia 100 Small Lembeh gallery

Interestingly enough I have a Buddy (UK) self sealing SMB which is orange on one side (face) and yellow on the other - my problem is no one picks me up for hours though

I think a port convertor is a fantastic idea! I use a sea and sea film housing (nx80)which inpart I chose for the items compactness (and good looks!) but the current sea and sea digital offerings of the "big plastic shoebox" are leaving me in somewhat of a quandary for when I eventually go to digital SLR - thye are quite bulky and extremely ugly.

In all honesty I would not consider coming to Thailand "to dive" and not doing the Similans/Surins - the rest does not really compare. Other than going to other parts of Thailand to be socialable with freinds/divers I tend to do the majority of my main diving outside of Thailand - but every season visit the Similans at least once or twice (4 times last season). Even if you are coming on holiday and want to fit in some diving (secondary) I would still advise the Similans - you can dive by day boat but better to do that from Tap Lamu (1 hour north of Phuket) or take a short liveaboard (3 days or 5 days) as liveaboards are really cheap here (not the luxurious ones obviously).

I am not really sure what kind of soft coral they are on, it is in the bottom of a rusting tin can - I noticed the shrimp and moved in and then noticed the Dinah's goby at the back of the can - when I started taking pictures of the shrimp the goby went ballistic and was darting aroung everywhere - and this is a lucky shot. Over the trip we found a lot of Dinah's gobies going ballistic and on closer inspection they were all protecting eggs - like this one that had laid it eggs in a patch of flambouyant cuttlefish eggs Velia 100 and Lembeh is a trip I need to make again

I just returned from Lembeh last week, and used Velvia 100 for the first time - shooting macro exclusively I got through 20 rolls. I have now gotten them back from the developers and I am very happy (very)- I can see no difference between the 100 and the 50, indeed the 100 shots seem "crisper" than my previous 50 shots and retain the warmth and depth of colour through the loupe- the additional fstop it afforded me gave me quite a bit of latitude to try and push fstops further and shooting f22 and f32 for 80% of the trip I had no underexposures (except for distancing errors due to myself). I don't know too much about the technicalities of film but I won't be buying anymore 50, I will now stick to the 100