cneal

Taken in Bonaire last September.

Can the camera and strobe sync at 1/1000? Most cameras can not. I would suggest trying a more normal 1/200.

He wants to see if you have the shade turned wrong, If its 90 degrees off, you will see the port.

A vacuum system is prevention. Insurance is for recovery. Insurance is a balance of cost against the real loss from a flood. When I was shooting film I found the cost of insurance for a year was nearly that of a camera body and lens. So I started going without insurance. I still don't carry flood insrance. I do carry theft insurance on my camera equipment.

I started out folding each arm across the top of the camera and then back, placing the strobe just outside of the handle. It carried well, but everything was a bit heavy it it was a long walk to the boat. Then I went to a short piece of rope running through a small PVC pipe with a brass clip on each end hooked to the first segment of each arm.. This handle allows the camera to be carried and handed to others without having them grab the wrong bit. This configuration has the first segment oiting up withe the next segment going down to the strobe. The last addition was a clip on shoulder strap that I attach to the homemade handle clips. I use this carrying the camera from a shoulder on any long walks. It makes the camera a lot easier to carry and I remove the strap before getting wet. As you see there are a lot of different configurations that can be used. You just need to assemble the camera and carry it around to see what will work for you.

Supporting the light in the water is a lot easier than above water. Once you're underwater you don't tighten the joints near the level you are doing now.

It has been my experience that beside most rinse tanks is the hose used to fill it without a nozzle. I just use the hose and carefully rinse all of the controls and o-ring seals including the strobes. After a trip I will asemble the housing and strobes and soak for a few hours. Once a year I replace all of the easily replaced o-rings. And send the housing for service after two or three years where everythinhg is replaced.

Its a rinse tank, not a soak tank. If there's room in the tank stick it an pull it out. If there's not room take it to the fresh water hose and rinse it. If neither works drape a wet toswel over it to keep it damp. This will help keep salt crystals from forming. At the end of the day use the camera rinse bucket on the dock for a soak. If there isn't a dedicated camera bucket use the hose for a low pressure rinse. Don't use the a gear bucket, someone may have added chemicals to stop their gear from smelling. After the trip completely assemble the housing and strobes and soak for a few hours in warm water, then work all of the buttons and store unassembled. This gets everything soaked without exposing any connectors that should be covered.

That is my primary wide angle lens. I really like it with my Aquatica housing, 8 inch dome and my D90. I think it does well at close focus/wide angle.

I bought my AD90 housing with an Ikelite bulkead. I also purchased the Ikelite TTL adapter which is needed to do TTL with dual stobes. A lot of people will say just go manual with the strobes and I do that a lot. But since my previous camera was a Nikon F3 and TTL was not available I just had to try it underwater. I use the secondary strobe bulkhead for a vacum fitting.

I have a small rope running through a small piece of PVC pipe clipped to the base of each strobe arm on my Aquatica AD90. Makes it easy handing the camera up to the boat and carrying short distances. But because of the port, viewfinder and strobes I have to hold the housing away from my legs walking with the camera. And a long walk with the 25 pounds gets a bit tiring. (The pair of DS-161's don't help the weight.) So for carrying to and from the boat I use a padded clip on shoulder strap from an old piece of luggage. I unclip it at the boat and store it in the port cover while I'm diving. This makes a great difference with the camera when its a long walk from the hotel to the boat.

The 60mm is a good macro lens allowing you to pull back for smalll scenes. But if you are want to get more than 1:1 with diopters you will want the 105 mm for the increased working distance which is reduced by the diopters. In addition to the macro lens you will probably want a wide angle zoom to use behind a dome. For the selection of this lens and dome port the argument will become nearly religious with the selection of fish-eye or rectileniar and dome size.

You got me. Don't know how to go about finding the culprit. At least your not finding the problem using your camaera as the leak detector.

I would suggest spraying a soap / water mixture on the housing and watch for a bubble. When I installed on my Aquatica the washer went on the inside and I used a wrench to tighten slightly. less than 1/8 turn.

Just got back fron my first trip with the Air Lock installed. A week on Little Cayman. It worked as advertised. If there is a reason to make a big deal about it, you were either caught being sloppy or failed during the dive. I don't see the latter happening. John, I installed the valve on the spare strobe bulkhead. (Ikelight fitting on the primary.) It looked as if installing on the side of the housing would interfere with the zoom/focus knob. Roger, the bulkhead fitting is plastic. To remove the metal one way valve you simply unscrew it from the buldhead (plastic fitting) and replace it with the supplied cap. I would suggest watching the video on the Backscatter web site. Between that and the photos on the web site all of your questions should be answered in detail. All the black bits are plastic. Carl

I have to be on the internet to use their software? What if I'm on a boat several days away from civilization?

Oceanic Delta 3 / DX4 Oceanic Slimline Octo 11 years old and going strong

Backscatter's Airlock was my decision for a pressure test device for my housing. It came this week and I've installed it. Pro's 1. Completely mechanical. No batteries to go dead or electronics to fail. 2. Footprint is small and adjustable (direction). Clearly would fit in the available real estate. Con's 1. More expensive than the Vivid, which was the primary competitor in my decision. 2. Competely mechanical, no ability to check pressure at any time. Installation: It was easy on the Aquatica housing. Remove a nut on a blank bulkhead. Insert the furnished fitting and tighten a nut. I don't know why it bothered me to open a hole in the housing, I open a bigger one everytime I install the Aquaview viewfinder before diving. And now and can test my work for both. Use: The manual pump easily reached the recommended -5 inches of mercury for a pressure test and the -10 inches for locking all ports in place. The pressure did hold overnight. And since there are no electronics or other items to evaluate it's done. Note: I am removing the valve for packing the housing, closing the bulkhead fitting with the included cap. Packing pressure on the valve could possibly leverage into breaking the plastic bulkhead fitting. Reintalling the valve will just take a few seconds.

I have the same change. Using Firefix 19.0.2. I did find a new button to the right of the listing that pops up when I put my cursor near it. This button provides a quick look at the first and latest messages in the topic.

Jean from Aquatica responded directly to me. The viewfinder has to go back for service as it seems it did not come through the last return air trip unscathed. Simply as my observation the viewfinder has multiple elements and a prism. I should think of it as a lens more than a viewfinder. It should be in my camera bag instead of in the housing roller bag with the vibration and impacts. Maybe that's why Aquatica sells a padded otter box for the viewfinder.

Assembling my housing after servicing I am having a problem with the optional viewfinder. When I install the viewfinder the image from the camera viewfinder is off to one side. Everything is fine with the standard housing viewfinder. When I examine the Aquaview viewfinder out of the housing it appears to show a view about 10 degrees off to the side. Anyone have an idea what could cause this?

I've bought photo equipment from B&H for years and it is one of the first places I look. Recently I tend to go to Backscatter when i am looking for underwater knowledge.

A longer extension would be the direction I would try first.

CNTRL-SHIFT-PLUS will increase the type size and widen the screen real estate used. CNTRL-MINUS will take it in the other direction.

It marked as read but the text does not change from bold to normal until I refresh the page. Before it was as if the page refreshed automatically when I used the back button from reading a message to the forum. Now I have to hit F5. Firefox 18.0.2