caminu

I went to Komodo earlier this year (Apr 2007) with Grand Komodo Tours on MV Tarata. I think Grand Komodo Tours has the best price among the other operators. The published price for MV Tarata in 2007 is US$205 per night. MV Tarata is not a luxury boat. In fact, you may find it a little bit crowded if there are more than 10 guests on board. But still it is quite comfortable and the dive guides are good in general. Some of the photos of the dive boat can be found here: http://www.caminu.com/travel/komodo/index3.php The diving in Komodo is nice. Many of the sites have strong currents, and some of them are quite tricky (currents coming from all directions).

i used the EF16-35 zoom gear on this lens. no modification is needed, fits almost perfectly.

FYI, this was what the Yellow Wall looked like when I dived there. It was late in the afternoon, so that might affect the visibility. (Date: Apr 10, 2007)

(@Komodo) i would say it was a 50/50. we would usually drift with the currents. but at times, when there were some good photo opportunities or we would have to go to a particular spot at the dive site, we would fight against it. at one site, Manta Alley, the currents were a little bit tricky, they came from all directions. just follow the dive guide and you should not be drifted away. (@Sipadan) I was at Sipadan 3 years ago. The currents there were quite predictable there (for the dives I made there). As far as I could remember, the "Barracuda Point" and "South Point" were the two dive sites where there would be stronger currents.

I just came back from Komodo last month. The diving was very good. Our dive guide gave us briefing at the very beginning that "no currents no lives". So be expected to experience strong currents at some of the dive sites. Visibility was around 15m in general. Water temperature in the north was about 27C-28C, meanwhile it was around 25C in the south. The biodiversity is very rich in Komodo. The coral reefs are generally very healthy with the exception in some of the dive sites. In one of the night dives, we were at a site called Gilda Bay. The reef at this site was totally damaged by blast-fishing many years ago. Nevertheless, I could still see a lot of marine lives there. The underwater landscapes is very beautiful. In some site (Yellow Wall), plenty of soft corals were grown on the sea mounds. If the visibility could be better, it would make some very nice photographs. You may take a look at some of the picture I took from the trip. http://www.flickr.com/photos/caminu/sets/72157600080941009/

whale shark in bali....unbelievable!!. maybe i should pay a visit to bali again

the discussion gets too technical for me to understand. i think i need some time to digest all the theories behind hopefully Stephen will come up with an optimal setting for this lens soon, so that I can just apply it without any hassle.

@21mm f/8 @16mm f/8 @16mm f/9 @23mm f/7.1

I took the 16-35 L II to komodo earlier this month and had several dives with this new lens. Prior to getting the 16-35 L II, I was using the first generation of this lens. The physical length of the II is about 8mm longer than the 1. As I only got hold of the II just days before my trip, I didn't have time to optimize the port setup for this lens. I could only using the same port setup as the old 16-35 lens (Seacam SD + 35mm port extension). Here are some of the quick observations from the photos taken by the II: 1/ vignetting occured at 16mm end 2/ corner sharpness didn't seem to be any better than the my older photos taken by the I I wonder if I use a longer port extension, the result will be better. And I will show you some of the photos later. On the top side, the edge performance of the II is better than the 1 though.

there's one on ebay currently http://cgi.ebay.com/INON-D180-strobe-Top-o...1QQcmdZViewItem

No. they are not in the same place as the old bodies.

the photos were taken by a canon 1ds2 with inon strobes. and yes, most of them were from seraya (except for the pygmy, the triplefin and the pink anemonefish)

Just spent a short vacation in Bali. did several dives around the Tulamben area. Here are some of the photographs from this trip:

Thanks for the answer

I made this shot at Derawan Island, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It looks like there are a pair of shrimps (?) lying on a hydroid. They are found at around 10m deep. Can anyone please identify this critter for me?