bondo

Here's a story from a blog in Victoria, Canada about a gull eating octopus. http://www.birdfellow.com/journal/2012/04/..._in_victoria_bc

I'm switching systems, so the ol' Ikelite systems getting a new home. Ikelite 20D housing Ikelite Dome Port 5503.5 Ikelite 8 inch dome port #5510.80 Ikelite Dome Port 5508.45 for a Canon 100mm f/2.8 EF USM Macro lens Canon EOS 20D 8.2 MP Digital SLR Camera - Black (Kit w/ EF-S 18-55mm Lens)

Don, You're right, there is also a rubber insert for the TX5 camera. But I do have the correct one installed. Upon reading the instructions, they say you need to have a desiccant pack installed in front of the camera in the housing. I'll give that a try, and that may fix the problem. The camera may have been moving forward just enough not to make contact with the buttons. Thanks for the tips! Oh, I'll also mention, in case someone searches for information about this combination in the future, that the camera has the ability to do a underwater custom white balance, but the Sony housing doesn't give you access to the button. Honestly, I don't know what some of these engineers are thinking. I haven't checked into the Ikelite housing yet to see if it does, but at this point, I love the camera for surface work, but it just doesn't work well underwater. I used to have a Olympus (I think 5050) camera with their housing and it worked wonderfully, but so far the results with this camera haven't been acceptable to me.

I recently bought a Sony CyberShot DSC-TX7 underwater with the Sony MPK-THJ Underwater Marine Pack to take on trips when I didn't want a extra case full of my DSLR gear. I love the size of the setup and can live with the lower image quality, but am concerned over the inability to change modes on the camera below about 40 feet. I don't know if I was doing something wrong, or if it's a design flaw. I even tried recalibrating the rear monitor, but whenever I was below about 40 feet, I could still shoot photos, but the controls that work the touch screen on the back of the camera, seemed to be out of alignment. This meant, that I couldn't change shooting modes (change to video, turn on and off flash) My bet is that pressure is putting enough "flex" on the case to cause the issues. Just wanted to get this information out there to see if anyone has any suggestions, or if they've heard of this problem before. Thanks Mike

Bump... just posting a reply to get it back in the view new post section to see if I can get some replies. Please someone tell me it's still good and colorful there, I really want to get back to Tulamben. Oh and moderators, should this possibly be changed to the dive destinations forum?

Thinking of a trip to Bali in May and I'm wondering if anyone has been recently and can comment on if they've noticed any coral bleaching. Did some looking around the forums, but couldn't find any first-hand reports about that area in particular. If you put faith in this NOAA outlook, the next four months look as good as can be expected for the area:

I'm considering going to the Sipadan area and was interested if anyone knew about the current status of the MV Celebes Explorer. I've seen a few posts about the boat here, but latest report is almost 3 years old. I can't seem to find much out about the boat, which concerns me a bit. Wondering if anyone here has any information about it and its reliability. Thank you Mike

Thanks for the info Krafty!

Thank you all for your advice. I'm hoping to hear from someone who's been to both destinations. But it sounds like I won't go wrong with either. Thanks Mike

I'm going to be in Kuala Lumpur in late November and would like to add a week of diving to the trip. From reports here, I think I've narrowed it to either Palau Weh (Sebang) Indonesia, or Similan Islands, Thailand. So my question is, which of these places is better to dive? I enjoy muck and general reef diving. I'm not into wrecks. Both appear to be about the same amount of work to get to and I'm not picky about accommodations. A nod goes to Similan Islands, because I'd do them on a liveaboard, and that always makes diving easier and you get more dives. And while I'm asking, in looking at this post from 2007, Drew recommends these boats as mid-price and safe; does it still hold true? West Coast Explorer, Black Manta, Colonna VI and Genesis Recomendation for liveaboard to Similan Islands Thank you in advance for any information I really appreciate the feedback on this site. Mike

Wow, I was just looking at some stuff on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch....not good http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/o...e_n_190552.html http://www.vbs.tv/watch/toxic/garbage-island-1-of-3

Hope these guys aren't attracted to scuba divers! http://www.discoveryon.info/2009/09/rare-t...site-found.html

Sure you can! You're probably looking at the uncompressed file size in your image editing program. Try saving the image with the criteria and then clicking on the saved image icon and: if you're on a mac ... apple+i will show you the info menu and you can see the file size... or from a pc, right click on the icon and go to properties and it will show you the file size. Good luck Mike

Nice stuff. I really like this photo from your home page gallery. Image I'm assuming it's a sea spider of some type. Right? Nice work, I'm a big fan of that area also. Mike

I don't know much about video, but I was looking at the second clip and it looks really choppy on my machine. Is that the way others are seeing it, or do I need some other software to check it out? Tried both Quicktime player 7.5 and Premiere Pro CS 3. Mike