vlad

Win2k has an NTFS system so that's why your device didn't recognize it. As James said, format it fat32 and probably everything should be ok. If you put it in your computer as an IDE drive you may need to fdisk it first to create the partition but if you used this disk before probably you don't have to do it and you need just to format it. If you only have win2k on your box, get a boot disk with win98, boot up and then format your 10M HDD. Vlad

Ron, PCMCIA transfer is a paralell transfer so it will always be faster than the USB transfer that you could do from the camera. And also I think it would be a prephered method since you can get your CF card from the camera, set your camera down or somewhere safe and use the CF on your laptop. Vlad

Coco, Your english is good enough. Don't under estimate your self. Vlad

Hello, You guys are right, the digital adapter is pretty cool and the guy who build it did a lot of studying. I was checking his design and it is impressive (I am writing firmware for a living.) Also it is pretty cool that he has everything air tight. The only thing I don't like is the setup. I was offering my help to put some optical infrared port on it but he never answered my email. I thought about building my own... Vlad

Hello, Here is my take on the tiping techniques. First, tiping is optional and it has been instated as a must lately. WHY? As one of you guys said. That should be included in the trip cost. I think the divemasters that are doing this just for fun should not be tipped. Well ... you are doing this for fun right! For the divemasters that are doing this for a living ... they should be paid by the employing company and not wait for us to tip them. "Oh the pour guys are paid close to nothing" ... well, change job. But they don't know to do anything else. Sorry, grow stronger! I am a divemaster/assistant instructor and I don't even charge the shop I do this for. I am doing it for fun! Vlad

Hello, Here is what I think 1. Should I set the ISO to auto or a manual setting? (This can't be altered once the camera is in the housing) >>>>I think you should set it to 50 or 100. 2. What is the best mode to shoot with? Aperature priority, Shutter priority, or P? >>>It depends. I shoot in Av but I can see why you would want to set the time and then let the aperture be set automaticaly. Definitely not P 3. Because I dont have TTL, how do I adjust the strobe output to my camera settings? >>>>You don't! You will have to try settings. Although ... I think if your strobe can take the preflash, you could do TTL and everything should be OK. My strobe is crappy so I can't even set the power on it. I usualy set it to about 5 for aperture and then the time is usualy 1/60 or so. Vlad

Great shots! I can't critique them at all. Super job! Vlad

... OR you could disable the preflash from the S45 camera. I have a S50 and I shoot in C mode and what I did is that I have the flash always on and shoot in Av mode. Vlad

Sure, I'll send you a picture. If you want I have even the dimensions for the bracket and I can add that to the email. I'll take soem shots as soon as I'll get home. ...Maybe I'll make a photo equipment page on my website ... yes, that sounds even better. You didn't bug me about the DSLR, I am just envious. I have so start spending some money on my photo habits! I used my bonica setup for about 3 years with great results but I needed something more. About turning off the preflash if I remember you go in the menu and then you set the flash to manual. Of course you turn the red eye to off to. Vlad

Yeah, rub it in my face will you :-)))) I would love to be an DSLR shooter too but I am not prepared to spen that much money yet. I am getting great results wit the S50 and the Bonica strobe though. Vlad

It doesn't! The preflash triggers the Bonica strobe so you have to disable the preflash. What I do is that I have special settings for underwater in the C mode. My settings are: Av, no red eye reduction, no preflash and set the flash level to the lowest. The thing you have to know is that you HAVE to cover the camera's flash so you have to do something like tape over it or cover it with a bracket like I did. If you will not you will still get back scater. Vlad

Hey, I have the exact same setup and I don't use fiber optic. I built a bracket from aluminum to cover the camera flash and that also reflects the light up and triggers the Bonica strobe. I have great results. Vlad

Sandy, Thank you for the info. I have to see the cool stuff you are finding. I have never seen a frog fish on the wrecks on NC. I have to pay more attention! I found a megalodon tooth on the reef close to Indra once. How about that for a discovery :-) Silver on Schurtx ... intresting. I hope we will have great weather and we will be able to get off shore. I need to over pump my tanks to get longet bottom time :-) I'll let you know how it was. Vlad

Sandy, Thank you for the info. I am SO looking forward to see what Isabel did with the wrecks You said you saw a frog fish? Do you have a picture of it? Are you sure it is not a toad fish? If you don't know about this website check it out is really cool for fish on the NC coeast: http://core.ecu.edu/biol/nortons/NCFishes/index.htm It helped me way more than the reef fish book I have although the pictures on the fish on the website suck. I hope I'll see your nudis when I'll go. Vlad

Hey, Very, very impressice shots. I have an S50 but I am using a strobe. The water was very clear and most of your shots are macro that's why they are that good. ... I am guessing you were pretty shallow. Don't even try to shoot with the internal flash when you have stuff in the water. ... Us the other mortals, shoot in conditions less than perfect in a lot of cases :-) Good job on the shots though Vlad

This is a great discovery Sandy, Where did you found them on the sub? The last time I went on the sub was the last weekend in August and since I had students the only thing we did was to touch the bottom and to come back. One of them got down to 1000 psi just on the descent ... I will be going again to Beaufort 4-5 November. I don't know where we are going. I am looking forward to see what Isabel did too. Vlad

Speedo... I am living in the US for about 5 years now and all my life before that I did wear a speedo (about 25 years since the first 2-3 years I didn't wear anything). Of course now I don't wear that anymore since I heard way too much about it and I even can't consider wearing one anymore because I have been made self-conscious about it. BUT, What's the big deal with speedos. What, you can't take seing another male not completly covered. ...And for the women, trust me, here in US there is the biggest density of women that should wear a box when going to the beach not a bathing suit. I usualy hear from women "uhhh that's so groase" what's the big deal? I can't understand the speedo phenomenon. If you can't take it ... don't look. I should probably stop being opinionated and stick to photography Vlad

Herb, How heavy do you dive? 60' on two (2) breaths? That's about all you get from the hoses. I had a buddy of mine turning off my air in the pool so now I know you can reach back and turn it back on. Remember this the next time you jump in without your air on :-) Vlad

In reply to DivingDiva and this topic, I usualy see when I go diving from Beaufort NC, USA about 1-4 women on a boat with 16 divers. The strange part is that every class I helped with this year and last (probably about 8 clases each with 5-7 students) the percentage was more women than men. As you guys were saying no complains here. A couple of good looking female students can make te class more enjoyable :-). So ... why the proportion of students is about 60% women and 40% men and when the real diving begins the proportion is ... what 80% - 90% man and 10% - 20% women? What do you guys think. Vlad

It depends how big is the drop. For a 2-3 ft drop you can hold your camera above your head and try to slow yourself down when you hit the water (yes, it can be done) and then go down really fast. I usualy dive from a boat where negative buoyancy is required on entry and I jump in, I re-surface, swim for my camera that is handed to my by the captain and then go down fast shooting for the 15 ft. deco rope. I have never had any trouble even in strong current (probably about 1-1.5 knots) Vlad

Karl, I just can't believe my eyes ... second for writing a file on the CF card???? Are you talking about the camera writing the image on the CF card? Does it really takes 24-16 s for a RAW image to be written to CF? This is amazing. Of course your camera records the image first in its RAM but stii, as a transfer time I think that's not good. Does it really take that long or that's how long it takes for you to read the image with a CF reader? Vlad

I have one too, Yesterday (9.01.2003) I was diving on one of the wrecks on the NC, USA coast and after doing my 15 ft hang I realized I was not alone. There was an remore fish trying to attach to me. The remore was about 50 - 70 cm and I did the same boxing match with it and it did not give up, I even tried to hit it with my fin. Each time he was backing up a little bit and then comming back to me slowly. I even squirted some air at him but nothing. I finaly was able to get out of the water when he attached to the bottom of the boat. Vlad

Wellcome to the wonderful world of exif. If you are doing this manualy as everybody sugested than... no problem, as everybody said, copy/paste the exif data. If you are doing this automaticaly (I extract the exif data with a perl script and post it on each pictures' html page) than the only solution I found is to use Thumbs+, another graphical software packet that doesn't destroys the exif info. Actualy what Photoshop ditches is the manufacturer info from the exif data the rest of the exif information is intact so will still get camera model and unusefull stuff like that. If you want to see the result of my script check out www.pambucol.com and then go to Trips and pick any of the latest stuff. Vlad

Hey, I have the WD-300 with a S50 camera and the defog liquid works good for me. I use qtips or just a plain match with some cotton ball on its top and coat the whole interior of the housing (of cours, in front of the camera's lens). I do see the interference when I look at the front of the camera but I have never seen those on my pictures. Vlad

Thank you Scubamarli Vlad