ornate_wrasse

Thanks everyone for the replies. I've done some research and am in a bit of a quandry as to the best way to proceed. First, I just got this MacBook Pro and not sure if I should go to the trouble of calibrating it. I've heard that laptop screens are notoriously bad at getting the color right. So, should I even bother? I was thinking of getting a desktop machine and would definitely calibrate the monitor for that. If I do calibrate my MB Pro, do you have any suggestions for the right calibration to use? BTW,it's a 15 inch screen with the newer LED technology. I think, but am not sure, that the directions you gave me are for Photoshop. I currently don't own Photoshop, but I can see I need to purchase it soon I called Adorama and they suggested that I resize it myself. And they suggest 300 dpi. I did download the profile, but I was told that the printer profile only works using Photoshop. Another reason to buy Photoshop! FWIW, they suggested the Metallic paper for excellent vibrant color, so I think I'll go with that. Fortunately, I have a daughter in high school, so I can get Photoshop CS3 with the educational discount Again, thanks everyone, for the help. Ellen

Hi Claire, Like you, I use the D70s. This summer I took my D70S underwater for the very first time and used the 10.5 FE lens. Like you, I'd heard it could be a difficult lens to use. However, I was very pleased with the results. The main problem for me was strobe placement and I learned the hard way that the strobes have to be way back of the camera or else they end up being part of the image, the 10.5 is that wide of a lens. I have never used the 12-24 but I've heard from others (here and elsewhere) that the corners are soft when using this lens. I've personally decided against it. FWIW, I've decided that my next lens purchase is the Nikon 16mm FE. The attached file is an image I took with the 10.5. Cheers, Ellen

I've never had a 16x20 print done and wondered if you could give me some tips so it gets done right the first time. I will be using Adorama as I've heard good things about their prints from fellow uw photographers. Right now the 16x20 prints are only $4.95 so I'd like to take advantage of the good price. I am reading Martin Edge's book The Underwater Photographer, Third Edition. On page 44 it says "... if you want to enlarge a JPEG print to the size of a large poster, then it may not provide the quality unless you are using cameras of eight megapixels and above" My D70S does not have 8 megapixels! I do shoot in RAW, however, make corrections in Capture NX and convert to JPG. What should I do when I send the image to Adorama to print to get the best results? Thanks. Ellen

An uw photographer friend once said the following to me about sync cords: "Two is one and one is none" It makes perfect sense. I took his advice and bought a spare sync cord for $25 right here on the wetpixel classifieds. Sure as shootin', the sync cord I'd used previously that had never given me any problems failed right before a trip. My $25 investment saved the day. After this incident, his advice made complete sense to me.

I, too, have received the messages on the list. As you have said, some have reported negative experiences while diving at Wakatobi, while others report positive experiences. I have not deleted them and may be able to provide you with a few representative email copies I have not been there myself, although I have a trip planned for next October. Cheers, Ellen

This is indeed good to know. I think it's next on the agenda for new lens purchases I am thinking of going on a trip to the Socorro Islands and learn lots of great stuff from Bonnie and Marty next spring, so this lens will probably work quite well for the mantas and other big animals I will see. Thanks, Alex! Cheers, Ellen That's a very helpful chart. Thanks for your input, Julie. Cheers, Ellen

I've been hearing lots of great things about the Nikon 16mm lens. Do you know if it will work in the Subal Dome Port that I use with my 10.5? I'm assuming no diopters or other extensions are needed with the 16mm. Same question for the Tokina 10-17....will the Subal Dome Port that I use with my 10.5 work with this lens? Thanks! Ellen

Seeing Bonnie's post made me decide to finally post my photo in this thread. It was taken by Bonnie in Cozumel this past summer. It's also being used on the Scuba Club Cozumel website to promote Bonnie's next UW Digital Workshop.

Like this? Thanks for the help on the Mac mouse pad technique

Hi Giles, YES, that's the image! Can't imagine how you found it. I do have a gallery of my own and I was trying to link from my gallery but I got the error message: You are not allowed to use that image extension on this board. A valid format is: http://www.domain.com/picture.gif, an invalid format is: http://www.domain.com/picture.one.gif I think I may have taken the url at the top instead of properties. I just got a new MacBook Pro and having a hard time figuring out how to "right click" onto properties when linking to that photo from a post. Thanks for the great tutorial on putting photos in posts! All the best, Ellen

Bonnie Pelnar took a photo of me in August at the UW Digital Photo Workshop in Cozumel. Thanks Bonnie! Amazingly, she used the photo of me on the Scuba Club Cozumel website link for the next workshop. She kindly sent it to me and I'd love to use it in this thread. However, I got an error message when I tried to post it here. What's the best way to post the photo here? I also noticed that sometimes a small photo is posted here (it says click to enlarge on the photo) instead of a large photo in the body of the post. I was wondering what the differences are between the method for posting the large photos vs. the smaller ones that a lot of posters used when posting their best photo of 2007. Thanks! Ellen

This isn't a flood but nevertheless an uw photographer's nighmare. When at Scuba Club Cozumel in August, charging my batteries the night before my dives, I accidentally plugged the Focus Fix Light Charger into the Ikelite Substrobe 200 battery and left it to charge the battery overnight. The next time I looked at it, in the morning, the charger had completely fried the battery! The battery was red hot in temperature and appeared to have melted in several places. Not only that, but I had left it on top of a piece of plastic on a spare bed in the room. The plastic had melted and had affixed itself to the bedspread. I was horrified. Even after I disconnected the charger from the battery, the battery still remained hot for several hours. The nice part of the story, though, is that I was able to find a fellow photographer who happened to have a spare Ikelite SS 200 battery in her room. She kindly offered it to me and I was OK for the rest of the trip. Needless to say, when I charge batteries in the future, I'll be very careful which charger I use. Ellen

Thanks for sharing these images. I dived Clear Lake quite a few years ago. The dive still sets the record as the coldest dive I've ever done! The dive was made with my dive club on the first day of the season that access is available to Clear Lake. As I recall, the dive was made in March, but I could be wrong. It's a long drive from Portland and there wasn't too much to see, otherwise I'd have been back for repeat dives. Brrrrrrr! Cheers, Ellen

Would you believe that site about connecting through a network was blocked by the filter here at work?? I'll have to check it out at home. I haven't tried connecting the FlashTrax XT yet to the MacBook Pro. Will try it when I'm at home. How about the rest of the images on my PC if network option doesn't work for me? The bad thing about my old desktop PC is that the USB is not the fast 2.0 connection, but rather the old slow USB. When I transferred images from the FlashTrax XT to the PC, it seemed like it took forever Thanx for the quick response. Cheers, Ellen

Hi all, I just bought a MacBook Pro this weekend. All of my images currently reside on my ancient and slow desktop PC. What is the best way to transfer the images to the new laptop? I was using Capture NX to work on my raw images on the desktop PC, but it's been painfully slow at rendering the images and making adjustments to them. I just loaded Capture NX on my MacBook Pro but there are no images to work with I do have a FlashTrax XT loaded with images from my recent trip to Cozumel and was wondering if I can transfer them to the MacBook Pro directly from the FlashTrax? Any suggestions from those more experienced than I in working with a Mac? Thanx! Ellen

The Fry's warranty certainly may not be convenient for everyone. In my own case, both the Apple store and Fry's take the same amount of time to get there (25 minutes). I am curious, though, as to how the warranty has paid off with every Mac purchase you have ever made. Could you give an example? Cheers, Ellen PS Congratulations on your new MacBook Pro!

Hi everyone, I wanted to share with you something I found out yesterday completely by accident. I'd been planning to buy a MacBook Pro for some time and was planning on buying it at the local Apple store. I was at the Fry's electronics store here in Portland buying a Logitech headset when I found out they sell MacBook Pros. At the Apple store, I was going to have to wait 5 days to get my MacBook Pro. At Fry's, they had one 15 inch MacBook Pro in stock. It was the kind I wanted to purchase (matte LED screen). So, no waiting as would have been the case had I purchased it from the Apple store. This was looking better and better. When I started to discuss the warranty, they told me that Fry's offers a 5 YEAR WARRANTY which is 2 years more than Apple offers. The price of the 5 year warranty? Only $50 more than Apple's cost for the 3 year warranty! To summarize, I paid $449 for a 5 year warranty when Applie charges $399 for a 3 year warranty. I normally don't purchase warranties when I buy products but this one sounded pretty good so I decided to spring for it. An added plus is that Fry's offers loaner computers if yours is in for repair. Apple does not offer the use of loaners at all! Perhaps some of you will find this information useful. I certainly hope so. Cheers, Ellen

The problem appears to have been solved. One night I put a few moisture munchers into the housing, closed the housing and let it sit overnight. The next day I opened the housing and reinserted the battery. It did not blink. I also licked my finger and touched my wet finger to the prongs. When I did that, the blinking started again but stopped when I removed my wet finer. I think the high humidity in Coz may have had something to do with it. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is bone dry in the summertime. I suspect that any moisture that was in the housing in Cozumel had a chance to fully dry out in the dry environment in my locale. I didn't have to resort to using the hairdryer, but looks like either that or a high pressure air hose wouold be a good fix if the light refuses to stop blinking. I'll test it again when I'm in Florida in two weeks if the light decides to start blinking on me. Thanx all for your input! Ellen

I just got back from Cozumel where I used two older strobes I'd used with my Nik V with my Nikon D70S and a Subal housing. My Subal housing has 2 Nikonos 5 pin connectors. I was able to use the same sync cords I'd used with my Nik V and everything worked fine. The two strobes were the Ikelite SS200 and the SB105. Both were used on manual. While in Coz, I was able to demo the Inon 240Z and ended up purchasing it. Until I get a second Inon strobe, I will use the 240Z and the SB105 in combination. So, yes, I was able to use my older strobes with my digital camera and everything worked A-OK.

I am somewhat electrically challenged...can you please explain how I can determine that the 2 contacts are not shorting out against the housing? One of the other divers in our group suggested that the problem may have been a short. This CPA doesn't know a whole lot about electricity

Seems like something to try before I go the hairdryer route. How many of the moisture munchers did you put in the housing to absorb the moisture?

I received this tip from a fellow diver on the boat after trying to get some shots of a juvenile spotted drum. The spotted drum always swim in a figure eight pattern. If you have your camera in front of you waiting for the spotted drum to swim its pattern you will likely get a good shot. They typically find a sheltered area and can be found on the side of the rock that has little current. Get into position, wait patiently for it to make its move and you could end up being rewarded with a great shot. That's my tip of the day. Ellen

I will try this hairdryer trick and see if it works. I'll let you all know the results. Thanks for your input. Ellen

Instead of aiming a "hairdresser" into the housing, how about a "hairdryer"? I don't have any hairdressers laying around my house Thanks for the tip. Ellen

I just got back from an UW Photography Workshop in Cozumel. I was using my brand new Subal ND70 housing. It was purchased used from ReefPhoto but it was new to me. It worked fine the first couple of days. In the evening, I prepared the camera and housing for the anticipated shooting the next day. One morning I noticed the Leak Detector light flashing continuously. I thought this was rather odd since the camera had not been in the water. I checked the inside of the housing and found there was no moisture inside...it was dry as a bone. I rubbed the two metal wires with a towel, thinking that perhaps there was some moisture on the wires. It didn't make a bit of difference and the light kept flashing. This went on for over 24 hours. After my dives the next day, there was no water in the housing. Finally, after it had been flashing nearly a day and a half, I removed the battery. Does anyone know why the leak detector would go off by itself without the presence of moisture in the housing? I would like to be able to rely on it as a leak detector on my trip to Florida next month but so far that doesn't appear to be an option until I get this resolved. Thanks in advance for opinions and input. Ellen