hoovermd

Wow, word for word my EXACT experience. I didn't even bother calling when the last one died. I DO now have 4 250Gb raw drives to check out tho...

All my drives were over the 500Gb or greater. Interesting discussion at: http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/laci...xtreme-failure/

based upon my experience and that of many others I would be loathe to purchase another LaCie product. I've scrapped close to half dozen of their 500+ Gb drives. They seem to last just over a year (if that). I just replaced my last LaCie witha G-Drive unit.

Now if I could just have somethign that would use my 15mm Nikonos lens

Mosquito on my left wrist. Set for Air Cobra (w/o compass) console set for Nitrox Analog SPG I find that for a quick depth/time check the Mosquito is great. Setting it on air gives me a really conservative profile. For a quick air check the Analog is much clearer for me than the digital display on the Cobra. The Cobra effectively acts as a backup and a record keeper of my dives and Nitrogen/O2 levels. I find that I tend to keep a close eye on things for the first 5 minutes just to make sure that there are no equipment malfunctions and once I settle at a depth I've got a pretty good idea of my consumption on a per minute basis and then only check the air occasionally. I typically try and spend the second 50% of my dive at 50% of the depth of the first half, and I also try and spend a few extra minutes at the 15' level also. Even a semi-emergency ascent from 100' won't use that much air So sorry to confess that I really don't pay that much attention to my air & depth.

I'm headed to the Galapagos next month and am really torn on whether to dive with a single Ikelite SS200 or two of them. I'm shooting a 5D with Canon glass 16-35 and/or a 14mm. All the discussions I've read indicate that current can be an issue even descending to some of the dive spots. As you all know pushing a large rig with 2 wide strobes thru any type of current is a challenge so I'm wondering... Opinions?

I too am waiting post-October to see what is what. I have requirements to run Linux and Windoz for the software I develop so this year I tested out both Parallels and beta VMWare Fusion on my current 15" MacBook Pro. I was impressed enough to purchase the Fusion product. (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion) I'm hoping that be the end of the year that I can either: 1) Get a 13" MacBook Pro 2) Get a 15" MacBook Pro with >3Gb of RAM 3) Get a more Juiced up 13" MacBook w > 2Gb RAM I find the 15" to be just a tad larger than what I really need so I'd like a more compact form factor. The rumor mill is abuzz with what might be in store (no pun intended)

15" MacBook Pro running Aperture. That way I can throw away the crap really quickly I create a Project for each day and burn that project onto DVD at the end of the day. Even at 13MP per photo I'm hard pressed to keep more than 4.7Gb per day. I've always been a fan of non-magnetic media for short term backup when travelling since it is relatively immune to most environmental issues. The plan this year is to add a Firewire or USB disk as a backup of the backup

Since this seems to be all about fishing it seems that that industry would be the most useful to target. I'm assuming that we can do little WRT the finning issue but des antone have any info on which markets and restraunt chains purchase significant amounts of fish form these fishermen? Maybe a financial boycott? Also perhaps some PR campaign showing the Cruise ship passengers the stacke of fins or such could work as well? It may be a futile attempt but....

We are actually reluctant to share "our system" while on the boat. Too many shakers and it might get confusing. We have developed (as I'm sure you have) a simple code system.

However being a fan of gauges I would find this less of an issue. Imagine that you would simply pump up your housing to the specified pressure required for the depth you seek. The gauge on the housing would read the value and away you go. The upshot here is that any leak would show up as a pressure drop or as bubbles in the H2O (instead of H20 in the housing) and one could simply head to the surface to increase the pressure much like the way ascending with an empty tank "magically" makes more air.

Absolutely true. The beer also comes in these littel "fun size" bottles. Reminds me of those little snickers bars you hand out to the kids at Halloween Not to be missed though are the fried Gouda balls... yum!

Even tho I am married to my buddy since we are both photogs each and every dive is essentially a solo dive. Anyone who has dove with us has heard our little "rattle code"... We each carry a rattle and have several signals. Much like hand signals but more useful when you cannot see the other person. Very often I am down at 100' shooting some WA subject and she may be up at 25' taking macro, so we have adapted. I agree that the "rule of thumb" should be to know your limits. I am really annoyed when operations will not allow solo diving because IMHO I'm safer solo than with an "assigned" buddy. Simply assigning a buddy for the convenience of the operator places my buddy at risk since I'm likely to be concentrating upon the photographic subject and really doesn't do me any favors because I rarely feel comfortable with the skill of my newfound partner. Let us all admit that we photo types are really crappy buddies and each dive with a camera is basically a solo dive for someone. Kudos to boats like the Ocean Rover which allow solo diving. I'm less than happy with some of the Aggressor boats which do not.

Saw a presentation where they discussed just such a housing for the IMAX camera that Howard Hall used...

This was the operation and I was impressed with their desire to please. The fish in NC are indeed well fed by topside divers. The great news about my "experiance" is that, as you said, the weather changes quickly and by the time we pulled anchor the weather was much much nicer for the ride back closer in shore.

I know this is a discussion on prescription masks and what not but... My eyes started going south when I hit 41 and now I can hardly read the bill at a bar after dark. Generally I'm not even drunk I was finding my gauges to be a bit difficult also so I took the opportunity to add some redundant gear to help address this. I added a simple analog SPG and a wrist mounted Suunto Mosquito computer. This is in addition to my original Suunto Cobra. I now find myself using the analog SPG as my primary air check as is is soooo easy to quickly glance down and get a good idea of whether I'm closer to 888 , 333 or 000 PSI. These three looke awfully similar on the digital display. Especially if my eyes were watery at all. I also find that when I find the need to check depth a quick peek at the wrist mounted computer tells me what I need to know. This may not work for everyone but my arms are still long enough for my eyes Also I really really like the two independent sources for verifying by air, depth and time when it really matters. My camera has a viewfinder diopter adjustment and I'm not yet forced to use it but someday soon...

I did my wreck cert there one weekend while on business inland. We were at the dive op on Sunday AM around 7. Apparently the fishermen head out an hour earlier and the dive boats call them for a sea report (in return the dive ops tell the fishermen where the fish are). That morning the fishing boats didn't go out because apparently the seas were a bit much. But.... the 6 guys form Ohio wanted to dive the sub so the captain said he would try... I have never been seasick before but this trip was different. You can imagine a Pelican 6850 going airborne as the boat dropped into each trough I see why this is called wreck alley! The moral of the story is... go when the weather is good because when it is bad it is bad.

I am still waiting on my Heliopan circular polarizer for this lens. Just picked up a Heliopan UV filter but had to wait almost three weeks for it. Now on my 5th week for the polarizer.... I'm in India and hope to test drive the lens topside tomorrow. BTW, zoom gears are all new too and the lens is so seriously back-ordered some manufacturers can't even get hold of one to measure. I made a DIY gear in the meantime.

I cannot agree more wholeheartedly. This lens is really a workhorse for UW macro. and as was mentioned it is relativly inexpensive.

for you Brits... these go on the backside

I was on a liveaboard in the Andamans and while waiting for folks to gear up for the night dive the crew spotted something floating by the back of the boat.... the went out n the dinghy and lo, what did they find but a 20 lb Tuna.. dead and just floating with the current... Then a few minutes later another even larger Tuna floated by. We looked up current and there was a fishing boat with three guys on the pack jigging their poles like there was no tomorrow. Apparently they were looking for record fish and would keep he largest until they caught a bigger one! Then they just dumped the smaller one into the sea. Really pissed most of us off since they were fishing the same reef we had dove earlier and it was pristine!! I doubt they would have gotten away with that off the back of a boat with divers. I will admit that we salvaged the dead Tuna and had them for Lunch and Dinner so I guess it wasn't a total waste but jeez...

Trust me I weigh in at 75kilos and the wife at 50 kilos. Seems that the baggage allowance certainly shold account for that but I do have a contingency plan to wear my BC and backplate (complete w/ SS buckles) if anyone gives me any grief about the carry on weight. It will be really interesting to get a shot of me with my Photo vest loaded up with all my lenses, a BC on and a housed camera around my neck. I can't think of any violation there can you??

The Sea Watch thing made eMailing en masse really easy. if you haven't already done so please visit them: http://www.seawatch.org/mail_campaign/norma_letter.php I also added this paragraph at the end of the message: "It will become increasingly difficult for me to continue spending my tourist dollars in Mexico knowing that this regulation allows such fishing practices."

I have played around a bit with a Red filter on the lens and a Cyan one on the strobe to balance. This worked pretty well for fill. Perhaps you might find an appropriate complementary strobe filter for use with the magic.

My Canon ringflash came w/ S6...