Mak_Jing

I was also a little hesitant in suggesting blurb.com given that loftus wanted quality print, but i have used blurb for two photobook (hardcover) and was reasonably satisfied with the colours, quality of paper and binding. but it uses sRGB and would not take CMYK, will not load the large file sizes. jing

For all it's worth, my brother has been using an SD card on the Fuji F50fd compact and was complaining that once you load it onto the PC slot and then put it back in the camera, the camera doesnt read the files anymore. I am still trying to find out why that is the case. jing

There are a lot of dive sites where you get between 1-5 mantas in summer months (June to Sept) along eastern side of the atolls, but the one I was referring to was Hanifaru in Baa atoll (east side). Most of the resorts at Baa atoll dive that site regularly. Liveaboards also know that site (you just need to make sure that the boat is going to Baa atoll, since most boats do South Male and Ari Atoll). The site is quite unusual, has sandy bottom and when the current is right it traps a huge amount of plankton you get a manta feeding frenzy. This year in September they had 5 whale sharks together there as well. The only problem is the plankton is so dense that the water is like soup - very difficult to take photos and videos. I am attaching a very crappy photo just with a point and shoot with a wide angle attachment just to show 13-14 of them together - but it's like that 360 degrees around you. It is an awesome sight as they somersaut around you for the entire 80 minutes we stay in the water. After that we throw all our gears on board and go snorkelling with them. I have also seen over 10 mantas on one dive at Lankan Manta point in south of north Male atoll. I am sure there are other dive sites like this around Maldives, Serge might be able to help since he is based out there. Jing

Anthony Maldives have been my favourite dive destination for the last 8 years and I have been there over a dozen times, sometimes on islands, other times on safari boats, but mostly on Baa Atoll in summer time for the mantas and often as many as 50-60 at the same time. Manta encounters around Jan/Feb are more likely on the western side of the atolls, I was there in Jan this year and every dive at the known manta cleaning stations on the west side we encountered mantas. You need not be too concerned whether a resort is in the middle of the atoll. The distance between west to east normally is around 1 hour by dhoni or less by faster boats. And if the resort is in the middle, they would no doubt go to the atoll edge for the kandu (channel) dives. You probably don't want to go on a safari boat for honeymoon, but it definitely works out cheaper and should be considered for future trips. There is a very good book called "Dive Maldives" by Tim Godfrey which to my mind has the best dive site maps for all the different atolls, and the latest edition has all the resort names. Just from memory on a couple of the location of the places you are looking at: Filitheyo is east side of North Nilandhe Atoll Velidhu is in north Ari Atoll and the boat ride to the west side is at most 40mins Jing

Many thanks for the advice. Mine is a first generation one by your description, and also by the fact that I have been using it since the late 80s. Just picked up an Aladin, will try it on my next trip - hope it gives me more bottom time than the Suunto which is really a little too conservative for my liking. JIng

Personal preference of mine is Olymupus over Canon G7. I found the low light focus on the olympus better (tried on land only, not underwater) and I also like the 2 underwater modes (I use Olympus 7070 which hasthe same two underwater mode - wide and macro). I also use the Inon lenses, particularly the UCL 165AD close up and D2000 strobe, so I would only get another camera compatible with my own gear. Tried the G7 a couple of times. I had problems getting it to focus in low light. The colours also tended a touch too red for my liking, but the 10 megapixel is quite attractive. Good luck MJ

there had been a number of discussion thread about the Canon G7 or Alex Mustard just reviewed the Fujifilm (but no shutter speed/aperture control though) http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19755&hl= MJ

You're welcome! Glad to be of some help. I always post my questions in these forums and always receive constructive response. Nice to be able to contribute occasionally.

Sorry guys for the bad photos. I am still kicking myself for not having my usual camera set up with me that trip. Did not have enough time to pack for the short 2 day trip, so took the point and shoot with me. But thanks for the discussion. Jing

Nope. Never tried manual WB on this camera. Was just playing around with it for a few dives back in February. But there is a discussion thread on settings of G7 in one of the forums http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...=18903&st=0 MJ

i think Diving Adventure is the only authorised dealer of Inon products in HK - at least I have only seen them there. http://www.divinghk.com/catalogBR_0000010_Prt_en.html

If you want to go without strobe and not use the built in flash check out the magic filters http://www.magic-filters.com/magicindex.html# MJ

I left it on Auto WB the last time with an Inon D2000 strobe. Are you using the underwater mode? The pictures came out a bit too red for me too when I put it on underwater mode. But they were fine when I switched back to AWB. Hope that helps MJ

It is possible to adjust the f-stop and shutter speed. The canon housing manual should contain the instructions. Instead of the dial, you need to press two buttons at the same time. I was using this camera (which belonged to a friend) and if I remember correctly, one of the buttons on the top left hand side of the housing needs to be pressed together with the up/down buttons. Good luck MJ

I personally prefer the angle of the fish in the second photo. The first one is taken from seems to be looking away, and the last one taken with the camera pointing down in comparison MJ