arava12

Thank you very much Dominic ! It seems you are the only one with a sea and sea housing for the 7D. Does every one else went to the Nauticam direction?? Even if it seems that both housing are great, what about the whole system ? Are the dome port and maro port equal ? What about the zoom gears ? Are they comparable ? I am in south of france and nobody here seems to have any housing so I cannot try... I need to rely on your opinions guys !!! thanks again ! Anthony

Nobody has any input to help ? Nobody even tried the sea and sea ? I wish you could help !

Hi everybody ! I am currently looking for a new housing for my 7D. I already have an Ikelite one with 2 DS 161 strobes and I would like to investigate the optical-triggering possibilities with Z 240 strobes. It seems reliable, light and no more electrical sync cord... I have seen reviews of aquatica vs nauticam, but until now, couldn't find anything about th sea and sea housing for the 7D. Would you have any information / experience to share ? Thanks in advance, Anthony

Hi ScubaSpen ! you are right, but this time it's not a fish !!! just joking ! Seriously, even scientific names are difficult to follow, as they are changing as fast as science... For example, a new sea snake species was described in 2006 by Cogger & Heatwole, Laticauda saintgironsi, which lives in new caledonia and was identified before this as L. colubrina. The Laticauda colubrina complex is diffcult to distinguish without being an expert but is supposed to be composed of 3 species so far, Laticauda saintgironsi from New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, Laticauda frontalis from Vanuatu, and Laticauda colubrina, a widespread species. Some scientific evidence show that the venom of the L. saintgironsi species is able to paralyse a prey quickly, but does not necessarily kill instantaneously. The prey is then swallowed alive but paralysed... Cheers Anthony

Hi everyone, Because of the nostrils' position, it belongs to the amphibian sea snakes. It seems to be a sea snake belonging to the Laticauda genus. I would say it looks like a Laticauda laticaudata, (which for the record is supposed to be much more poisonous than the colubrina species... at least for the fishes that they eat !!). Either way, they live most of the time on land and go in the water mainly for hunting. Cheers Anthony

Hi everyone, I don't post often in the forum, but I read and learn a lot from it. I wanted to know your thoughts about the winning pictures of this years's Antibes Festival (for those who have been lucky enough to be here this year). I was suprised by the jury's choice. It seemed to me that there were wonderfull, incredible pics (and some crappy one of course...) for the competition, and despite that huge choice, the winning pics are some "OK"ones, but not especially original, nor difficult to make, nor "never seen before" etc... Here is my analysis. Before anything else, I have to tell you that I did not participate (I came back too late from a dive trip, unfortunatly) and I don't have anything against the winners. I am just trying to understand. Obviously, there is something I don't/can't see and I wanted to learn "it" from you. here are my (humble) thoughts about the (colors) pics : It seems to me at least that one price went to a pic that have been made, published and seen at least hundreds of time. The wide angle pic with blue water, great colors and all... OK, but not especially hard to do, nor original. One price have been given to a macro shot of the yucatan shrimp, Periclimenes yucatanicus. it is a wonderfull little animal with wery subtle colors. But the winning pic is way too contrasty, over photoshoped in a obvious and wrong way, with false colors and all the wonderfull details "overpainted" with extreme contrast settings. In fact, when I was in front of the pic, trying to explain details to some friends, I told them "that is the exact wrong way to make a picture... It is allready seen, badly post processed, not well printed etc...you don't see the animal as it is in the sea !" And the last price went to a butterfly fish shot, which is, at least to my eyes, very very common and shows nothing special. It seems to me that I can see far better pictures here in the forum than these winning pics, and that there were somme incredible shots in competition that deserved far more consideration. Well, as you can see, I really don't understand the jury's choices. As for the video section, I did not have the chance to view all the movies, but some winners really are wonderfull. Anyway, I would really love to have your opinions about the pics, and even if I don't like them, Kudos to the winners for their job. Thanks for reading Anthony

Thanks very very much to every one for your help. When it works, I have such wonderfull pictures, I am really frustrated when it doesn't fire ! I will try to shoot manual this afternoon anyway. But what puzzles me is that it did the same thing with my first strobe (DS 51 which was flooded just before my trip, so I bought a new one.) Should I send you the housing + strobe ? Thanks again. Anthony

Hi again. I'm back from my dive and nothing seems to be foreseeable. Sometimes it fires, sometimes it doesn't, whatever the sync cord. I really don't know what to do... I'll change (again) the batteries and check again the sync cord, but if anyone has an idea, I'll buy it ! Thanks Anthony

Thanks Rinjani for the answer. I will try ASAP to check for the connections on the cord. I gonna dive tonight. Thanks again Anthony

Hello there ! I am on a dive trip in carabbean waters and I really need some help with my strobe. I have an ikelite rig (30D + DS51) and I had to change the strobe recently just before a trip. So the strobe is new, and the housing is 8 months old. I notice more and more problems with my strobe : sometimes, it works great and from one shot to the other, it will not fire at all, or fire and still I obtain a dark frame, as if it fired only the preflash (that's a guess...). I don't know what to do as it is really frustrating to have framed a subject and obtain a black or really underexposed picture. If I do Off-On sequence on the strobe, most of the time it will fire perfectly... until the next time it won't fire properly. Of course, I checked the "ready" light, and it is red before shooting. The camera works perfectly outside the housing. The waiting between the shot can be more than 3 minutes, it doesn't help. I really cannot know when the strobe will be OK and when it won't work. That means I miss most of my shots ! I shoot in Manual mode, with the strobe on TTL mode. It used to happen since the begining (with the old strobe) but now, it is worse than before ! 3 shots out of 4 are black (at night) or badly underexposed. And the most frustrating thing is that it can perfectly work for the next shot. What should I do ? Is there anything wrong that could be corrected ? How can I have a strobe that sometimes work, sometimes don't ? Thank you very much for your attention Anthony

Thanks for the answer. I did not manage to have any answer from ikelite, and finally found a DS51 which I had to buy (no other choice, right ?) just before leaving. Maybe I should try again with Ikelite...

HI everyone, Last night I went diving with my gear (Ike + Canon 30D + DS51). Everything worked flawlessly (like it did for the last 8 months) till the end of the dive. The strobe did fire once even after the dive, for a portrait of my diving buddy. When I got home, I noticed that there where some rust comming out of the battery compartment of the strobe and it seemed that it was flooded for no apparent reason. I removed the batteries immediatly, and they were all messed up. I cleaned the compartment with fresh water and dried it the best I could, but the strobe does not work anymore. What shoud I do ? I am leaving in less than a week for a dive trip... Should I buy another one ? Theses strobes are quite expensive and I really don't even know if I can find one in France before leaving. Any advice ? Should I try to do something harmless to the strobe so that it could work again ? Thanks for your inquiries. Anthony