neoprene covers for ports u/w?

[marpacifica 0]

Hi all,

 

Newbie question here. I just got my Aquatica housing for my S2 and am wondering if I can take the neoprene protective port covers underwater. If I can, I'll probably keep them on until I'm ready to take photos, then stow them in a bc pocket. Or should I just take them off right before the dive and be really careful once I'm in the water? Thanks.

[Guest echeng]

either way works.

 

i tend to take the cover with me when I am using a big dome port. I just slide the thing on my arm for the duration of the dive.

 

i lost a macro port cover that way, though. i have only one pocket on my harness, and it's not that big.

[Nemo 0]

I leave mine on the boat. I have been concerned about the salt that may be trapped in the neoprene from effecting the lens during storage. I am curious if anyone has experienced a problem with this? I may be concerned about nothing.

[ehanauer 50]

I had a freaky thing happen in with a neoprene port cover in PNG last year. Apparently a bit of coral got caught between the cover and the glass dome, resulting in a long, shallow scratch and a shadow across the center of every frame. Thank Adobe for the Photoshop healing tool.

 

A local guy who grinds lenses polished it out for 50 bucks. Saved me big bucks over buying another 8 inch glass dome.

[Lionfish43 0]

I leave my neoprene cover at home. You should use the port shade. With the shade on your port the neoprene cover doesn't fit anyway. If I'm on a boat and I'm worried about soneone dropping something onto or banging against my dome I rest it port-down on the shade.

 

Larry

[marpacifica 0]

Thanks, this is exactly the information I was hoping to hear. Looks like the risks outweight the benefits. Aquatica makes covers for the dome port with the shade attached so that isn't an issue but scratches from coral/sand certainly lead me to think I should take the cover off before hitting the water.

[seafox 0]

That's correct. Aquatica does provide a neoprene cover for the dome port with the dome shade. I use the cover to protect the dome while on the boat, in and out of the camera tank. I remove it just before the dive and replace it back on board before putting the camera back in the tank.

The cover has saved my dome from scratches numerous time!

Great investment!

8)

[StephenFrink 9]

A local guy who grinds lenses polished it out for 50 bucks.  Saved me big bucks over buying another 8 inch glass dome.

 

Eric - Does your "local guy" want some mail order business? When our clients (and one day inevitably it will happen to me) have had scratches on our glass Seacam domes I've sent them back to Austria for service. If there was a quality source for this kind of work in the US I'd love to know about it.

 

Thanks.

Steve

[Paul Kay 72]

I too would be interested in anyone able to regrind big domes - the last one I sent to a specialist disintegrated due to temperature variations (so they said).

[davephdv 0]

I'm going to assume that a glass dome port is tempered glass. Though my Subal port doesn't say so. If tempered; the surface glass is at a much higher pressure than the interior glass of the dome. If you alter or grind that surface you will harm the strength of the glass. That is why you cannot normally polish out a scratch on spectacle lenses. The only way you could safely grind out a scratch is if it was very shallow and you are merely polishing the rough edges of the scratch to make it less noticeable. Polishing or grinding out a deep scratch will weaken the strength of the dome.