Back from Palau

On 5 Mar 2007 17:42:09 -0800, "Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote:

>On Mar 4, 3:42 pm, mag3 <zmpmag3-plon...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> After a 15 hour flight from Hong Kong, and a bit of rest, here is the trip report.
>> Summary - Overall one fantastic trip -
>
>I got so jealous, I called Aggressor today and booked my trip for next
>March. It's a "Jim Church" photo expedition trip with "Mike and
>Mike", so hopefully I'll learn something to boot. That and the new
>camera setup I'll need for the trip will make a nice 40th birthday
>present to myself.

The Aggressor was in port while I was there, and we saw it also at a few of the dive
sites as well. Some of the people at our hotel were going to go onto the Aggressor later
(I elected to stay at the hotel).

I knida liked Sam's Tours so I think I'll stick with them. One of the things I liked about them
was that at the end of day, you were able to store your wet gear in their storage locker facility
that had heat and fans etc. and your gear would be reasonably dry by the next morning when
you arrived at their dock to collect it and go on your assigned boat. And I arranged things so that
I went on their "Kayak" tour on the last day to give my gear on more day to dry completely before
I collected it to take it back to the hotel for packing. And it was Kevin Davidson - their master
photographer that did the "Blue Corner" specialty course as well as "Master Scuba'ed" me.
I learned a lot about photography. He proved to me that "orange filters" do in fact make a
difference as the U/W video I shot (after he lent me a filter) came out much better in the ambient
light than other video I've taken in similar light without one.


____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

On Mar 5, 7:05 pm, Grumman-581 <grumman...@DIE-SPAMMER-SCUM-gmail.com>
wrote:
> Greg Mossman wrote:
> > That and the new camera setup I'll need for the trip will
>
> > make a nice 40th birthday present to myself.
>
> Which model camera are you thinking about? I've been trying to justify
> the cost of a D200... Haven't quite been able to do it yet...

I have no idea, especially because I'm not sure what my budget is
yet. I'll wait until after the end of 2007 to see what I can afford
on the spectrum between the D200 and a drugstore disposable. All I
know is that my current Sony F717 camera is 4 years old, therefore
obsolete. It's only 5 megapixels, long shutter lag, limited memory
capacity, fixed lens, and no way to manually focus inside the Ikelite
housing. I've found it to be good with closeups in clear water and
with macro, but lousy in wide angle because it always, always insists
on focusing on anything but the actual subject.

So priority one is a housing that lets me focus. Priority two is
minimal shutter lag. And I'm going to want to review plenty of
professional-quality u/w shots taken with the camera to prove to me
that if my shots still suck, it's not the camera's fault.

On 5 Mar 2007 22:14:19 -0800, "Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote:
> I'll wait until after the end of 2007 to see what I can afford
> on the spectrum between the D200 and a drugstore disposable.

Quite a spectrum... <grin>

> All I know is that my current Sony F717 camera is 4 years old,
> therefore obsolete. It's only 5 megapixels, long shutter lag,
> limited memory capacity, fixed lens, and no way to manually
> focus inside the Ikelite housing.

The long shutter lag and the time between shots were the two most
irritating things about my point-and-shoot digital camera... Photos
came out pretty good though, considering the fact that I bought it for
it's weatherproof / ruggedized enclosure...

http://www.sh-cs.net/grumman581/2006...son-wy-007.jpg
http://www.sh-cs.net/grumman581/2006...son-wy-021.jpg
http://www.sh-cs.net/grumman581/2006...lls-049-ec.jpg
http://www.sh-cs.net/grumman581/2006...lls-055-ec.jpg
http://www.sh-cs.net/grumman581/2006...lls-075-ec.jpg

I get over 2000 images in the highest resolution mode with a 2G memory
card... Not bad, but kind of sucks in that they're in JPEG instead of
RAW format... I've been waiting for a digital SLR to come out that is
as good as 35mm film and from what I've gathered, 10 megapixels will
do it... I'm not truly convinced that the photos will be better than
Kodachrome 25, but since that film is not made anymore, it's kind of a
moot point...

> I've found it to be good with closeups in clear water and
> with macro, but lousy in wide angle because it always,
> always insists on focusing on anything but the actual subject.

It's a poor workman who blames his tools... <grin>

Although the D200 supposedly has a great autofocus system, I guess I'm
just a bit old fashioned in that I like a manual focus with a split
image on a camera...

> So priority one is a housing that lets me focus. Priority two is
> minimal shutter lag. And I'm going to want to review plenty of
> professional-quality u/w shots taken with the camera to prove to me
> that if my shots still suck, it's not the camera's fault.

Well, the D200 definitely has minimal shutter lag and startup time
according to the reviews that I've read... It kind of depends upon
what sort of investment in lenses that you have already... If you've
got a good assortment of Nikon lenses, it gets a bit prohibitively
expensive to switch to another brand... Of course, the get the
antishake reduction in the D200, you have to use antishake reduction
lenses whereas with the Pentax K10D, you can use any old lens...
There's probably some sort of breakpoint there such that assuming that
you're buying all new lenses, it would make sense to go with the
Pentax... Hell, some of the lenses might not even be made with
antishake reduction...

It also seems that the Pentax K10D might be a bit more weatherproof
than the D200... This might be an advantage if used in an enclosure,
just in case a little bit of water splashed into it... Not that I
would really want to try it though...

Greg Mossman wrote

> I got so jealous, I called Aggressor today and booked my trip for next
> March. It's a "Jim Church" photo expedition trip with "Mike and
> Mike", so hopefully I'll learn something to boot.

Is Jim still alive? I thought I got a posthumus gift book from his
collection a few years ago.

>That and the new camera setup I'll need for the trip will make a nice 40th
>birthday
> present to myself.

Careful with all this camera equipment. Otherwise, you may find you're
spending more time concentrating on photography and less time just enjoying
the dive. I put my Nikonos stuff away years ago and haven't taken it out
since. Perhaps I should get it serviced and sell it.

Lee

On 5 Mar 2007 22:01:31 -0800, "Greg Mossman" <mo***n@qnet.com> wrote:

>On Mar 5, 8:07 pm, mag3 <zmpmag3-plon...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> I kinda liked Sam's Tours so I think I'll stick with them. One of the things I liked about them
>> was that at the end of day, you were able to store your wet gear in their storage locker facility
>> that had heat and fans etc. and your gear would be reasonably dry by the next morning when
>> you arrived at their dock to collect it and go on your assigned boat.
>
>Sam's is a good operation, but the reason one goes on a liveaboard is
>to dive more. Your gear stays wet because it's continually in use.
>No need to go to their dock to collect your gear. You just take it
>off the hanger and put it on.

3 is my daily limit, and Sam's would cover me well. I know people on liveaboards can do
as many as 5 per day, and that would just about kill me. I'm trying to pace myself. Now,
with most of my certs out of the way, there really is no rush. Next goal is 100 dives for the
TDI Solo cert, but it doesn't matter when. More important to hone the skills and I did quite
a bit on this trip.

>That said, I do plan to arrive a couple days early to ensure I don't
>miss the boat, spending one day at the dolphin center and another day
>diving. I'm not sure who I'll use yet. We dove with Neco Marine last
>time.

All of them are decent I understand. I guess I just got to know the Sam's people pretty well and like
their operation. I got to compare them to the "Splash" dive shop (the resident shop at the PPR) and
to a lesser extent, Fish & Fins (who also picked up people at the PPR dock as well). Sam's just had
nicer folks I think. I even got a chance to meet Sam himself as he often hung around the place.

____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

On Mar 6, 3:57 am, "Lee Bell" <pleeb...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Greg Mossman wrote
>
> > I got so jealous, I called Aggressor today and booked my trip for next
> > March. It's a "Jim Church" photo expedition trip with "Mike and
> > Mike", so hopefully I'll learn something to boot.
>
> Is Jim still alive? I thought I got a posthumus gift book from his
> collection a few years ago.

You'd be surprised what a bit of formaldehyde can accomplish
nowadays. Half of all government workers are rumored to be dead, for
instance. But the Aggressors' photo trips are merely named after the
late Mr. Church, clearly a blatant shameless advertising ploy which
works fine on me. Mike and Mike were friends of Jim:

http://www.aggressor.com/itineraries_workshop.php
http://www.jimchurchphoto.com/jcmem.html
http://www.jimchurchphoto.com/aboutmm.html

> Careful with all this camera equipment. Otherwise, you may find you're
> spending more time concentrating on photography and less time just enjoying
> the dive. I put my Nikonos stuff away years ago and haven't taken it out
> since. Perhaps I should get it serviced and sell it.

I've gotten to the point where I can't enjoy a dive with camera
equipment.

Naw, it's hardly that bad, but I hate those times when I'm diving
hands-free, come across a really great shot, and all I can do is
making shutter clicking motions with my hands. I never picked up an
underwater camera until I already had 300 dives under my belt and I
leave my camera stuff at home on half my trips because it's too much
of a pain in the ass. I'm not bringing anything to Bonaire next week
for instance, because I don't want to deal with the theft and
electricity issues, and lugging a camera along on a shore dive is a
real PITA. You'll recall I didn't have a camera on DWG II and that
was due to laziness.

On the other hand, liveaboard trips are made for photo/videography,
with convenient camera tables for tinkering, plenty of lounge space
for laptop editing or video viewing, and lots of captive amateur and
pro divers for immediately feedback. Combine all that with a photo
course, and it will be a good week, especially if I manage to squeeze
off a few nice shots that win me fame and fortune. Even without the
fame and fortune, it's fun and it's a challenge, and to me, it
enhances the dive experience (at least when everything is working
right).

(Another bonus is Fish ID, made much easier with a photo of the fish
to compare against ID books after the dive.)

Besides, I've already made a trip to Palau and dove most of the
popular sites without a camera. This time I'll bring back home more
than memories.