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130 Years Closer to a Cover Shot

130 Years and Closer to a Cover Shot.

A History of Underwater Photography

Since 1893, when Louis Boutan first used a surface supplied hardhat to take photos underwater, divers have circled the globe to get an ever-elusive cover shot. The only problem was that aluminum housing with a good camera was too expensive for most except professionals. Of course, when it comes to underwater photography, the real mass shootings didn’t occur until Jean de Wouters designed the Calypso camera in 1957 and had it promoted by Jacque Yves Cousteau. In 1963 Nikon bought the right to produce the Calypso and it became the Nikonos I. You probably don’t want to hear about every make and model of every brand of underwater camera system, but it’s safe to say that there were plenty of reasons to wait more than half a century for the next generation models to come along.

  

We’re not saying that early underwater photography was as difficult as walking uphill to school and back up even higher to get home, but there were a few inconveniences you had to tolerate or adjust for to get a few decent shots. First of all it was easy to forget to load film in the camera. You could spend a day with a great white whale, but if you forgot to load the film, the camera could still snap away with nothing to show for it. Setting the film in the sprocket teeth so the film would be pulled across the plate was sometimes a touchy issue too, and for those of you that never had a camera housing flood on you, you were one of the lucky ones. We should mention strobe lights here too, as they made a popping noise like a faraway depth charge when the batteries and capacitors touched salt water.

So the film was set in good and you were ready to click away; you only had 24-36 frames to fill in those days. If you took three images of each subject (fish or shrimp), this only gave you 12 different subjects to choose from, and this didn’t even hold back at least one frame for the end of the dive in case you had a once in a life time meet and greet with a large pelagic such as a manta or gray whale right before boarding back on a boat. Even if you managed to get 30 some images, you now had to wait a week or two to get them developed at Costco; yes, some of us lived in Kirkland Washington in the 1980’s before they went nationwide. Oh and when the film was ready to be picked up, that’s when you realized that only half of the subject (fish) was in the original frame. As a beginner, you could get the top (dorsal) or the belly side (ventral), but the total fish’s body just didn’t want to be set in print until you underwent a period of sometimes frustrating apprenticeship. You could also get your filmed processed at a local film kiosk, but they didn’t always develop the film fully, and when film went into the bin of history, all the kiosks apparently became coffee stands. With the passing of film you also didn’t need to pack everything (all your film) in lead bags to keep it all from becoming exposed in the old school x-ray security machines before you got to your departure gate to start your dive destination.

  

Of course, there were other opportunities for learning curves. To get macro shots with the Nikonos IV-A macro lens was needed and a black coated metal rectangular frame was attached to the camera; this was considered progress, but only if you could get the subject (a fish) within the frame, and to do that, the fish couldn’t be skittish and you had to watch that you didn’t crash the frame into the coral background during the process.

  

So when you were getting good at framing your subject, getting the right aperture setting, right film speed, and the lighting just right, along comes digital cameras and with using SD cards instead of film, you could take hundreds of images on a single dive depending on the settings you chose for image size and how fine you wanted the image detail. Not only did the number of potential images to be taken soar, but you could see each and every one of the images there on the dive. Oh, and these new digital cameras with their houses were small, inexpensive, and portable too. It was awesome, you could frame potential images through the lens and most of them looked good. Maybe not cover image good at first, but at least page three good, or web front page good. A good example would be from Las Vegas when a world record was set at the former Riviera Hotel for the most media attendees at an underwater conference using OTS full face masks and underwater electronics that transmitted the conference to speakers above the water too. Although the group contained many professional photographers, the underwater images of the event in the pool were taken by a small portable digital 1.3mp Sealife 100 camera. As the golden rule states, if you are the only person that took images, then your images are the best taken at the event, and these images captured went viral around the world. Suddenly any one going out for a dive could afford an underwater camera and capture never before seen images. The only problem? The new digital cameras were so slow that you had to hold them still while waiting for the shutter system to finally click into gear. We found this to be really tricky when taking pictures of fast moving objects such as spiny dogfish sharks. Imagine that you’re trying to take a picture of a shark coming at you and ten feet out you snap the shutter, three feet out the shutter moves and the flash goes off, then you feel the nose of the shark bump into your shoulder as you try and see if you got the shark framed in the image viewfinder. You had to guesstimate the speed and where the subject would be by the time it was close enough to take the shot and hope for the best when it came to lighting, back-scatter or anything else.

  

Within a few years, what we called a lag time was eliminated or barely noticeable but video emerged and then GoPro came out with their water proof housed video camera. They were so small that you could hook them on almost anywhere and you were ready to film for the next James Bond movie festival. Divers embraced video and while still images for dive websites and magazines had moved online and smaller photos were in, links to videos were super in. GoPro has just put out the Hero Five and Sealife just produced the DC2000, a duel layer 20MP image sensor camera that is enclosed in a external housing good to some 500ft, and has secondary housing/body on the video camera good to 60ft of depth. These new systems are rugged and can go just about anywhere you ever dreamed of above and below water. A novice can produce professional quality images and video with just a slight training curve compared to years earlier. Android and Iphones now have cases or housings which are great for personal image albums. We guess that within several years the next step in camera/video evolution will allow you to take videos and photo images simultaneously and they will automatically down load via satellite before you’ve reached the end of your three-minute safety stop. When you arrive home from your next vacation, the videos and images will already be queued on your smart TV, edited by AI (artificial intelligence) programs automatically posted on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and leave you time to address comments on your personal video and image cover shots.

  

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A Short DEMA Show Gear Review

What’s New in Dive Gear?

 A Short Review of Unique New Equipment!

 

Every year we can’t wait to go to the Dive Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) Show, the dive industry’s premier trade exhibition. Sure, it’s a time to visit with old friends, strengthen business relationships, and attend a plethora of interesting seminars, but for us, the icing on the cake has to be the unveiling of new scuba dive gear, free dive gear, and in general, the products that make playing in water just more fun, enjoyable, and/or exciting, and without doubt, this November’s DEMA Show exceeded our expectations.

  

First off, we were swept away by the SEABOB F5 DPV. The underwater propulsion system can go 12mph/25kh/h in water. It can last for 300 minutes on the lowest power setting and recharges in 90 minutes. The max depth and time can be preset, plus you can wear a harness that’s easy to unclip when going fast or spinning around. The DPV only weighs 64 lbs / 38kg.

  

For a revolutionary product that is right out of Star Wars, you have to see the SWES 600 underwater ionic light. This 600 lumen light (in salt water) does not use batteries and you can’t recharge it. You simply place it in the water, and the ionic exchange gives it power. You can literally dive, rinse, and dive again, for three hours a day for two years, giving you 2140 hours of dive light time. How cool is that?

 

As for trends, people have been making new fins for years, but this year TUSA is making the Hyflex Switch fin, which you can detach the blade from the foot pocket and fit it all in a travel bag, then put it all back together again in minutes, so you no longer have to purchase a smaller less powerful set of fins for your travel vacation while leaving your favorite pair of fins back home. Speaking of new fins, Indigo Industries makes the Shift XT modular fins and you can also detach the fin bade, but in this case, you can exchange a split fin blade for a zip split fin blade, plus you can change the bare foot pocket for a strap when wearing booties, which seems to be the ultimate transformer type fin to date.

 

Also excellent for traveling divers is the new Scubapro Hydros Pro BCD. The thermoplastic material and gel pockets dry fast and fold down to almost nothing making this BC easy to place in onboard luggage. You can add weights to the pockets, or use as a harness system with a weight belt for further reduction of travel space.

 

Now when it comes to details, we have to mention the new WaterProof EX2 drysuit that has built in thigh pockets on both front legs, a side arm pocket for sunglasses when on shore, a built in strap for VH1 radios, a pee zipper already installed, a zip pocket for pens, a built in blind plug that can be replaced for a air release valve, or heater battery cord intake valve. It also has velcro locations for applying your name, badge, and identity patches, plus a new type of velcro straps for dry gloves. It’s like they thought of everything that you might want, and then added some extras features just to blow your mind.

Ok, so you don’t always have to have a ton of improvements to set a product apart from the rest, take Aqualung’s EVO4 boots for example. Sure, they have a sturdy drysuit boot with a vibram sole and are made with the military in mind for slippery decks and rocks, but when you pull on the laces of the EVO4 boot, they cinch from the bottom on up, not just the top tightens like most other boots with the laces loose near the toes. EVO4’s produce a fast good tight fit all the way up, and something as simple as a good fitting boot can make or break an easy entrance into or out of the water.

Having a defogged mask can also make or break an enjoyable dive. Fog Kicker is a new biodegradable anti-fog coating that you can apply like marking with a felt pen on your mask lens and one coat is good for 10-15 dives.

  

As for cameras, SeaLife has the new DC2000; a 20 meg pixel camera that shoots jpg and even in raw format. This 1 inch fast sensor camera comes in a new rugged easy to use housing rated down to 200ft / 60m, but even without the outer housing, the inner camera is rated down to 60ft / 18m, making ideal to use below or above the water. Of course it wouldn’t be a SeaLife product if the DC2000 system wasn’t compatible with a fish eye lens to give an 80º wide field of view, and you can also use it with all the Sea Dragon Flash and light systems, including the new Fluoro-Dual Beam to give animals a blue background to show off their natural colors when desired. How awesome is that?

 

Sometimes all you need to impress us are great prices on dive gear and in this case we have to mention SEAC, pronounced “Sea-ak”. From an Italian free dive and spear gun foundation they have expanded to a worldwide made full line of scuba dive products that are comparatively low priced, which is a major priority for getting new divers such as millennials into aquatic sports. As we have seen in the past, as dive gear prices go up, the percentage of potential new divers attracted to the sport goes down. So we have to commend Seac for not only producing quality gear, but for helping price point conscious new scuba, skin, and free divers focus on the immediate fun of these aquatic sports; long term retention in these sports will then just be a matter of good times!

 

On the other end of the spectrum our list would not be complete if we didn’t mention The Darkwater Vision Hammerhead mask that allows technical divers to see in low light arenas. Whether you are doing night dives, deep dark dives, or murky river dives where you are trying to find Megalodon teeth on top of the sediment with the touch of your hands, now you can wear this high tech mask and see with a game-like ethereal quality what was previously too dark and occluded to see naturally. The Hammerhead mask system essentially does for divers, what night vision does for the armed forces, but it’s also excellent for underwater welders too; Dearth Vader would be jealous if he wasn’t already seeing red.

There were lots of other products that we would like to mention that were unveiled at the DEMA Show, but hopefully you’ll get a chance to see them at your local dive store early this year when many of these items should be shipping. For us, it’s time to stop writing, go get wet, and try out the aforementioned products extensively until the next DEMA Show.

 

 

 

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DiveGlide

DiveGlide…Exciting and Fun!

DiveGlide is the latest device to get people hooked on water sports. It basically looks like a giant egg with detachable wings and a metal bar to hold on to. Inside the partly opened shell compartment 50lbs of weight and two air cylinders are placed. By pulling on a ball shaped knob you can add up to 250lbs of positive buoyancy lift inside the shell to rise towards the surface. To descend, all you have to do is tilt the front end down and air bubbles escape out the back end opening and you are gently pulled forward and downward. It takes a little training to master how to ascend and descend and once you’ve practiced a little, you feel like you are gliding through the water like a conventional glider does in air.

Glenn Faires of Golden Rock Dive Center invented Dive Glide in St. Eustatius (Statia). He has been perfecting DiveGlide for over 7 years. The most recent version is 30% lighter than the original model and it can be shipped just about anywhere in the world as it only weighs less than 32lbs; full production models may eventually weigh as little as 25lbs without mounted weights and tanks.

Just like surfing, snowboarding, or skiing, you use your muscles to choose a course and propel yourself forward. What makes DiveGlide so great is that for some adventurers, gliding under water gives participants a chance to dive downward and get a glimpse of colorful creatures and tropical reefs. In this respect, DiveGlide used by snorkelers, can act as a gateway step towards a desire to use DiveGlide while on scuba. So a trip spent gliding underwater could lead to another certified diver. This is one of many reasons why DiveGlide could have such a powerful effect on the world of scuba. As more resorts make DiveGlide available as one of their water related rental products, it will be interesting to see how much the need for local scuba diving instruction is increased. With an increased number of vacationers becoming certified and divegliding, the number of people they tell how much fun they had will expand and therefore the number of new vacationers desiring to try DiveGlide will increase too.

Here in the Scuba dive industry we are constantly reminded about the need to bring in young new divers to our sport. The more opportunities young people have to enjoy the water and related water sports, the more these young aquatic oriented adventurers may gravitate towards scuba diving activities whether it be a discovery scuba diving course or a full open water course. With this in mind, it is just a matter of time before a diver will be able to earn an Underwater Photography DiveGlide scuba certification or a Night DiveGlide scuba patch. Perhaps these courses won’t be available right away, but that all depends on how quickly resorts and other water destinations make DiveGlide available for beach enthusiasts from all walks of life.

Now, we are not saying that DiveGlide is the only solution to bringing new people into the scuba world. We think it is just one of many activities that can go hand in hand with scuba diving sport activities. If having so many other different land locked outdoor activities to choose from helps keep some potential people from ever trying scuba diving, then it’s only natural that having as many sports as possible that funnel interest back towards the water and Scuba diving can only be a good thing for the overall scuba industry.

On the other side of the coin though, gliding underwater like a giant manta ray and playing with the buoyancy properties of bubbles might be the only activity that some divers in the future will choose to do. You don’t need to kick with your fins or paddle with your arms, all you have to do is gently adjust the position of your body and the angle of your DiveGlide and you are free to fly underwater wherever you want to go and this makes DiveGlide just too much fun not to try.

For more information and an opportunity to use the Dive Glide, email [email protected] . You can also visit the DiveGlide Facebook page, or view some of the YouTube clips and interviews on Dive Glide.

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Lightweight Travel Gear

Lightweight Travel Gear

 

If you believe that baggage fees belong on the “No Fly List” then it might be time to invest in some new dive gear or try a few new packing strategies.

Starting off with the newest piece of dive gear to deny boarding to baggage fees, we have the Aeris Jetpack. This revolutionary designed system is not a backpack, but is part Buoyancy Compensator (BC) and part semi-dry day bag (SDB). While traveling to the airport, you can hold around 30lbs or a weeks worth of gear and essentials in this combined (SDB-BC) or Jetpack . . .for short.  Once you arrive at your destination, just unzip the two compartments and within minutes you can assemble the one-size fits all BC section while the other section now functions as your boat and beach dive bag for fins, mask, snorkel, towel, and other items that may be placed in two small side pockets. The 6.25lb BC has 30lbs of lift and can carry 14lbs of dumpable weight and 10lbs of non-dumpable weight. We guess they assumed that if a BC shoulder strap system could be used to carry a scuba tank to the beach, then why not dive gear to the plane? The best part of this system is that it fits in the overhead compartment of most commercial airplanes so you know where your dive gear is at all times, and with most major airlines, this means the Aeris Jetpack is baggage fee free and dive wallet friendly. See the video under: http://www.diveaeris.com/jetpack/

 

Another approach to overhead space is the Aqua Lung Travel system. Inside the Aqualung roller bag, you can place the 4.4lb Zuma BC, a micron regulator, a low volume micromask, snorkel, aqualung hot shot fins, and a mesh bag for right around 20lbs. The hot shot fins are shorter than most other fins, but if you are in to 15 to 50 dives a year, this light weight system may be just perfect for you. The strategy is simple, small lightweight dive gear items means easy storage in overhead bins, and long term savings on baggage fees. See an Aqua Lung 20lb video on Youtube under: http://youtu.be/8LLwvv-gBRo

 

Another revolutionary approach that works just as well with big and heavy revolutionary dive gear bought before 1776 as it does with newer lighter dive gear is the DiveCaddy Gen2. This system uses your gear to form the padding, rigidity, and essentially the structure of your complete dive bag. You simply have to release 3 compression straps and you can quickly fold out the travel bag to insert gear, take out gear,  or more importantly impress the staff at TSA. The Gen2 comes with a Spider bag for cold water gear storage, and a FinCaddy for quick storage or access to fins and a mesh bag for mask, snorkel, gloves, etc. The Gen2 also comes with a destination bag that you can use as a boat bag, or to cover/conceal your DiveCaddy Gen2 when on little planes that don’t have overhead space and instead load onboard luggage tagged bags right next to the plane in a special gateway deliverable compartment as apposed to the baggage claim destination compartments. On a side note, we think the DiveCaddy Gen2 was built to last 365 dives a year, or 365 years; we’ll have to get further clarification, but we definitely know that it’s built to last. See the Quick Start or Airport video at: http://divecaddy.net

As a reminder, fins that are wide, long, or the length of a thresher shark’s tail may just have to travel as checked in luggage. They could also put you over the 50lb limit set by many airlines for the maximum weight of a bag, so you may find it cost effective to purchase a smaller travel size fin. Tusa, Mares, Scubapro, and other manufacturers make travel fins that are on average less than 24inches, but offer impressive performance without leg strain.

 

You might also consider placing all your light dive gear in a 747model Travelpro roller bag or a Rick Steves Europe soft travel backpack to place your gear on board in the overhead bin. Photography savvy divers sometimes use large vests with lots of pockets to store lights and camera gear and remove the vest once onboard the plane. If it’s worn aboard, it’s not considered a carry on item by major airlines.

As for dive knives, there will always be a need for checked luggage no matter how lightweight they make these sharp edge devices. Some airlines though let you check your first bag for free.  Some airlines let you check a bag in for free if you are part of their mileage plus program.  It’s something else to consider when you book your flight. We don’t recommend putting anything you can’t live without in your checked luggage though as strange things occasionally happen to checked bags, and HNL and HKG look really similar on a baggage tag to a tired eye. Not everybody knows that (HKG) Hong Kong is where factories make certain wetsuit items, and (HNL) Honolulu is where tourists wear certain items. Dive gear in the overhead, under the seat or in a vest will give you peace of mind every time you fly.

With so many ways to carry dive gear, and so many lightweight dive gear products developed over the last few years in response to airline baggage fees, finding the right lightweight dive gear system for you should not only be fun to try on or pack for your next flight, but even more fun to use on your next dive.

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