Entry with camera - how do you do it?

[fisheater]

I'm a big guy with lots of gear, so I make a big splash and concusive wave. Therefore, either someone hands me my camera, or I reach back up and take it off a low platform, or I clip it to a line that I lower into the water before-hand.

I fold the strobe arms so that the strobes are close to the housing when the rig is not in use. When it's handed to me (or I retrieve it), I clip the rig to my left chest D-ring and descend. At depth, I extend the coiled lanyard and position the strobes.

Generally, when I ascend, I again fold the strobe arms and shorten the lanyard, either at or on the way to my safety stop. If I used a line, I clip it off before exiting. If it was handed to me, I hand it off before re-boarding the boat.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I clip my rig to a carabiner attached to the boat. A bolt snao on a leash from the housing is clipped to a loop in the carabiner so there are two clips for backup. When I get in the water I unclip the leash and clip it to a D-ring on my harness before unclipping the carabiner. That way, there is never a time when the housing is not clipped to either the boat or me. It's too much money to see dropping into the abyss.

 

[the_dragon_no1]

Clip it of to a rope hanging from the boat, then roll/jump... or have it handed after roll/jump..
DID do some backrolls with camera up untill "that one time" i noticed a major housing leak due to this.. never doing that again regarding arms, same way as you.. packed up on boat, fold out on decent/bottom, fold back up at safety stop, or before assent (clip it of to crotch strap)

 

[TSandM]

Be careful clipping off to a line from the boat. If the boat is tossing, you can seriously damage your stuff.

I prefer to have the camera handed down to me. In the places where that isn't possible (hot drops in FL, for example) I clip off the camera with the arms folded up, and giant stride with one hand on mask and reg, and the other on camera.

 

[Storker]

OK, thanks for the feedback, guys¹. Seems I've already found "best practice" for entry with camera



¹ That's 'guys' in the gender-netural sense

 

[the_dragon_no1]

But to go abit of topic.. how do you guys stove away the camera while not in use ?
Myself i hang it from the front d-ring on crotch strap.. not really ideal in shallow water... thinking i might make the housing slightly(!) positive and hang it of the back D-ring on crotch strap... but.. hm.. not shure... i know some guys store it with two snap clips like a stage bottle, on the side. Haven't tried that one tho.

 

[Peter Guy]

I don't have a monster dSLR rig, huge dome port and two strobes with 5 foot arms -- just a simple EVIL camera and housing (half the size of dSLR) and two strobes with 24" (?) arms (in other words, a lot bigger than most p-n-s's but smaller than dSLR -- a "Goldilocks" camera setup!).

I generally keep it on me unless the giant stride is really big AND there isn't much current. Arms are folded in and locked, camera is clipped off to left chest D-ring. I am a bit leery about giant strides but back-roll -- absolutely no problem. Now when I do a Giant Stride with my Scooter -- THAT is a hoot!

 

[Storker]

I use a spiral wire tether similar to this one, however I've switched the suicide clip for a big-a$$ bolt snap. The bolt snap goes either on my left hip D-ring, or the right chest D-ring, the split ring is threaded onto my tray. In addition, I've tied a bolt snap to the shackle on one of the clamps closest to the tray.

For shore entry, I clip the tether bolt snap to my left hip D-ring and the bolt snap tied to the clamp shackle is clipped to my right chest D-ring. Sometimes, if it's an easy entry, I forgo clipping in the second bolt snap and just carry the rig by the left hand tray handle. for boat entry, I usually clip the tether bolt snap to the left hip D-ring, but sometimes (read: when wearing thick 3-finger mitts) I have some slight problems reaching and manipulating the hip D-ring, so I just clip the tether to the right shoulder D-ring. If I need my camera to be close to my body, I just re-clip the shackle bolt snap to the shoulder D-ring.

The tether is clipped to my harness from before I splash until after I'm standing out of the water, so if I need both hands for something, I can just let go of the rig. I stressed out a girl on one occasion when I needed both hands to communicate with her and just let go of the camera. She was a lot more concerned about my sinking camera rig than about watching my hand signals...

I dive a LH/BO setup with only one backup light, so my right shoulder harness is clean. That helps. I also use an OM-D E-M5, so the housing isn't that huge, but of course two strobes on 5"+7" arms make a bit of a difference.

---------- Post added December 22nd, 2014 at 08:04 PM ----------

thinking i might make the housing slightly(!) positive

Ugh. Don't. Just... don't.

My housing is slightly positive without strobes, so I've had a dive or two with a slightly positive camera. It sucks. Big time. It took me exactly one dive to decide that "this sucker is gonna carry some lead until I've gotten a strobe to weigh it down".

 

[the_dragon_no1]

I use a spiral wire tether similar to this one, however I've switched the suicide clip for a big-a$$ bolt snap. The bolt snap goes either on my left hip D-ring, or the right chest D-ring, the split ring is threaded onto my tray. In addition, I've tied a bolt snap to the shackle on one of the clamps closest to the tray.

For shore entry, I clip the tether bolt snap to my left hip D-ring and the bolt snap tied to the clamp shackle is clipped to my right chest D-ring. Sometimes, if it's an easy entry, I forgo clipping in the second bolt snap and just carry the rig by the left hand tray handle. for boat entry, I usually clip the tether bolt snap to the left hip D-ring, but sometimes (read: when wearing thick 3-finger mitts) I have some slight problems reaching and manipulating the hip D-ring, so I just clip the tether to the right shoulder D-ring. If I need my camera to be close to my body, I just re-clip the shackle bolt snap to the shoulder D-ring.

The tether is clipped to my harness from before I splash until after I'm standing out of the water, so if I need both hands for something, I can just let go of the rig. I stressed out a girl on one occasion when I needed both hands to communicate with her and just let go of the camera. She was a lot more concerned about my sinking camera rig than about watching my hand signals...

I dive a LH/BO setup with only one backup light, so my right shoulder harness is clean. That helps. I also use an OM-D E-M5, so the housing isn't that huge, but of course two strobes on 5"+7" arms make a bit of a difference.

---------- Post added December 22nd, 2014 at 08:04 PM ----------


Ugh. Don't. Just... don't.

My housing is slightly positive without strobes, so I've had a dive or two with a slightly positive camera. It sucks. Big time. It took me exactly one dive to decide that "this sucker is gonna carry some lead until I've gotten a strobe to weigh it down".

"it sucks" ?

Kinda sounds like you had it tooo positive. But, why does it suck ?

 

[Storker]

Since I had tethered the camera on my left side, it got tangled with my BCD inflator hose and started interfering with my snorkel as well when I let go of it so it floated up. And it was just ever so slightly positive; it rose gently and slowly when I let go of it.

After that experience, I'm not carrying anything that's positive. Except for a dSMB in the few fractions of a second after I've inflated it and before I release it.

EDIT: I've just formulated Storker's 1st rule of SCUBA gear: If it isn't negative, it will cause entanglements when you're not holding it.