Weights, buoyance and camera gear

I am really working on finding peak buoyancy and trim. And a question occured to me tonight. Up until now, I have not considered my camera while figuring my weight. The camera is negatively buoyant, although I don't know exactly how much.

Which brings me to this question; when you are using an underwater camera (or any other gear) that is negatively buoyant, do you compensate for that by reducing your onboard weights?

Safe Diving.

Jeff

With my camera, generally no - it's only about 100g negatively bouyant. But my torch battery is about 2kg negatively bouyant so I drop the weight off the weight belt. I strap the battery to my tank and get much better trim as a result because my centre of mass is higher.... maybe I should dive with the torch all the time??!

AndyNZ:

With my camera, generally no - it's only about 100g negatively bouyant. But my torch battery is about 2kg negatively bouyant so I drop the weight off the weight belt. I strap the battery to my tank and get much better trim as a result because my centre of mass is higher.... maybe I should dive with the torch all the time??!

Click to expand...

That makes sense. I'm thinking I should probably try to figure out exactly how negative my camera is. It certainly seems more negative than only 100g...but who knows.

I haven't adjusted my weights-- I may be slightly more negative than I'd like (probably no more than 1 pound, but I notice the difference), but if I drop the camera I can keep myself from rocketing to the surface.