Dutch Springs 21 Sep 03

[BILLB]

Late breaking news. I will be at Dutch Springs on the peninsula side around 10:00AM. Come on out and I can show you how to really dive and enjoy Dutch Springs. The Viz this time of year is typically 50 feet.

Look for my silver K2500 long bed 4X4 truck. If you need any last minute items PM me.

[BILLB]

A Scuba Board member, mullerrj, join me and my buddy for a glorious day of diving. The top side weather was perfect and the viz was 50 foot at selected places.

This was mullerrj first Dutch dive since a warm water referrel in Cozumel. His LDS was Under Water World, located in Horsham, PA. (see the book, Last Dive). from the way he displayed his diving skills I would say Under Water World did a fine job with his confined water instructions.

My intention was to do a video tape of the helicopter for my Dutch Springs video collection. The viz there was around 40 feet and there were several divers to make the video interesting and almost beautiful!

I will be diving Dutch until it closes for the season. If you need a buddy and a good time, let me know.

[VTernovski]

Sorry, could't join you. We were diving St. lawrence river in Canada! - nice! I plan to be in DS this weekend. You have the video equip.?! I would like to have soe clips of me diving. How about you tape me?

Thanks,
-Vadim

[grouchyturtle]

What time were you there?
We may very possibly have crossed paths underwater yesterday!
We were at the helicoptor around 3:00 and there were probably about 10 other divers there.

[BILLB]

You would have seen me with the big video housing. I was at the helo around 1:00 PM. There were only the three of us at first. I typically do a compass heading off the school bus. So there must have been a group on the surface when we arrived. Although the group that came down did stirr up the helo the viz was still better than I had seen it years before. The mussels are attached even to the wheels!

[XJae]

I must have just missed you.
I was there at ~12:30.
It was definately a beautiful day, we should have more hurricanes just miss us.
Six divers dropped down on us as we were about to leave, but had the place to ourselves for a half hour prior.
I got a few good photos. Distance shots are near impossible though.
Sikorsky H-37 Helicopter (http://www.patmedia.net/cbayer/20030719a/CoptrDS.htm)

I'll be out there again before the season ends.

[grouchyturtle]

WOW nice shots.

What kind of camera do you use?

[XJae]

It's a Sony P10 with a PHA housing.
Relatively affordable.
It's tiny, so I can clip it off when not taking pictures.
Without the housing it's about the size of a non-folding cell phone.

[grouchyturtle]

Wow, do you have a strobe or were you using just the flash on the camera.

We have a Sea and Sea, but I lot of our shots are back scatter hell.

I got a Canon 10D recently. Great camera! I'm dying to get a housing for it.

[XJae]

ah, neither.
no flash at all.
it was just after high noon.

i only have the internal flash,
it's only good for 2-3' tops at dutch,
or like you said, backscatter hell.

here's one with the flash on low,
from inside the silver comet (http://www.patmedia.net/cbayer/20030921/SilverComet.JPE),
around 2:45 while you were on your way to the helo.

i just got the adapter to fit sea & sea mm2 lenses on the housing.
now i just need some lenses.
the adapter also holds a sync cord that uses the internal flash to trigger a strobe.
they make adapters for certian canon housings.

[grouchyturtle]

Cool. I'll have to try shooting without the strobe next time. I always assumed the images would come out too dark.

[XJae]

It will be easier when you go digital.
Instant feedback and you wind up shooting some many more photos.

[BILLB]

I have 12 minutes of video on the helicopter. They came out rather nice. Did anyone notice the new American flag drapped over the tail rotor. I did a slow swim out to the rotor and this made for a very effective video.

I am using an Ikelite housing with the color correction filter. The dull shades you see on the helicopter were tuned into rather nice colors with the filter.

[XJae]

The flag was a nice surprise.

What media is your video?
Do we get to see any?

[BILLB]

My camera is a digital Sony TRV 730. At the time I was shooting digital film. The problem is this: I have way too many videos films and have yet to master the digital editing suite I have on my computer. So for now, you can send me a VHS cassette and I will copy the video for you. The camera also does Mpeg using flash memory and of course stills.

[grouchyturtle]

I just got rid of an old Konica 35mm and a Sony Digital I had. Wanted to go all digital for a while, but had to be a higher res camera so I can print my shots at larger sizes if I want to.

You'r right it's much easier. You take a lot more shots than you do with film. And even some that don't come out that great just need a little tweak in Photoshop, which is much quicker since you don't have to scan.

Problem is there are only 2 housings currently available for my camera, and both cost more than the camera (which was far from cheap itself)

I'll probably go with an Ikelite housing too, but it doesn't come out until October.

That's funny, best vis I've ever seen down there, last time went down there from right on top of th main rotor couldn't even see the rest of it, yet I didn't even notice the flag when I was there!