Hehe thanks for the tips Scott - btw happy bday
DandyDon: not sure I'd get in the habit of handing my camera up and it's only the third time I dove with it. I already have them running around getting my tank, is why I don't have a gigantic camera rig. It just took up residence on a clip on my right chest D-ring, on a retractor, so it's out of the way when I need to use my hands for something else, e.g. pulling tank off at the end of the dive (in sidemount). I'm not sure how it disappeared but somehow right between when I touched the ladder til I got onboard and sat down, something happened.
Ah, ok, gotcha. I refused to carry a camera for the first hundred dives, but kept hearing crews on some trips suggest handing the camera up first - so when I did start, I adopted that:
Get my camera out of the way! Some have mentioned that they'll hand the camera down after entering, but I just carry it in from smaller boats; bigger drops I do that.
New divers seldom ask if they should get a camera early or wait. Sometimes when a newbie asks about cameras on the other forums, some will suggest waiting - but new divers want to share what they saw, and dive shops want to sell cameras before they buy elsewhere, so many are lost to learning experiences. I usually don't post in Lost Camera threads here as I am always tempted to scream:
Why the hell were you carrying one so early...?! Many do of course, some lose them, and a few are found & returned. Good luck with yours. I also download pics every day, then back up to a flash drive each day of the trip. Most don't want to take a laptop on trips, but I guess that could be done on some of the smaller devices these days, maybe?
I really like my orange float strap as I think the crew will be more likely to see it and get it for me than someone else who may find one on the floor. Many will argue that sinkers are more likely to be found tho, and encourage putting name & contact info in the first pic on a card - then protecting it.
Hope none of my opinions seem rude.
