Bull sharks in Playa & camera

[npole]

Hi guys, I'll be there (with Dressel Divers) in a month or so... does anyone know if there's any restriction to carry a camera during this dive?
I have a full equipped camera + housing, with arms and lights (big / 6.5kg)...and I'm worried they wouldn't let me dive with it due to the sharks getting too curious, so I may need a backup plan (small GoPro...).
Does anyone have info about it?

 

[northernone]

I've seen plenty of big camera rigs on the boats. Doubt there is an issue. Maybe worth an email.

 

[AZTinman]

I'll be diving with bull sharks in late-December at Playa for the express purpose of pursuing photographs with my big DSLR rig. Yeah, it's got arms, strobes and all that good stuff!

-AZTinman

 

[npole]

Dressel come back with a generic answer: I explained them that I have a professional rig... heavy.. etc. they come back saying that I cannot use "selfie sticks" !!! ...I answered back, trying to explain again that my rig is like 20 times bigger than a "selfie stick".. they said I cannot turn the lights on (!) ...so I decided that I will carry the rig with me and I'll arrange everything with the dive master, and in the worst scenario... I'll leave it on the boat and i'll use a gropro with a: SELFIE STICK!

 

[Pkishino]

Dove a few weeks back, was informed that no strobes or strong lights can be used by several operators. The one we went with said my rig was fine and I could use a small video light but no strobe or my big video light.

 

[tanstaafl99]

Have done this twice this year (February and December (2 weeks ago)).

The selfie stick rule is because some operations feed the sharks using sticks...so this creates a bit of a problem with cameras...on sticks..

I was also told no lights and did not see anyone running any (even the professional who was recording the dive for someone). Again, likely to avoid irritating the sharks. I will say, at least on the two times I've done it, viz was good enough that lights were not needed, nor did the sharks really get close enough for strobes to do a ton of good on the dives I did. Closest got within 6' perhaps?

Video from the most recent trip:

 

[AZTinman]

I thought I'd do a follow-up simply to provide folks with information should they decide to book a bull shark dive at Playa down the road. Prior to doing two bull shark dives in late December, I spent several hours with my guide learning what makes bull sharks 'tick.' Since I had never dove with bull sharks previously, the instructional time was well spent.

Bull sharks tend to be very sensitive to electrical disturbances. I dove my full camera rig, but didn't turn on the strobes. Discharging the strobes would've probably resulted in the sharks vacating the area pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, I had anticipated having the bulls come in much more closely and rigged with my 10-24mm lens. I got photographs, but would've done much better with a lens with longer reach. With short focal length wide angle lenses you get that 'rear view mirror objects are closer than they appear' thing. Next time, I'll rig with my longer lens (Nikkor 16-85mm).

The depth of the dive site typically put us in the neighborhood of 95'-100'. I was expecting a longer surface interval between dives, but ours was pretty short. My computer gave me 17 minutes at depth during our second dive and we ended-up staying 19 minutes. This put me into deco and the remainder of our dive was spent doing the necessary safety stops.

Overall, I enjoyed the dives and plan to do it again. I have a few bull shark photographs posted in the Cozumel portfolio folder at www.cortezbluephotography.com.

-AZTinman

 

[npole]

Right, I forgot to update this thread. First it has been AWESOME! ...they didn't come near, but stayed at some meters from us (Dressel doesn't feed them! ...at least not during the dive).

You could use any camera you wish, just nothing hanging it far from your body (hence no sticks.. that are used to feed them by other groups).

Not the most thrilling experience you could ever even, but if never did it, I would highly recommend it... anyway not far from playa you have the Cenotes and I would trade the sharks with them anytime!