East coast boat dive

[Reidkon]

We have been here for nearly two weeks with just over one week to go and having a great time shore diving on the west coast. But we decided to try something different and booked a two tank boat dive with Bonaire East Coast Diving. We chose them because of the great Trip Advisor reviews and our wonderful host Leanne at BCV also recommended them. We were able to book online through their website which was quick and easy, and Fredrick was quick to respond.
We met Fredrick, Bob, and the boat at Sorobon, at the end of the road past Jibe City, filled out the paper work and were in the boat by 9:00.
There were six in our group although the boat will hold 10, but we were pleased that we had a small group of experienced divers. Fred gave the most detailed and informative dive briefing that I have ever experienced on our way out to the reef and made double-certain that everyone understood the plan, truly professional!
Their boat is a zodiac style with seats in the middle and the back and similar to rubber ducks my wife dove from in South Africa. However the nice thing about Fred's boat, is a section of the side is removable, and they are able to hang a ladder into the water from the deck which makes re-boarding a breeze.
My wife and I shot some video with our GoPro which we are still learning to master, so please excuse the shakiness. I am also still learning the software, GoPro Studio, and am already thinking a more powerful editing program is in order.
YouTube video here: Bonaire East Coast Diving.
We will definitely do this trip again. We saw a few turtles, spotted eagle rays, green morays etc. on our first dive, but the second dive was even better. Turtle City is aptly named. We literally lost count of the number of big turtles we saw swimming and sleeping, but the highlight was the resting nurse shark. Hope you enjoy the video.

 

[wwguy]

Great video Reid! This is now on our Bonaire Bucket List!

I think your GoPro shooting and editing skills are just fine. IMHO the trick is knowing what not to include in your finished video. That just takes a good eye and some time while editing. I tried a free trial version of Cyberlink Power Director video editing software last winter and found it just as frustrating to use as the free GoPro software. (On our Cozumel trip last week I just went back to the GoPro software.) The most impactful suggestion I'd offer for improving video quality at this point would be to add a good color-correcting filter to your camera. I've got the Backscatter Flip 3.1 filter system and it's a game changer.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[Reidkon]

Thanks Roger!
I am using the SRP red filter but at times is does not seem to be doing the job. It seems to do OK when the subject is up close however for anything in the distance the colours have the green hue. Thinking I should have gone for the Flip 3.1.

 

[boat sju]

Just curious - people mention the long dive times on the east coast - it looked like you stayed pretty shallow. Is that true? That's hard for the red filter to deal with too.

 

[Reidkon]

Both dives were a little over 60 minutes and average depths of 46 and 38 feet respectively. Do you think the white balance gets out of whack on long dives?

Just curious - people mention the long dive times on the east coast - it looked like you stayed pretty shallow. Is that true? That's hard for the red filter to deal with too.

 

[wwguy]

Just curious - people mention the long dive times on the east coast - it looked like you stayed pretty shallow. Is that true? That's hard for the red filter to deal with too.

My experience has been that too much red filter results in more oranges and yellows. Blues and greens usually indicate not enough red returned to the color spectrum due to depth, much like what we see with our eyes. What I like about the Backscatter Flip 3.1 system is that it comes with 3 filters: One for 5'-20 depth, one for 20'-50', and one for 50'+. The shallow filter are lighter shades (almost pink) and the deep filter is rich red.

I mistakenly assumed Reid wasn't using a filter because there were more blues and greens in his video than I've seen with Backscatter and Polar Pro filters (the only two brands I have experience with.) The great thing about the Backscatter system is that you can easily swap filters at depth without having to juggle and stow camera parts etc.

If interested, check out the vibrant colors in this video from our Cozumel trip last week where I used the Backscatter filter. Most underwater footage was filmed at 50'+ depth.

---------- Post added April 3rd, 2015 at 03:33 PM ----------

Do you think the white balance gets out of whack on long dives?

That hasn't been my experience with my Hero 3+ Black Edition camera.

 

[arubabob1]

Reidkon, I think you were steady eddie when you shot that. I don't think you can improve that much. The color would be a lot better with the backscatter. That's what we use. I really liked your video. I was on that dive last June and it was awesome!!!

WWguy. Your video was really awesome also. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[boat sju]

Both dives were a little over 60 minutes and average depths of 46 and 38 feet respectively. Do you think the white balance gets out of whack on long dives?

Sorry, I was confusing. Those were meant as two unrelated questions.

With the red filter my buddy has on his gopro it seems like we get the best colors at about 30'. Shallower than that the videos seem to be a bit "red".

 

[Reidkon]

I just checked the specs for my SRP red filter and it states that it is best for depths up to 50 feet. Guess I will be buying the Backscatter for the next trip. The reason I did not go for the Backscatter was because it is apparently plastic lenses and prone to scratching which concerned me with some of the entries and exists here.

 

[boat sju]

By the way, I thought your videos were just fine. You did a nice editing job. I really liked the one you put on youtube also.

I have a chromebook and it's worthless for editing videos. I can't even get them to play properly on it. Time to buy a real computer I guess.