I'm planning a trip to Lembeh, and wanted to learn more about how non-photographers go about getting the most out of muck dives. How do you see the macro details of teeny creatures like nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses? Do you carry a magnifying glass? (If so, what specs are best?) Are there any other tools I should be aware of that will enable me to see the tiny details in the moment?
I adore macro photos, but don't foresee myself picking up underwater photography anytime soon. Instead, I focus my full attention on being one with the ocean, pretending to be a fish, and hanging out with whatever creatures are around me without a camera between us. I know this is really cheesy, but I mean it! I'm just so in love with diving I can't bear to put a camera between me and subjects just yet. (Perhaps after 1,000 dives...)
I have nearly 100 dives now but have never seen any divers with a magnifying glass. Is that a thing at all?
Thanks in advance! Help a macro newbie out please <3
Hi SharksAreFriends and Freewillow,
I don't know where you are located, but it sounds like going to Lembeh, Indonesia will be quite a nice sight-seeing underwater trip (looking at their website). I think I have just what you need. Take a look at this video to see the
SeawiscopeEY.
I have met the inventor of the SeawiscopeEY, and have been using this device on my mask for about six years. I use it in place of the lenses that corrected my vision, as I needed close-vision. But I found that using corrected vision lenses in the mask caused me problems seeing the ground went I got out of the water. That was my initial thought in picking up this new device.
But what I've found is that the SeawiscopeEY is ideal for watching tiny creatures close-up. It also gives you binocular vision, so you not only see close up, but in three dimensions. Here's some observations:
- I have watched a hydra on a leaf, fishing with its tentacles in the water. The hydra was about a long as my thumbnail, and yet I watched it for about five minutes catching stuff out of the Clackamas River water.
- The sculpins I showed in the video above are best watched close-up too. You can witness them eating small insect larva, or sampling detritis from the water. Or, fighting each other.
- I happened upon three lamprey eels a few years back, a female and two males. The one male chased the other away, while the female hung onto a large rock. The more aggressive male then came back and mated with the female, while I was watching with the SeawiscopeEY. He intertwined his body around the female, holding onto her head as he did so. I watched the eggs being broadcast into the water by the female, and the male fertilizing them with squirts of sperm into the water. Then I was flabbergasted when both the male and the female, released and began moving rocks over the area that she had broadcast the eggs, to shelter them from small fish that were in the area. All this I saw very close up, and the lampreys simply ignored me hovering over them, as they were more interested in what they were doing than in me.
The man who invented this device, CY Tang, has his doctorate in optometry, and taught in a Hong Kong school for optometry (I think he was the department head). He saw the need for people to both see close-up (especially us older divers), and to see small creatures. He dives in the tropical areas around Hong Kong, and in the Philippians. The SeawiscopeEY is corrected for use in water, and is finely ground glass for the eyepieces. CY is now retired, and wants others to know about his invention, as do I from my experiences using the SeawiscopeEY.
Seawiscope: Scuba divers' near vision aids and other small items
Click on the upper right price information link (just under the furthest right dolphin) for price information.
SeaRat