Cameras on board the boat - opinions needed!

[Helen F H]

Righto, just to pick your brains

I want to make the boat as camera friendly as possible. We had Simon Brown aboard over the summer with his uber-expensive camera whcih made me paranoid as hell!

Things we have/do already:

A freshwater dunk tank. Currently a plastic box on deck filled with fresh water each day. Not huge, but you tend to only get a couple of serious photographers each trip. What size would you guys think is ideal?

Diver Lift. I have no problem lowering you in with your camera or passing the camera down to you on my magic bit of rope providing the site allows. Would you prefer a big clip or a ring on the bottom of the rope?

A big roll of blue paper for when you open your housings - lives in the saloon at the moment.

What i really want to is put together a photographers box - a kit of stuff you can raid if you need to. This woud be kept in the saloon for all to use. Was thinking of spare gel sachets, kitchen paper, O ring removal doofer, a pot of silicone grease. I was also thinking of something along the lines of a baby changing mat - a padded absorbent *something* that you can safely open your camera on. Possibly a kitchen tray modified with something. Mmmmm.

Also hows about if you do have a big camera (stobe arms etc) i give you a plastic box/bucket to keep it safe on deck?

[David P]

Tiny screwdrivers, tiny pliers are always nice (even though most people are likely to carry what they think they need). I'm assuming you've got enough means to charge stuff off 240V outlets? And dry, clean tissues?

Oh - you did post this under video - so some people may not see it...?!

Best wishes,

David P.

[Mike W]

When I'm on a liveaboard I believe the safest place for my camera is in the rinse tank. The water absorbs the movement of the boat and stops stuff rolling all over the place. (I know - some of the people on here will now be shuddering at the thought of leaving their pride and joy in the rinse tank, but never mind, I leave my kit in there, not theirs!).

The kit comes out of the tank to change batteries/lenses/memory card (Delete as appropriate) and then goes straight back in. The only time I get a bit concerned is when everyone aboard use the tank to store all their ancillary dive gear between dives - mask, fins (I'm not kidding, though it only happened once), torches, computers and so on. What bothers me isn't other stuff int he tank, it's the 'gentle' manner in which these items are added to the tank and removed from it... So I guess a cameras only tank is what I'm advocating.

When I do work on the kit, I like a nice, big flat surface, and I like the change-mat idea as it would provide a grippy and padded surface - just expect it to wear out pdq. Normally I pull the camera from the tank and swing it around a bit to get rid of excess water, then give it a wipe with a towel before it comes indoors, but blue absorbent paper is an excellent idea.

Be a bit careful if you have O-ring grease availalble - different O-rings require diffrent grease, and using the wrong sort can damage the O ring and allow flooding.

On the lowering by rope front - something very easy to remove from the camera is essential, but exaclty what would depend on what there was on the housing to attach to. Personally I'd prefer you to lower me on the lift, or at least partway. I'm happy to leap into the water with my camera unless I've the macro port fitted.

Hope this is useful to you

[Cerianthus]

if it is your private rinse tank, there's no problem. What if other people use it too. I've heard stories of people dunking their systems on top of others, even so bad as knocking ports off etc.

If straight after the dive, without drying. all it needs is a few quick shakes.

[Cussy]

Helen,
Are we talking a liveaboard here?

In my experience of day charter boats it's the skipper that makes a boat photography friendly, not necessarily accessaries. Sympathetic handing of camera equipment into the water, making clear manoevers when it comes to being picked up, taking the cameras off of you first as opposed to going straight for fins (then placing the camera safe in the wheel house), and a general understanding of what photographers want; an acceptance that some will want to solo dive, and an understanding that some may dive for as long as they can just to get a particular shot (I've seen this cause a skipper to go ballistic).

What would make your boat of interest to me as someone that isn't in a club, is that you have a week that you want to fill predominatly with photographers. As I said in your other thread, I've been put off by Scapa as I'd want to stay relatively shallow, whereas many Scapa visitors are primarily there for the deeper wrecks. If you attract a "name" along, then you're on a winner.

Personally, and this is just my own preference, I wouldn't trust anything on the boat like silicone. My kit costs me £3k+, if I buy the wrong grease and use it then that's only my fault. If I run out of grease then that's my fault. If I use someone elses grease and it turns out to be wrong - that's still my fault; but many would then think that's your fault. I make sure I have what I need. I'm also careful that the towel I have to dry my kit is one where fibres won't come off and cause a flood. Your other suggestions that basically sound like lots of nice room for photographers - that sounds damn good to me.
HTH,
Rob

PS Faroes, interesting, please tell more....

[triplefin]

Helen, Robs comments about a boat being photographer friendly are extremly valid.
I think anyone who is into photography is going to have all their grease and stuff with them anyway especially if they are coming up to Scapa.
As you probably noticed last year I tend to like to leave my gear in the rinse tank like Mike as I find it is safer there. You may find its easier to organise several smaller buckets/tanks depending on howmany or the sort of rigs you have on board each week. Then just have out what you need.
I also found the galley table was the best place to sort out the camera rather than in the saloon which is okay for a small camera on your lap but many housings are heavy and cumbersome.

[Helen F H]

Originally Posted by David P

Oh - you did post this under video - so some people may not see it...?!

Best wishes,

David P.

Oh arse. Can Tim move it?

[David P]

Over to Tim I fear

(This is such a nice catch-all looking heading whereas there isn't a general one with such an attractive title... It may not matter - enough people are seeing it where it is!)

Best,

David P.

[Jules]

Helen
My priorities would be

That you take my camera off me on the lift and place it carefully in a rinse tank that is only for cameras and has clean water in it. It will safe there until I am dekitted.

I prefer to fiddle with my camera on the saloon table so I tend to take one of those camping towels with me and place it on that.

Don't bother with grease etc for the reasons cussy mentioned.

But do give us a place to charge up our batteries etc

Take me to shallow sites with nice viz and plenty of light and critters.

A laptop for people to use to view their pics and hence a universal card reader and lead to connect in. This is luxury though!

Just having rinse tank and being willing to hand up and hand down cameras carefully will make you better than most!


I saw someone rinse their wet suit that they had pee-ed in the camera rinse tank on a liveaboard once.. that didn't impress me, nor did the rebreather diver who used the only clean bucket on the boat, that had been pressed into action as a tempory rinse tank, to empty the swill out of their counterlungs all over my camera. Nice!

Having photo friendly weeks would be lovely. I know there is some lovely diving up there but I am not interested in 40m upside down wrecks so having weeks where it's scenic and 35m max would definitely make scapa seem inviting to photographers.

Jules

[Cussy]

Originally Posted by Jules

so having weeks where it's scenic and 35m max would definitely make scapa seem inviting to photographers.

Saying that though there are deep wreck photographers. One thing you have to remember there are hundreds of different reasons we all dive and this is probably more so for photography. So as a skipper you shouldn't just assume we are all the same. As you are a skipper/owner/whatever and a photographer that helps - you will understand more about the limitations of Orkney darkness.

I always tend to use skippers that I know other photographers have used - they simply know what we want in the water. They understand that what we really want is to hang around one tiny rock all dive looking for a particular critter as opposed to trying to cover the entire sea bed in the hunt for the only fish that's left.
Rob

PS I prefer to rinse my setup under running water as opposed to a dunk tank in case of damage, so a hose in a toilet always comes in handy