The Coral at Wakatobi OK?

[bullshark]

A blurb from Undercurrent:

"Another Flotsam item from last month's issue mentioned the Wildlife
Conservation Society's reports of major coral bleaching in Indonesia,
especially in the Wakatobi islands, where reportedly 35 percent of the
corals have turned white. Wakatobi Resort partner Henrik Rosen wrote
us to say that's not true at his place. "Wakatobi is far away from the
Andaman Sea and other hot spots which experienced severe bleaching. It
looks like we got spared from hot temperatures by the upwelling
currents from the Banda Sea, like many times before. In Waitii's very
shallow top reefs and sheltered bay, some of the corals bleached
slightly. However, all other dive sites showed no bleaching. Now with
temperatures down, most corals recovered in Waitii. What contributes
to the health of the corals in our vicinity is the excellent seawater
quality (no pollution)." Anyone been to Wakatobi recently and can
vouch for Rosen's statements?"

Glad to hear it myself. The hard corals at Wakatobi are spectacular,
even if they bored Mossman (who has posted no pictures of them yet?).

safe diving,

bullshark

[Greg Mossman]

Post by bullshark
"Another Flotsam item from last month's issue mentioned the Wildlife
Conservation Society's reports of major coral bleaching in Indonesia,
especially in the Wakatobi islands, where reportedly 35 percent of the
us to say that's not true at his place. "Wakatobi is far away from the
Andaman Sea and other hot spots which experienced severe bleaching. It
looks like we got spared from hot temperatures by the upwelling
currents from the Banda Sea, like many times before. In Waitii's very
shallow top reefs and sheltered bay, some of the corals bleached
slightly. However, all other dive sites showed no bleaching. Now with
temperatures down, most corals recovered in Waitii. What contributes
to the health of the corals in our vicinity is the excellent seawater
quality (no pollution)." Anyone been to Wakatobi recently and can
vouch for Rosen's statements?"
Glad to hear it myself. The hard corals at Wakatobi are spectacular,
even if they bored Mossman (who has posted no pictures of them yet?).

There's a great historical/current water temp chart on the
http://www.wakatobi.com/weather/weather.html page. You can see how
close the temps approached the bleaching threshold this year.
Apparently they dodged the bullet yet again, but for how long?

I only took the 105mm off on one dive, when we were diving Blade.
Unfortunately we had crappy viz that dive and my wide-angle shots all
sucked. If I can find a decent one or two in the bunch, I'll post
them, but don't hold your breath.

Had I shot wide-angle on many of the other better-viz dives, I would
have had some nice shots. There were just too damn many exotic macro
critters to shoot that I dared not leave the macro lens off again.
Obviously I need to bring two u/w camera rigs down with me - if only I
could convince Janna to become my full-time camera sherpa, but for
some reason she prefers to spend most of her dives well away from me
and my camera.

BTW, housing is on its way back to me. L&M said my shutter problems
were due to some dried out non-user-serviceable o-rings in the
internal shutter mechanism, basically my fault because I skipped an
annual service where they supposedly would have re-lubed them. Of
course, if they didn't charge $350 for re-lubing a few o-rings every
year, I wouldn't have skipped the service. I'm good for another year
now. Bring on those pygmies!

[bullshark]

BTW, housing is on its way back to me.  L&M said my shutter problems
were due to some dried out non-user-serviceable o-rings in the
internal shutter mechanism, basically my fault because I skipped an
annual service where they supposedly would have re-lubed them. Of
course, if they didn't charge $350 for re-lubing a few o-rings every
year, I wouldn't have skipped the service. I'm good for another year
now. Bring on those pygmies!- Hide quoted text -

Glad to hear its ok, Greg. How did you let them convince you its your
fault? This is 2010, not 1910. Non-user-servicable o-rings shouldn't
dry out unless they were lubed with Camel fat or never lubed at all.

The shutter release makes contact, and the logic board sends a message
to the camera. You didn't say the button wouldn't work, you said you
pressed it and nothing happened. I don't doubt your word, I doubt
their explanation. No doubt they charged you an amount sufficient to
convice you that you were at fault. (c:

bullshark

[Greg Mossman]

Post by bullshark

Post by Greg Mossman
BTW, housing is on its way back to me. L&M said my shutter problems
were due to some dried out non-user-serviceable o-rings in the
internal shutter mechanism, basically my fault because I skipped an
annual service where they supposedly would have re-lubed them. Of
course, if they didn't charge $350 for re-lubing a few o-rings every
year, I wouldn't have skipped the service. I'm good for another year
now. Bring on those pygmies!

Glad to hear its ok, Greg. How did you let them convince you its your
fault? This is 2010, not 1910. Non-user-servicable o-rings shouldn't
dry out unless they were lubed with Camel fat or never lubed at all.

You're right, and if they dried out so easily that they needed to be
serviced every year, L&M should have made the annual service
"advisory" a bit more mandatory, with explanation. Therefore, I'm
suspicious that this actually solved the problem, but that won't be
revealed until I test it out, the problem recurs, and I send it back
again. My anger level at that point will be entirely dependent on
whether it happens when I'm testing it at home in the pool or while on
an expensive trip to a tropical locale.

Post by bullshark
The shutter release makes contact, and the logic board sends a message
to the camera. You didn't say the button wouldn't work, you said you
pressed it and nothing happened. I don't doubt your word, I doubt
their explanation. No doubt they charged you an amount sufficient to

They only charged me the cost of the annual service, but that's
probaby because I had a 3-year "fault-free" warranty. Had that
warranty not been in effect, I'm sure they would have found a more
expensive cause of my shutter problem.

Still, I believe there's something more than a simple button pressing
on a contact. The camera has to know when the shutter is pressed down
halfway, so it can autofocus, as well as when it's pressed down all
the way to take a picture. Plus the shutter has to provide enough
feedback/resistance so the underwater potentially-glove-wearing
photographer can tell the difference between a half and a full press.