Reviewing the Sealife Micro HD - 12/05/2017

Al's Camera

Piano Keys

Most of us who dive love what we see. For many, the unique underwater environments inspire us to take photographs and videos. I'm no different. For years now I've had a little Sealife DC1400. You may recall in November I flooded it causing me to be without a camera for some time.

Well before I headed off to Mauritius I still hadn't got round to fixing it. I thought of buying a Sealife Micro 2.0, but my friend (Captain Al) said I could borrow his earlier model, the Sealife Micro HD for my trip as a trial. I did, so as an aide memoire I thought I'd right down my thoughts on it.

Like the rest of the DC series cameras it has the easy to use piano keys, feels chunky in the hand and has the preset underwater red filter entitled "Dive Mode". Unlike the DC models it's pretty flood proof as its a sealed unit that uses both wifi and a wet contact USB cable for download. 

So what did I like and dislike? Well... 

• I loved the app and wifi functionailty. Why wait to get back to sure before posting your pics on facebook or instagram. Share to tour phone and your off.
• Loved the hasslefree diving - no worrying about leaky seals, moisture munchers or any of that stuff.
• Simple and easy to use, I mean if Captain Al can use it....

But...

• It has no Macro mode, meaning blurred pictures of nudibranchs.
• No zoom mode meaning you may have to get uncomfortably close to that big angry moray.
• No Green water auto filter for the murky water diver.

All in, if you're just a snap taker like me then it's a great wee piece of kit, but if want to take some serious photos then keep saving!

I was uncomfortably close to this guy.

Blurry nudi

La Fest de Murene - 11/04/2016

With just one more day to dive with my new found friends at Just Diving I headed on a the boat with a couple of Germans from Munich and a French guy called Alexander who would ultimately be my buddy for the day.

As always I chatted beforehand to establish his experience. He lived near Calais in France and was a fairly regular drysuit diver.  That immediately eased my fears because, as we all know, anyone who learns to dive in cold water finds the warm stuff easy in almost all conditions.

The day was mostly a check dive for the German couple so the sites were to be kept nice and fluffy. We dived two reefs - Shamenta and Tikoraye. Both were fairly pleasant providing a nice assortment of reef fish, nudibranchs, amd as Alexander would proclaim as we surfaced from the second dive "en Fest de Murene". 

Now, my French isn't great, but even I could translate his proclamation as a festival of moray eels. Though to say that, was little bit of a disservice to a dive that also had Garden and Ribbon eels on show too. Not to mention a number of stone, lion and scorpion fish.

Two nice dives and a great way to end my time diving in Mauritius - especially when Jean spotted two great nudibranchs.

Moray

Lionfish

Fryeria marindica

Anemone fish

Red Scorpion Fish

Coin De Mire and the Giant Tuna of Death - 10/04/2017

OK, so there might be a little hyperbole in the title of this blog, but there certainly was a giant tuna.

Day 2 of my diving adventure with Just Diving in Mauritius saw Gill.I.Am join me for a couple of plongees (that's french for diving). I had agreed the day before with Olivier to ensure that the diving was pretty fluffy for Gill - she has trouble equalising.

With that in mind the guys had arranged for us to travel across to Coin de Mire to dive "the wall". If you look at the picture from the island The Wall is on the left of the island.

Before, while being briefed, Olivier had explained that there was cleaning station frequented by large Tuna. I was skeptical I've been to many cleaning stations where, well, nothing seems to happen. So my expectations were low. However, as well as beautiful topography topside which continues under the waves the site is encrusted with coral and the usual assortment of reef fish.

We plopped in close to the shore and began working our was down the wall during slack water. Eventually once were down at around 31m as we came round a large rock I saw a large shadow swimming away from me. Machu our guide for the dive signalled to stay low and wait. Then around 30 seconds later the Tuna reemerged from the gloom to have its teeth cleaned. We watched. It was definitely big perhaps around 2-3m and with the exception of a whale shark in Mexico the biggest fish I've ever seen. 

On our second dive we did the same dive again but from the opposite direction. It felt different and this time it had a very pleasant current running allowing for a nice drift amongst the corals. I think Gill.I.Am enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to pack the camera.

King of the Castle - 07/04/2016

With what the Americans call Spring Break upon us my wife and I have headed for the Tropic of Capricorn and the tropical island of Mauritius. Before arriving I had contacted a local dive company called Just Diving led by a keen underwater photographer Olivier Fayolle. It turned out to be a great choice.

On this the first day I went diving alone and after a flash of my ScotSAC Master diver card was immediately accepted into the fold as an official Dive Ninja which meant that we were going to a more advanced site - Kingfish Castle.

We loaded onto the small Just Diving boat and headed out through the lagoon to the channel that exists between Mauritius and Coin de Mire Island.

By the time we hit the site the swell was up at around 2.5m (3m in my head) and as someone who isn't a huge fan of boats I was starting to feel nervous. I shouldn't have though. I've done this stuff before and survived....and enjoyed it.

We rolled back - negative entry - and immediately I saw the large rock beneath surface pushing up the waves. We dropped down in a considerable surge to 32m and headed for the small cave where Olivier knew the Kingfish lived.

They were there. We admired them for a few minutes before working our way back to the boat pick up, watching a free swimming Moray on the way. However, it was the end of the dive that threw up the most interesting encounter. As we sat at around 6m doing our safety stop beneath us something was moving at around 20m. A shark, too far way to photograph I watched, it potter about, before continuing with its day. 

As I posted on Facebook after the encounter, 

"Today I saw a white tip reef shark, it hovered beneath us as we floated in the deep blue. We regarded one another before it went about its business. Sharks are extraordinary, we need to protect them."

From there it was back into the boat and off to Eden Reef, a very pleasant but relatively fluffy reef dive on the outer edge of the Mauritian lagoon. Here, the only thing that happened was that Olivier made me the subject of one of his photographs - an image I'll treasure.

Me

Starfish

School of fish

Kingfish