http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ Copyright MVPix.com - All Rights Reserved Photographer Weblogs on MVPix.com Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:02:12 -0500 Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:02:12 -0500 en-us webmaster@mvpix.com Jean-Sebastien Morisset weekly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/images/logo4xml.gif MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/think-tank-airport-security-carryon-review.html Photography : Equipment Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:02:12 -0500 Travel-ready Think Tank Airport Security carry-onsA while back I wrote an article about our carry-on luggage for two dSLR housings. Since the Storm Cases combined could only fit a single flat port and small dome port, all other ports (including some Aquatica 8" ports and port shades) had to be packed in our checked luggage. I assumed a bunch of ports would have little or no value to thieves. Well, a connecting flight through San Juan proved me wrong. They stole five ports, including two limited edition Ikelite-Aquatica dome ports with port shades. I later found one of the Ikelite-Aquatica ports bundled with a housing for sale on eBay. You can read part of the story in our Bonaire... 211@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=211 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/ikelite-offers-free-exchange-for-551016-and-551024-stalks.html Photography : Equipment Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:05:51 -0500 Ikelite released a new 8 inch dome port several months ago that accepts up to three different stalk lengths. I wrote a review of this new dome port -- although it remains a draft until I can finish sorting / post-processing a backlog of photos. :-) In August, Ikelite announced an upgrade to their medium and long stalk lengths for this port. The original stalks are rated to 150 ft, while the new stalks are rated to 200 ft. Ikelite is offering a free exchange for the old stalks, so if you have some, you may want to take advantage of this offer sooner than later.... 210@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=210 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/review-of-ikelites-new-8-port-551040.html Photography : Equipment Tue, 02 May 2006 18:02:49 -0500 Please note: I started writing this article shortly after returning from Bonaire in June, but have not had a chance to complete it yet. Hopefully this draft version will be useful for those of you currently looking at buying Ike's new 8" dome port. I expect to have this article completed (with example photos) within the next few weeks. A Little Background Info... To truly appreciate the current 8" port design, it's necessary to talk about it's predecessor... Over a year ago, Ikelite purchased four hundred 8" ports from Aquatica, and packaged them with custom delrin adapters. I bought two of these 8" dome ports #5510.80 for our Ikelite Canon 20D housings. I also bought some Aquatica WA port shades... 209@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=209 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/addon-floats-for-housing-with-macro-setup.html Photography : Equipment Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:14:36 -0500 Housing buoyancy has been a problem for just about every photographer I've met, including myself. Compact strobes like the DS-125s pictured here are very compact, and thus very negative underwater. It takes air filled spaces to offset the negative weight of batteries, lenses, cameras, etc. When shooting wide-angle, the large diameter of a dome port will help offset some of the weight. ULCS and others also offer buoyant strobe arms of various lengths. The longer the arms, the more lift is achieved. This is all great for wide angle, and indeed, our wide-angle setup is close to neutral and a real pleasure to use. The opposite is true for a macro setup though - especially at night. You can see... 208@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=208 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/scuba-diving-dvd/ekpp-double-edition-dvd-buyer-beware.html Scuba Diving : DVD Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:29:31 -0500 I purchased the EKPP Double Edition DVD from Herve Deschamp that documents the Doux de Coly and Gourneyras cave dives by the EKPP in 2002/2003. When I tried viewing the Doux de Coly disc, my DVD player flashed a warning about an improper region code and would not play the disc. Not without some resources, I proceeded to copy the disc and remove the region coding. The copy didn't work either, so I tried to re-author the disc and even tried region coding it for North America. None of my attempts succeeded. After scrapping four blanks, I contacted Herve Deschamp for an exchange or refund. Herve replied by calling me a liar and accusing me of trying to steal his... 206@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=206 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/travel-bonaire/bonaire-in-october-2005.html Travel : Bonaire Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:31:02 -0500 This latest trip to Bonaire has been the best, and the worst. We woke up at 2:00am on October 15th for a very early morning flight to Bonaire. Eric and Sebastien met us at the airport and we all had a great time on our way down through Miami and San Juan. We had pizza and took plenty of pictures in Miami. Sebastien is an especially fun subject since he doesn't like to be photographed. :-) We all slept a little bit on the flights and had a take-out dinner (by the seaside) of sausages from the Argentinian Grill. Sunday morning we had an early breakfast at the City Cafe and then picked up some groceries from the Cultimara.... 205@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=205 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/rinse-tanks-and-securing-equipment-on-location.html Photography : Equipment Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:15:56 -0500 203@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=203 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/canon-20d-lens-and-ikelite-port-combinations.html Photography : Equipment Sun, 30 Oct 2005 10:38:10 -0500 Before every trip I ask myself which lenses and ports I should bring along. And once at our destination, the question then becomes which lenses need diopters, extension tubes, and what ports are best with those lenses. The following article documents my experience with the lens and port combinations I've tried. In some cases, I also include notes on camera settings and substrobe arm lengths. These notes are as much for myself as anyone else, since I will use this article as a reference on future trips. You can expect this information to be updated once in a while as I try new lens / port combinations and fine-tune old ones. If you have additional information and/or opinions on... 202@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=202 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/carryon-luggage-for-two-dslrs-housing-setups.html Photography : Equipment Fri, 14 Oct 2005 13:46:58 -0500 Every underwater photographer I know struggles to carry-on as much equipment as he / she can. As we prepare for another trip to Bonaire (in October 2005), I took a few snapshots of our carry-ons to describe our setup. Hopefully you can use this information to improve your own setup, and if you have some suggestions / comments for us, please feel free to post a comment bellow. Melanie and I both use complete dSLR setups with dual strobes and a variety of ports / lenses, which makes travelling a little equipment intensive. When packing, I try and carry-on as many essentials as I can, figuring our checked luggage might arrive late, or not at all. We use two... 200@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=200 Jean-Sebastien Morisset MVPix Photographers http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/archives/photography-equipment/canon-20d-with-ikelite-housing-a-field-report.html Photography : Equipment Fri, 03 Jun 2005 13:08:57 -0500 In early 2005, Melanie and I upgraded our photo equipment to Canon 20Ds with Ikelite housings, ports, and substrobes. On a trip to Bonaire in May 2005, we had the occasion to try a variety of lenses and port combinations. Excluding all the various support and spare parts we brought along, our underwater photography equipment consisted of:... 185@http://www.mvpix.com/photographers/ http://www.mvpix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-post.cgi?entry_id=185 Jean-Sebastien Morisset