Sales

Shortly after returning from Mexico I sold my CamOne infinity & accessories at a fair price via Taucher.net. While satisfied with the underwater footage I got out of it in the darkness of the caves, the image quality of sunny above land takes wasn't quite good enough for me to want to keep it for any experimental action shoots.

A month later I let go of my Dive Rite reels and a Beaver lift-bag. Figuring I could use a finger spool as safety, rent a primary reel whenever needed and having no use for the salvage bag.

This month I also sold off my precious TillyTec LED 2000 VIDEO, TillyTec LED 1000 and three Scubapro regulator sets, based upon the improbability of a dedicated dive trip in my near future.

thin air - Sonthofen

Tulum - thin air

CamOne focus adjustment -vs- DiveBox lens replacement

[1] CamOne focus adjustment

By rotating the CamOne's optics about a quarter turn counter-clockwise it's possible to shoot underwater with the original DiveBox.

⊕ all modes can be used, e.g. 127° 1080p, 170° 720p & 4:3 photo

⊕ best possible IQ, if you find out the optimal focus adjustment

⊕ no extra costs

⊗ either sharp above or below water, i.e. mixed footage is not possible without changing the camera's focus

⊗ changing the focus requires fiddling with two tiny screws, which is rather impractical on the go, meaning one has to decide beforehand what shots are wanted

[2] DiveBox lens replacement

Though not yet available for purchase at the time of writing, I assume aquapixs will eventually commercially produce flat lenses to replace the CamOne infinity DiveBox's domed lens, if demand is there. The two flat lenses I got were prototypes to be tried at my own risk. I chose to buy a second DiveBox for this DIY modification.

⊕ both above and below water filming is possible in Full HD

⊕ no need to change the CamOne's factory set focus

⊗ only useable for 127° 1080p video, due to heavy vignetting in 170° 720p and photo modes

⊗ putting a wide angle behind a flat lens causes corner softness

⊗ somewhat narrower FOV due to refraction

⊗ replacing the DiveBox's lens implies modifying it, which should not be done too often, as the metal screws holding the lens in place would eventually wear out the threads of the plastic housing, and of course this solution requires at least one check dive to verify waterproofness, but that should be standard procedure anyways

⊗ additional costs for the flat lens and optionally a second DiveBox

Sun, sea, sand

One more time

For my last dive I wished for the moon. So naturally that's where we went, Richie leading me of course to its dark side, jumping right off the cavern line, then left, then right at the first T, turning around after 54' at a second T. Truly an amazing cave, with magnificent classical formations, low ceilinged passages, otherworldly strangely colored decorations, eroded tunnels and even a couple of old bones.

The diver behind the camera

Speleological video dive in Kalimba, challenging one's buoyancy skills, sinus equalization, body positioning and camera handling technique.

Tulum ruinas

I got there early enough to still have the place mostly for myself, not counting the many sunbathing iguanas. Entrance fee: 57 Pesos.

Nai Tucha

Nai Tucha is Maya for Monkey House. This cenote is several kilometers deep into the jungle and is the main entrance of sistema Tux Kupaxa.


Another fabulous underground system, full of splendid decorations. We went right at the T until a domed cenote with two small holes letting in some sunlight, roots reaching down from the ceiling into the water of life, lots of catfish and a few nesting bats. Great dive!

Temple of Doom

Splash in, through the Madonna passage, past the Fang and back after having used up a third of my nitrox. The best part here for me being the return to the dome area and the sun's streaming light rays.

Dark Side of the Moon

Getting there doesn't take quite as long as one might imagine. Even though you can't really rush it on the bump-it-up jungle track to Pet Cemetery, a well maintained cenote in the middle of nowhere.

Diving to the Dark Side of the Moon and back is over 100' of wonderful enjoyment from start to finish. Definitely one of the top dives around here, again perfectly led by Jeff, together with Gosia. Happy diver :o)


I only uploaded one special sequence, through a beautifully decorated passage, in Full HD, straight out of the camera (uncut, no editing).

For the first time I actually used up my CamOne's sugar-sized battery, shooting 50 clips. I never switch off the camera during a dive, but do have the LCD turn off automatically after 2 minutes, to save energy. Personally, I find the small LCD critical to compose & monitor shots.

A gulp of fresh air in between dives

Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate (shown in frame grab), petrified waterfalls, a gaping mouth, a fence of columns, ... are but a few of the many wonderful formations to be seen in Nohoch Nah Chich along the main line.

Fragile beauty

Fantastic shallow cave dive in Dos Pisos led by Jeff. He brought me to the south entrance, just a short walk down from the gearing up place, as opposed to the north entrance, which I dived in 2008 after a rather hot 21' hike through the jungle.


The knee-deep entry pool just continues below the cavern's apparent wall, remaining very low ceilinged underwater for quite a while before opening up somewhat. The special beauty here are the fragile stalactite forests drooping down and the many stalagmites growing up from the silty bottom. For 50' we carefully hovered through these otherworldly marvels of stone, before reaching the end of our jump section and turning around for another look on the way out.

A dark place

Having dried inside-out overnight, I was about to turn my wetsuit right again this morning when my eyes detected some movement in the suit. As I carefully checked, out came some weird but innocent looking insect. Too small. Still suspicious, I slowly bent some more neoprene, thereby revealing the actual alert tripping culprit: a small scorpion (2cm not counting its bent up tail). Welcome to Mexico!

Pickup truck fully loaded with three sets of gear & doubles, Richie, Gosia & I agreed to pay Jailhouse a visit, Richie absolutely wanting to show us the Swiss Syphon, despite my stated reluctance for dark places. I never felt at ease in Sistema Naranjal and suppose I never will, its stained walls absorb all light and extrude a somber mood.


With three Ts, a jump and another T it's a rather complex left-right-right-left-right path line to get to the sub-halocline Swiss Syphon, but the salt water passages there are quite something to behold indeed.

On the way back from the cenote, Richie spotted Gunni sitting in a roadside café, so of course I jumped out of the truck to greet my former boss of Aktun Dive Center, now fully into kite board surfing.

CamOne+aquapixs in Chan Hol

Great 90' cave dive in Chan Hol led by Jeff, who carried an extra video light for your visual pleasure. Chan Hol has some really cool tunnels, the perfect place for a staged lighting configuration.

Today I actually trusted my CamOne into my self modified DiveBox, i.e. the one with a flat lens prototype in stead of the original dome lens. This flat lens prototype was kindly sent to me for trial at my own risk by aquapixs, the German company that also makes the GoForFocus flat lens replacement for the popular GoPro. Whether they'll commercially produce flat lenses for the CamOne I don't know?

The two main advantages of this solution are that you don't need to change the CamOne's factory set focus and you can shoot both above and below water in Full HD. More about pros & cons in another post.


For the record: Importing & converting the 25 Full HD clips at only a 1/4 of their original resolution into iMovie 08 took 1h, for about 3.3 GB of raw material I collected this morning. Followed by about 90' of editing. Exporting the quickly cut together 2'48" selection of passages at 960x540 only required 6'. Uploading to & processing by YouTube demanded another 39' of patience for this 82.5 MB teaser.

[ 19.12.2018 ] new 1080p video uploaded to Youtube

Cave crawling

After three long days of room rest, another cave dive at last. Not just in any cenote, this time we went to my favorite: Kalimba. Upon entering & exiting the dry cavern to check the entrance pool I got tapped upon the shoulder by two bats, which I took for a good omen.

With me again to record the action: my tiny CamOne infinity in its original DiveBox, its optics now turned about 95° counter-clockwise for a small lets-try-it change, but I don't think its better than 90°?


The CamOne infinity, snuggly fitted in its DiveBox, was mounted on a Sea&Sea tray together with two TillyTec LED 2000 VIDEO lights.

Richie led for 50' into darkness, going left at the T, before I gave the turn-around sign with still more than 2/3 left of my nitrox mix, and headed back towards daylight. This shallow cave section, part of Sistema Sac Actun, gets tight here and there, requiring some finger crawling and precise maneuvering to get one's body & tanks positioned as required to fit through the various restrictions. Cozy indeed. I like!

Santa Fe

CamOne in Aktun Ha and Dos Ojos

Joined a cavern tour today to try out my CamOne below water, using the original DiveBox with domed lens, meaning I had to manually re-adjust the camera's focus by rotating its optical element, about 90° counter-clockwise, so as to get relatively sharp underwater footage.

Note that with this solution you can't have it both ways, it's either sharp above or below. Evaluating the Full HD clips I'd say I haven't quite hit the optimum setting yet, but it's hard to tell due to grain.

Playa Maya

Third beach session in a week's time, that's a personal record! Only to experiment with my CamOne's time-lapse mode of course. I wouldn't want to get a tan, I'm here as a daylight shunning cave diver after all.