Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1

Still on the lookout for a new underwater photo & video solution, there's currently only one option that kind of fulfills my handful of requirements without costing a fortune: Panasonic's µ4:3 Lumix DMC-GF1 in a 10Bar housing rated to -60m (housed set for 1490€).


Micro-Four-Thirds system cameras have interchangeable lenses and relatively large sensors in fairly compact mirror-less bodies. That is, near DSLR image quality and HD video in a relatively small casing.

So far however, only Panasonic & Olympus have presented µ4:3 cameras & lenses. Meaning the selection's still rather limited, though slowly expanding and quite promising.


Most importantly, several third party manufacturers have already started developing housings, e.g. 10Bar, Athena, Nautilus & Seatool.

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UPDATE: Inon's X-2 housing can now also waterproof the GF1 to -75m.

TillyTec demos

Being pretty happy with my TillyTec lights, I gladly obliged when Tilly asked whether I could make some clips showing his lights in action.

The main demo, featuring TillyTec's HID 35 & LED 1000 and starring yours truly, has been on YouTube for about a week now and as of today you can also watch it on TillyTec's own website!

More specifically, the diver being filmed (a.k.a. yours truly) is using a TillyTec HID 35 with flood reflector, and the cameraman (a.k.a. Miguel) is using a TillyTec LED 1000 with diffuser. Whereas a bright focussed beam is better for long-range illumination and signaling, for videography a wider softer beam is preferred in order to avoid any hotspots, which is why both a flood reflector and diffuser were used.

Note that ideally the cameraman would have two bright lights (of at least 100W halogen equivalent), both fitted with flood reflector and diffuser, and the diver being filmed would have one powerful light (of more than 100W halogen equivalent) with or without flood reflector depending on the scene to be recorded.

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Embedded here is a 30" demo of TillyTec's LED W30 back-up light:

Feedback wanted!

Read this blog? Saw the videos on YouTube? Watched the DVD? If so, I'd really like to get some feedback, preferably in your native tongue, as long as it's positively formulated in a language I understand :o)

Videoclips: Into Darkness

Both my pseudo documentaries being way too large to be released online, and world-wide DVD distribution being beyond my limited means, I chopped down the two main features into YouTube sized videos for instant viewing anytime anywhere:

— Part 1 : Cave Diving
— Part 2 : Underwater Speleology

UPDATE: Both videoclips were removed from YouTube due to possible soundtrack copyright issues (even though I purchased the songs).

Director's cut

Done! My first movie project is at last ready to be released for viewing by a selected few, that is, the first DVDs await distribution :o)

It sure took a while, but after nearly six weeks of editing, I finally got two cave diving documentaries strung together, as well as some extra videos, good for about 70' of wonderful submersion into darkness.

Into Darkness
•• Part 1 : Cave Diving (±35')
•• Part 2 : Underwater Speleology (±21')

Extras
•• Dos Pisos - A Walk In The Park (±4')
•• Temple of Doom - The Downfall (±33")
•• Cenotes - Another Look (±9')

For the record: Together, these five MPEG4 source videos only take up about 1.5GB, however, after having been processed & encoded by iDVD, they just barely fit onto a 4.7GB DVD?

Soundtrack

Got the first of two documentaries clipped together, with titles, soundtrack and credits, good for nearly 35' of infotainment!

To set the mood, I've chosen popular Mexican bolero-ranchera songs by Javier Solís and ancient Mayan music by Xavier Quijas Yxayotl.


For the record: Generating the actual documentary from my 24MB iMovie project took nearly one hour, resulting in a MPEG4 video file of 720MB with an interpolated resolution of 720x540 pixels.

Underground movies

So far, selecting the best takes from more than a dozen shootings in various cenotes, I've lined up a 38' sequence of otherworldly scenes for the first of two documentaries, showing what cave diving around Tulum looks like. Again, this being just a quick draft, some serious post editing is still needed, besides getting the sound on track.


As I only started to get a clumsy feeling for underwater videography after my high resolution camcorder flooded, most of my best footage was shot in low resolution with my three year old back-up camera. Meaning the two underground movies I intend to produce will be rather grainy. For a more detailed feel, I plan to release a separate wanna B movie clipped together from some of my initial shootings.

Wanna B movie

After sifting through several gigabytes of raw material various times, discarding useless footage and marking some of the better sequences, I've now roughly cut & pasted a pseudo-high-res wanna B movie of 12', which of course still needs reviewing, remixing and trimming, not to mention an appropriately dark soundtrack, before being released.

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UPDATE: Re-cut some of my cave diving footage for public viewing:

→ Cave diving in Yucatan's cenotes [03/2008]

Slideshow: Cenotes

Some snapshots to look at while you wait for more...

… removed …

Screening

Importing the 8GB of high-res* footage taken with my defunct Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 on its first and only six cave dives took over 90'... but now I've got about 90' of MPEG4 source material neatly stored in my iPhoto library and ready to be edited into a wanna B movie with iMovie 08 on my iMac. That is, screening is in progress!

Since mixing high and low resolution footage within one movie is a really bad idea, I'll import the 14GB of low-res* footage taken with my Sea&Sea DX8000G later on, as soon as I've got an external HDD.

thin air - Sonthofen

Typical uncomfortable flight through various mind unsetting time zones, loosing seven hours of sleep along the way, but miraculously emerging in another world where a new day's already half-way through. 12:00+15' (German time), Touch-down. 12:35, Thorough but expedient German immigration control. 13:00, Got both my bags, but where are my two dangerous looking lights? After a while most people have gotten their stuff and have left. Only a couple of lone unwanted bags keep turning around on the luggage belt. I'm about to search for a lost baggage counter when I suddenly notice a small pack lying all by itself on the floor at the far side of the belt. My precious torches!

13:22, Airport train to Munich's main station. 14:21, Regional train to Buchloe, where I only have 4' to catch a connecting train departing from another track. To make matters worse I misunderstand the loudspeaker info and find myself on the wrong track... For your information: Rushing with 50-something kilo feels like running in slow motion but getting exhausted as when sprinting up a steep mountain! Nonetheless I just manage to step onto the train, using the controller's still open door before he closes it :o) After that I slowly wheeze my way back to Sonthofen, where at 16:33 Petra picks me up and drives me home. Door to door a 22 hour time & space challenging journey.

Tulum - thin air

12:15, Señora Lourdes drives me to Tulum's bus station, where I wait in vain for my 12:40 bus to Playa del Carmen. Luckily I'm allowed to hop on the 13:00 ADO bus in stead (44 Pesos), arriving in Playa around 14:10, just in time to catch a Riviera bus to Cancun's airport (80 Pesos), another 70' ride. Having been dropped off in terminal 1, I take a free shuttle bus to terminal 3, only a short, as in 1', distance away.

15:35, LTU's counters are manned but they're totally ignoring the waiting queue of early passengers until 15:50, i.e. exactly three hours before departure. After that it goes pretty fast, leaving me enough time for an overpriced Starbucks coffee, before heading to security.

As expected I'm required to open my backpack and show them my dive lights, as these inevitably get the X-ray machine to black out, a sure way to get a lot of attention from paranoid security people. In this case however they are unwilling to let me through and, not wanting to take any responsibility, actually send me back to check-in, as it's apparently not allowed to carry suspicious batteries on board? Thing is, I wouldn't have tried to do so, if LTU hadn't specifically told me to.

18:40, Boarded. 18:50+25', Take-off into thin air as the night falls, enveloping everything into darkness...

Less is more

Tulum beach... endless & timeless. My project though is coming to an end and it's time for me to repack all my stuff for the journey home.


After having missed the first two flybys I just managed to get my camera in time for the third airborne flight of pelicans gliding by.

Cenotes

Millions of years ago, Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula was to be found below the waves, where it accumulated as much as thousand meters of sediment. Later, uplifting land masses and receding sea levels combined to expose this vast limestone platform to the elements.

Precipitation, already slightly acidic due to atmospheric carbon dioxide, upon contact with the ground also absorbs tannic acid from vegetation before percolating through the porous surface, irresistibly seeking its way back to the sea through fractures and cracks. On its course, the acidified rainwater reacts with the limestone, dissolving it and, over time, creating ever larger conduits and longer passages.

Ever so slowly, amazing tunnels and caves were hollowed out from the underground, giving dripping water and howling wind unimaginable artistic freedom to lazily form speleothems of wonderful beauty.

Then, about eighteen thousand years ago, as the last glacial period declined, sea levels began to rise again, thereby also lifting the freshwater table and causing Yucatan's fabulous underworld to flood.


Cenotes refer to locations where the groundwater is accessible from the surface, typically where a section of cave has collapsed under its own weight during a period of drought. Having been filtered on its way down through the porous limestone, cenote water is usually crystal clear and, being sheltered, has a relatively constant temperature of about 24-25°C (up to 26 below the halocline).

The word cenote is derived from the Mayan word "dzonot" meaning "sacred well", as these waterholes were of life sustaining importance to them, there being next to no open waterways on the peninsula.

For the Maya, these mysterious water filled sinkholes were also believed to be gateways to the other world, which explains why some of them were offered valuable objects and even human sacrifices, in order to appease the gods, e.g. the rain deity Chaac.

Besides the natural cave decorations, prehistory can still be observed today in many cenotes in the form of petrified layers containing bits of corals and fossilized shells, traces of charcoal fires, ancient bones of long dead animals and humans, and even intact pottery.

→ Quintana Roo Speleological Survey
→ Wikipedia: Cenotes

Tux Kupaxa

Another 2h long enjoyable dive, in the cave of the mastodon, past fabulous formations, left at the T, till the few remaining bones, then slowly back again. A perfect last dive, till I can come back for more.

Kalimba

What can I say... yet another dive in Kalimba indeed. Longer and further than ever before, meaning I had to restrain myself from shooting so as to be able to reach our target area, a fantastic 45' swim away from the entrance, allowing for about 5' of sightseeing before having to turn around again. Total bottom time: 2h. Remaining air pressure: 55bar (from 210). Raw footage: 894MB.

Tulum playa

Peaceful morning at the beach, for two bright hours of working on my tan, pseudo-yoga & salt water bath, early enough to avoid the noontime rush of hardcore sun worshippers. Being here as a creature of the dark, I'd of course smeared myself from head to toe with SPF20 before exposing myself to full daylight. To my own surprise, I actually quite enjoyed it, and almost regretted leaving so early, but there being almost no shade to hide, I fled back to my safe place in town.


No hot & stubborn walking was involved this time, like a good local economy supporting tourist I took a cab both ways, of which there are 480 in Tulum (and supposedly about 1500 in Playa & 5000 in Cancun).

Dos Pisos

We'd actually planned on diving here yesterday, but after Don Roberto of Rancho Campesino told us it's a 500m hot walk through the jungle to get to the cenote, we decided to come back today and hire some muscle to help us carry all the gear to the water.

This morning however, Robbie, who actually explored Dos Pisos with Gunni, tells us nah, the hike's less than this or that cenote, meaning we can easily walk it. Which we tell Don Roberto, who just shrugs and thus only sends one boy with us to show us the way. Alas our little Maya seems to be rather dumbstruck to be with three big foreigners and barely says anything more than sí to any of our questions.

We drive our pick-up as far as we can and decide to go and have a quick look-see at the supposedly near-by cenote before gearing up. The short unburdened stroll turns out to be a 15' walk along a rather uneven path, booby trapped with leaf covered foot twisting holes, sneaky feet enlacing vines and crossed by fallen trees.

At the cenote we're quite relieved to see another young man arrive on a horse and unanimously immediately decide to hire both youths to carry our doubles. Two sets that is. Leaving one set which I volunteer to carry. The condition being that my crazy effort be filmed as proof!

Back at the car I partially suit up, strap on about 45kg of gear, splash some cooling water over my head and stride off. Twenty-one minutes later I finally make it to the rocky overhang shading the cenote, steaming hot and badly needing to wind down a few degrees. Some dry honey crackers and a mouthful of water later we prepare & check our equipment for the dive at hand.

Several lines start right from the upstream area, so we just pick one of them and get going. Finding ourselves in a fairly low but richly decorated passage. The main line T's off at various points, requiring plenty of markers. We keep going right for simplicity, ending up in an eroded tunnel. This cave obviously hasn't seen too much traffic yet, our bubbles causing plenty of percolation and dust clouds. The current here's quite noticeable too, though still easily conquered. About one hour into the dive I give the turn around signal and we emerge back out again in the cenote another forty minutes later.

My dive booties soft soles not really being meant for treacherous jungle paths, I actually hurt my foot on the walk in, so I'm not jumping to prove I can do it again. No need though, Miguel's already squared his shoulders and marches fully geared up straight from the water into the jungle. I gratefully hand over my doubles to one of our porters, grab the remaining gear box together with Kirk and slowly limp my way back, harassed all the way by very thirsty mosquitoes.

[ entrance fee: 80 Pesos + 150 Pesos/porter ]

Kalimba

Today my enjoyment at diving my favorite cenote was a bit hampered by less than perfect buoyancy control and thus less than optimal weightlessness, resulting in a rather bumpy dive. To my happy surprise though, I still managed, in my humble opinion, to take some pretty good cave crawling footage :o)

Nohoch Nah Chich

This time we hit the primary upstream line and followed it for 67' till another much smaller cenote, at which point, having used up one third of my air supply, I called the dive. Again we passed some pretty fabulous formations sculpted by time beyond imagination. We stayed underwater two hours, using only about half of our doubles air. Many more hours could be spent just to have a quick look down the many side lines branching off everywhere. This one truly is a giant maze!

The Cave Diver

My friend Bart just brought to my attention a pretty cool trailer for an upcoming documentary about cave diving in Yucatán, featuring Steve Bogaerts from Aztec Diving, simply titled: "The Cave Diver".

Seeing as I won't be releasing anything anytime soon, you might as well look forward to this alternative movie by Sea O'Farrell :o)

Another dry day

No diving today, Miguel, the freelance dive guide hired by Xibalba, being once again otherwise occupied. Not that I mind too much, as after yesterday's dive my ear was slightly aching and I'm treating it now with antibiotic drops (Soldrin Otico), to prevent it getting any worse, as ear infections usually tend to do real fast.

Still, the apparent inexplicable shortage of reliable full-time and free-lance dive guides is rather annoying. Mostly because there doesn't seem to be any planning. It's day to day careless business. Reason enough I'd say to check any alternatives.

Not being able to make the movie I wanted doesn't help diminish my frustration of course. Not just because I flooded my camcorder. My technique hasn't really gotten any better after twenty dives. It would be easy to blame my back-up camera's limited video capabilities (read: very low resolution, poor light sensitivity, lack of image stabilization), but the fact remains that I just need a lot more dives, camera handling practice and some professional guidance.

Temple of Doom

Where to eat in Tulum?

• as cheap as it gets

For about 20 Pesos you can actually have a decent meal of roasted chicken (¼), rice, salad, tortillas & salsa in several main street BBQ places selling nothing but pollos asados al carbon.

In the evening, if you're not really hungry and just looking for a snack, you can get some tacos (7P/piece) or tamales (10P/pc) from street side vendors.

• for the budget minded traveler

On the south end of the main street, both Tacoqueto & Doña Tina cater to locals with a choice of home made dishes, of which you'll get a plateful for 30-40 Pesos. Add to that 10 Pesos for an agua de fruta or soft drink, or 15 Pesos for a cold beer.

Making your own cheese-tomato-cucumber-avocado sandwich with some halfway decent bread will cost you at least as much.

• tourist class

El Mariachi, Don Cafeto, Charlies, La Nave and various others offer Mexican & International cuisine for the more affluent, with dishes from 50 to 150 Pesos & more, drinks from 20 Pesos & upwards.

While not quite as overpriced as the beach side establishments, you still pay a premium for setting, arguably -if you know what to order where- slightly tastier food and often extremely slow service.

→ Todo Tulum

Nohoch Nah Chich

For my one hundredth cave dive my wish to marvel around in the giant bird cage got fulfilled, despite nobody really knowing the exact layout of this cave. But as I dived this system once two years ago, I still kind of had an idea where to look for the start of the permanent line*.

First though we had to find the cenote's entrance gate somewhere along highway 307 north of Tulum. Despite Nohoch's relative fame & popularity, none of the locals were able to help us out, but again memory served me well: the access road is the same as for Caracol!

From the parking & gearing up area it's a hot walk down to the 24°C cool water. Equipment checks done we submerged and went looking for a line, which we found at the end of the cavern zone and followed till its end barely 26' later, requiring us to close a gap to another line passing by just a few meters away. On my sign we went left, passing a domed cenote then approaching another brighter one. Both with snorkelers? Too much human activity for me so we swam back, shortly checking out the right section after the gap, thereby finding ourselves immediately in a fabulous area of petrified waterfalls.

This wonderful cave system is amazingly vast and very very shallow, averaging around 5m depth, thus allowing for extended dives of up to two hours on just a set of doubles.

* After talking to Robbie from Xibalba, who alas wasn't there when we got going, I found out that there are actually three upstream and one downstream line, and that by going left at the gap we indeed most probably made a circuit back to where we'd started.

[ entrance fee: 150 Pesos ]

Sac Aktun

After yesterday's exposure to the dark side, I figured a dive in Sac Aktun, Mayan for white cave, would be a good antidote. For greater effect and some private time I went solo, getting real close to the cave's building matter in the process.


Not that I ventured very deep inside. I pretty much remained in one wonderfully decorated room just beyond the cavern zone, away from the main line, shortly following a rarely traveled secondary line to a small cenote located not that far on the other side of the road.

As therapy I played around with my TillyTec lights, shooting various trial clips and experimenting with macro photography.


Grand cenote being relatively deserted today, I finished my dive with a tour of the cavern zone, enjoying the play of sunlight streaming in.

Jailhouse

Jungle pool entry followed by a slide down sandwiched between easily stirred up decomposing dirt and a low tannic acid stained ceiling.


We immediately take the first T left and dive along passages so dark our lights seem useless. Captivating black stalactites bring to mind jail bars, hence the name of this cenote I guess. Probably haunted...

There's quite a lot of silt deposited everywhere. A thick layer of it. The mood's definitely somber but brightly clears up after the second T, where we turn right and dive down below the halocline, here at 15m, into slightly warmer and bluish salt water. Our mission area.

The tunnel down here's whitish with crusty crops of beige formations. Half an hour into the dive we pass by some old bones, supposedly from a big tapir.

When I reach 2/3 of my nitrox, I call the dive, looking forward to getting out again. For some reason, Systema Naranjal, incl. Cenote Cristal aka Naharon, Mayan Blue aka Escondido & Cenote of the Sun among others, never quite gave me a good feeling inside.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Fish or ghost?

→ ogilbia pearsei
→ typhliasina pearsei

Chan Hol

Nice 82' dive through narrow tunnels, low passages and decorated rooms, past old human bones, traces of charcoal fires and almost intact pottery, then back to the present and unlimited free air.

Bursts happen

About 12' into the dive, as I grabbed my SPG to check my remaining air pressure for the third time or so, it suddenly started to release a constant stream of bubbles. Miguel being right in front of me, I gave him the emergency signal, whereupon he immediately turned around, saw the problem and quickly shut off my left tank and thereby my back-up regulator with the failing SPG. After that we of course swam straight for the exit. Hadn't he been right there, I would of course have shut off the valve myself, though not quite as fast and I would most probably have silted up the tunnel in the process.

At first I thought my SPG had somehow just unscrewed itself from the HP hose, there was no doubt however once I took the SPG apart in the dive center: a piece had broken off from one of the two tiny O-rings! How? Old and/or not properly lubricated O-ring plus friction could be one explanation, but who knows.

One thing's sure though: That's already the third regulator related issue on this trip (2nd stage elbow O-ring failure, free-flowing 2nd stage and now SPG O-ring failure). And that right after having had my regulators serviced & checked by Tauchsport Manta in Munich. I guess they really didn't want to see me back again. Well, they won't.

UPDATE: Check out gear maintenance for even more troubling info.

Chan Hol

Short 23' dive (incl. 3' safety stop), aborted due to a technical issue.

Muchachos

Small entrance, big cave. Due to travel depth and distance, nitrox and a stage tank are recommended. We dived it on air and only just avoided decompression by keeping it short, read: 72'.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Kalimba

Another great dive in Kalimba, this time involving one jump and one T, both times to the right. A 102' underwater trip of eyes-wide-open speleological pleasure. Mind you, though wonderfully decorated this system is very fragile and often restrictive, requiring perfect buoyancy control and careful crawling through various passages. Meaning should anything go wrong you'll need more than just a cool head to get out again. 50' into the cave is a long way back indeed. But then, nothing like a bit of risk awareness to keep a clear focus and sharp senses.

Taj Mahal

To my dismay the whole jungle clearing was full of vans as we arrived, but luckily they all belonged to cavern tours, meaning we had the cave all for ourselves. Though the best part here is arguably the extended cavern zone, actually connecting two cenotes and an air filled dome in between with several small holes in the roof through which sunlight beams in and refracts onto the water's surface.

The cave itself reminds of the weirdly eroded tunnels in Calavera, but unfortunately lots of it is exactly at halocline level, here at 12m, thus resulting in blurry vision for anybody except the leading diver.

[ entrance fee: 80 Pesos ]

Tortugas

Nice tunnel dive, left at the first T then right at the second T. I didn't see any turtles though? In order to avoid having to decompress, as most of the dive is spent below the halocline, here around 21m deep, nitrox is recommended. We used EAN36, diving on air this dive would otherwise most probably have resulted in a rather long deco penalty.

[ entrance fee: 70 Pesos ]

Tulum playa

Sun drenched day at the beach, barely 5km away from downtown Tulum, but another world all together, reachable by taxi for 40-60 Pesos. After having met some old acquaintances at La Zebra, I didn't hang around too long before marching off again. All the way back to Tulum pueblo, a rather hot, not to say rationally insane, 8km stroll.

A look into the Room of Tears

The original 320x240 30fps AVI source clips used for this video were recorded in Aktun Ha with a Sea&Sea DX8000G digital compact camera fitted with a 0.6x WAL, by the light of a TillyTec HID 35 with 80° flood reflector and a TillyTec LED 1000 with diffuser.

For the record: Uploading this 2'22" (15.6MB) video-clip took about 25', excluding a failed first attempt and post processing by Blogger.

Aktun Ha

This cenote is actually better known as Carwash, though I much prefer its Mayan name, which simply means water cave.

Somehow today I felt like doing a mourning dive to the Room of Tears, a relatively easy one jump cave dive, through a small hole off the main line, requiring some crawling, before being rewarded by the sight of this most famous & highly decorated little room.


Called back into action is my almost 3 years old Sea&Sea DX8000G, which despite two powerful lights alas still won't let me take sharp pictures in the darkness of the cave... so it will be down to low-res video-clips from here onwards. Shows that my drowned Xacti's one stop more sensitive lens and EIS clearly made a huge difference.

Chac Mool

While the 500m dive along the highway large eroded tunnel isn't too interesting, the destination is all the more so: Xich Ha Tunich, supposedly the world's largest underwater stalactite, measuring at least 8m according to my depth gauge, starting just below the halocline at around 11m down to about 20m. This giant drip stone is not just big though, it's also really beautifully formed.


As we got near the water, Miguel noticed a Turquoise Browed Motmot, which I only got to see thanks to my camcorder's 10x zoom. As it turned out, that would be the last picture it took for me.

[ entrance fee: 80 Pesos ]

Floods happen

Yesterday morning, as I checked my equipment prior to the first dive, I noticed my Tektite Expedition Star wasn't burning evenly. The reason: a few drops of water somehow got through the double O-ring protection supposed to keep it dry :o( How? Who knows. Maybe the O-rings were just too old. I've been wanting to replace them for a while, but haven't been able to find any new ones of that particular size. Luckily I brought a third back-up torch with me, so I still have two as required for cave diving.

Worse and impossible to replace here and now, this morning as I submerged and wanted to switch on my camcorder, it didn't respond. Through the housing's translucent back I suddenly noticed some small drops and immediately resurfaced, opening it as soon as I'd swum back to shore, releasing several cc of water... too late though, the damage already done. Sensitive electronic components + H2O = The End.

Through the dive I kept hoping that maybe I'd be able to resurrect some life into my Xacti later on, after it had had some time to dry, but alas it hasn't given a single peep ever since :o( There's no way this O-ring could have been too old. I'd cleaned & greased it prior to the dive and everything had seemed fine enough. Of course it could also have been a failure of one of the smaller, inaccessible control button O-rings? All it would take is just one little grain of sediment lodging itself where it shouldn't. As you can imagine, I'm a bit depressed loosing my camcorder so soon. Six video dives is all I got to do with it. I was only just starting to get the hang of it...

Despair not however, I still have my old Sea&Sea DX8000G, so I sure hope to do some more shooting, if not high-res photos than at least better-than-nothing low-res video-clips. The show must go on!

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UPDATE: I took my empty Epoque housing for another test dive down to 5m and it remained dry... meaning it was probably the main O-ring that failed, and thus my fault? There not being any obvious reason for the leak isn't very reassuring though and my confidence got flushed.

UPDATE: Epoque's quick reply to my email informing them of my misadventure:

Dear Mr TM, Firstly we thnk you for your having purchased our EHS-1000 HD underwater housing and we are sorry that you have had trouble on this unit for flooded. We are producing our underwater housing with care and we are doing waterproof test with 100% and sufficient pressure before shipment and we are sure that there is no item we shipped with flooded. Anyhow so sorry for this. If you would have any further question please be back to us. Best regards, NN, Epoque World.

UPDATE: According to some german forum posts from an underwater photography shop in Austria, great care must be taken when placing the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 inside Epoque's housing, otherwise the housing's lid might actually not be properly closed, even though all seven clamps are shut! They've apparently had several customers coming back with flooded camcorders, and have now put an explicit warning on their website stating Epoque does not assume any responsibility what so ever no matter the cause of the flood and therefor recommend some kind of third party insurance. They also note that the first Epoque housings (pre 02/2008) for the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 require some internal pieces to be replaced (to me that reads: production error). Anyways, I actually did replace the two small rubber pieces in question inside my housing. To no avail :o(

UPDATE: There's no longer any doubt in my mind that Epoque's EHS-1000HD housing is indeed leak-prone, as more and more users are reporting similar floods. (see forum threads listed below)

→ Forum thread #228051 on ScubaBoard
→ Forum thread #24014 on Wetpixel
→ Forum thread #24410 on Wetpixel
→ German forum thread #4823 on Taucher.Net
→ German forum thread #5019 on Taucher.Net
→ Spanish forum thread #48305

UPDATE: Sanyo (Germany) of course declines any responsibility, even though they promote the EHS-1000HD as accessory on their website.

UPDATE: Interesting read in UWP #48 in which Sim Chee Ghee describes both Epoque's EHS-1000HD and Patima's Xacti housing, thereby briefly commenting on the EHS-1000HD's susceptibility to flooding:

Apropo flooding, a few samples earlier versions of this housing reportedly have had some flooding issues, which upon checking was due to user misalignment of the camera in the housing. The camera inserts into the housing with opened LCD directly as it is, without any trays or adapters. Epoque attended to the problem and improved the housing by installing a nicely, chromed semi circle bracket on the top and 2 plastic brackets in the middle and bottom part to align the camera. Misalignment is therefore passé, however a caution note is still included in the housing packaging, warning users to be careful.

Kalimba

Kalimba is an amazing wonder of underwater speleology at its best, low ceilinged and often restrictive, it forces one to get close to its fragile beauty. Everywhere you look, its petrified past stares back at you. I could make a whole movie here.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Splash movie

Not all entries are this splashtacular, most of the time it's possible to just step or wade in, climb down or fall back into a cenote.

Calavera

Also known as the Temple of Doom, the thrill here starts with a 2m high splash in, followed by a blurry descent through the boundary between fresh and salt water, continuing with a silent prayer past the Madonna, along eroded tunnels, beyond the Fang and back to the fossilized past, when this was not a cave but the bottom of the sea.

[ entrance fee: 80 Pesos ]

A place to stay

→ Todo Tulum: Villa Matisse

Grand cenote

Another test dive. This time to check out my alternative video set-up, where my Green Force Flexi II battery is attached to my housing's tray together with a float, i.e. an aluminum bottle, so that I can hand over my camcorder to another diver, in order to be able to make a few appearances in my own movie :o)

⊗ This sure ain't a professional set-up and it's a bit too front heavy, but it kind of works, though I wouldn't recommend it for long dives.

Chan Hol

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Tux Kupaxa

Five hour expedition to the cave of the mastodon. From Tulum we drive north along highway 307 to Chemuyil, turning left just before reaching this growing settlement for hotel employees, following a relatively even dirt road cut straight through the jungle.


After several kilometers, the dirt road deteriorates into a roughly hewn track, then simply ends. Time to gear up: hooded 2mm vest underneath a 7mm neoprene wetsuit, topped with about 50kg of cave diving equipment and camcorder. Then off we march into the jungle.


It's about 30°C in the shade and by the time I reach the cenote I'm steaming hot and really really happy to splash into the refreshingly cool 25°C water.


Tux Kupaxa, explored by my former boss Gunnar Wagner from Aktun dive center and Xibalba's owner Robert Schmittner is one of the most beautiful caves I've ever had the chance to dive.

Like most cave systems here, this one too seems endless, with countless passages branching off to who knows where. What makes this one special, beside the discovery several years ago of prehistoric mastodon bones of National Geographic fame, are the wonderful decorations everywhere you look.


Unfortunately the nicest bones have been removed, for archeological study, leaving only a few of the smaller ones, which you'll only see if you really know what you're looking for.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Grand cenote - video test

First photo/video dive with my new Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 mini-camcorder in an Epoque EHS-1000HD housing, fitted with a 0.56x WAL and my two TillyTec dive lights, i.e. a LED 1000 and HID 35.

To my surprise it's actually possible to take quite decent photos. Getting sharp footage in auto-focus mode alas seems to be much harder to accomplish... but then, I may need some shooting practice?




First camcorder & housing observations so far:

⊗ Despite its relatively compact size, the Epoque EHS-1000HD is rather bulky and very uncomfortable to hold.

⊗ Fitted with a WAL this housing becomes very front-heavy.

⊗ Epoque's screw-on WAL is a pain to remove & replace underwater. Personally I much prefer Sea&Sea's quick & easy bayonet system, but alas that's not an option in this case. Still, I recommend using a WAL.

⊗ Despite having both batteries attached to my belt, my underwater camcorder set-up is still too heavy, due to the WAL and two light heads clammed onto the housing via flex-arms.

⊗ While recording in video mode, the autofocus really has a hard time finding the right sharpness in the caves.

⊗ Inside the housing, the HD1000's auto-focus becomes very noisy, rendering any underwater tone almost useless (unless you shoot in locked focus mode).

⊗ Video quality suffers from graininess, despite the 225W of combined output, due to the rather limited range of diffused light.

Cenote Cristal

Slightly deeper two jumps test dive to about -20m to make sure my Epoque underwater housing is indeed watertight before taking my camcorder down with it. I also tried out having my two dive light batteries attached to my belt, as that will probably be my main set-up for underwater videography, the other one being one battery attached to my belt as usual and one beneath the camcorder housing, together with a float so as to achieve as neutral as possible buoyancy.

This time I also had the diffuser on my LED 1000, so as to avoid any hotspot later on while filming. I found the effect very pleasing to the eye... but of course only actual shooting will tell whether it also pleases my camcorder.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Power

Dive lights, camera, camcorder, laptop, useless* mobile phone, ... all these devices need power. That means plugs, cables, chargers, socket adaptors (e.g. US style here in Mexico) and rechargeable batteries.


(* my old 6210 Nokia mobile phone is not able to get me connected to anybody anywhere - at least not from here)

TIllyTec LED 1000 in Sac Aktun

Easy one jump cave dive towards Kalimba through a really nice section I sure hope to dive again with camcorder later on.

⊕ Both dives today were illuminated by my new TillyTec LED 1000, which I'm really happy about, even though it's just a pre-production model. And it's not only Tilly's big lights that shine brightly, his W30 back-up torch bundles an amazing lot of power in such a small 3x AA handheld package, enough I'd say as to be almost useable as main light source... two of these on an helmet could be pretty cool?

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Carwash

Equipment check and training dive: Air share, laying of the primary reel line till the cave's permanent main line on the way in and retrieving it on the way out, shutting off & turning on of each tank and the manifold between the two, harness removal & replacement and of course constant buoyancy control while going up and down following the cave's main tunnel.

Showing me around is Miguel, a PADI OWSI & cave diver from Spain, with an interest in underwater videography.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Dive gear set-up

Set up & checked my dive gear at Xibalba, my base of operation for the next few weeks.


After two self-imposed acclimatization days, I'm looking very much forward to start diving tomorrow. Of course without camera at first, as I'll have more than enough at hand just getting back into cave diving mode, an already gear intensive art of submersion as it is. Plus I'd like to do some basic safety drills and skill rehearsal exercises before going for the big motion picture.

On location

Sonthofen - Tulum

Travel details: 04:45, Early wake-up. Luckily, yesterday evening's new snow did not stay and the road's clear to go. 05:00, Petra drives me to Sonthofen's Bahnhof. 05:22, Train to Kempten. 06:05, Connecting train to Buchloe. 06:52+5', Connecting train to München Hauptbahnhof. I get off 7' earlier however in Pasing, from where I take the 07:49+2' train straight to the airport. Arriving there at 08:40, well in time for my flight.

I could also have taken the 06:10 train in Sonthofen, in which case I should have arrived at the airport around 9:30. But with only 5' in Kempten to make a connection, that would have been risky.

Walking from the airport's train station to terminal 2 takes 15'. 09:05, Being early I don't have to queue in order to check in my two trolley bags, which indeed weigh in as 26 & 16kg. 09:35, After a short drink-up-all-forbidden-liquids break, I walk through security. Of course they make me open my backpack to check & sniff both my gun-like camcorder and X-ray challenging dive light batteries.

11:15, Boarding. 11:55+35', Take-off. 24:00-25', Touch-down. 15' later we're let out of the plane, immediately finding ourselves in a queue towards immigration. 24:10, Officially stamped into Mexico. 24:15, My two bags are sliding in just as I arrive at the luggage belt. Only to get stuck in another unorganized queue to get through customs. Which I luckily clear without getting the red open-up-all-your-bags light. 24:35, On the way out I get myself a shuttle bus ticket for 50$. 24:50, Six other tourists and I ride out towards Playa Del Carmen and Tulum, where the driver finally drops me off at 03:30 (German time).

Señora Lourdes from Villa Matisse is waiting for me and immediately makes me feel at home. I get a nice upstairs room with private hot-water bathroom, double bed, hammock and fan. Perfect. While for me it's 04:20 by now, here in Mexico it's only 21:20 yet, i.e. seven hours earlier, but late enough for me to fall straight into bed after a refreshing shower :o)

Currency: 1 Euro = 14.80 Pesos , 1 USD = 10.30 Pesos

Packed!

While 2x 30kg check-in allowance is more than enough, the 6kg hand-luggage limit is only half of what I actually need. The problem being that I'm required by LTU to carry my two heavy dive lights onboard, thereby forcing me to stuff more fragile photo/video equipment into my check-in bags, just so as not to exceed the limit too much...


Final weigh in: 16+26+10 = 52kg!

Underwater videography gear

• camcorder , e.g. Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000
  
• underwater housing , e.g. Epoque EHS-1000HD
  
• wide-angle lens
  
• tray , e.g. Sea&Sea multi-stay
  
• flex arms with light-head grips
  
• videolight #1 , e.g. TillyTec LED 1000 with diffuser, umbilical cable, Green Force Flexi II battery, handle & float
  
• videolight #2 , e.g. primary dive light as listed under cave diving gear
  

Basic cave diving gear

exposure protection

• swim trunks
  
• hooded vest , e.g. Camaro hooded Ice vest 2/4mm
  
• dive suit , e.g. Camaro Stingray 2x7mm
  
• booties
  
  abc
  
• mask , e.g. Cressi BigEyes
  
• fins , e.g. Mares Plano Avanti
  
  monitoring
  
• dive computer , e.g. Suunto Vyper
  
• dive watch , e.g. Citizen Promaster Aqualand
  
• wrist slate & pencil
  
  buoyancy device
  
• stainless-steel backplate & harness
  
• wings , e.g. standard single-bladder from DiveSystem
  
• pocket with spare mask
  
• pocket with arrows & cookies
  
• primary knife
  
• secondary Z-knife
  
  primary regulator
  
• 1st stage , e.g. Scubapro MK25AF
  
• 2nd stage on 2m hose , e.g. Scubapro S600
  
• wing inflator hose
  
  back-up regulator
  
• 1st stage , e.g. Scubapro MK25AF
  
• 2nd stage on standard hose , e.g. Scubapro S550
  
• SPG
  
  stage regulator if needed
  
• 1st stage , e.g. Scubapro MK2+
  
• 2nd stage on standard hose , e.g. Scubapro R390
  
• SPG on short hose
  
  primary dive light
  
• light-head , e.g. TillyTec HID 35
  
• umbilical cable
  
• battery , e.g. TillyTec TT 3
  
• goodman handle
  
  back-up dive lights
  
• torch #1 , e.g. TillyTec LED W30
  
• torch #2 , e.g. Tektite Expedition Star
  
  reels
  
• primary reel , e.g. large Dive Rite reel
  
• safety reel , e.g. small Dive Rite reel
  
• jump & gap spools|reels as needed , e.g. Oxycheq finger spool
  

My basic cave diving set-up, with just one safety reel and without stage, weighs approximately 17.5kg plus about 17kg per full 11l aluminum tank! With two primary lights, underwater camera, primary-, jump- & safety reel make that 21.5kg plus tanks.

Laptop

Apple just announced new MacBooks! Available right now. So I guess I should get my hands on one, if only for the duration of this project?


While the outside remains pretty much the same, the inside got an unexpected but nonetheless very appreciated upgrade:

+ 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 45nm Penryn processor, slightly faster & more energy efficient than the previous 2.2GHz 65nm Merom
= 800MHz FSB
+ 2x1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, in stead of 2x512KB
+ 160GB 5400rpm Serial ATA HDD, a 40GB increase
− 3MB of shared L2 cache, down from 4MB
= Intel GMA X3100 GPU with 144MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM

Disappointingly lacking are Apple's much talked about Multi-Touch trackpad and a next-generation LED display. Not to mention that the remote control now is a 19€ optional accessory. But then, the price dropped 50€ here in Germany, so you actually get more for less :o)

Archive & back-up?

I think I've got about everything required for my project by now... except for some storage solution for all the footage I hope to shoot?

While on paper it's supposedly possible to copy video clips directly from the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 camcorder to any external hard disk drive, in practice this isn't quite so straight-forward: For this easy transfer to work, the HDD must have its own power source. Mobile drives however typically rely on their host for power. And self-sufficient desktop drives aren't really meant to be lugged around. Using a media-storage-device with incorporated card-reader isn't that obvious either, as most of these apparently do not yet support SDHC.

So, either I'll have to regularly copy all my raw footage onto a PC in some internet café in order to then burn it onto a DVD (leaving me with only one copy in the end) or, I must bring my own laptop. The latter would allow me to better manage my project, pre-view & pre-edit any footage, letting me save to HDD & backing up to DVD only what is worth to be kept. Immediate feedback would also allow for corrective measures in case some scenes need to be redone. This kind of quality control just isn't feasible on the camcorder's small LCD.

Bring my own laptop? Easier said than done. Apple's pre-intel PowerBook G4, which served me well before, alas lacks the required processor power to handle HD video, not to mention the necessary HDD capacity for a five week shoot. Apple's cheapest MacBook comes with a ComboDrive which can read but not write DVDs, making it a no go. The standard model with SuperDrive has been out of stock for more than a month. The previous edition with SuperDrive still comes with Mac OS X 10.4 (read: without iMovie '08), another no go. The Pro models, besides being totally outdated, are way too expensive to even be considered for the job. And with all the rumors of new ones being on their way, buying anything now isn't really recommended.

LED there be light

Seeing is believing. At first sight however I didn't see anything and actually thought their was no bulb inside TillyTec's demo LED 1000 at boot... that is, until I turned it on and saw the light.


Inside Tilly's bright new LED 1000 you won't find just any old bulb, but an award winning OSRAM Opto Semiconductors OSTAR, a 6-chip LED!

Dive watch

When you have to send your watch to its manufacturer just to get its battery replaced, you know it's going to cost you time and money. Three weeks and 58€ to be precise, including pressure check.


A tick more than just a cool dive watch, Citizen's Promaster Aqualand also measures depth & water temperature and warns in case of rapid ascent, exceeded maximum depth or bottom time. While not quite as smart as an actual dive computer it's still a wise to have back-up.

Regulators

It took five weeks to get my three Scubapro regulator sets serviced by Tauchsport Manta in Munich, but now they're supposed to be as good as new... and that for 164€ only, quite a reasonable price actually for maintaining three first-stages, four second-stages and various hoses.


Not only that, they also pointed me to Foto-Video Sauter, where I finally found a 40.5mm UV filter (19.50€) and a flexible sun hood (12.50€) for my camcorder, both made in Germany by Heliopan.

---

UPDATE: ¡Be warned! After several regulator related incidents, I'd never trust Tauchsport Manta to service my SCUBA gear ever again.

Orthopedist

Upon general recommendation (read: peer pressure), I went to an orthopedist this morning to have my knocked chest checked out by a professional. For some peace of mind I guess 10€ Praxisgebühr (with Krankenversicherung) is cheap enough, even for a cursory inspection?

A nurse took two X-rays, which I didn't get to see, and a doctor briefly listened at my chest and barely at what I had to say or ask, concluding nothing to be broken nor ripped. The bruised spot just needing time to heal by itself, no need for any suggested supportive bandage nor unasked-for painkillers.

I'm even allowed to practice any sportive activity, as far as possible, and should be alright for some unusual diving in a few weeks time :o)

Camcorder impressions

After some trial shootings, both in- & outdoors, I must say I'm quite satisfied with my Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000's overall performance.

⊕ While not quite as pocketable as other Xactis, the super compact & light HD1000 is a very portable & easy to handle mini-camcorder.

⊕ Its comprehensive menu is easy enough to navigate and allows straightforward access to lots of optional manual settings.

⊕ Even in less-than-full 1280x720p HD-HR video resolution, clips are good enough to be viewed in full-screen mode on e.g. a 24" iMac.

⊕ Playback is remarkably smooth at 60fps.

⊕ The HD1000 is a best-of-both hybrid, taking surprisingly good 4MP (4:3) or 3.5MP (16:9) photos with vibrant no-need-to-adjust colors.

⊕ Useable 0.9MP snapshots can be taken while filming in HD-HR, and even better 2MP ones in Full-HD.

⊕ Effective EIS enables handheld shooting without too much noticeable shaking, even with some zooming.

⊕ Low light performance seems to be pretty decent.

⊗ The rather slow auto-focus tends to hunt in less-than-optimal conditions, like in low-light & full zoom, but...
 + it's possible to shoot with preset manual focus or lock the auto-focus anytime while filming

⊗ Sanyo's Full-HD AVC/H.264 encoding format is not supported by Apple, meaning it is not possible to just view or edit video clips shot in 1920x1080i resolution on a Mac, but...
 + downloading & installing avc1decoder* partially fixes this problem

⊗ The LCD's default 16:9 video preview changes into a very different 4:3 still preview when (half-)pressing the photo button, meaning what-you-see-is-not-exactly-what-you-get regarding snapshots.

⊗ The otherwise very decent built-in mic suffers from white noise and inevitable nearness to internal mechanics of focus and zoom engine. Topside, both these interferences can be eliminated by using an external microphone, definitely a recommended accessory when clear audio is important. Underwater however, such an external solution is not available. Worse, due to noise amplification by the underwater housing, the camcorder's internal creaks & whizzes become so irritating as to render the o-tone unuseable.

⊗ Epoque's underwater housing allows access to all the camcorder's buttons except for the mini-joy-stick's up. While this is not really a problem as menu navigation is circular, it does mean one less menu short-cut option.

⊗ The underwater housing's biggest button is its least useful one. Worse, the rather obtrusive push & turn button, meant for switching between record & play mode, is I-can't-figure-it-out impractical.

Hard fall

14:00, Coming down from Gaisalpe along the asphalted road, I suddenly slip on an icy patch and fall hard onto the upper left-side of my ribcage, my left arm stretched above my head. While my arm probably prevented my head from hitting the road, it also pulled up my coat's pocket in which I'd stowed my glasses hard-case and mobile phone, one of which got between my ribs and the road, inflicting a rather painful jab that literally knocks all the air out of my lungs. Unable to move, for a moment I'm afraid I might have broken some ribs, needing several minutes to recover my restricted breath. But once the shock has subsided, I'm able to get up again, breathing in & out deeply without problems and even being able to squeeze my ribcage without feeling any hurt. I look like a green ghost though and forced coughing does indicate a tender spot.

16:00, Back home, I immediately check my ribcage once more, but no trauma whatsoever is visible. As preventive action I swallow five micro-pills of arsenicum twice with one hour interval and take it easy. Inactivity however doesn't really help matters, the contact point feeling more & more bruised as, I guess, my body's natural painkillers wear off. I can now also feel that my left hip-leg joint-bone absorbed some of the impact too, but not much.

18:00, A hot bath seems to relax and do some good, until something suddenly locks up in my left collar bone hole and in my left rib cage, preventing easy breathing. Lying down in bed does not bring much relief, but by now I'm too exhausted to move.

19:00, Two Ipren pills (2x 200mg Ibuprofen) and a cold quark treatment alleviate the pain enough for me to get up again and have some dinner. I can't help but worry about my upcoming trip, hoping I will have recovered enough by then. In order to be able to lift 30+kg of cave diving gear onto your back, walk around with it on rocky paths through the sweaty jungle, climb down steep ladders or wriggle yourself through cracks in the earth's crust, just to reach a cenote's entrance pool, before doing a relatively demanding dive, well, some healthy fitness level is indeed kind of required.

20:00, I can feel the impact actually got some repercussions on my entire frame, e.g. that my spine got rattled, more specifically between my shoulder blades and in my lower back.

23:00, One more Ipren pill before going to bed plus some local Nifluril treatment, as lying is clearly less comfortable than sitting or standing, especially for my left shoulder, but I soon fall asleep anyway.

Teaser

Here's a little teaser to give you an idea about what I'd like to do with twice as much light and a better camcorder...

The original 320x240 30fps AVI source clips used for this video were recorded in Mexico's underwater caves in March 2006 with a Sea&Sea DX8000G digital compact camera fitted with a 0.6x WAL, by the light of a 125W* 5500°K TillyTec HID 35 with 80° flood reflector.

Camcorder specs: Sanyo Xacti HD1000

☆ SANYO XACTI VPC-HD1000 digital mini-camcorder

Sensor

• 1/2.5" 4MP CMOS

• photo: 2288 x 1712 pixel (4:3) or 2496 x 1408 pixel (16:9) • video: 1920 x 1080 pixel (60fields/s, 12Mbps, 16:9)

• ISO: auto or manual from 50 up to 3200

• WB: auto, fine, cloud, incandescent, fluorescent, manual

Lens

• 10x optical zoom • equivalent to 38-380mm (photo) & 50-497mm (video)

• aperture: F1.8 (wide) - F2.5 (tele)

• focus: from 10cm to infinite (wide) & down to 1cm (macro)

• shutter: 1/2-1/1000s (photo) & 1/30-1/10000s (video)

Storage

• SD or SDHC memory card up to 8GB

Formats

• photo: JPEG

• video: MPEG4 (AVC/H.264)

• audio: AAC (48kHz, 16bit, 2ch, stereo)

Features

• 2.7" widescreen TFT LCD (230'000 pixels, 285° rotatable)

• electronic image stabilization (photo & video)

• face detection (photo)

• built-in microphone

• 2.5mm microphone jack (with 3.5mm adaptor)

• 3.5mm headset jack

• built-in flash

• accessory shoe

• IR remote control

• multi connectivity via docking station

Size & Weight

• W:55 x D:90 x H:113mm

• 311g (incl. battery & SD card)

• 40.5mm thread for filters & conversion lenses

☆ EPOQUE EHS-1000HD underwater housing

Features

• access to all the camcorder's functions & settings

• clear view of the camcorder's LCD

• rated to -45m

Size & Weight

• polycarbonate

• W:195 x D:124 x H:186mm

• 720g (dry)

• 67mm thread for filters & conversion lenses

Let's roll!

Ordered online barely two days ago, this morning a box full of goodies was delivered at my doorstep :o)


• Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 camcorder (642€), including:
+ DB-L50 3.7V 1900mAh lithium-ion battery
+ SanDisk Ultra II 2GB SD memory card
+ IR remote control
+ docking station charger
+ AC adaptor & power cord
+ USB connection cable & adaptor
+ HDMI connection cable
+ D-AV & S-AV connection cables
+ microphone adaptor cable (from 2.5 to 3.5mm)
+ lens cap
+ wrist strap
+ soft polstered pouch
+ user manual
− useless* DVD with MS Windows software

• SanDisk Extreme III 8GB SDHC memory card (60€), including:
+ MicroMate USB card-reader
+ neoprene pouch
− useless* mini-CD with rescue software

• Lowepro Edit 100 camcorder bag (16€)

• Velbon CX-480 video tripod (33€), including:
+ carry bag