Business is buoyant at scuba store

For those of you who haven’t seen it,  (where have you been!), here is an article about us in the local paper. 

http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Images/49-50_Business_tcm21-111144.pdf

scroll down a page to page 50

I know a lot of you have said that you want to come on this trip but unfortunately there is only room for 16 divers. If you are planning on coming but have not yet sent in your £500 deposit it is time to do so now. Please make cheques payable to Worldwide Dive and Sail and send them to us here at the shop.

Trip details and Options

Our Philippines trip is filling up quickly so don’t leave it too late!

A deposit of £1000 is needed to secure a place at 2008 prices so don’t miss out or pay extra.

There are more details of the trip, the costs and some photos.

We will be staying open late on Tuesday evenings from now until Christmas.

We will be open until 9pm so that you can come and buy lots of things for all your friends and family. If they don’t dive yet and you can’t get rid of them the only option is to buy them a diving course or try-dive (also available as a voucher).  

Parking is free after 5pm so bring the biggest car that you have to ensure that there is room for all your purchases.

Come and celebrate Christmas with us at O’Neills.

We have booked the Upstairs Bar from 6pm on Saturday the 13th December.

This address is 326 Earls Court Road, London, SW5 9BQ and it is on the corner of Earls Court Rd and Old Brompton Road 

here is a map link

We will be there from 6pm until we get kicked out.

I hope to see you there!

We are clearing space in our basement for next years new stock. This means that there are some real bargains to be had. We have some dry suits and wetsuits at less than half price! We are letting you our regular and valued customer  know first before we put them on our online shop. Come in and grab a bargain.

When customers have asked us which digital compact camera to buy we have been recommending the Fuji F100fd camera with the Fuji underwater housing and if possible getting the optional Fuji strobe too.

We have sold lots of these sets so I was briefly concerned to read an unflattering review of the Fuji F100fd camera and housing in a recent issue of Diver magazine. 

I say briefly concerned because on reading the article in more detail it is clear that the reviewer has not actually read the camera or flash instructions and is unaware of many of the great features that it has.

The reviewers main point was that there was no way to control the output of the Fuji “outboard” flash kit. The Fuji strobe kit I am looking at in my hand as I type with one finger  not  only has 3 diffusers of different opacity which can be used singly or in combination but also has a little switch on the back for choosing three different output settings, min, max and med.

Another criticism was that there was no manual exposure control.  I beg to differ, as does the Fuji f100 instruction manual. Go to manual adjustments mode and exposure compensation can be set manualy from +2ev to -2ev in 0.3ev increments.

The next was “no way of setting sensitivity” (iso/asa). Again, go to M for manual adjustments and choose the sensitivity you would like.

And again “no way of setting the white balance”. With the Fufi F100fd this feature is called custom white balance. Select the mode, point the camera at a white slate, depress the button and it is done!

“Deleting pictures underwater was not easy.”  May be it is not one touch like on a £3k digital SLR set up but with a few button presses it is easy enough. However do be careful about deleting pictures underwater. Even with the large, bright, LCD screen of the Fuji F100fd  the colours and exposure of the pictures look very different at 30m than they do in natural light or on your computer screen.

And finally a rant against 12 megapixcels being unecessary as the memory fills up too fast! True you don’t have to have 12mp anymore than you need a car that does over 70mph.  You can’t blame Fuji, let alone the F100 for this. It is like all marketing……at least they didn’t say low in fat…..which of course is also true. Just like a fast car you don’t have to use it to the limit although the greater the file size the more you can blowup the picture or zoom in on a small part of it. If you read the Fuji F100 instructions again you will see that the ‘quality’ can be selected from a tiny and ‘grainy’ 0.3mp up in stages to the full 12mp. If you use a 4 gb card you can just keep clicking away at 12mp all trip or at 0.3 all year!

About the only correct critisism was that you couldn’t add a wide angle adapter ring and lens; which is actually true and is because of the new improved flash diffuser. However as the camera lens zooms over a respectable range of 28mm- 140mm (equivalent on a 35mm camera) it is not that likely that you would need anything wider. Also you have to look at what you are buying, it is not a £3k or more digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses it is a compact with a zoom lens. We are selling the camera and housing for £289: if it did fit  an INON O.5 wide angle add on lens would cost another £225! 

Having looked at the review in detail I am am still more than happy that we are recommending the FujiF100fd and underwater housing. If you have a bit more cash then I would suggest adding a strobe kit and fibre optic sync cable.

If you have lots more money to spend then get a Nikon D700, a few lenses, a couple of flash guns, and of course the housing and ports but expect to pay around £6k, and also can I borrow it please!

We’ve just updated our travel page with the details of our latest trip.  We’ll be visiting the Northern Red Sea from the  30th  January - 6th  February  next year, flying to Hurhada in Eygpt, and spending the week on one of the luxurious blue o two liveaboards.  The cost includes flights, accomodation, food and diving with tanks and weights.  This is a ‘reef clean up’ trip, meaning that, if you wish, you can carry a rubbish bag on two or three dives to collect litter. This is completely optional. You could also choose to attend evening presentations on marine conservation and the ecology of the reef.

We will be using a liveaboard from the blue o two fleet. For instance, we may be aboard the Blue Horizon. Built in 2006, blue o two describes this boat as ‘one of the most luxurious liveaboards that the Red Sea has to offer; with mini bars, personal entertainment systems, a sky lounge and a Jacuzzi - the non-divers are as spoilt for choice as the divers’. Every cabin is air-conditioned and has its own minibar and TV, DVD & CD personal entertainment system. For socialising, visit the large and luxurious main saloon, which features an intergrated 34″ flat-screen TV, two large dining tables and a bar. For a more relaxing evening, the sky lounge plays host to a Surround Sound Cinema System, as well as its own bar. There are two teak sundecks and a five person open-air jacuzzi. Nitrox ia available for anyone who wants it. We could also be aboard the Blue Fin, or the Blue Melody, which have some small differences but the same high standard of luxurious comfort.

This trip is excellent for beginner or less experienced divers.  We have arranged special prices for the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses, so you could take the pool and theory classes in London and then do your open water dives in the Red Sea.  Other speciality courses can also be taken.   Find out more about Red Sea diving here or check out our galleries of photos from previous trips here and here.  Please look at the Red Sea 09 webpage for more details on the trip, or call (020 7381 5000) or email us (info@e-scuba.co.uk).

If you look at the links on the left of this post, you’ll notice two new ones have appeared: ’subscribe via email’ and ’subscribe via RSS’. You may feel a little confused by these links. Perhaps you’ve been mystified by this icon , which seems to be popping up all over the web these days, featuring on sites ranging from personal blogs to the BBC news page. In this page, we’ll explain what ‘feeds’, ‘RSS’ and ’subscribing to a blog’ mean. Hopefully, once you understand, you’ll subscribe to this news blog, and you’ll find you understand more about subscribing in general, which will come in useful all across the world wide web. Read the rest of this entry »

Oceanic white tip

Since our last post, we have been busy putting together a new page to tell you about our Brothers & Daedalus trip next year. This trip sees us return to an old favourite; we have had very successful trips to the Brothers islands in 2008 and 2007.  To see some of our photographs from those trips, have a look at our gallery. 

The warm, clear water around the islands known as ‘the Brothers’ and the Daedalus reef are famous for some of the best diving in the Red Sea, if not in the world.  Because the islands are the only land for miles around, they act as a magnet to big pelagic fish from the deeper waters which visit to snack on reef fish.  This trip is a great oppurtunity to see the big fish.  Last year we saw sharks on every dive, including a school of 17 hammerheads, grey and white tipped reef sharks, oceanic white tips, thresher sharks, a manta, a dugong and huge tuna. The best time of year to visit is May, which, by no coincidence, is when our trip is.  This is when the water is at just the right temperature to attract the big fish - too cool and they don’t visit the reef, too warm and they swim deeper.  

For the first time, the trip will take place aboard the luxury liveaboard, Blue Horizon. Blue o two has described their flagship boat as ’one of the most luxurious liveaboards that the Red Sea has to offer; with mini bars, personal entertainment systems, a sky lounge and a Jacuzzi - the non-divers are as spoilt for choice as the divers’.  For more details on the air-conditioned cabins and teak sundecks, visit our Brothers & Daedalus 09 page.

The trip this year is from the 22nd - 29th May (note that this includes the bank holiday weekend), and costs £1,104.  That price includes flights, transfers, accommodation, diving with standard tanks and weights, food and non-alcoholic drinks on board, visas and marine park fees (in a change from previous years).  Travel insurance, crew tips and other gear hire are not included.  

If you are interested, please have a look at the webpage, or call (020 7381 500) or email (info@e-scuba.co.uk) us for more information.

Blue Horizon