TillyTec LED 2000 underwater VIDEO light

Took advantage of TillyTec's fairly unique offer to upgrade almost any of its light-heads or battery-packs to a newer more powerful one.

That is, I exchanged my outdated-technology HID 35 not just for one, but for two new LED 2000 VIDEO light-heads, in order to have a dual evenly illuminated video lighting solution.

TillyTec's standard LED 2000 has a 175W halogen equivalent 10° beam ideal for technical diving, whereas the non-focussed VIDEO version has a more diffused 110° wide beam optimal for videography.


⊕ Modular & expandable underwater lighting system configurable to one's needs.

⊕ Power: Seven hi-tech LEDs delivering 175W of halogen equivalent output according to TillyTec's specifications (5500°K, 45000 Lux).

∅ Despite its power, the VIDEO version has a rather limited range.

⊕ Burn time: two LED 2000 light-heads can shine for more than 100' on one TT 3 NiMh battery-pack. (note that it is not possible to connect two LED 2000s to a single Flexi II or TT 2 battery)

⊕ Robustness.

∅ It's not possible to dim the output, nor change the beam's angle.

⊕ A diffuser is available that can be popped on or off underwater. While not needed for the VIDEO version (except maybe for reducing its intensity), it can be useful for softening the SPOT version's beam.

∅ Note that, even with diffuser, the LED 2000 SPOT has a hotspot when pointed towards nearby subjects or surfaces, so this option is not recommended for e.g. macro photography or close-up videography.

⊕ A Goodman handle and flexible arms are available as accessory. Both can hold e.g. TillyTec's HID 35, LED 1000 or LED 2000.

⊕ IMO, TillyTec's LED 2000 VIDEO produces nice hotspot-free illumination for macro photography or close-up videography.

→ macro photography illuminated by just one LED 2000 VIDEO
→ close-up videography illuminated by one LED 2000 VIDEO

Dive trip booked!

Got a pretty good offer for a dive trip to Indonesia from Aquaventure Tauchreisen which I readily accepted :o)

Planned are six muck diving days with Two Fish Divers in Lembeh (N-Sulawesi) and ten reef diving days with Prince John Dive Resort near Donggala (C-Sulawesi).

I need to submerge and soak up some sun

After seeing an ad in tauchen, I requested a quote from Aquaventure Tauchreisen for a 3 week combo-trip to north & central Sulawesi, for some extraordinary muck & relaxed reef diving.

boot 2010: TaucherTraum

TaucherTraum having several special tours I'd just love to join, we immediately headed for its booth to get some more information.

Michael, the owner, being the specialist for Polynesia, answered all our questions regarding snorkeling with whales, diving with sharks, accommodation & living costs and even presented some of the dive guides for some first-hand impressions. After which we had a friendly chat with Steffi & Stefan whom I'd met two years ago among sharks.

Besides Polynesia, I also gathered some info about Baja California and enquired about the situation in the Galapagos. The latter's alas getting more expensive and more restrictive every year, with dive tours not allowed on land and land tours not allowed in the water?

Still, plenty of wonderful dreams indeed, waiting to be dived into...

HybriDiving?

Via Wetpixel I came upon a product presentation video for the Lunocet monofin. While I sure would like to try one out myself, the reason I'm actually referring to this advertisement is its wonderful initial 40" sequence featuring dolphins - without a doubt some of the best footage of this kind I've ever seen.

Cocos Island, Costa Rica, July 2009

Last-minute one week live-aboard trip around Cocos Island, a small uninhabited island about 530km off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.


trip blog

YouTube

Ready for broadcast: Two short videos about diving around Cocos.

— Underwater moments at various dive spots
→ Among Sharks, clip #4: Whitetip Reef Sharks

Screening

After immediately having deleted about 15% of my video-clips during initial preview on the ship, I now screened & labeled the nearly 200 remaining ones (8.5GB) and imported about 120 of these into iMovie '08 for further selection, cutting & editing.

Frankfurt - Sonthofen

At 02:05 I started my slow middle of the night train journey from Frankfurt, via Karlsruhe and Ulm, arriving in Sonthofen at 10:00.

San Jose - Frankfurt

At 00:30 we took off without further delays, the co-pilot supposedly comfy in his new seat, unlike most of us economy-class passengers.

Our midnight arrival in Frankfurt was rather chaotic, with only two overwhelmed Condor employees there to handle a planefull of people wondering what to do next regarding their lost connections.

Eventually we did get offered the possibility to overnight at an airport hotel. An offer I declined as getting to the hotel, checking in & out and getting back would have taken more time than I had to wait till the first train bringing me home.

San Jose

Early before-breakfast transfer to the airport (20'), only to be told that our plane's delayed fifteen hours due to technical problems with the co-pilot's seat.

Surprisingly though we're not left to our own devices but taken on a city-tour, including local breakfast (gallo pinto) and walk-about, before being dropped off at the Best Western Irazu hotel, where we all get a room, lunch & dinner vouchers for a fast meal at Denny's and the ability to make any international calls as desired.

At 10pm we're once again brought tho the airport for another try at getting out of the country.

Orquideas Inn

Easy day by the hotel's pool.

Arenal

Having two dry days before returning home, seven of us chartered a minibus with driver (35$/person) for some sightseeing and getting us to Arenal, an active volcano about three hours away from San Jose.

Along the way we had an interesting look at a butterfly farm (5$), where we also got to see several kinds of hummingbirds, had a plunge in a refreshing waterfall (10$) and relaxed in a spa with thermal baths fed by hot springs (30$). Unfortunately, the 1657m high volcano remained completely hidden in thick clouds...

Puntarenas - San Jose

In stead of driving straight back to San Jose, we let Rudolfo take us on a canopy zipline tour, at 60$/person for about one hour in the tree-tops. Followed by a tasty local lunch in a roadside restaurant (casado con pollo at 2000 CRC, plus agua de fruta).

Cocos Island - Puntarenas

Pleasantly smooth sail back to Puntarenas. Shortly after we left the island yesterday evening, a pod of dolphins joined us, playing in the bow's wave till sunset.

While we off-gas any residual nitrogen accumulated over seven days of intensive diving, our gear's slowly getting as dry as possible on a ship at sea. At the end of the day, repacking everything takes 15'.

Conclusion

Dive #22 [ 07:59 | EAN30 | 49' | max.34m, avg.18m | Dirty Rock ]
Dive #23 [ 11:06 | EAN32 | 48' | max.30m, avg.16m | Punta Maria ]
Dive #24 [ 14:57 | EAN34 | 45' | max.23m, avg.13m | Manuelita ]

Most divers come to Cocos Island for its schooling hammerhead sharks. And while they definitely still are here in unknown numbers, they rarely came close enough for us to see more than their shady contour in the distance. Personally I only got to glimpse a few small packs of up to twelve or so, i.e. no 'hammer wall' like in the Galapagos just two and a half years ago. Relatively bad visibility of course didn't help us getting a good look at these rather shy creatures. A couple of times though, a few of them did come a bit closer out of curiosity, giving me at least a chance to get a snapshot or two as souvenir.

The prowling white tip reef sharks however more than made up for our troubles getting here. Especially my three nights out with them were in themselves reason enough to come back. Note though that according to my logbook scribbles from twelve years ago (12/1996), their number has seriously decreased, as has the population of marble rays.

Yearly and seasonal variation can account for a lot, as does daily timing and luck, but still, June-August is supposed to be the best time of the year for diving, whereas December-January is normally only better weather-wise.

During my first visit here I also witnessed huge schools of swirling jacks, hanging like great dark clouds below the waves, forming massive columns of silver rising from the ocean bottom to the surface, in numbers beyond counting, in congregations in which I could disappear and loose myself. This time however we only saw a few comparatively small schools of jacks.

Another dramatic difference was the total absence of mobulas and pacific mantas. And it's not just the big boys that are scarcer: small fish, lobsters & turtles too are no longer as present as they used to.

According to a park ranger with whom I had a brief chat, I'm not the only one to mention this apparent general decrease in underwater populations. Not surprisingly I guess considering the relentless illegal fishing going on around here. Tuna and shark fins are big money indeed. Nothing a few rangers with a dingy can do anything against.

Nightlife!

Dive #18 [ 08:40 | EAN31 | 35' | max.30m, avg.20m | viz<10m | Alcyone ]
Dive #19 [ 11:42 | EAN33 | 30' | max.30m, avg.20m | viz<10m | Alcyone ]
Dive #20 [ 15:42 | EAN34 | 57' | max.26m, avg.15m | viz.15m | Manuelita ]
Dive #21 [ 18:20 | EAN34 | 42' | max.14m, avg.9m | night | Manuelita ]

Empty blue at Alcyone. Whitetip warm-up tumble at Manuelita.

At night, we once more mingled with an ever increasing multitude of whitetips, for some up close and personal moments :o) Somehow I found myself in the middle of the pack again, loving every second of it. Sharks bumping into my camera & torch, squeezing by underneath my arms. While sometimes hectic indeed, it never got chaotic, and I always felt completely at ease.

Hammerheads

Dive #15 [ 08:22 | EAN32 | 42' | max.22m, avg.16m | viz.20m | Dos Amigos ]
Dive #16 [ 11:15 | EAN33 | 44' | max.30m, avg.19m | viz.20m | Dos Amigos ]
Dive #17 [ 15:32 | EAN31 | 46' | max.22m, avg.14m | viz<20m | Manuelita ]

Hammerheads by the dozen, whitetip bustle, marble rays & schooling fish under Dos Amigos Grande's arch and pairing jacks at Manuelita.

Close encounters!

Dive #11 [ 08:01 | EAN31 | 41' | max.30m, avg.22m | viz.15m | Alcyone ]
Dive #12 [ 11:05 | EAN32 | 35' | max.29m, avg.22m | viz.15m | Alcyone ]
Dive #13 [ 15:40 | EAN32 | 55' | max.16m, avg.12m | viz.10m | Silverado ]
Dive #14 [ 18:28 | EAN32 | 40' | max.19m, avg.12m | night | Manuelita ]


Hammerheads relatively close and a pack of resting whitetips at Alcyone. Not a single silvertip in need of cleaning at Silverado, but we got face to face with a red lipped batfish and a snake eel.

Great night dive among prowling whitetips, hungry giant trevally and brave lobsters scurrying about. Caution: Beware of the sea-urchins!

Fish weather

Dive #8 [ 08:30 | EAN31 | 46' | max.29m, avg.18m | viz.15m | Dirty Rock ]
Dive #9 [ 11:27 | EAN32 | 47' | max.28m, avg.19m | viz.15m | Dirty Rock ]
Dive #10 [ 15:22 | EAN30 | 49' | max.30m, avg.17m | viz.20m | Viking Rock ]

Pouring rain. Any wetter and the fish will be flying around. On the bright side however, we got to mingle with jacks, saw dolphins swimming by and had some hammerheads coming a bit closer than usual.

Overcast sky, relatively deep dives and rather poor visibility alas ain't what you'd call ideal conditions for underwater photography without strobes... meaning taking down my compact Sea&Sea DX8000G digital camera would be a futile exercise. Luckily, video is another matter, so for memory's sake and your visual needs, I'm trying to capture some moments with a housed Panasonic Lumix FS5 compact digital camera.