Diving day on the WWII wrecks in Coron, Philippines

I had a holiday on Coron, which is also wreck capital in Philippines. There are many Japanese WWII wrecks. I dived on three of those: East Tangat Wreck, Olympia Maru and Morazan Maru. Here is something from the diving day.


Dive #: 234
Date: 16.2.2013
Place: Philippines, Coron, East Tangat Wreck
Depth: 19,5m Average: 12,8m
Dive time: 37min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +28C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: Short 3mm  Weight: 5Kg
Other: Torch  Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing

Dive Center: Coral Aqua Diving
Price: 3000PHP/55,80€ including 3 dives, all the equipments, boat ride and lunch

Our first wreck was East Tangat Wreck. Originally the ship was Japanese submarine hunter. Wreck is about 40m long and highest point is only somewhere in the 3m and bottom is near 20m.

Coming to the wreck.

Bridge.

Somewhere inside the wreck.

School of striped catfishes on the wreck.

Dive #: 235
Date: 16.2.2013
Place: Philippines, Coron, Olympia Maru 
Depth: 29,5m  Average: 19,5m
Dive time: 34min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +28C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: Short 3mm  Weight: 5Kg
Other: Torch  Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing

Our second wreck was Olympia Maru. It was Japanese army auxiliary supply ship. It lies in the upright position on the bottom. Wreck is about 128m long. Deck is somewhere in 20m and the bottom is in 30m. 

First view when going down.

 Some structures.

We dived long way inside the wreck. Here somewhere in the cargo space. From this photo is also easy to see what happens when you use fins on the traditional way. Dust rises from the bottom and that´s not good for the visibility inside the wreck.

Under the hatch.

Some holes in the wreck.

Something mystical.

Are you still there? Some places were very dark and divers showed light for others when had to go through the some narrow places.

Another hatch above the diver.

Ladder.

  More hatches.

Nemo on the wreck.

Dive #: 236
Date: 16.2.2013
Place: Philippines, Coron, Morazan Maru 
Depth: 25,9m  Average: 17,3m
Dive time: 38min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +28C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: Short 3mm  Weight: 5Kg
Other: Torch  Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing 

Our third and last wreck was Morazan Maru. Wreck is on the side on the bottom. It´s about 12m below the surface and bottom is somewhere in 26m. 

We dived long way inside the Morazan Maru. In this kind of wrecks you must have torch. 

This was the narrowest place on the day. Steel bar above and under and you will feel the both of them. 

After that there was more space to dive again.

Somewhere inside.

Earth bubbling? No, I'm on the top of the wreck and there are some divers inside and bubbles comes from the small holes.

Giant puffer.

Corals on the wreck.

Back to the surface.

It was very interesting diving day. Some chinese guys on the group used lots of air and that´s why our all the dives were quite short. Also the torch which I got from the dive shop was bad. Together with the poor visibility it was difficult to take good photos. Anyway I really enjoyed the diving on the wrecks. If you like wrecks, you will like diving in Coron for sure.

Here more information about Coron wrecks and dive centers:

Coron Wrecks
Divecal
Dive Link
Rock Steady Dive Center
Sea Dive Resort

After last dive back to the boat. Boat ride from the last dive spot to Coron Town took about one and half hours. I feel good! 

This was also first diving day with my new camera Canon G15 and Ikelite housing. Now I tried few different settings for the camera. Poor visibility and low light condition were also quite different compared for the normal reef dives. So difficult to say yet, which are the best overal settings for the camera. Now I used mainly P and C1 (custom). 

If you have Canon G15 I'm interested to know what kind of settings you use for different diving conditions? Just comment for this story or you can send me also email.

Have a safe dives!

Cheers,

Mika

Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite Housing

I have had for a while on my mind to buy a new pocket camera and housing for it. My latest pocket camera has been Canon Ixus 120 IS and Canon´s own housing since May 2010. Anyway especially during last few months there has been every now and then some function errors. Last time I dived in Mactan area near Cebu City, Philippines. On the first dive I tried to take a pictures and I got only white screens in my camera. The same happened also in the evening without housing. After that it was easy to decide now it´s time to move on. I have used camera on diving almost from the beginning when I started to dive in 2002, so I just don´t want to go water without camera. Camera just belongs to my diving equipments.

I had in my mind mainly Canon´s PowerShot G1X and G15. I really wanted as good picture quality as possible from the pocket camera. I have also Canon EOS 60D, but the housings for DSLRs are unfortunately totally out of my budget. Good point in G1X ofcource is big frame and in all the test have been mentioned "DSLR picture quality".  That sounded very impressive and I was already ready to buy one. Unfortunatelly there was also in every test mentioned G1X doesn't focus accurately and the autofocus is very slow. These two drawbacks were always good points in G15 tests and that´s why I finally end up to G15. This was really difficult decision, because I really wanted bigger frame than what G15 has. Without those two points my new camera would be for sure G1X. Like somewhere was mentioned the best combination would be the the best parts from G1X and G15. Cash price for G15 in Philippines was finally 25,000PHP/465€ including case (not uw), 4GB memory card and 3 years warranty.

Here it is.

Buying a housing was not so easy. Canon Philippines doesn´t import the own housing to the country for some unknown reason at all. Before I have used Canon´s housing in Ixus and also in my previous PowerShot S50. Then I checked Ikelite´s webpage and I found the company in Manila, which import Ikelite´s the housing for G15. Cash price for the housing was 29,000PHP/539€. That´s more than double compared to Canon´s housings in Finland, where I come from. Compared to US or some other countries the difference can be even bigger. Ikelite´s housing is very massive compared to Canon´s housings. The empty wait only is 1,8Kg!

Here is the housing opened.

There are lots of differences between Canon´s and Ikelite´s housings. One great thing in Ikelite´s housing has hot shoe for external strobe. That´s also one reason for the big price difference. You can easily to expand your Ikelite´s system with external strobes, video lights, fisheye or wide angel lenses, filters, etc. Easily the only limiter is your/my wallet. External strobe and wide angle would be so cool. In picture the adapter for the external strobe in the right corner in the up. Maybe some day. Another big difference is the waterproof. Canon´s G15 housing is waterproof for 40m, but Ikelite´s is for 60m. Ofcource 40m is enough for most of us, if you are not technical diver.

If there is a big size difference between Ixus and G15, there is also huge size difference between Canon´s and Ikelite´s housings. Old and new one.

I have a swimming pool outside of my condominium in Manila, so I did the first water test for the housing in the pool. Housing half under water. Water still outside…? Yes, it is.

Iceman from Finland in a pool in Philippines. So that´s me.

Lyn as an underwater model.

First water test was successful. It was just easy to see I need some practice to use Ikelite´s housing after two different Canon´s housing. The button technic is so different between those two brands. Now just have to wait for the next diving trips and for the real under water test.

Do you use Canon G15 for diving? What are your favorite uw settings in G15? Just comment for this story or send me an email. 

Have a safe dives!

Cheers,

Mika