After some practice it proves very easy for a snorkler to reach the reefcam in it's new position.


"Carlos Coste, who was attempting 102m constant weight, has reached the bottom and returned with the tag to a clean exit for a new World Record!"

The problem arises though when the new reefcam will also only take one image every 2 minutes!!!

U're right. That might take some xtra practice

I must have been one of the last snorkelers to visit the ReefCam and get into a picture. In seven attempts of 30-40s underwater I was only able to intercept the 2 minute picture once (it is difficult!):



Pierre (or another French Angelfish) was swimming close checking me out, all the time, very nice fellow that guy ;-).

It's sad the ReefCam will be too deep to do that again... but I look forward to seeing more activity online now that the fish will have somewhere to concentrate and play right in front of the cam (the boat).

Kev managed to snorkle down. It took quite a few go's but he was determined.

If we had known when it was going to take the photo it would have been easier. Same goes for doorcam too LOL We had such fun standing there and waving wondering when it was going to take. Of course photo was taken when I was looking to the side and speaking

Are you saying the site of new reefcam will be too deep for snorkelers to reach???

No, not at all.
It just takes some practice to freedive to 60ft and stay there for 2 minutes to have yr picture taken.

You're right Jenni, same thing here: it would have been a lot easier if I knew when the cam would take the pictures. :-D You know, when I was there swimming I was thinking to myself "-Donkey boy, why didn't you set your watch in sync with your PC before coming to Bonaire? Argh...". I swam from Andrea I to the cam (~1 hour), stayed there for about 20 minutes (with Pierre the Angelfish), then swam back (~40 minutes).

If I had synced my watch I think I would've hit the picture moment the seven times I tried. The server at BonaireCams is probably synced with an internet NTP time server (as my PC is). Well, with the new depth I guess I'll have to learn to dive AND sync my watch if I want to show up in that cam again. ;-)

Cheers,

Fabio

Indeed, the cameras are synchronized to the atomic clocks using NTP. However, each camera is captured in sequence, not all at once, so one camera is somewhere right at the stop of the minute, the next is a couple of seconds later, and so on. That may change down the road.

Perhaps at some point in the future we'll be able to add a shallow camera underwater to accomodate those snorkelers without industrial-strength lungs. There are lots of ways the system could be expanded, but all of our efforts for the near term will be focused on getting the existing capability back online in the new home.

Dan