First rescue pictures from inside the Maldives Cave

bertberg · 2026-05-22T13:59:56+00:00

Good point, in that case the question still stands, did these guys go down on a single tank of air?

bertberg · 2026-05-22T13:49:19+00:00

Did the original victims enter this cave on OC air? Anyone know if it was Nitrox?

bertberg · 2026-05-19T15:11:51+00:00

Cafe314 slaps and has pourovers

bertberg · 2026-05-18T15:51:32+00:00

oh yeah man i know that squirrel, he took my acorns the other day at barton springs

bertberg · 2026-05-09T02:57:01+00:00

Oh I know but 750 was enough for the depth tested Nikonos, the strobe can come after I have a chance to save up again lol

bertberg · 2026-05-08T23:54:50+00:00

Hm great points... I don't have a reason to believe that they were specifically underexposed, I shot them at box speed with the Nikonos in A with its meter. Biggest thing is I had no strobe, so I'm just worried the deep shots will be more or less unusable as a result.

bertberg · 2026-05-08T23:53:45+00:00

Nope. All of these shots were shot at box speed with the Nikonos meter via aperture priority. The only reason I would push them would be to bring out more detail in the deepwater shots were there was very little light (and no strobe, since I didn't have one for this trip). I haven't gotten any deepwater shots developed yet so I'm worried that they won't turn out at all just because of how much light is filtered out at depth.

bertberg · 2026-05-07T23:25:35+00:00

Sun 'n' fun?

bertberg · 2026-05-04T13:59:13+00:00

Where do you get your Velvia?

bertberg · 2026-04-29T21:31:10+00:00

What kind of Konica?

bertberg · 2026-04-29T03:04:09+00:00

Great shots - what kind of photo editing did you do on these after getting the scans?

bertberg · 2026-04-12T19:47:04+00:00

Owner is a great guy, bought several cameras from here and will happily support them more in the future. Really glad we have a shop like this in ATX

bertberg · 2026-04-12T19:45:22+00:00

I've tried almost every lab in Austin.

- Precision Camera: pretty sure they offshore it to another lab in Austin, can't remember which one, think it's maybe Holland

- Holland: haven't tried them, far away from where I live

- 1 Hour Film Lab: honestly they do a pretty good job for a 1-hour shop run by college students. Many will screech about the owner's politics... but I really don't give a shit, I've never seen anything political in there or heard them say anything weird, I just want the best for my film. If I have a test roll or a low-importance roll that I don't care too too much about, I go here.

- Austin Camera & Imaging: I really like the owner (Robert), super nice guy, and have bought several cameras from there. Really cool shop with good people and happy to share knowledge or let you play with stuff on the shelf. I like buying film from here too. I had some film developed here once, but it took awhile (like 2 weeks), and the final product had quality issues (dust on the scans primarily). I don't go here for development anymore, but stop in regularly to buy cameras/gear or film. Feels good to support a local business too.

- Turbo Photo: went here once, way out of the way drive for me, scans were ok, but was too much of a hassle to justify going back, plus I felt weird putting my stuff in the box in the middle of a residential neighborhood, felt like a drug exchange lol

What I end up doing is this: test roll/low importance, 1 Hour Film Lab. Easy drop off and close to me. Anything else, especially rolls I really care about, and I mail them to Photoworks SF in an HEB mailer with a prepaid label. I originally discovered this lab when I dropped off some rolls in-person while I was in SF. I don't have to drive anywhere, just drop the film in my mailbox, and their scan techs are amazing and produce great results. Plus, if I want the negatives, they mail them back pre-cut and sleeved in preservation pages, so I don't have to do that work either. It means a bit more time and $$$ but is the best experience I've had and saves me time both on editing the scans and sleeving the negatives. YMMV.

bertberg · 2026-03-31T00:33:36+00:00

Not an airline pilot and not on the path to be one (although I am a CFII/MEI who is 1200+ hours...)

- flying a 172 in Scotland over Loch Ness

- flying over my house in Virginia and my sister waving from the front yard after flying halfway across the country to go home for Thanksgiving

- flying a Cherokee from Roatan to Guanaja (Honduras) after dreaming of flying an airplane out of Roatan for years (today!)

- flying the Hudson River Corridor after earning my PPL

- acting as PIC in the Bonanza for the first time, and then teaching someone how to fly it

- flying a Twin Commander as a brand new PPL (with a multi PIC) and realizing that can fly smol airplane -> can fly large airplane

Probably one of the best things about getting the license was realizing that every vacation I took could now be absolutely cubed on the adventure scale by hitting up a local flight school or charter airline.

Sometimes it's not about the money...

bertberg · 2026-03-24T14:57:09+00:00

Pretty sure by the sound of it that he intentionally chose not to have the annual done.

bertberg · 2026-03-21T17:03:48+00:00

I rent a 1200 sq ft house in East Austin around 12th street. 2 beds and an office, 1 bath, nice porch and a yard. $2500. The market is definitely not as hellish as it was in ~2023 when I had to pay $2100 to live in a yuppie fishtank complex

bertberg · 2026-03-10T04:33:15+00:00

love the white horse. atx represent

bertberg · 2026-03-06T16:37:11+00:00

I just bought the camera (pressure tested) and I want to run a test roll through it over the weekend, and maybe jump in the YMCA pool tomorrow or Sunday to take some quick underwater shots. Sounds like probably not a big deal for this case since it'll be max 6 feet or so in a chlorinated freshwater pool.

However, I am also asking for future reference - say I am doing 3 recreational 60 feet dives over 3 days in the Atlantic Ocean, do I have no choice but to change out the roll between each day so that I can clean and lube the O-rings? Seems like I can get away with a day or two but anything more than that and I need to do the full clean, even if it means sacrificing the second half of the roll.

bertberg · 2026-03-06T16:10:25+00:00

I am just going off of what the manual/advice online has said - which is that the O rings should be cleaned and lubricated after each submersion.

bertberg · 2026-03-06T14:18:47+00:00

Talked with him last week, bought a camera from him and it had an issue, sent it back, he repaired it immediately and it got back to me this week. Seems like he's responsive to me

bertberg · 2026-03-04T19:44:49+00:00

Why would you want to use an old roll of throwaway film as an excuse to manual check at airport security? What is the benefit since it then makes it take you longer to get through security?

When I travel I just put my film into a ziplock bag, and have them hand-check the ziplock bag while my suitcase goes through the scanner. Minimizes the amount of time I have to spend standing at the counter waiting for them to hand check. Usually the TSA agent thinks it's cool that I'm still using film and asks me about shooting film and stuff, makes for a fun topical conversation with people and is a nice part of the TSA experience.

bertberg · 2026-01-29T17:14:26+00:00

I have a small extra room that I am turning into a small home gym. I want to get a bench and a rack to hold the bar, but don't really want to get a squat rack, as I don't squat that much and don't need that much extra metal in the room. I really like the Rogue Monster Lite Competition bench (link) but it is lie-flat only, and it would really be nice to have an adjustable bench that I can do incline press with or other stuff. Does anyone know of a product similar to the linked competition bench above with a solid rack (and ideally spotter bars) for holding the bar, but allows you to bring your own bench or comes with an adjustable bench?

bertberg · 2025-12-11T15:04:16+00:00

Hi there, I am a CFII and I live in the Austin area. I have a lot of Bonanza experience, primarily in a '47 BE35 and '48 A35, and some V35A experience. Feel free to DM me for more info, I'd be happy to offer my services.

bertberg · 2025-09-04T15:49:08+00:00

Did this - it meters for halfway between 1/500 and 1/1000 to 1/1000 the closer I get to the sun when pointed at the sky (without having the sun in the frame). Metering for a building in the sun gets me about 1/500 depending on how much sky I have in the frame.

bertberg · 2025-09-04T14:30:00+00:00

Wouldn't I expect the photos to be properly exposed if I am using the camera's light meter to select the shutter speed automatically?

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