This post is designed to honor the passing of a true friend, my travel companion and dive buddy: the Olympus 1030SW point and shoot camera. My Olympus 1030SW came into existence in late 2008 where he was purchased by another, only to be returned to his manufacturer for repairs shortly after for undisclosed reasons.
I discovered my buddy on sale at eBay, Olympus' preferred way of distributing refurbished equipment, at a significantly discounted price. I did not care that he was used and broken, and saw him as a friend looking for a home, and purchased him quickly for an upcoming dive trip to Florida in early 2009.
The dive trip came and went, and while a brother of his suffered a painful death several feet under the water, my buddy got some of the most beautiful shots of the entire trip; much to my happiness and my fellow dive partners chagrin.That trip started the friendship that would last for the following year and a half where we both spent a lot of time in and out of the water.
In August 2009 we went to Egypt where we endured 125°+ outside temperature and saw a lionfish while diving in the red sea on two dives off the coast of Nuweiba - one of my life goals.Shortly there after we went on a snorkel adventure in Florida while visiting family and the unthinkable happened. In 2 feet of water my buddy went blank. Not dead, but the screen went completely black. Everything else worked fine except that I could not see any screen. His parents at Olympus were so concerned at this unusual problem that they gave him a full organ transplant at no charge. The surgery was a success and he was back in my hands in no time.
In March 2010 he went on his first cruise to the Caribbean where we went snorkeling nearly every day and even got up close in personal with a turtle, making my canvas print hall of fame and surprising nearly every friend who thinks that it was taken on a multiple-thousand dollar SLR with dive case.Finally August 2010 rolled around and we begun our massive tour of Asia. Sure, my little friend got a lot of photos in the day to day with his adopted brother the SLR, but his real claim to fame came in to business in Thailand where we went on 10 dives in a week long stretch!
That is where his health problems began.
Shortly in to the best dive of my life, Chumphon Pinnacle off the coast of Koh Tao, my little buddy just stopped working. I began to surface from the dive, seeing more Nemo fish than I ever had in my life, bat fish, and other amazing creatures when he miraculously sprang back to life! This was odd, because the depth of the dive was well above the 30 foot maximum he was rated to take.We went on our second dive at the site, and the same thing happened at approximately 12 feet. I knew my buddy was on near deaths door, but he held out for 4 more dives after that. In fact, he endured many more snorkeling adventures until several weeks later when I arrived at Koh Lipe.
Much like our trip to Florida the year before, the same thing happened. He went blank. This time I knew it would be a little different being halfway around the world from home. Sure there were a number of repair shops in the area, but none could repair my camera in the time I would be in the city. Sadly, I would have to wait until I returned home for the repair.
He missed Angie's glorious arrival and subsequent snorkeling events in Thailand. He also missed the giant Moray Eel we saw during that time, and it was all over from there.
Unfortunately when we arrived home he was gone. Now I am without my dive friend, and have no replacement in sight. Where we go form here, I do not know.
RIP: Olympus 1030SW, a true friend.Adopted February 2009 to December 2010.
