Finally! An underwater housing for smartphones! Beginning with the ever popular iPhone version, Divevolk has innovated a version of underwater housing to have true touchscreen ability on the entire real estate of your phone screen! Not buttons that work on Bluetooth connection or restrictive presses on the volume buttons. The gel-filled layer is the piece of spongy-feeling layer between your phone’s screen and you. Any screen protector would have to be removed before inserting into the housing on its specially moulded tray designed for specific models of iPhones from iPhone 6 to 6plus, 7 to 7plus, 8 to 8plus, 10 to 10Max. This is to facilitate the sensor to sense your finger contact more effectively on the phone as the ambient pressure is already exerting a force on the entire gel layer, the phone needs to sense your ‘finger’ to register it as a contact.

Android-users will rejoice soon when their much-anticipated Android version of the housing is released in August! Yes! Yes! My dependable, photographically superior Samsung Note FE (and all the Samsung Note series & S series as well as the Huawei P & Mate series) will get to capture marine life eventually and with the inbuilt Pro features of White Balance adjustment, shutter speeds & aperture control, ISO selection from 50 – 800, metering modes and auto focus areas (helpful in shooting macro) with special photo effects! Only a month away!

If you have not started underwater photography yet, how many times have you wished you could take your trusty smartphone underwater with you? A gadget that you are familiar with, can operate the camera app with ease and don’t have to figure out technical jargon??? Have you been intimidated by complex camera gear and equally complicated setup? It kills the joy of gearing up even before you get into the water. Having Divevolk’s SeaTouch 2 Pro eliminates the complexity of a time-consuming setup, freeing you from the stress and annoyance of misplacing essential accessories that comes with a huge camera setup. It has only one door that has a double O’ring and it’s secured with nuts and bolts. Forget all the chunky gear that photographers need to lug along with strobes, lights and accessories. The entire setup plus macro and wide angle lenses, ball arms and tray with 2 lights and a float fit into one cabin-worthy case with room to spare. It was just about everything I carried to my trip to Bidung Island in Terengganu. I didn’t even used the lights as there was ample sunlight for my dives.

If you have been taking pictures underwater with your humongous gear, let me give you a reason to have this on your next outing, especially if you are going on a business trip with a detour to a neighbouring dive site and can’t carry that behemoth with you. This gadget doesn’t require tray and arms because the centre attachment grip has grooves for screwing on two bendable mini lights plus snoot for your macro-mucking about. Having a housing ready means you never have to miss that opportunity no matter where your boss sends you!

Divevolk has an assisted camera app that you need to download and install to enable you to utilise the different WB preset modes. I was using a borrowed iPhone 6 (I’m an Android girl!! Android!!!) and the native app leaves a lot to be desired. The only time I used the native camera app was when I needed to shoot panorama with it. With the wide angle lens and red filter attached, the result is better than shooting ordinarily without. The app has 4 shooting functions, Time-lapse, slo-mo, photo & video mode. When you want your video to have adjusted WB, you have to use the Photo mode first to pre-select the preset and select Video afterwards to continue with the preset white balance. It has to be said that my favourite mode is the panorama and video mode.

I had one problem, the housing (with phone inside) was lighter than my 2 lights and shooting videos was like driving a car, my hands kept swivelling the setup causing rotational shake! That can be fixed on the computer but it’s another step that I’d rather miss. I would want to shoot it right from the start. The other problem I encountered was the vignetting on the left corners and apparently the attachments that enable the wet lenses didn’t cater to iPhone 6 camera placement. This is not a problem with the other iPhone models.

The quality of the video is dependent upon the quality of the phone model, in my case, I used the iPhone 6 that only has 1080p and not 4K resolution and I shot in 4:3 instead of 16:9 without realising it. Even without the wide angle lens attached, videos came out pretty decent.

All the videos are edited for clarity, white balance tweaked further for visual appeal. Raw footage is useable if you are not visually-fussy like how I am.

I conduct smartphone photo editing workshops periodically and will update the schedule when available. You can purchase one directly at https://bit.ly/mydivevolk and get a token discount.

Gone are the days where extract-happy dentists freely rule your jaw as they are no more with the emergence of bright, cheery and friendly women dentists who would make you feel at ease with their assuring conversations with you as you go through normal procedures. I have known Dr. Fauziah, or Fay as we fondly call her, for good number of years since we went diving but only began my dental appointments with her since 2010. She had made known to me about this procedure called composite veneer makeover but I’d put it at the back of my mind until recently when I decided to do it as I was going to represent Malaysia for Samsung to visit Korea sponsored by Korean Tourism Organisation!

Composite bonding or just bonding — which refers to direct composite veneers — is an inexpensive and effective way to restore and correct small chips,  cracks, crookedness and discolouration in the teeth. I’ve had too many teeth grow out at once when I was growing up and removing them caused the other teeth in their position to misalign. Now with this procedure of placing this translucent clay (veneer) on the tooth enamel that has been roughen by polish and bonding agent applied, Fay shaped this clay-like veneer over each tooth that’s crooked and aligned it to make the row flush with the rest of the teeth in proper positon. Then UV light is zapped onto the tooth after applying the final polish to set the veneer to harden. She did this with each tooth till the jaggedness is as even as possible.

She spent about 15 minutes on each tooth and after about 2 hours, I could beam with a smirk from ear to ear because I finally have sorted out my imperfection with this perfect method! This minimally invasive method does not remove any teeth (which is permanent) and is built around my jawline, and it’s almost instant,  which was one of the deciding factors for me. The best thing about it is, Fay and her team of dentists have been restoring people’s smiles for years and their expertise is rivalled by no other. When other dentists charge an arm or a leg to have you do a crowning at RM1,800 per tooth, composite veneer only costs RM400 per tooth, a figure afforded by many more.

This brilliant procedure is for you if you have any of the following:-

Spaces between the teeth.
Poorly shaped or crooked teeth.
Broken or chipped teeth.
Permanently externally stained and/or internally stained teeth.
Unsightly or stained fillings.

You can improve your appearance by having this composite veneer makeover but it cannot change your jawline or give you orthodontic help. It’s suitable for anyone who doesn’t want to spend a few years of their adulthood in braces but want to have an almost perfect, aligned set of teeth!

You can find Fay & her special team of dentists at www.drfauziah.com and do tell her that you read it here at pummkin.net! Her clinics are at Publika & Jalan Raja Laut but if you want to see her, she would be at Publika. Here’s to a new life with painlessly straightened teeth!!!

This simply means, anyone with an RFID reader/tracker who comes close (or not, depending on tracking device) to your wallet containing credit cards & ATM cards, they may steal vital information and access to your identity (and bank account) within seconds. Pacsafe has a range of RFID-blocking bags & packs, built with anti-theft features such as slashguard wire mesh woven into the bag and slashproof straps and temper-proof zips.

Tatonka Euro Wallet with RFID Blocker

Getting around in Frankfurt & scouring around to look at equipment in their outdoor shops, I found Globetrotter, a 5 -storey trekkers’ haven, that stocks the most comprehensive solutions to camping, trekking, hiking, kayaking & climbing located at the East end of Frankfurt. Here, I found a range of Pacsafe bags amongst other big names in outdoor equipment & bought the Stashsafe100 GII in Midnight Blue, a hip pack with built in anti-theft features & RFID-blocker. I also bought a Tatonka RFID Block wallet for days I don’t need to use the hip pack.

Pacsafe Stashsafe 100 GII hip pack

Inside of main compartment.

Comes with a lock/keys and slash proof strap!

5 storey of excitement!

Bags! Globetrotter has all kinds of backpacks!

To think that Malaysia is the first country to adopt the smart passport system, using RFID technology in 1998, our passports are vulnerable to identity fishing. Whenever I fly, I always have this insecurity about falling asleep & waking up to a ransacked bag. With a hip pack that is lockable on your body, zips that can be secured from opening & straps that are slashproof, I doubt anyone would want to attempt to remove/grab it from me but the added peace of mind of knowing that they can’t is already worth the money paid for. If you travel as much as I do, get the Pacsafe Stashsafe100 GII anti-theft hip pack. You would be glad to walk around the streets of South East Asian cities with the knowledge that nothing would fall out of your bag if it gets slashed neither could anyone pry the bag off you.