On 6/14/2026 at 1:42 AM, Chris Ross said:

Your alternative is the Nauticam trigger which doesn't register with the camera and will sync to 1/400 without HSS. This will give you more flash power at 1/400 than a HSS trigger will deliver. It a purely manual trigger. It should be able to rear curtain sync as well as this is set in the camera and I can set it in my camera without a flash attached.

I wonder if this would be true of the ULM laser trigger as well

On 5/28/2026 at 11:34 AM, TimG said:

Still mourning my beloved Subal housed D500, I have to think about next steps.

I don’t want FF and there’s no Nikon Z equivalent to a D500. So I’m thinking M43 and the Olympus OM-1

I thought I’d switch to Nauticam. Paired with a 45 degree finder.

Then an Olympus 60mm macro and FP.

Tokina 10-17s are hard to find so I’m thinking a 100mm Zen glass domeport with either the 8mm Pany or 8mm Olympus.

Various articles I’ve read suggest the 8mm Pany works better in a Zen100 dome than the Olympus. But maybe I’m missing something?

I’m not sure I really want to head down the Canon 8-15/adaptor route. I do have a Nikkor 8-15 but understand that’s hard to set up with an Olympus.

So that’s where I’m at: saddened with slight trepidation staring into the barely known.

Thoughts welcome to add to excellent advice from Chris.

Thanks!

I'm still struggling with the decision to upgrade/update my Subal/D7200. Considering the OM-1 vs a used D500 and a new Subal housing, and I'm wondering what persuaded you to go with the OM-1.

I had a housing issue shortly before our last dive trip, and my wife graciously allowed me to shoot her EM1 Mk ii on wide angle dives. Once I got the hang of it, I found it takes very good pictures. I didn't love the speed of focus acquisition and I did not love the viewfinder. But I understand the OM-1 has improved on both. I was also a bit ambivalent about the small Nauticam housing. It felt less polished than my Subal and was also a bit awkward in my somewhat large hands--though I imagine I just needed more time to become comfortable.

Have you had your OM-1 in the water? How does it compare with your D500?

Hi Reuben

Have to say I agonised. The decision to move to OM and Nauticam was for multiple small reasons which seemed to make the case. I usually only traveled with the Subal housing plus a Nikkor 60mm macro and Tokina 10-17 plus the relevant ports (100mm for the Tokina), Retra strobes and LSD. Even then I was finding the weight and bulk a bit of a pain.

When I lost all my gear I thought it time for a rethink. Was it wise to buy a second hand D500? I had contacted Subal about a housing and got no reply. And much though I loved the housings, I couldn’t help but feel Subal were fading away. Nauticam is everywhere in terms of product support, quality, second hand desirability etc. Then there didn’t seem to be a D500-like Nikon body available. I didn’t want to go FF for the weight issues. Several members on Waterpixels talked about the merits of M43 and the OM-1.

Those factors persuaded me to switch. There were probably more thoughts in the back of my mind.

Not yet got the new system in the water. Soon! But first topside impressions are good. Lenses for underwater use are mind-boggling small and light compared to

Nikkor. The Nauticam housing feels good, fits together nicely and I really like the integrated vacuum system and USB bulkhead charging/downloading capability. Port mounting is a little easier than Subal. Push and lock rather than push hard, twist and maybe lock.

The housing feels good to handle, perhaps not quite as refined as the Subal. I really liked the size, feel and placement of Subal’s shutter and aperture control wheels. The Nauticam’s are a little smaller and, at the moment, my Subal muscle memory doesn’t find them so easily. Practice eh? Over 25 years of Subal practice.

The OM-1ii is similar in size to the Z6 series. It seems hugely capable. AF seems excellent topside. Massive learning curve from Nikon. But one step at a time. Image quality? Waterpixelers, whose views I trust, tell me I won’t tell the difference. I bought a topside lens with the aim of slowly switching entirely to OM. Again, steep learning curve. I got the 12-100 which is similar to the Nikkor 24-200 which is/was my go to travel lens. It’s very similar in size. But other long tele/zooms in the OM range are significantly smaller and lighter than Nikkor equivalents.

Everything other than strobe arms now fits in a 1510 Pelican case. Yeah, it’s still heavy! So no real weight saving but it is compact and my second cabin bag will be much lighter.

Sorry, this is rather a long reply now. I can tell you more when back from my trip. But so far looks good and I thought it might be helpful to explain the context for my decisions.

9 hours ago, reubencahn said:

I didn't love the speed of focus acquisition and I did not love the viewfinder. But I understand the OM-1 has improved on both.

What lens were you using? I've used the Oly 12-40, Panasonic 8mm and even their 7-14 AN found it snapped to focus quite quickly. I now have an adapted Canon 8-15 - it's not always fast but that's to be expected with an adapted lens but a small shift on focus distance is almost instant most of the time on that - the flexibility is astounding though.

5 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

What lens were you using? I've used the Oly 12-40, Panasonic 8mm and even their 7-14 AN found it snapped to focus quite quickly. I now have an adapted Canon 8-15 - it's not always fast but that's to be expected with an adapted lens but a small shift on focus distance is almost instant most of the time on that - the flexibility is astounding though.

The Oly 8mm FE behind a 160 dome. It also occurs to me that I am so unfamiliar with the camera that my settings might have been suboptimal. In any case, everything I've read about the OM-1 autofocus is that it's among the best, so that's less of a concern.

10 hours ago, TimG said:

Hi Reuben

Have to say I agonised. The decision to move to OM and Nauticam was for multiple small reasons which seemed to make the case. I usually only traveled with the Subal housing plus a Nikkor 60mm macro and Tokina 10-17 plus the relevant ports (100mm for the Tokina), Retra strobes and LSD. Even then I was finding the weight and bulk a bit of a pain.

When I lost all my gear I thought it time for a rethink. Was it wise to buy a second hand D500? I had contacted Subal about a housing and got no reply. And much though I loved the housings, I couldn’t help but feel Subal were fading away. Nauticam is everywhere in terms of product support, quality, second hand desirability etc. Then there didn’t seem to be a D500-like Nikon body available. I didn’t want to go FF for the weight issues. Several members on Waterpixels talked about the merits of M43 and the OM-1.

Those factors persuaded me to switch. There were probably more thoughts in the back of my mind.

Not yet got the new system in the water. Soon! But first topside impressions are good. Lenses for underwater use are mind-boggling small and light compared to

Nikkor. The Nauticam housing feels good, fits together nicely and I really like the integrated vacuum system and USB bulkhead charging/downloading capability. Port mounting is a little easier than Subal. Push and lock rather than push hard, twist and maybe lock.

The housing feels good to handle, perhaps not quite as refined as the Subal. I really liked the size, feel and placement of Subal’s shutter and aperture control wheels. The Nauticam’s are a little smaller and, at the moment, my Subal muscle memory doesn’t find them so easily. Practice eh? Over 25 years of Subal practice.

The OM-1ii is similar in size to the Z6 series. It seems hugely capable. AF seems excellent topside. Massive learning curve from Nikon. But one step at a time. Image quality? Waterpixelers, whose views I trust, tell me I won’t tell the difference. I bought a topside lens with the aim of slowly switching entirely to OM. Again, steep learning curve. I got the 12-100 which is similar to the Nikkor 24-200 which is/was my go to travel lens. It’s very similar in size. But other long tele/zooms in the OM range are significantly smaller and lighter than Nikkor equivalents.

Everything other than strobe arms now fits in a 1510 Pelican case. Yeah, it’s still heavy! So no real weight saving but it is compact and my second cabin bag will be much lighter.

Sorry, this is rather a long reply now. I can tell you more when back from my trip. But so far looks good and I thought it might be helpful to explain the context for my decisions.

I appreciate the long reply. Sounds like your considerations are really the same as mine. My left brain is telling me the OM-1 in Nauticam is the way to go. My right brain is lusting after the D500/Subal.

FYI: the housing problem that left me shooting my wife's camera was an LCD window that cracked when pressure tested after servicing. That was two weeks before our trip. It's now 7 weeks later and still no replacement window from Subal. I note they still don't have a housing for the OM-1 even though it's on its second generation. I fear you're right about them fading away.

Look forward to your thoughts on the camera after you've had it in the water. Especially interested in hearing what you think of the viewfinder for wide angle.

2 hours ago, reubencahn said:

My left brain is telling me the OM-1 in Nauticam is the way to go. My right brain is lusting after the D500/Subal.

Oh, I hear ya!!!!

Interesting to read of your Subal experience. They serviced a 45-degree viewfinder for me after I scratched the viewing glass a few months ago. That was quite quick. But, yeah, not sure I'd want to invest in a new system. Such a pity. They have been superb housing.

Will post for sure on how it goes.

As for the Nauticam, 45-degree viewfinder. Mercy, it is LARGE compared to the very neat Subal one. Easy to install/remove though, has a diopter adjustment which is nice.

On 8/30/2026 at 3:13 PM, reubencahn said:

The Oly 8mm FE behind a 160 dome. It also occurs to me that I am so unfamiliar with the camera that my settings might have been suboptimal. In any case, everything I've read about the OM-1 autofocus is that it's among the best, so that's less of a concern.

I used an 8mm fisheye behind a Zen 100mm dome with my EM-1 MkII in the past it snapped to focus. You do have to watch fisheyes, the foreground can be much closer than it looks and can fall out of the depth of field if you are close. They have a lot of depth of field but it's not infinite at CFWA distances. DOF is less in the foreground so focusing in something fairly close can help.

So… back from my first M43/Nauticam dive trip.

Horribly heavy though it was, I was amazed all my gear, except strobe arms and the Retra LSD, would fit into a Pelican 1510 refitted with Pelican’s TrekPak dividers. They are much neater than the padded dividers I’ve been using for decades and free-up valuable space.

We were boat diving in Sulawesi from a resort on Saronde Island.  I took the OM-1ii with the Olympus 60mm and Panasonic 8mm, Nauticam’s flatport 65 and a Zen 100mm domeport. Over 7 days of diving, macro shots on five days and FE for two. I shot just over 1300 RAW file images over 20 dives.

I found the system easy to use. My partner said she was dreading me emerging at the end of a dive cursing and swearing in frustration over a new system. IT NEVER HAPPENED. I used fairly simple camera settings, the Retra LSD for macro and happily shot away. The 60mm hunted a bit in some fairly turbid water and I tried various tweaks which helped.

The Panasonic 8mm was a joy to use and focussing, not surprisingly, was easy. The Zen 100 port is very neat - but you do need to be careful not to smash into the reef using the 8mm! Everything is WAY closer than it looks.

I had the UWT trigger in the housing which was excellent and worked without a hitch. I switched often to HSS on the Retras with high shutter speeds when shooting wide-angle into the sun. The system coped perfectly.

The USB port was brilliant and over the course of 7 days I never opened the housing back! Plugging the housing into a USB charger for a couple of hours in the evenings  resulted in a full battery for next day’s dives.

I’d like to say I did the same with downloading images (ie through the USB port). However my lack of familiarity with the Files app on my iPad led me to stuff up the first download attempt - and I didn’t want to risk it. Back home now I have it figured out and will certainly use that in the future. No need to open the housing to download or battery charge. What a bonus!

Other bits and bobs: the Nauticam vacuum system is easy to operate and offers a nice feeling of comfort. It is integrated into the housing very neatly.

I was surprised by the system being significantly negatively buoyant. I was using two sets of arms comprising 5” plus 8” arms fitted with Stix Jumbo floats. If I let go, the whole lot plummeted down. I’m looking into adding a cross bar with additional Stix - which is what I had on my D500/Subal system and liked it. I plan a rinse tank test this week with travel scales to find out how much additional buoyancy is needed.

I struggled a bit to find the sweet spot on the shutter release - something which was quite easy  on the Subal housing with a D500. I did miss shots by a millisecond. Next time I’ll use the AF button to focus and the shutter lever just to fire the shutter.

And I struggled to find the aperture and shutter dials on the housing without looking. They are smaller than Subals and my fingers didn’t fall easily onto them. But this is just familiarity and practice.

And the images? The key factor! Yep, I’m happy especially considering this was first time out with a new setup. Most images are sharp. If they are not it’s mainly my fault. I’m left with 130 keepers which, for me, is about the right ratio: 1 keeper for 10 deletes. Looking at them at 100% in Lightroom, they don’t look any different to the Nikon D500 RAW files.

So if you’re thinking of an M43 system using an OM-1, it works nicely. Phew…..

32 minutes ago, TimG said:

So… back from my first M43/Nauticam dive trip.

I was surprised by the system being significantly negatively buoyant. I was using two sets of arms comprising 5” plus 8” arms fitted with Stix Jumbo floats. If I let go, the whole lot plummeted down. I’m looking into adding a cross bar with additional Stix - which is what I had on my D500/Subal system and liked it. I plan a rinse tank test this week with travel scales to find out how much additional buoyancy is needed.

I struggled a bit to find the sweet spot on the shutter release - something which was quite easy  on the Subal housing with a D500. I did miss shots by a millisecond. Next time I’ll use the AF button to focus and the shutter lever just to fire the shutter.

With exactly the same setup diving around home , only difference is the model of Retra strobe , mine I recall are 20g -ve or so in water and an INON focus light at 165gr in water, I use two INON 390g float arms and two 135 gr float arms. It's pretty close to neutral, just slightly negative. You would use two of the new 437 gr INON arms and come up at about the same weight I am less the INON torch.

I always use back button focus in combo with C-AF underwater, seems to work pretty well.

7 hours ago, TimG said:

So… back from my first M43/Nauticam dive trip.

Horribly heavy though it was, I was amazed all my gear, except strobe arms and the Retra LSD, would fit into a Pelican 1510 refitted with Pelican’s TrekPak dividers. They are much neater than the padded dividers I’ve been using for decades and free-up valuable space.

We were boat diving in Sulawesi from a resort on Saronde Island.  I took the OM-1ii with the Olympus 60mm and Panasonic 8mm, Nauticam’s flatport 65 and a Zen 100mm domeport. Over 7 days of diving, macro shots on five days and FE for two. I shot just over 1300 RAW file images over 20 dives.

I found the system easy to use. My partner said she was dreading me emerging at the end of a dive cursing and swearing in frustration over a new system. IT NEVER HAPPENED. I used fairly simple camera settings, the Retra LSD for macro and happily shot away. The 60mm hunted a bit in some fairly turbid water and I tried various tweaks which helped.

The Panasonic 8mm was a joy to use and focussing, not surprisingly, was easy. The Zen 100 port is very neat - but you do need to be careful not to smash into the reef using the 8mm! Everything is WAY closer than it looks.

I had the UWT trigger in the housing which was excellent and worked without a hitch. I switched often to HSS on the Retras with high shutter speeds when shooting wide-angle into the sun. The system coped perfectly.

The USB port was brilliant and over the course of 7 days I never opened the housing back! Plugging the housing into a USB charger for a couple of hours in the evenings  resulted in a full battery for next day’s dives.

I’d like to say I did the same with downloading images (ie through the USB port). However my lack of familiarity with the Files app on my iPad led me to stuff up the first download attempt - and I didn’t want to risk it. Back home now I have it figured out and will certainly use that in the future. No need to open the housing to download or battery charge. What a bonus!

Other bits and bobs: the Nauticam vacuum system is easy to operate and offers a nice feeling of comfort. It is integrated into the housing very neatly.

I was surprised by the system being significantly negatively buoyant. I was using two sets of arms comprising 5” plus 8” arms fitted with Stix Jumbo floats. If I let go, the whole lot plummeted down. I’m looking into adding a cross bar with additional Stix - which is what I had on my D500/Subal system and liked it. I plan a rinse tank test this week with travel scales to find out how much additional buoyancy is needed.

I struggled a bit to find the sweet spot on the shutter release - something which was quite easy  on the Subal housing with a D500. I did miss shots by a millisecond. Next time I’ll use the AF button to focus and the shutter lever just to fire the shutter.

And I struggled to find the aperture and shutter dials on the housing without looking. They are smaller than Subals and my fingers didn’t fall easily onto them. But this is just familiarity and practice.

And the images? The key factor! Yep, I’m happy especially considering this was first time out with a new setup. Most images are sharp. If they are not it’s mainly my fault. I’m left with 130 keepers which, for me, is about the right ratio: 1 keeper for 10 deletes. Looking at them at 100% in Lightroom, they don’t look any different to the Nikon D500 RAW files.

So if you’re thinking of an M43 system using an OM-1, it works nicely. Phew…..

Congratulations on a successful inaugural dive! Happy to hear it was both productive and enjoyable. The images you shared and the fact your partner didn’t to need to talk you off a ledge are wins! Both are what it’s all about. 😎

3 minutes ago, ChipBPhoto said:

The images you shared and the fact your partner didn’t to need to talk you off a ledge are wins! Both are what it’s all about. 😎

Hehe, a big A-Men to that, Chip! 🤣

8 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

With exactly the same setup diving around home , only difference is the model of Retra strobe , mine I recall are 20g -ve or so in water and an INON focus light at 165gr in water, I use two INON 390g float arms and two 135 gr float arms. It's pretty close to neutral, just slightly negative. You would use two of the new 437 gr INON arms and come up at about the same weight I am less the INON torch.

I always use back button focus in combo with C-AF underwater, seems to work pretty well.

I've just done a dunk test in a tank full of fresh water. I used the Zuiko 60mm with Nauticam 65 port, the 45-degree finder and two Retras with the Boosters (my normal GoTo), so 16 batteries in total. This weighed 6.5 kgs in air. In the dunk tank it was 1.88 kgs negatively buoyant. I make that to be just over 10 Jumbo Stix! 😆

4 minutes ago, TimG said:

I've just done a dunk test in a tank full of fresh water. I used the Zuiko 60mm with Nauticam 65 port, the 45-degree finder and two Retras with the Boosters (my normal GoTo), so 16 batteries in total. This weighed 6.5 kgs in air. In the dunk tank it was 1.88 kgs negatively buoyant. I make that to be just over 10 Jumbo Stix! 😆

Then you can use two of the INON 90 mega float arm 208 arms for 1394 kg lift. If you want to offset all of that be aware the rig will not want to be pointing up as Archimedes insists that the float arms are floating the highest. I use two Isotta arms at 670 gr each and the rig does not like being twisted upwards. I'm thinking I may place some foam under the housing to help float that upwards. This is only with the Canon 8-15 setup which is noticably heavier than the 60mm macro with my strobes. I seem to recall that 8-15 rig being 1.8kg -ve in total

My macro rig is the same as yours, but I have Retra Pure (110g -ve with boosters) the Pro Max II lists at 160gr -ve. I'll have to weigh mine again at some point.

Tim, my macro rig is very similar to yours, although different strobes, but it’s not nearly as negative. I’m curious why you need the boosters? I can do 3 macro dives taking maybe 80-100 exposures each time without changing batteries.

12 minutes ago, Troporobo said:

Tim, my macro rig is very similar to yours, although different strobes, but it’s not nearly as negative. I’m curious why you need the boosters? I can do 3 macro dives taking maybe 80-100 exposures each time without changing batteries.

Interesting. Could be just habit from my D500 days! I do find though that using the Retra LSD snoot I turn the strobes power up a fair bit. A 100 images sounds about what I’d do over 3 dives. I’ll try going Boosterless on my next trip and see how it goes.

41 minutes ago, TimG said:

Interesting. Could be just habit from my D500 days! I do find though that using the Retra LSD snoot I turn the strobes power up a fair bit. A 100 images sounds about what I’d do over 3 dives. I’ll try going Boosterless on my next trip and see how it goes.

Snooting is the worst case scenario for a strobes battery life. You have a spotting light on most of the time and usually need fairly high strobe power levels. You will definitely need all the battery power you can get. Don't leave home without the boosters.

The Retra Maxi is a lot better for Snooting since it has a lot more battery power and it's lighter in the water than the AA powered Retra's. This helps counter the added weight of the LSD.

9 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Snooting is the worst case scenario for a strobes battery life. You have a spotting light on most of the time and usually need fairly high strobe power levels. You will definitely need all the battery power you can get. Don't leave home without the boosters.

The Retra Maxi is a lot better for Snooting since it has a lot more battery power and it's lighter in the water than the AA powered Retra's. This helps counter the added weight of the LSD.

Yep, it’s exactly that, Dave. The spotting light is indeed on most of the time. And a small mask aperture calls for a lot of power.

If you’re reading, Oskar, one thing I’d love to see on the Retras is an indicator that the spotting light is indeed on. I often forget to turn it off and it’s not always visible against the reef. I sometimes check by just putting my hand in front of the snoot. But an indicator light would be terrific.

I forgot that you’re an LSD user (no aspersion intended!). I withdraw my battery advice.

39 minutes ago, Troporobo said:

I forgot that you’re an LSD user (no aspersion intended!). I withdraw my battery advice.

It was still appreciated!

Subjectively, did you compare the speed and accuracy of your new toy's focus system with that of the Nikon D500, which you have extensive experience with? I'd be interested to hear your opinion.

Subjectively, yes.

Bear in mid that I have never used these OM camera or lenses before and, despite very helpful pre-match advice, I was not entirely sure what settings were available or which to use. The OM-1ii is capable of all sorts of tech bells and whistles way beyond (for me) a 2017 D500. I just tried to keep it simple.

Not surprisingly the Panasonic 8mm was fine. No problem at all. Easy to focus.

The Zuiko 60mm was more problematic and very prone to hunting in turbid water - much more so, I thought, than the D500/Nikkor 60mm. I've never used any kind of focus tracking on my old system and continued to use C-AF for focussing. Subject Detection was set to Off.

I did miss a lot of shots initially. Switching to the 0.19-0.4m setting helped a bit. Yes, I started on 0.19m to infinity. Trying to catch a subject swimming in mid-water was something I could do easily with the D500/60mm. Not so with the settings I was using with the OM/60mm. The AF could be distracted by stuff in the water with AF/ Release combined on the shutter release control. Separating out AF and Release will be something I try next time set up on its own Custom group. So, say, C1 for AF/Release combined; C2 for AF/Release separated out to different controls.

The other features I want to try out is reducing the C-AF Auto Sensitivity. The Default is 0 but, I read -2 should help distractions. But then, I'm assuming, so should separating out focussing and release buttons.

So, bottom line, subjectively, the D500 with a Nikkor 60mm was easier and seemed more reliable for focussing. But, as I say, very early days and it was an accumulation of using the OM for 19 dives as compared to almost a 1000 with the D500. The OM-1ii is clearly highly capable, flexible and customisable. It will take time to fine-tune and get the best of it. As I wrote, I came away happy I was not frustrated to death with a new system. But I did miss shots I would have taken with the D500 so it is a work in progress.

One thing I didn’t mention, which although relatively obvious is important: I’m comparing a D500/60mm (90mm FF equivalent) combination with a OM-1ii/60mm - a 120mm FF equivalent. Perhaps a fairer comparison would be the OM/60 combination and a D500/105 combination (150mm equivalent). That was also pretty difficult to capture a mid-water swimming subject! I don’t think the D500/105mm combination hunted as much as the OM.