just coming to the end of a wonderful trip to komodo and gili air.

came with quite a lot of gear that I hadn’t really used much before - but after doing Alex Mustards excellent reboot course and then fannying about underwater for a fortnight several things are apparent

1. taking good photos on a group dive is impossible- you need time and ‘normal’ dive groups don’t give it to you. ‘drive by’ snapping are very hit and miss

2. you get what you pay for. The salted line alpha 6xxx housing is usually waterproof and cheap but don’t expect to be able to change the settings at 30m- at one point it was randomly scrolling though the iso settings for no reason - another times the shutter wouldn’t work

3. the sony macro 90mm 2.8 is a stunning lens- when you can get it to focus! next time i even think about it i’ll put it on manual and set the focus before the dive - use a snoot and just take pictures of things that way. Should be great

4. I’m definitely coming back to Indonesia

Hi Mike

Some excellent learning points!

Yep, group dives are pretty hopeless for taking "good" pics. If you go back to Indonesia and you want to photo macro, I'd recommend the Lembeh Straits. Not only amazing (weird!) diving, buy most operations run a two guests-to-one dive guide system. So spending time taking images is relatively easy. And yes, you definitely need a guide but, believe me, that's good!

Wide-angle shots with a group is, errr, challenging to get all the flailing, inelegant legs out the way. Take a buddy (preferably with good legs) and a guide.

Sounds as though the Salted housing buttons may have been subject to the water pressure at 30m and just kissing the camera buttons sufficiently to cause unexcited activations. Expensive though they are, that's one reason why the aluminium housings (Subal, Nauticam, Isotta etc) are so good. And so expensive! Yes, by and large, you get what you pay for.

Sounds as though you had fun though - which is a large part of what its about......

12 hours ago, Mike Saunders said:

just coming to the end of a wonderful trip to komodo and gili air.

came with quite a lot of gear that I hadn’t really used much before - but after doing Alex Mustards excellent reboot course and then fannying about underwater for a fortnight several things are apparent

1. taking good photos on a group dive is impossible- you need time and ‘normal’ dive groups don’t give it to you. ‘drive by’ snapping are very hit and miss

2. you get what you pay for. The salted line alpha 6xxx housing is usually waterproof and cheap but don’t expect to be able to change the settings at 30m- at one point it was randomly scrolling though the iso settings for no reason - another times the shutter wouldn’t work

3. the sony macro 90mm 2.8 is a stunning lens- when you can get it to focus! next time i even think about it i’ll put it on manual and set the focus before the dive - use a snoot and just take pictures of things that way. Should be great

4. I’m definitely coming back to Indonesia

Gili Air and Komodo are not the easiest for photography, especially macro - I love Komodo and it has great macro, especially in the south but it's Komodo and not many sites are protected. With a 90mm, in the central part a site like Waeniliu is great for macro but not dived that often, not in my days anyway. And the south is more seasonal.
I've never been to Gili Air but did dive Gili Meno in 2014, and I imagine it's not very different. Good "fun diving", lots of courses but not the best settings for imaging (unless you work there that is) and a little lacking in subjects perhaps?

Yes, I definitely second Tim's Lembeh recommendation - otherwise Bali's Tulamben will have plenty of subjects and good spotters, and lots of photography oriented resorts and diving
When it comes to dive operations, Lembeh and Tulamben are probably the most photocentric diving areas in the country.
Plenty of others of course (Triton Bay, Alor, Raja4 to some extent, etc) but in terms of imaging-friendly areas, these two areas really stand out I think.

Gili Air was a great place to stay

less spectacular but my first experience of muck diving in two dives and less current and easier to find a spot to stop and take images

first frogfish!

and thank goodness for raw files

hopelessly underlit image of a black frog fish hiding in a hole. wrestling with 90mm macro focus and strobe arms but play around on lightroom and there’s an image there

I’ve found a used nauticam housing for sony alpha 6xxx

looking forward to the red sea trip

On 9/24/2026 at 2:55 PM, Mike Saunders said:

I’ve found a used nauticam housing for sony alpha 6xxx

looking forward to the red sea trip

I can tell you’re on that slope. Slippery it is. But oh so fun to go down. Cheers!