All Activity

Agree, fantastic news and a great humanitarian story. I haven't been on the Bilikiki, but I backpacked through the Solomon Islands in 1992 and did some diving there as well. It was very basic, and I traveled between the islands on local supply boats. Most remote islands had no jetty, so the supply boat just stopped near the beach in front of the villages and the passengers and most of supply entered/left the boat by local wooden canoes. Barrels with fuel -mostly used for oil lamps- were thrown overboard, and the locals rolled the barrels to the shore while swimming. Very limited medical support at that time only at the so called "provincial capitals". Nothing on the remote islands, and most of the locals had no opportunities to travel. Imagine the supply situation and medical care in the remote areas still remain very limited. I think the idea being implemented here is brilliant and worthy of support. Markus

I was there last year 2025 I was very disappointed. I find Bonaire a better choice.

And expensive! I was surprised to see the number of people shooting Kraken monitors. Equally surprised that monitors now cost less than the 45 Nautical viewfinder.

This is why I bought HF-1s that were >2x what my starter camera and housing cost. I definitely am happy with the purchase--they continue to deliver consistently which makes me not hate their size and weight so much.😎

I shot the P/L 45 mm a few dives in Lembeh, including one blackwater dive. It seems to be the ideal focal length for blackwater. I liked the 45 mm on daylight dives. It did not focus quite as quickly as the 60, but on blackwater it was very frustrating. I missed several shots because the 45mm (on my E-M10) just wouldn't focus. On shots where I got focus, however, the image quality is at least as good as the 60 and 30. Maybe it will work better on an OM-1? The 30mm on blackwater worked great. At least as snappy as the 60, and with the ability to focus almost to the port it was great for subjects that got very close.

Yes she has the OM-1 ii. And she was comparing to the E-M1 ii. She echoed Chris's comments that she only saw a slight improvement in autofocus underwater with the OM-1 ii over the E-M1 ii. She also was unable to get satisfactory results using CAF tracking underwater, although we both hypothesized that is likely due to the large amount of particulates in the water in Lembeh (vis was only 20-40 feet). With all the hoopla about AF tracking on the OM-1 being fantastic for fisheyes, etc., it seems in clearer water it might be a significant improvement.

Interesting idea! Although a bumper/cover tied off to the lens seems like it will work ok. I will need to mount/dismount on a bayonet unless/until I get a 90mm macro lens and port as the 60 mm is too short to use a flip.

All good.

I think you'll have a great time. I'm looking forward to getting my MFO-3 I ordered several months ago for my Lembeh trip. I borrowed one to shoot in Monterey a few weeks ago and I was sold on the concept. Unfortunately they are back ordered due to a lens quality issue. Get your order in!

Hey @SwiftFF5 thanks for the great info! I really appreciate everyone setting the expectations about it not being fancy, but homie. All I really need is a clean bed, a little AC, something to eat, and lots of dives. Sounds like I’ll be adding an MFO-3 to my macro kit for Christmas for a variety of options on a single dive. I’m really looking forward it it! Now all I need is airfare to drop a bit in the coming months 🤔

I am sure some here have been on the Bilikiki. This is a great humanitarian story!

Also without(!) the removable, rotating aperture dial?

Thanks for the input! I ended up ordering the UWTechnics TTL Converter for Nikon with Nauticam Housings, partly because Backscatter had it in stock but not the Turtle 2 or 3 triggers. They'll be able to install and test the new trigger before I leave for Indonesia later this month. The UWTechnics is an older trigger but is advertised to work with all Nikon cameras. It's good to hear folks here have had good results with them. Cheers, Mike

I like your video but have the feeling you could improve in two ways (Yet I am not a video shoter myself). I some shots I would like more rest, moretime to look at details. Just swimming slower. would solve this. And at times I would shoot more up to get a more spacious feeling.

They also provide the ability to have diopter corrections built in so for those of us who use glasses, you can see what you camera is doing without sort of squinting and thinking you know what your settings are or how the picture looks. So +1 for 45 degree (surprisingly large) viewfinders.

Would a 45-degree finder not work for you? They are brilliant for macro and much smaller than a monitor. Although that said, the Nauticam one is surprisingly large!

Ive investigating little more.. By pacific cathay - Lisbon - Swiss - hong kong - Cebu (return same itinerary) Day 1 travel Day 2 to 7 malapascua Day 8 travel cebu - ferry bohol Day 9 to 15 cabilao & panglao/balicasag and backup pamilacan & anda... Day 16 ferry to cebu & return Im diving in early morning and explore hidden beaches in the afternoon, we are renting 2 scooters so we can stay anywhere in the island.

@ChipBPhoto I was there last in March, but this was my wife and I's 19th trip - so we love it there. I would say that it is mostly macro these days. You don't see many of the huge schools of reef fish that we used to see, and although you will often see turtles and rays and a nurse shark once in a while, there is lots of small stuff to see. I like to do 4 -5 dives a day (and sometimes up to 2 hours on a jump back dive when no one is trying to get me back to the boat), and CoCo View lets me do that, whereas other places are much more limiting. I would echo everything that @ACHiPo says. CoCo View isn't fancy, but the food is good and plentiful, the staff are wonderful and they just take good care of you. When you get off the plane and clear Customs, they greet you with "Welcome Home!" and it really does feel that way. Mickey is a fantastic teacher, and just great to chat with. He helped me with some fish identification (juvenile green razorfish) last time. Also, if you get a chance to dive with Stacy (the manager), he is a fantastic macro photographer and always finds something interesting. I hope that helps, but am happy if you have any other questions.

I have seen the reports on the fatality, but no details yet that I am aware of. Unfortunately, there are more Public Safety Diving fatalities during training than on calls. Part of that is we have to do a lot of training to keep our skills sharp since we don't get that many calls (which is a good thing), but that means most of our exposure is during training. Many of them seem to be medical issues, but I don't know about this particular case. She seemed to be young and fit, so she doesn't fit the profile for a cardiac event. I will be watching to see if they report what happened. Sorry for the thread hijack.

The Holy Trinity of underwater photography: Strobes Camera and housing Lens and accommodating ports (including water contact optics) Each is equally important. I think that sometimes strobes are like an afterthought. A lens that can accomplish your shooting style/vision and strobes that can light up the frame are at least as important as what camera body and housing and sensor size is chosen.

Additional specs on this new lens. Focal length: 10mm Maximum aperture: f/2.5 Lens type/format: Full-frame autofocus fisheye Angle of view: 185° Optical construction: 11 elements in 8 groups (includes 2 ED/extra-low dispersion elements + 1 aspherical element) Aperture blades: 9 (produces 18-point starbursts) Minimum focus distance: 0.15 m Autofocus motor: STM silent stepper motor (fast, quiet, suitable for stills and video) Weight: 510 g Body construction: Full metal Available mounts: Sony E, Nikon Z, Leica L Other notes: AF/MF switch; aperture ring; firmware upgrade support; compact design for a full-frame fisheye

No. The bumper extends about 10-15mm from the glass. The beam is very tight and not impacted at all.

For snorkeling without strobes I run auto ISO and try for 1/125 with F8 at a minimum.

Hi Dave, thank you so much! Does the protective bumper affect the light beam in any way?

Where are you shopping in Japan? I might have a chance at a last minute trip to Mikomoto in a few weeks.