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perhaps I could put this another way sea and sea ysd3 or backscatter hf1 hybrid?

But in any cases, it does not really explain why a Nauticam glass dome would more resistant to water burn than a Nauticam wet angle lens. Something is not right here or port and wetlens have different type of glasses. At the end of the day, I wouldn't buy any second hand "burnt' WWL without seeing that it has no impact on image quality underwater.

Perhaps, but in general higher concentrations of salts are more corrosive, in any case you can't dissolve these markings, maybe they have etched the glass, maybe the compounds have chemically combined with components in the glass. Apparently BK7 glass (a common optical glass) only has moderate chemical resistance. This topic has been raised many times and reports are dissolving the spots doesn't work and they require polish to remove. Whatever the mechanism, the cause is still allowing water to evaporate on the glass and the prevention is blowing off or wiping dry so evaporation doesn't occur. Apparently cerium oxide is slightly softer than BK7 glass and can polish without causing micro scratches.

If you are a photographer and want no bubbles in your photos go very early as the wreck is a bubble machine by mid am. They flow up thru the structure all day . The other note is shoot the fish in the shallows as divers buy the score go over you wanting to swim thru stuff and never notice the life out front.Many fish are in the shallows under the mast or to the east (to your left at entry point) in the shallows where there is nice coral as well. We have dove this area for years and its not as well traveled.

Lovely photo. The first image was a bit diferent to the normal high quality goby photos I see with nice color contrasts to the sea squirt and the green dots. Lovely composition.

Beautiful film :)

Not the documentary you want to see before a blackwater dive 😀

I think you are correct, in general. However, the Retra Maxi strobe is actually bulkier than their past strobes and than similar HF-1. That size and displacement leaves it just a few grams negative in the water. It seems to me they optimized for a buoyancy target more than minimum size of the package.

This is very cool solution. But I do wonder why UW camera manufacturers make very compact and very dense equipment, I get the point of staying small and travel‑friendly. But I realized once you add all the floats needed to make the rig neutrally buoyant, the system ends up being nearly the same size as a mirrorless kit (say if you’re coming from a compact camera setup). At that point, the advantage of going compact feels lost — you might as well start with bulkier gear that’s already close to neutral in the water.

Welcome Don, great you joined. Looking very much forward to your posts and thoughts and contributions! ..especially first hand reports in the OPP thread.

@atus After diving blackwater in a number of locations there are some best practices that can be borrowed from some of the better operators. 1. Placing a light on top of the ball is okay, but suboptimal, as if it is a light shining up into the night sky it will be visible part of the time but may not be visible from all angles. The best practice is to create a small hole in the bottom of you buoy and place the light inside - you can create a gasket around the light so the entire buoy doesn't fill up with water. The buoy itself will glow with a light inside of it, making it visible for both you and all other boat traffic to see. 2. Others have suggested you study the bottom - if the water is deep and the area has life (it's not a barren part of the sea) then you will find life coming near the surface. You will end up trying a number of different locations before finding a few that are productive. One idea that hasn't been shared here is to talk to people studying marine science at your local university. If they have done research (or trawled) the local area they may be able to tell you what kind of life you can expect.

Float for Backscatter Atom Strobe Add 140 grams buoyancy! The Backscatter Atom strobe is great strobes for underwater photography. Small, light, and versatile. Its biggest drawback is how much it weighs in water. The Atom is 150 grams (5.3 oz) negative in water with batteries. This 3D printed float will add 140 grams of buoyancy leaving it just 10 grams negative. (0.35 oz) You don't want to have the strobe be positively buoyant. Slightly negative is easier to handle and balance the overall system. Balancing your rig is important. If you need to add additional buoyancy to your camera rig, I suggest using float arms or Stix jumbo floats on the arm segment closest to your housing. Leave the second arm connected to the Atom strobe without additional buoyancy. Attach Float to the Atom: The float has anchor points that will allow you to thread 1/8 inch (3 mm) bungee cord. Many divers keep 1/8 bungee on hand as it is so useful. It can be bought in bulk online or at any dive shop. Tie a simple overhand knot at each end of the bungee to keep it from slipping thru the anchor. It should be just slightly taught with plenty of elasticity to pull over the strobe and keep it snug. Note before printing: This is a technical and exacting print. It requires very specific and exact filament and printing parameters. If you ignore or change the defined print profile and settings it is very likely that your float will not work. [And YES - You can make watertight and pressure resistant 3D printed objects with no added sealants or post processing!]

Float for Backscatter HF-1 Strobe Add 220 grams buoyancy! https://makerworld.com/en/models/2877582-float-for-backscatter-hf-1-strobe-220g-buoyancy The Backscatter HF-1 is one of the best strobes for underwater photography, but its biggest drawback is how much it weighs in water. The HF-1 is 250 grams (8.8 oz) negative in water with batteries. This 3D printed float will add 220 grams of buoyancy leaving it just 30 grams negative. (1 oz) You don't want to have the strobe be positively buoyant. Slightly negative is easier to handle and balance the overall system. Balancing your rig is important. If you need to add additional buoyancy to your camera rig, I suggest using float arms or Stix jumbo floats on the arm segment closest to your housing. Leave the second arm connected to the HF-1 without additional buoyancy. Attach Float to the HF-1: The float has anchor points that will allow you to thread 1/8 inch (3 mm) bungee cord. Many divers keep 1/8 bungee on hand as it is so useful. It can be bought in bulk online or at any dive shop. Tie a simple overhand knot at each end of the bungee to keep it from slipping thru the anchor. It should be just slightly taught with plenty of elasticity to pull over the strobe and keep it snug. I have tested to depths of 130ft/40m, but it may survive greater depths. As these floats are completely external to the strobe and housing, there is no risk to your equipment should they fail. Note before printing: This is a technical and exacting print. It requires very specific and exact filament and printing parameters. If you ignore or change the defined print profile and settings it is very likely that your float will not work. [And YES - You can make watertight and pressure resistant 3D printed objects with no added sealants or post processing!]

Thank you for sharing. What fantastic, and creepy, creatures!

Sounds good - not sure how far you can go or how boat traffic is at night but the area between Ibiza and Formentera looks it forms a channel which could worth checking out. Let us know how it goes!

This is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing! Looking forward to meeting and hopefully working with Simon in July!

Fixed the link - thanks for letting me know!

Purchased M10 single ball mount from @Lauren Wang Fabulous and straightforward exchange! Mounting ball was exactly as pictured and described, shipping was fast, communication was excellent!

The LX100 has a crop factor of 1.34x when shooting 4K, so the 75mm become about 100mm. @Elvandar At 5 minutes 34 seconds in the video, that is the result of Shaun the sheep I can get with the LX100 with the CMC-1 stack together with the SMC-1: The CMC-1 + SMC-1 makes the working distance very very close, almost touch the leaves where the shaun the sheeps are resting, and the area of focus is very tiny. I spent the whole night dive just to shoot them., and it was 45 feet away from the beach on the sandy bottom so I can ankle myself with the tripod to get some usable shots. CMC-1 is not strong enough, so may be can consider the Weefin +15 diopter. As for LX100 vs L10 in the macro department, they will give you the same result. Here is the reason: LX100 4K video give you about 100m after crop factor. L10 5.6k video 75mm has no crop factor but during post processing, punch in the video to give you the 4k view, you should end up with something similar to the LX100 result. If someone make a stronger diopter like +20 to +25, it would be golden. But in reality, if you really want to get very close up like the face of shaun the sheep or pygmy seahorse, probably should wait for Olympus to release the TG-8...... if it ever get release.

Hi Mike, Please add a Jpeg file.

Let us know how it went. I'm curious to get some feedback on Mediterranean BWs Ciao

Time for a little coming out: I scratched my WWL twice, and both times it was diagnosed as fatal (keep that in mind for when I put it up for sale 😉). Huge shoutout to a very talented friend who completely rescued it, minus a tiny little speck that I can only see if I shoot straight into the sun. It was just too deep to get rid of completely. Anyway, Nauticam confirmed that the coating is entirely on the inside. So, breathe easy. P.S. I'd give Novus a shot before escalating to cerium oxide.

Lens coating can be used to prevent various things. If there is no problem with your other dome glass, then coatings are probably different between dome and WWL There is also a big difference between a port and a wet lens. For the port, you only have one layer of glass before your camera lens. For the WWL, there are several layers of optical elements. I suspect (it has to be confirmed) that the coating on the WWL has optical reason like reducing glares, internal reflection or other things that might affect optical quality.

I tested the "final" versions of the HF-1 and Atom strobe floats. They worked great and were easy to use without getting in the way. I have a couple of dive-tested pre-final HF-1 floats if anyone want them. Message me if you want them for the cost of shipping.