All Activity

I was advised today that this TTL trigger works with most all TTL strobes.

I dive in BC where we have both inconsistent visibility and also a very wide variety of subjects on any given dive (Nudibranches to GPOs to Sealions). I also use a DPV and do technical diving which makes dealing with a bulky system with large strobe arms, wet lenses etc a bigger challenge. I enjoy the process of making pictures with something that offers more control than a compact/GoPro but that comes with compromises in terms of overall system size. My question is how do you build the system you take on every dive, especially the ones where you don't know exactly what you're going to find (if anything)?

The shade will likely conflict with inside a mini (100mm) dome, but should have zero issues with 140mm fisheye dome port. On a APS-C camera, your diagonal view with drop from 185 degrees down to around 120 degrees. So yes, your FOV will be smaller..

🧐... we also need to provide a reason for the companies to sponsor our site! Such a discussion is, (un)fortunatly, only a couple of clicks away from the shopping basket. (and that is part of the fun)

Less distortion should require a larger dome than a traditional fisheye correct?

Further to the points made by @Davide DB. In addition to my OM/Nauticam/Retra kit, I travel with a DiveVolk. While there is no substitute for planning and composing a picture with the little big rig, the iPhone affords a different sort of photography, as we all know from carrying them in our pockets so much of the time. The iPhone facilitates images like this one, of a guide excited by a little turtle at our three-minute stop. Had I taken the OM-1, it would likely have been turned off, arms folded in, ready to hand up to the boat; having the iPhone allowed me to grab a far-from-technically-perfect image which conveys what I find to be an evocative moment. It's long been said that the best camera is the one you have when you need it, and the mobile phone housings are, for me, a welcome addition to Gear Mountain.

Fair point. We're all here to learn, share and have fun with something we love. Enjoy!!!!!

Hey Rijani Always great to have another Wetpixel refugee on board. A warm welcome. Yep, lots of fellow Wetpixelers are here - which is great. We hope you enjoy the forum. Best wishes Tim

Hi all, Great to see that there's a successor to Wetpixel and so many folks from that site are here now. I live in the SF Bay Area but these days most of my diving is overseas rather than Monterey. Hope to see some of you out there. Rinjani

Yes, but We are gear-heads and we like to discuss technological details of various equipment used underwater. Especially when "vs" is used in the title we can expect a long discussion. Even if the conclusion is that there are more important aspects of photography/ videography than incremental improvements of the hardware it's still fun to discuss it.

That’s a very good point, and something we’re paying a lot of attention to. Specio uses the standard biological taxonomy — from broader taxonomic ranks down to the species — and can write that information back as hierarchical keywords in Lightroom Classic, together with scientific and common names. But we completely agree that the keyword structure itself is critical. We don’t want Specio to create a parallel taxonomy that clashes with an existing keyword hierarchy photographers may already have. This is actually one of the reasons we’re talking to wildlife photographers and naturalists at this stage: we want to understand which structures people already use and how Specio should integrate with them rather than impose another system. If you already have a taxonomy/keyword structure that works well for you, I’d be very interested to see how you organize it.

I would say they are incrementally larger and heavier. Too me it was not much of a difference from my older strobes, the Inon 330s. Same bag, just filled the space a bit more.

Thank you everyone for your generous responses. Thanks to your feedback, I am heading towards a setup based either on the A7CR or the A7R VI: I will try to get my hands on both housings before buying to see if the A7R VI is an acceptable size for me, otherwise I will go with the CR. As for the lenses, I will go with: the sony 100mm macro with a 125 port + Marelux MV-60 on a flip adapter. A 28-60mm with a 45 flat port + CMC-2 (which I already own). The 28-60mm + 45 port combo is a modest investment relative to the total cost of the setup, and will be useful when diving in turbid waters and for dives dedicated to habitat photography. I am trying my best to avoid a dome port, for the reason mentioned by @ColdDarkDiver (very high risk of scratches given my use case + I take a lot of photos of sand gobies, right at substrate level). Two questions remain open: Is an MFO-1 wet lens useful (either with the 100mm or the 28-60mm)? The answer will also determine whether I buy a single or double flip holder. @Architeuthis, note that here I am only interested in the MFO-1 for its (potential) ability to improve autofocus acquisition speed and reduce hunting on moving fish. What about a 45° viewfinder? (Probably an INON, given the price of the Nauticam...). I am used to using the rear LCD screen on my G5X II, and I find it convenient to be able to shoot with arms extended in tight squeezes. But I know some people swear by viewfinders. I have no experience to draw on here. PS: I am also going to upgrade my strobe. PPS: @Klaus, I am already very well equipped for photo post-processing—but I didn't know about the ON1 software, I will look into it, thanks! PPPS: @Paul Kay, I am extremely jealous of your Jeffrey's Goby sighting :-). And the photo is incredibly beautiful!

Very well said

You need to delay the price increase until the 1st of October! My copper mine shares haven't reached the top yet.

Quick heads-up for anyone who has been on the fence about the new Retra Maxi strobes: Launch pricing for both versions (with and without the video light) ends on September 1st. After that, prices will increase, so this is the last chance to order at the current launch price: https://www.retra-uwt.com/products/retra-maxi

Guys, I am jumping into this discussion about Full Frame for the last time just to share a very personal thought, without any intention of convincing anyone. As we always say, we agree to disagree: the great thing is that everyone is completely free to choose and use the system they feel best with in the water. There is no absolute truth to impose. I find the video posted by @Christian K very insightful. @Alex_Mustard and @MatthewSullivan review what they consider to be the most iconic underwater photos, taken from the book celebrating 60 years of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. What makes you think is that many of those photos, which we still consider absolute masterpieces today, were taken several years ago. In the video you can see shots like Doug Perrine shark in the sardine run or Brian Skerry incredible encounter with the right whale. The cameras used for those shots were prehistoric compared to today. They had a fraction of the megapixels and a dynamic range that would make people laugh today. Yet, do we really think that any random photographer today, just because they bought the latest top model with 15 stops of DR, is able to take better photos than the ones David Doubilet took fifteen years ago? Following this logic, photos in the future will always be better than those from the past. Yet the history of photography teaches us the opposite. Often on forums we focus so much on the specs, and I completely understand that having the top technology is appealing. But I believe that in practical use, the technical differences between the various formats affect the final result only in a very small way. The reality is that our limits as photographers almost always arrive way before the limits of the gear. Very few people can really push the capabilities of the camera in their hands to the extreme. Underwater, physics and water skills rule. You can have the most advanced sensor on the market, but if you do not know how to approach the subject properly, the water column will eat up your colors and contrast. If you do not know how to position your strobes correctly, you will get a flat image or a wall of backscatter, regardless of the size of the sensor. Modern technology is fantastic because it makes our lives easier, drastically increases the success rate of our shots, and forgives mistakes that previously ruined a photo. But aesthetics, composition, and light management are not included in the price of the sensor. Because of this, I believe that arguing over sensor format is a bit pointless. Let us enjoy the gear we chose, whatever it is, and let us focus on getting our housings wet.

Interesting lens, but the shade hood can't be removed. Is that going to be a problem in a housing? ANd what about using it on an aps-c camera? ANy disadvatages. FOV will be smaller.

In the review you state that the Retra MAxi's don't feel large under water. What about travelling with them? They are rather big and each of them weigh over 1 kg adding a lot of weight to the luggage. I'm doubting about a new strobe since one of mey YS-D2J's have died. Thanks,

Cheers! Will be interesting to see how I go! Hopefully I don't get too many garbage in...

Ah OK. My memory might be too fuzzy to remember... I'll blame all of those all-nighters on Tuesday nights at Cha Cha's nightclub in Hurghada back in the late 80's / early 90's😀

I could be mis-remembering, but I seem to remember them being involved at a manta ray cleaning station.

It's not so much the software, it's physics. By the time the part that is further away comes into focus, the closer part is badly out of focus and partly obstructing being able to see the further part. They provide two main stack methods (3 in total) One is better at avoiding the blurs of foreground objects the other better at avoiding haloes around the perimeter of the object. You can use one method to re-touch the stack made by the other method. But it has limitations and if subject parts are too far apart (in distance to the camera) it eventually becomes too hard to re-touch. Then there's the garbage in garbage out problem, setting up the stack can be challenging and it's easy to mistake which object you want to place in focus for the starting point of the stack. and it can be hard to detect if you captured everything in fine focus just looking at the small screen, particularly if your vision in not 20/20.

Hello everyone, I see what i think is the extended back-end, original Nikonos 15mm repair manual above. Does anyone happen to have the later N version of the lens repair manual they could share here or privately? TIA!