All Activity
Past hour
-
robertop01 joined the community
-
I have been testing the 7Artisans 10mm fisheye in the pool today between the rain and lightning storms we have been having for over two weeks in South Florida. All the rain water is clouding the pool and causing algae blooms.. The camera used is the 66mp Sony A7R VI, Marelux housing, Marelux 140mm dome port with the sun shade and 20mm port extension. Using the 20mm pushes the lenses closer the the port glass than I would like and with a 30mm extension the port shade vignettes noticeably. I am hoping Marelux will offer a 25mm extension which may work with the shade in place or at least greatly reduce vignetting. At some point I will try the 30mm extension with the shade removed. All images are full frame and shot at ISO-320, A-priority, at F/8, F/11 and F/16 for splits. When the lens is set on A for aperture control from the housing (without a gear) the lens reverts back to F/2.5 when shutdown and turned back on. For a bit of size reference the pool light is 15cm (5.91 inches) across and the closes shot is with the port touching the pool light. Like with all fisheye lenses shooting a flat wall the center is sharp and the edges and corners are soft. The pool jet (round white plastic) is 5.5cm (2.17 inches) and the closest image is touching the jet with the dome glass. The pool thermometer is 1.5cm (0.59 inches) across where it says patten pending. It is clear to me that as reported by YouTubers the lens is quite sharp and is clearly a great budget choice for an AF lens V the AF zooms. Build quality also seems good and the lens is a bit on the heavy side.
Today
-
Browning Pass is full of jellyfish this week! It's been years since I've encountered a Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens) up here and this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm, WWL-C, f10@1/200s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobesBrowning Pass is full of jellyfish this week! It's been years since I've encountered a Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens) up here and this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm, WWL-C, f10@1/200s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes© @David_Hicks_Wild_Images
-
Browning Pass is full of jellyfish this week! It's been years since I've encountered a Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens) up here and this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm, WWL-C, f10@1/200s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes© @Dave_Hicks_Wild_Images
-
Welcome to my world
-
For Sale A$250.00 SydneyDon Wally here in NC USA . wreck and big animal diving since early 70's. kind of like me ... early 70's. I dove a nikon d200 and then d300 wi…
-
A funny video and crazy use of video with an AF demonstration 😁
-
How about over 70 and still diving?
-
Thank you Backscatter for all the work that went into this -- it's really an impressive and useful data set for the community, and responsive to some of our comments going back 2-3 years when Backscatter started doing this testing but published it strobe-by-strobe in a less easily comparable manner. I see no reason to doubt the impartiality, as the results accord to the testing many on this forum have done, and my own testing of the HF-1, Apollo III, Inon S220, Ikelite DS230 and UW160 from 2024. For what it's worth, I think their methodology is about as impartial as it can get. Inevitably with comparison testing choices must be made about methodology (e.g. how to test recycling times, color temperature, beam spread) and I think they made good and defensible ones that have created the best data set out there on this topic. And importantly, a data set that simply didn't exist before, for which I think much recognition should be granted. A few observations that jumped out at me as interesting (my own earlier testing pointed in this direction, but it's great to have it confirmed in a quasi-lab enviornment with the right instrumentation!) Color temperature is a spectrum, not a point reading. It seems all of the strobes pretty much get cooler at higher power outputs. There's nothing magical about the Seacam 160d -- despite it's historical mythical status for light quality :) Color temperature, output, beam pattern -- newer strobes match or exceed all of that, which is great, because it means we can pay significantly less for great performance. The Inon S220s are really impressive for their size, weight and boyancy characteristics. It's hard to do better without doubling the travel weight.
-
I’m a coffee devotee - some would say a coffee snob. Some years back I bought a pretty expensive espresso maker and grinder which I use several times a day. After lots of practice and tweaks, I can pull a pretty decent espresso 95% of the time. But….. if I am away for a few days, the next time I make coffee, it’s not, well, it’s not the best. I swear the machine sulks. I talk to it, frankly, plead with it - and batch 2 is usually back to full form. What has this to do with underwater photography? Having lost all my camera gear, I’ve been on a rebuild with an OM-based M43 system and, a first for me, a Nauticam housing. I was 26-years a Subal man. I bought a new Nauticam flatport but went for a secondhand Zen 100 domeport, in excellent condition, from a totally-trusted member of Waterpixels. He hadn’t used it for years and was happy to sell it on. When it arrived it was the final piece of what is always a complicated jigsaw of equipment. I was delighted. Put the camera in the housing, a little lube on the port o-ring and pushed it into place. It wouldn’t fit. Odd, I thought. Remove clean, replace, push. I could not get the port with the o-ring far enough into the housing throat so the Nauticam locking mechanism would engage. Let me say at this stage that, over 26 years, I’ve fitted loads of ports: domes, flats, megadomes, Zen, Subal…. my Nauticam flatport. I like to think I know what I’m doing. Remove o-ring, try without o-ring, no problem. Fit o-ring, slight lube again. Nope. Wouldn’t fit. Frantic WhatsApps to the seller. Loads of helpful ideas, photos, images. Nope, It would not fit. Email to Zen. Head scratching all around. Leaving for a dive trip in a few days time, I was facing the possibility of no wide-angle capability. Argh. A call to my nearest Nauticam/Zen dealer - Onderwaterhuis. Bring it in, they offered. 90 km drive. Their Nauticam specialist took one look, removed the o-ring, lube, placed it back - and pushed. Nope. More head scratching. Fitted without the op-ring. Clearly nothing wrong with the port, nothing wrong with the housing, nothing wrong with the o-ring. One more time, talking to the domeport - come on, you can fit - and bingo, in it went. It’s now as easy to fit as it should be. Push and lock. So what happened? The domeport hadn’t been out of a cupboard for some time. Was it sulking? Talk to your gear nicely. Be wary of sulking domeports. They cause panic. Big thanks to Onderwaterhuis.nl! (one of our supporters) Espresso, anyone? -
I have a Sony video camera and underwater housing if you are interested. You can email me msg.david.hale@gmail.com and we can discuss if you are interested. Where do you live in Italy? I was stationed with the US Army between Livorno and Pisa in 1980-83.
-
WaterPixels is getting ready for Members Choice, and the new homepage will support it when we go live. (Forums will stay as is with no changes.) What’s coming Each month, community likes on Showcase photos will decide the top images. On the 1st of the month, we count likes from the month before and place 1st (Members Choice), 2nd, and 3rd. Those photos will be featured on the new homepage, and winners can receive award badges. Nobody picks winners by hand — the likes do. We’ll also introduce a Yearly Members Choice, based on Showcase likes across the full year. We’ll also roll out a new, easier way to like Showcase images (Member Showcase Review). Your existing likes are kept — current like history carries forward. Showcase rules (in place now) Up to 5 Showcase photos per calendar month (multi-file uploads use only the slots you have left). Delete frees a slot for that month. Deleting also removes that photo’s likes, so they won’t count toward Members Choice. You can’t replace the photo file on edit (caption/credit only). Need a different shot? Delete and upload a new one. Member Albums stay unlimited and do not get counted in Showcase. What to do now Keep uploading to Showcase within the monthly limit, and keep liking photos you want to see on the front page. When the new homepage and Review flow go live, Members Choice will use that same like activity — with winning photos featured on the homepage and badges for the placed shots. Likes will also feed toward Yearly Members Choice. More details will follow as we flip the switch. Questions welcome in this thread.
-
Establishme joined the community
-
Thank you Dave, Eventually I would be interested in a real cinema camera.
-
https://xray-mag.com/magazines/142 https://xray-mag.com/magazines/142 Sorry little late. -
I want to thank Backscatter Photo for the most informative and fact based comparisons on strobes ever. We can quibble over details that might subtly affect the results here and there and improvements in the graphics but regardless, huge effort, thank you..
-
i have had the Tokina 11-17 forever, love it, but honestly had kind of forgotten about it, thanks!
-
Thanks, interesting test and interesting discussion in this thread as well. I would be great to have something like this for the murky world of video lights. A little bird recently told me CRI measurements are not really representative, since CRI evaluates colour rendering on only 8 pastel and low-saturated colour samples for instance. And beyond light quality, burn times/battery life, constant output (or not), actual lumen/lux/candela output, edges and beam angle, button ergonomics, weight and buoyancy...
Yesterday
-
StuartB joined the community
-
-
Many of the decisions in the review were made for a point, and while we all like to internet judge others - the more we do that the less likely future iterations like this will come out. If this comparison was nothing more than the slider tool, it would remain one of the most helpful comparisons out there. What else do we have? Hard work by Dave and others that are one offs between 2-4 strobes (which are super useful!)? Information from other sites where everything is great - even a gopro that can't focus close enough to be usable underwater being a good choice? Or a lot of people who just bought a strobe and say how great it is. In the retra response "A retailer testing what it sells" - Is not correct as it also tests strobes it doesn't sell. Backscatter also does not recommend any strobe, including their own (which is branded - so I think the COI is pretty obvious). So the attempt to be impartial is there. They have also - and specifically - not steered people towards their branded items in their many review videos. If a good option, they have - in the past - recommended one of their own products but also suggested strobes from other brands. When someone comes out with tests like this, everyone loves to jump on them for not doing it this way or that. Each of the decisions was for a reason. Is it to make their strobe look good? Or was it that they have to choose one way, and any way will be flawed to some degree. Then we can balance that with most people's attention span - there is only so much people will read these days. Personally, much the like comparison tools that have helped us buy cameras on sites like dpreview, this is at least an attempt to provide one more piece of information that allows people to compliment information gained on sites like waterpixels and various youtube channels.
-
Hi Leslie I've just switched to an OM-1ii with a 60mm Zuiko lens but, like you, have not yet got it in the water. Just in case you've not found this already...... Messing around topside, as you do, I noticed one issue which would be a pain underwater especially shooting in Manual: it seemed to me that the default setting was that the EVF/screen would lighten or darken depending on the ISO/aperture or shutter speed. Set to Manual mode, with a shutter speed of, say, 1/200 and an f stop of, say, f11, the EVF/screen was pitch black and impossible to see the subject. I want into MENU > ⚙ GEAR page 3 > LV Mode and set "S-OVF" ("Simulated Optical ViewFinder"). This avoids the problem.
-
Aloha and welcome @McSweaterson !
-
Bertie Buzzard joined the community
-
These are beautiful. I just purchased an OM-1 with the AOI housing and will be using it primarily for macro (60mm and 90mm lenses). Can't wait to get it in the water!!!!! Any advice or "gotchas" to look out for?
-
It appears we will have the answers to all or most of our questions on Tuesday Sept 8th when Sonyalpharumers.com say the lens and the 400mm and 600mm F/4.5 lenses will be announced by Sony. They say price around $1499.00.
-
Totally agree. Horrible topside but underwater, superb! Add a 1.4TC and even more flexibility.
-
For aps-c, a tokina 10-17 still rules wa zooming inmo, if you can find one.
-
10-17 Tokina, just get close and creative for the small stuff.
.thumb.jpeg.aac38fa1b27a3fcc6e8455603cdaf591.jpeg)
