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I appreciate the long reply. Sounds like your considerations are really the same as mine. My left brain is telling me the OM-1 in Nauticam is the way to go. My right brain is lusting after the D500/Subal. FYI: the housing problem that left me shooting my wife's camera was an LCD window that cracked when pressure tested after servicing. That was two weeks before our trip. It's now 7 weeks later and still no replacement window from Subal. I note they still don't have a housing for the OM-1 even though it's on its second generation. I fear you're right about them fading away. Look forward to your thoughts on the camera after you've had it in the water. Especially interested in hearing what you think of the viewfinder for wide angle.

The Oly 8mm FE behind a 160 dome. It also occurs to me that I am so unfamiliar with the camera that my settings might have been suboptimal. In any case, everything I've read about the OM-1 autofocus is that it's among the best, so that's less of a concern.

The Sony 90mm is frustrating on an A7II (or IIR) and I've given up on it. I'm interested to know if the 100mm macro works on these cameras which I still have. I use a 45 degree viewfinder on SLRs but not with the Sonys as the rear screen works well enough in the conditions I dive in (turbid and dark).

Backscatter filters are not the best but worth a try. If you missed it I suggest to read this incredible article on WB and action cameras. Concepts are valid for any camera.

No filter tested, sorry

What lens were you using? I've used the Oly 12-40, Panasonic 8mm and even their 7-14 AN found it snapped to focus quite quickly. I now have an adapted Canon 8-15 - it's not always fast but that's to be expected with an adapted lens but a small shift on focus distance is almost instant most of the time on that - the flexibility is astounding though.

Have you had a chance to test the filters, are they worth the hassle?

Same to me. Use 99% only the two round-snapped slide masks. The slides are very easy/quick to use and very reliable. If you have a bit of experience, you'll quickly know which diameter/mask you need for a given object.

I love the idea and it was something I asked Retra about a few years ago. They thought then that variable apertures tended to jam after a time and the slide masks were simpler and reliable. In practice, like @Dave_Hicks I only use probably 2-3 sizes of openings and have just the two round-shapped Retra slide masks in carabiners in a BCD pouch.

Hi Reuben Have to say I agonised. The decision to move to OM and Nauticam was for multiple small reasons which seemed to make the case. I usually only traveled with the Subal housing plus a Nikkor 60mm macro and Tokina 10-17 plus the relevant ports (100mm for the Tokina), Retra strobes and LSD. Even then I was finding the weight and bulk a bit of a pain. When I lost all my gear I thought it time for a rethink. Was it wise to buy a second hand D500? I had contacted Subal about a housing and got no reply. And much though I loved the housings, I couldn’t help but feel Subal were fading away. Nauticam is everywhere in terms of product support, quality, second hand desirability etc. Then there didn’t seem to be a D500-like Nikon body available. I didn’t want to go FF for the weight issues. Several members on Waterpixels talked about the merits of M43 and the OM-1. Those factors persuaded me to switch. There were probably more thoughts in the back of my mind. Not yet got the new system in the water. Soon! But first topside impressions are good. Lenses for underwater use are mind-boggling small and light compared to Nikkor. The Nauticam housing feels good, fits together nicely and I really like the integrated vacuum system and USB bulkhead charging/downloading capability. Port mounting is a little easier than Subal. Push and lock rather than push hard, twist and maybe lock. The housing feels good to handle, perhaps not quite as refined as the Subal. I really liked the size, feel and placement of Subal’s shutter and aperture control wheels. The Nauticam’s are a little smaller and, at the moment, my Subal muscle memory doesn’t find them so easily. Practice eh? Over 25 years of Subal practice. The OM-1ii is similar in size to the Z6 series. It seems hugely capable. AF seems excellent topside. Massive learning curve from Nikon. But one step at a time. Image quality? Waterpixelers, whose views I trust, tell me I won’t tell the difference. I bought a topside lens with the aim of slowly switching entirely to OM. Again, steep learning curve. I got the 12-100 which is similar to the Nikkor 24-200 which is/was my go to travel lens. It’s very similar in size. But other long tele/zooms in the OM range are significantly smaller and lighter than Nikkor equivalents. Everything other than strobe arms now fits in a 1510 Pelican case. Yeah, it’s still heavy! So no real weight saving but it is compact and my second cabin bag will be much lighter. Sorry, this is rather a long reply now. I can tell you more when back from my trip. But so far looks good and I thought it might be helpful to explain the context for my decisions.

We're considering launching the First Annual WaterPixels Underwater Photography Contest, and before we go too far with planning and development, we'd like to hear from the community. The idea is to create an annual WaterPixels competition judged by a panel of underwater photographers, with categories covering different styles of underwater photography. Winning images would be featured in the official WaterPixels 2027 Calendar, which would be available for purchase through the WaterPixels Shop. Each photographer selected for the calendar would receive a complimentary copy. A dedicated contest page will be added to the site to list winners each year with optional Bio, Contact info listed on the site for some exposure if wanted, or simply just simple photo credit.. its up to the winner what the would like. We're considering an entry fee of $5 per image, with photographers able to enter up to 10 images total, with a maximum of 3 images in any one category. The contest isn't intended to be a major commercial competition. Entry fees and proceeds from calendar sales would go toward supporting the costs of hosting, maintaining, and continuing to develop the WaterPixels community. We're also considering a Members' Choice Award, giving WaterPixels members the opportunity to vote for their favorite images from the finalists. Before we put the work into making this happen, we'd really like to know if this is something our members would actually participate in. Ive started a Contest management system for just this but before I get in to some serious time on it.. just want to see what we are looking at for interest. If low response.. we will just table it until next year and ask again and ill work on other things for the site. Please vote in the poll and leave a comment with your thoughts, suggestions, or concerns. We'd especially like to hear what would make you more—or less—likely to enter.

I prototyped a similar Snoot-Iris about a year ago, but didn't finish it as I just don't find changing aperture of the snoot all that useful. 95% of the time I use the widest openings anyway, and I didn't want issues with binding of the moving parts in an Iris. Then I got the Backscatter OS-3 snoot, which uses a rotating disk/cartridge instead of a card. It's is pretty much the same effect as an Iris but a lot simpler. I did make an adapter so I can use the Backscatter snoot on either the HF-1 or Retra strobes.

I'm still struggling with the decision to upgrade/update my Subal/D7200. Considering the OM-1 vs a used D500 and a new Subal housing, and I'm wondering what persuaded you to go with the OM-1. I had a housing issue shortly before our last dive trip, and my wife graciously allowed me to shoot her EM1 Mk ii on wide angle dives. Once I got the hang of it, I found it takes very good pictures. I didn't love the speed of focus acquisition and I did not love the viewfinder. But I understand the OM-1 has improved on both. I was also a bit ambivalent about the small Nauticam housing. It felt less polished than my Subal and was also a bit awkward in my somewhat large hands--though I imagine I just needed more time to become comfortable. Have you had your OM-1 in the water? How does it compare with your D500?

I realy like videos that give a good impression of your coast, with critters and wideangles. This is a perfect example.

lol, thank you very much! I was able to keep it together and not crap my suit, lol. Thank you!

Yes! Interested in a shareable 3d print file for this iris. I'm sure I'll either miss clipping one of my Retra "hole-cards" to a D-ring, or it will break eventually. Good to have a compact alternative. Love to see some resulting shots too!

Apple iMac @Nando Diver Do you use GP-TUNE+ Transform as first node?

I'm on a 100% DIY snoot... The last version was not the last one... I had some change to do but no time for the moment and the nex trip will be without macro I have a little time to study the change I need to do. Can you give us some return of experience of the use under water ? Thanks

In the end, for various reasons, we didn't go in 2026. This week I was checking availability for next year (2027), and everything was already fully booked. Anyway, I’ve just done something crazy and booked with Tongan Expeditions for September 2028... I’ll have time to save up, and my future self will have to pay for the flights and the trip in a couple of years 😅

Hi All, A quick post about an adaptation of the retra snoot I've implemented to improve functionality. Instead of using the slide masks, I've created a 3d printed iris that allows the snoot beam to adjusted on the fly from ~24mm down to about ~3mm. At 24mm, the iris is circular. At 3mm the iris is hex-oid. My snoot is set up for a sea and sea ys-d3, but i presume it would bolt between any standard retra snoot columnator and strobe mount. This may not be for everyone as you may want perfect circles, may want the full diameter beam, or you may want other shapes. But for me it seemed to work well. The iris unit is 3d printed in ASA. I did break the handle off on one dive and there is still room for design improvement, which im working through. I've only just returned from a trip and I'm yet to review my snooted photos, so will share these once I've made room and had a chance to review. Wanted to gauge whether this is something that retra snoot users are interested in.

The 6000 lumen video light is specced to be 110 deg wide, compared to the strobe coverage 160 deg with wide angle diffuser , the coverage without diffuser is not stated, I would guess it's maybe 130 deg based on my strobe?? The pilot light beam is narrower and I think designed for the snoot aiming. The short version is that if you are setup with standard strobe positions to minimise backscatter the pilot lights won't be pointinng at your subject. My approach to a focus light and assuming mostly strobe illumination is a torch with a 60 deg beam and about 400-700 lumens in the cold shoe of the housing. It's relatively dim so less likely to cause the fish to leave but easily enough for AF to grab focus within 1m or so from and also being so dim it doesn't show up in the images.

Yes, you can certainly be a gear head and it's fun to toss around various options and you can be just as much a gear head with m43 as FF. Interestingly all the moderator crew now shoot or have bought into m43 with 3 x OM-1s and a GH5 in use. Having said all that Davide's post to me is a reminder not to succumb to paralysis through analysis and have constant FOMO about not getting the very latest and greatest. The sensors these days are so good there really is no bad choice and it comes down to other things like lenses that are available, battery life, native sync speed etc, things you can tick off, rather than subjectively staring at test images and noise plots and confusing your self. Make a decision and starting using your new tools!

Yes, I totally agree. In this light, it's interesting to revisit the discussion in this September 2024 thread as well: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/1704-number-of-camera-sold-worldwide/ Let's see how how the prediction holds up in two years 👁️‍🗨️ Who knows, maybe by then we'll all have smart dive masks giving us augmented-reality dives in real time 😁 In the meantime, hold on to your hoverboards...