All Activity

Age is a state of mind.

For what it’s worth, I just did some quick and dirty land tests with the Sony 100mm macro and the MFO1 (Sony A7SIII, uncropped 4K video mode, not stills). These are rough measurements taken from the front element of the glass to the subject. 100mm minimum focus distance without MFO1: 80 mm 100mm minimum focus distance with MFO1: 40 mm 100mm maximum focus distance without MFO1: infinity 100mm maximum focus distance with MFO1: 230 mm (quite restrictive) AF acquisition does seem slightly snappier within the MFO1's 40–230 mm focus range. I need to use it properly to confirm, but I'd just note that in my tracking video AF tests on the A7SIII with the 100mm, the lens performs better without the focus limiter (snappier) - but this carries the risk of having a much longer range to hunt on. By restricting the range, the MFO1 seems to act like an optical limiter, restricting the AF's hunting range, which on first impressions means it makes it more practical to use the 100mm without lens limiter on (and you can always flip it off for longer shots beyond the MFO1 range).

@humu9679 @ChipBPhoto thanks for your advice, I appreciate the insight! I’ll do as I’m told and take another look at getting a strobe. I’m continually finding new inspiration and will definitely check Kate Jonker out, thanks again

I’ve heard 60 is the new 40 😎

Thanks again, Markus. I ended up packing the 7D + Tokina 10-17, an iPhone in a DiveVolk and a GoPro to cover the various eventualities. My goal for the trip is to get 5-10 GREAT shots as opposed to 500 average/decent ones, and i figured the better sensor and greater crop-ability of the Canon (compared to my 8 year old Olympus) will give me that. Sadly, the seas have been rough and we havent been able to go out the first 2 days (this is day 2, and we are hoping for a mid day launch). Fingers crossed for better weather.

Am using the Canon R7.

Hi @HamsteRfury , Very exciting to get a new rig! Check out Kate Jonker (https://www.instagram.com/katejonkerphotography/) She does quite a lot of discussions and instruction around the TG series and how to maximize the results. She also just did a post on this very question regarding what is needed to build a new TG or other system. I think you will find this and her other posts quite informative and engaging. She stresses how it's not how much you spend on your rig, but rather how to use it and the strengths that camera model possesses. Regarding strobe vs video light, definitely a strobe. For photography, video lights do not provide the same amount of light as when a strobe fires. That sudden burst of light is what helps freeze motion. A video light does not offer the same. Also keep in mind that more affordable ( i.e. cheaper) video lights will shift their color and intensity as the battery drains during use. This can introduce color challenges in your photos, even when capturing in RAW. And yes, starting with 1 strobe is a great idea. There is so much that can be done with a single strobe. Most importantly, having a single strobe will allow you to master that strobe and learn the best positioning before it becomes more complicated trying to balance two. Think of learning to fly a plane with a single engine before the new pilot is allowed to fly a multiengine aircraft. While the TG has some exceptional macro capabilities, as @TimG said an add-on wide angle that will allow Close Focus Wide Angle (CFWA) will be your best friend in murky waters for those wider views. @Dave_Hicks also does some terrific CFWA in lower vis waters. In both CFWA and macro, the benefit in low viz is minimizing the the water between the lens and your subject, which also allows the best lighting on your subject. Best of luck! Cheers, chip

The least reliable advice for anything remotely technical by a large margin is AI, lost count of the number of times it has conflated a few different web pages about different models from the same manufacturer and confidently comes up with an incorrect answer. But honestly, just look at the housing - where would you put a trigger? And the AOI trigger is part of the housing and the LEDs are hard wired in so it's their trigger or no trigger, unless you want to perform surgery on your brand new housing. I would be contacting Backscatter and pointing out those issues with their advice and asking how they came up with it.

They might work but they need an additional load on top of the onboard pulse load. If you get one consider the adjustable load one. I think the PD spec is what is killing this, any low power stay on option assumes you only want to draw a little power. If the camera can last one full dive on a fresh battery the path of least resistance might to plug it into a big power bank PD rated via USB bulkhead. Of course this will compete with using an external monitor and vacuum system unless you can find one of the offset vacuum valves which allow vacuum and bulkhead on one M16 hole. Crazy price of $US590 to manufacture one on demand.

60 too….

Really not sure how it is now, with the current political situation and conflict. In the past you you to either sail or drive up to Ranong (easy drive up the highway from Khao Lak, past Takua Pa) hand in your passport for immigration processing, hop on the boat and off you go. Ranong was famous for local joints with super cheap beer, which helped kill time while waiting for the immigration process to be over. Diving-wise it can be great, but you can also get very low viz over at Black Rock, Burma Banks etc Some trips combine the Surin islands (Richelieu) with Myanmar. The maritime border is nearby, when you're at Richelieu Rock you actually see islands that belong to Myanmar just a little up north.

How legit/safe is Myanmar? The trip that could work for me leaves from Ranong, Myanmar and returns to Ranong, Thailand (are they twin cities?). It looks like it's about 6 hours from Rangon to Phuket? I'll end up having about 5 days to get from Rangon to Phuket, so may do a little land tourism.

The one I use doesn't have a trickle down mode unfortunately, and it's the only one which fits in the housing. I ran a test this morning, plugging in the powerbank and turning on the camera but not using it. Powerbank stayed on for about 20 minutes charging the camera (which went into sleep mode) before shutting down. I first saw the battery LEDs were off but the camera charging LED was still on - and when I activated the camera it was still charging. However I came back 15 minutes later and the this time the camera charging LED was off, and the camera was running on normal camera battery, powerbank completely off. I didn't check levels but I'm guessing battery level had reached 100%, so nothing was happening and the powerbank shut off completely. I ran other tests, basically camera on or off it's impossible to get past the 15 minute mark. It will work fine while diving, it's just that I like to pull the vaccum early before diving, so this limits the application quite a bit. I'm really curious about the keep alive devices and might try one. Ideally I would need a battery pack which only turns on as the camera is turned on and pulling energy, just not sure how practical this is.

Glad it worked

The pencil eraser idea was brilliant! It took about 30 seconds to fit and it works perfectly. Thank you!

White fins and buddy's aluminum cylinder which is gray. In video mode white balance must be set before shooting. If you really want to get technically accurate colors you can use cheap and large color checker analogues. But I think it would be inconvinient to carry and use during a group dive.

Sugru is a good suggestion, have not heard of that in a long time. Here is an odd idea - can you form something out of a pencil eraser.

I bet something like gorilla glue construction adhesive would hold it together. Shoe goo may as well.

Kintsuglue or Sugru.

My AOI UH‑OM1II housing has a torn rubber bumper on the movie button, so the button won’t actuate. I’m trying to get a replacement, but it may not arrive before our trip to Roatán on the 8th. I’m looking for ideas for a temporary substitute—something small, compressible, and able to transmit the button press without shifting. Has anyone improvised a fix using bits of silicone, trimmed O‑rings, gasket material, or anything similar? Any creative solutions appreciated. —Adrian

I don’t use Pixelmator so can only guess on its operation. Id suggest though not necessarily using an auto system. Better to start I think doing things manually and getting a feel for what function creates what effect. All that said, back to what I said originally: it’s all very personal. If you’re delighted with the end result, then bingo!

I’m also not sure about the video lights for still photos. You might consider just getting one strobe to start out. The Atoms sound great, but you can also do all right with used Inon z240s/330s, Retras or something similar. The wide angle wet lens is a must.

Thanks for the response. UWCameraStore also explicitly states that it works with "Sony TTL (HSS)" and maybe more importantly the backscatter HF-1 which uses the same protocol as the atom and MF-3.. So I'm inclined to believe it does in fact work without the added trigger. Frustrating that backscatter support wasn't more helpful and specific in answering the question. They probably spent more time emailing me an unsolicited sales invoice for something I was always going to buy from the web store, than they did researching the issue.

From what i can see, the AOI housing is custom made to fit only the AOI HSC-03 trigger that is supplied with the housing. You can see the very tight fit here, leaving no space for any other trigger. Other thing is that the housing has custom pins that connect the trigger to the LED's baked in the housing. And these you dont find in any other trigger. But AOI does say that it supports Sony TTL, so i think it should work. And Backscatter strobes are made by AOI.

Hello, I'm upgrading my system and trying to get to the bottom of flash triggers. I will be pairing an AOI UH-A7CII housing with Backscatter Atom flashes. The atom listing says they accept Sony TTL signals, and the AOI housing manual under "Flash control" directly states "Sony TTL (Auto HHS)." So I asked AI if I needed the backscatter trigger for TTL, and it said yes. Then I asked Backscatter, and they said no. Then I asked Backscatter if the AI was wrong and they said actually no, their mistake, I would in fact need the Backscatter trigger. I'm just trying to understand why the housing would state Sony TTL is supported, and the flash would say it supports Sony TTL, but those two things wouldn't be able to talk to each other. Maybe it's a case of no good information existing publicly for some newer products, but I'd love to be able to save $500 and the added bulk of the BS trigger if it's not needed. Does anyone have a similar system that can confirm one way or the other?