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Hello all, Well, I’ve been giving in to the times and working on vertical-format edits, even though I’m not really phone-oriented (I know, I know, O tempora, o mores! 😢). I thought I’d share this one here, as I’m happy with the shots - the pipefish itself is about as vertical as they come, and it was cooperative enough to let me get close for some nice details. I find the eyes, gills and tiny swimming fins rather fascinating. For the boomers and purists in the back row, a more traditional and civilised UHD edit - horizontal like nature intended - is also viewable here 😁: https://youtu.be/za96mthi8xE Gear-wise, this was shot on the ol' Lumix LX10 in 4K 30fps, with a Nauticam CMC-1 diopter, two Kraken Hydra 8000V2 lights and a Backscatter MW4300. This was filmed last week at Kin Bay, on the Pacific side of Okinawa’s main island. Cheers! Ben

Hi, due to short time cancellation (less then 1 day before departure) of our liveaboard (planned Magbay & Socorro) we reorganized our Mexico trip and dived La Paz, MagBay & Cabo Pulmo landbased end October/beginning November. MagBay diving from Puerto san Carlos is possible but quite exhausting. You will leave early morning 06.-07.00 am and will be back arround 04-05.00 pm. Ride to the Sardine spots arround 2-3 hours depending on waves/weather condition. We stayed arround 4-5 hours at the supposed sardine rn area to find action spots. We booked our own boat so we were independet & we were able to choose most of the times spots just for us. San Carlos has 2 diving operators but the thing at MagBay is to snorkel. No fun to put on diving equipment and get in/out of the water xxxxxx- times per day. Even things happen very fast so you must be quick in the water. So no diving operators necessary just tour operators organizing a suitible boat with good skipper knows were the action takes place. Puerto san Carlos has a wide range of reasonable accomodation. Good food/restaurants are also widely available. Preparing current trip report so there will be more infos & photos, but will take some time. Any Question just let me know. Br Markus

Do you have some clip to see it in action?

I have a copy of this book, I have been told there are some inaccuracies in it, I think from one of the Nudibranch ID facebok groups and also that a lot of species have changed names like all the Chromodoris sp. that are now Goniobranchis for example. I still use to get a starting point and cross check by googling the species name.

To follow up on this thread - the Pro casing is night and day from the other (non-pro) casing for the Insta360. Here are a few frame grabs from the pro in dark conditions. Relatively sharp at most distances and pleasing to watch - unlike the non-pro case. I find putting a few smaller weights at the end of the selfie stick balances the float a little bit so it can be moved easily while diving.

As the R7 is APS-C you can approach the range available with the WWL by adding the kenko 1.4x to the 8-15 lens As a bare lens it is usable between about 10mm to 15mm and adding a 1.4x it is still wider than the WWL at the widest setting. The horizontal fields I find are best for comparing lenses as this defines the size of subject you can fill the frame with. This table shows the calculated horzontal fields of view of the 8-15/8-15 with 1.4x/18-45 with WWL along with the approximate rectilinear equivalent focal length. 8-15 Horiz- field Equivalent FL 10 141 fisheye 15 83 20 with 1.4x 11.2 114 12 21 59 32 18-45 - WWL 18 106 14 45 50 38 The barrel distortion in the fisheye zoom and WWL will be very close to the same at the same field of view, As you crop in by zooming the barrel distortion reduces progressively. The other point to note is I believe the WWL will have a little less depth of field at the same field of view, this was discussed on a thread on the forum recently. The 8-15 with 1.4x gives close to the same flexibility as the WWL combination, which has slightly more reach at the long end. Of course it doesn't allow adding a closeup lens.

That's exactly something cannot be predicted before printing🤣 I have tried different materials (PETG, PETG-CF, TPU80, TPU95, etc.), overall is ok but you have to accept the tolerance even you are using the same setting on same printer. Tips for the installation, if it's too tight to assemble, put two parts into warm water (NOT HOT!!!) to soften it, then you will feel easier to put it on the right position.

With the Canon 18-45 lens you will want the WWL-1 not the WWL-1C if getting the full 130 degree FOV is important. The WWL-1C will only get about 116 degrees with a base 18mm APS-C lens. The WWL-1 was designed for 28mm equivalent lenses and the WWL-1C was intended for 24mm equivalent lenses. The WWL-1 does have a lanyard attach point. The WWL-1 and I imagine the WWL-1C are too large to use the flip adapters. Alignment is critical to prevent vignetting. I do not consider it practical to switch out between the CMC lenses and the WWL underwater. Simply too large and heavy and expensive. You can quickly switch out on the boat and go from one to the other. I do have a bayonet slot on my rigs to temporarily park the WWL for flat port work but no way I would leave that expensive and fragile piece of kit anywhere for long but on my port.

Whats the bitrate of Osmo action ? Heres the bitrate on gopro 13 with labs firmware...

I move between the WWL-C (w/Nikon 24-50z) and the 140mm/8-15fe combo quite a bit. The WWL is more versatile for sure with the ability to shoot near-macro. The 8-15 is great for big, close pelagic animals and for CFWA. Even small or medium fish can be shot. (see below) You need to be more careful lighting the 8-15fe especially in murky waters, but the impact of a fisheye image can make up for the difficulty. Nikon Z8 w/8-15mm Fisheye lens, f13@1/60s iso500, Pair of Backscatter HF-1 strobes

WWL-C Lanyard - Fixed it! Just replaced the rubber grip with a printed TPU rubber version with a couple of loops built it. I made this after my original grip got cut somehow and I added loops to design of my replacement. https://makerworld.com/en/models/637896-nauticam-wwl-c-collar-replacement-with-loops#profileId-563389

I just went to Magdalena Bay in mid-November with Nautilus. Highly recommended to book with them. They are the best and most reliable. I think the peak season is October to February if I recall. We had amazing action and adventure during my week.

I switched from GoPro to Osmo Action and never looked back. Much less noise, better colors, better low light quality, intuitive and quicker menus, 3 to 4 times longer battery life time, no crashes.

Agreed! I would just like for someone to be using it.

Hey all....I have a gap in fall of 26 and I want to hit Magdalena Bay. Any recs on dive companies and timing? Is the liveaboard that much better or could I do something shore based and get a similar experience? I may already be too late for 2026 liveaboards though.

^^^ Truth.....message sent. Maybe I should have just lead with "Does anybody have something in their closet they don't really use much anymore, but is too good to just get rid of" The amount of stuff I have given away over the years is a little criminal. Best

Hi @homodelphinius , Yes, I have extensive personal usage with both the 8-15/140 dome and the WWL. In short, it's a trade off. - 8-15/140: smaller package, but limited zoom capabilities. Focus is ultra-wide with 180 degree FoV. Solid for CFWA reefscapes and wrecks. The 8-15 is a sharp lens, fast focus, and very forgiving as to the exact focus point due to the nature of such a wide lens. - The WWL is a much more versatile option that covers wide (not super-wide) to medium zoom range. At the wide end it is 130 degree FoV. There are a few times I miss having a wider option for expansive scenes, but those are very rare compared to the benefit of having a true working zoom option. The WWL is a water correcting lens which allows focusing to basically have the subject touching the glass dome. I have successfully photoed near macro level images of flamingo tongues with ease. Adding the CMC provides a super macro option, but with an extremely short usable focus range. Basically you would be able to photo fairly wide reefscapes, CFWA scenes, near macro, and then with the CMC super macro all in one dive. - Both the WWL and the CMC attach to the port via an adapter. You can purchase a similar adapter designed as a holder mounted to your housing or on a float arm to hold the lens you are not using at that time. Realistically, most everyone uses the WWL with a rare swap out to the CMC when an appropriate subject is found. It is a bit of pain to swap frequently which means it needs to be something really worth the effort to make the underwater swap, but it is there should you need it. A true macro lens with the CMC added would be best for a macro oriented dive. While I dive 95% of the time with my WWL, I do occasionally still use the 8-15 if I am diving specially for ultra-wide scenes. The rest of my dives are with a dedicated macro setup. There will be plenty that prefer a more traditional dome port and standard wide lens solution. There are benefits to each. It is important to focus on what your specific needs and desires are for your photography. Me personally, I like the zoom ability in a more compact design afforded with the WWL, especially considering the image sharpness delivered. Hope this help! chip

There are various posts I recall about using the WWL in combo with a CMC. The biggest issue quoted is what to do with the big lump of a WWL when it's not mounted on the port, with some concern about the fact the lens has no way to attach a lanyard. I only recall one person saying they used the WWL/CMC combo and they thought it worked OK. I would add that the quoted field of the the WWL is a 130deg diagonal lens, though the barrel distortion means that horizontal field which reflects what coverage you can achieve is about the same or very slightly wider than a 14mm rectilinear lens. The Horizontal field of a fisheye will be about 145 deg while the WWL will be around 105. You can go close to matching the WWL reach with the 8-15 plus 1.4x or even an adapted Tokina 10-17 but of course you can't add a CMC lens to that setup. You can focus up to the port glass and this allows you to image subjects down to about tennis ball size filling the frame reasonably well for CFWA type shots. The CMC-1 will get you about 0.8x on the 18-45 and it only focuses between 44 and 81mm from the CMC glass, so it's not as easy to work with as a standard macro lens. Whether it suits you likely depends somewhat which way you are leaning with the majority of the subjects you shoot. If it's mostly wide with the occasional macro or occasional wide with mainly variable sized macro. A macro lens with a wide wet lens would probably suit a wider range of macro sized subjects better than using a CMC with a kit zoom.

The “bible” of nudibranchs. Here you will find almost everything you need to know about nudibranchs that you might encounter underwater. Unfortunately currently out of stock, try to get a used copy or a PDF: Nudibranchs of the World (Debelius, Kuiter), ISBN 978-3939767060. Nice book on creatures you see during muck diving. However, it is still not complete -that would be mission impossible: Muck Diving: A Diver's Guide to the Wonderful World of Critters (Nigel Marsh), ISBN 978-1921517815

WITHDRAWN - NO LONGER AVAILABLE *****************************************

I moved from SLR and assorted lenses to m4/3 with a kit zoom and wet lenses a few years back. It works well for a journalist approach to a dive site. One site, get the wide angle to set the scene, fish in the middle, then macro all in one dive, then swap back again when the whale shark shows up! Then on to the next site. Wide angle is comparable to before the move. I find the main difference is on macro, where the CMC has to be close to the subject. A dedicated macro lens could achieve similar magnification from a little further away. In some situations that is a plus, and in some situations its a limitation. But its not a like-for-like comparison because I have never owned a dedicated macro lens for m4/3. If choosing again today my ideal would be a primary lens 60 or 105 macro (full frame equivalent) and a wet lens to convert that to wide angle. I would loose the ability to zoom for convenience at the extremes. But the balance of my diving has changed. I used to do a lot more wreck diving. Now I do more macro diving. Without travelling with a full shed of camera kit most of us need to compromise somewhere.

Purchased Nauticam Macro Port 105 N100 from @svilen great seller, no hassle and shipped to the UK with no issues!

The mft charts on the official Sony website are identical in resolution (unfortunately). Based on the current information, it looks as if the new version will be optically identical. We'll see... V1 FE 28–70 mm F 3,5–5,6 OSS | SEL2870 | Sony Switzerland V2 FE 28–70 mm F 3.5–5.6 OSS II | SEL28702 | Sony Switzerland

Printed these today at local library. Tight fit but got there. Putting into use next week. 👍

Hi mates, For 13 years i use the combo 8-15 with 100m dome (Aquatica) and now 140mm on Nauticam (complete switch to Nauticam with Canon R7 as Aquatica support in Europe is !$#@$). However, i wanna more flex during science missions - mean to have wide and macro at the same time. Thus am thinking to move to WWL II and CMC on the handy 18-45 Canon lens. Has anybody experience on such switch?