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@rwb500 My wife was pregnant a number of years ago and we were in a similar situation... Indonesian (public) healthcare is not anywhere near up to western standards. I would completely avoid all of Indo. The Philippines (outside of Manila) is just as limited so avoid the Philippines as well. We chose Hawaii when she was pregnant the first time (I still love diving the Big Island - It's not the Coral Triangle, but I would choose it over any part of the Carribean). For her 2nd pregnancy we chose Australia. Healthcare in OZ (for pregnant women) is easily a match for the US system, and in some ways even better). We chose Lizard Island up on the GBR - diving was good... Guam is an option, Palau would be an option as well (mainly because you could get off island to Guam or Taiwan fairly easily). Unfortunately, none of these are great (or even good) macro destinations. The Big Island of Hawaii has the "pelagic magic" blackwater dive, which is worth doing a few times, but not the same as true macro. Because of this, what you might consider is using Singapore as a base for a trip. The healthcare in Singapore is world class - surpassing much of the US healthcare system. You can buy travel insurance to evacuate someone in a medical emergency back to Singapore, which is 3 hours from Bali, etc.

I still go for the MotherF****** Optics (or Optimizer)...it has a certain power emanating charm somehow 🤣

Looking to buy the below before I buy from Nauticam: Nauticam N120 30mm extension ring (Either mk 1 or 2) Thanks

Hi Oren Great to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels. We hope you really enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Business Class!

Asides from medical care available at your destination, you need to consider the dangers of a long flight. When my wife, who is a physician, was pregnant she passed on a long trip to Australia from the US West Coast because it was too long to be in a plane and seated. Check with your wife's OB for a recommendation.

HI, all. Experienced diver and somewhat experienced UW photographer, here. From Sonoma County, California. Just upgraded from my old Oly EPM-! in an Oly housing, to an OM-D EM10, Mark IV in a Backscatter Octo housing. Still using my trusty S&S YS-D! strobes. Looking forward to learning from everyone else's experience and knowledge.

Wow, I remember the times back in the late 70s and into the 80s when buying electronics and watches, Hong Kong was the place to shop.

For what it's worth, I don't see any change in prices of Sony lens or Nauticam here in Hong Kong. In the past, folks from India/Europe would often make a stop in HK and buy loads of electronics here on their way back to home.. Now maybe friends from US will also make a stopover here on their way to some dive destination.. The alternative, I expect would be Singapore. Kind regards, Ajay

Weird - I've had gate agents demand that I turn on the strobes to make certain they were strobes and not something nefarious. If I didn't keep a set of NiMh AA IN the strobes while travelling I'd have had a lot of explaining to do about a topic that is very alien to most other people. The new generation "superchargers" are small and a flat plastic pack of 8 batteries is super easy to slip into a roller bag. I wouldnt even think to dive the Retra Pro Max without 8 AA in there, especially as I can get 3-6 dives (1-2days) out of them without concerns about strobe power. One related topic I haven't noticed discussed in this thread that can significantly influence = battery maintenance. First: Keeping battery sets together in groups of 4. I cannot recall who recommended the idea, but for the past 20+ years I've always grouped and labeled my AA in sets of 4. They always stay together as a set. Next: Some chargers are not optimal. I now travel with 2x Panasonic brand 4 spot AA chargers (Panasonic BQ-CC65AKBBA). Sure, it's a bit of a pain to have to check on batteries in a camera room, but two runs of the chargers and I'm done for the day. Also, I've noticed the Panasonic brand do not overheat the rechargeables - an issue I started having with several (very expensive) Powerex Maha chargers [Ruined 3 sets of Eneloop Pro and several Energizer rechargeable C size = swollen until the labels split off!]. The USB-C type chargers also get AA a bit hotter to the touch than I'd personally like.

I haven't posted any results because I haven't finished testing the 16-25, and have also been busy optimising other lenses behind domes. Plus dive opportunities are rare where I am (endless winds). However, I found the 16-25 to perform quite well (better than expected) with the N120 140 dome and a total extension of 60mm (25 adapter + 35 ext). I use a simple system to rate sharpness across the frame. First I flip the question of "corner sharpness" to one of "how large is the central area of acceptable sharpness", using the centre of the frame as a reference point, as (assuming it's in focus) it's always sharp regardless of port type or alignment. I then look for where sharpness falls off, at 100%, using images that should have elements that are sharp (i.e. in focus) at the edges. Yes this is still subjective, but it's surprisingly easy to detect where sharpness declines, and you always have the centre as a reference in your own image. No need to rely on someone else's opinion or equipment as the reference. Finally I rate the results as 1 for a 12mm circle (of acceptable sharpness at 100%), 2 for 24mm and 3 for 36mm. 2 and 3 correspond to touching the long and short sides of the 36x24mm FF image respectively. Now a "1" is pretty much a no go. You can get away with some CFWA, but you will have large horrible corners (which might be hidden in blue water). "2" is my minimum requirement for stills. Others may have different opinions. "3" is probably as good as it gets for a rectilinear WA lens behind a properly chosen and aligned dome. So getting back to the 16-25 behind the 140 dome with total ext of 60mm, at 16mm I rated the corners at 2 for f8 and 2-3 for f11. The 25mm end was an easy 3. Useable (for me) as a compact travel solution. I next tried the 16-25 with the N120 180mm dome with a total of 75mm extension. I expected great things but in fact the results were slightly worse. Same score at the 16mm end but slightly less than 3 at the 25mm end. Or to be brutal, not good enough at f8 if I have to carry the bulky 180 dome! I am not sure whether I need to increase or decrease the extension for better results with the 180 dome, so will check when I can with a split to see how the underwater component aligns with the topside, before further testing. Phil is suggesting a bit less. Some other test results: I can confirm that the 20-70 works ridiculously well with the 180 (total ext = 75; Nauticam port chart says 70), but performance is not really good enough with the 140. I have not found an acceptable combo with the Laowa 10 (tried various exts with 140 and 8.5"). I think it needs a custom 8"(or larger) port, as per the Aquatica solution. I even compared the Sony 50 and Zeiss 50 macros behind flat ports, vs the 140 dome. Scores were "1" behind the flat ports, and "3" behind the dome... a huge jump in IQ (and "apparent" DOF), but with some AF focusing issues with the dome (tracking AF can jump off the target with still subjects). In terms of comparing Phil's results with Marelux ports, I don't have any figures for where the optical centres for Marelux ports lie. With Nauticam, the optical centre is 6-7mm behind the port flange for the 140, and 25mm behind for the 180. Of course these are starting points only, for your own tests.

Craine thank you for that, that's exactly the kind of post I was looking for. I've been diving in Indonesia the last several days aboard the Arenui and it's been some fabulous diving. I've figured out I can get TTL to work most of the time by setting the flash mode to slow instead of fill flash, but I've been working on doing more manual control and it seems to work well on the turtle with the settings for wireless set to First Curtian with 1/32 power and flashing times set to 1 I'm also using the three positions on the custom dials with #3 set to Manual mode VV Profile AWB Underwater mode Metering Mode multi Mechanical Shutter (And I found electronic disables flash which is nice) WL On mostly (flip it off for TTL) Peak On Animal/bird target Slow SYnc Flash AF-C or DMF focus, I like DMF for macro as it shows peaking nicely so you can set the focus and move a little in and out Focus Area is Medium Tracking Spot PP off #2 is set for aperture priority with similar settings and #1 is set for program I shoot raw and don't bother with the embedded files at all since I can easily export after I post process in Lightroom I'm shooting with two YS-D2J although on my second dive yesterday one of them decided to stop working, the back lights up but no modeling light and no flash, tried swapping batteries, caps, and sync cables no dice, luckily I had a second YS-D2 (non J) in my bag so I switched over to that. A Few people on board have the Retras and man those look nice but wow $$$ I'm shooting the 16-50 with a WWL-1 for wide angle and rapid changing (I also have a CMC-1 for this giving me a bit of flexibility) and a 90mm f2.8 for macro or fish portrait, someone on board had the new Nautical MFO-1 with a flip adapter so I spent a couple of dives playing with that as he forgot his Macro lens and it's pretty nice, I found I swapped it in and out depending on what I was shooting

hey send me a screen shot so I can see, I user a Mac and Safari and in the forum things are bigger then everywhere else. All user posted content will be slightly bigger then the default text everywhere else one the site. OR Should be... example is the best way for me to see... I'll attach a sample on how it looks here.

Hi RichN , the dimensions of the text in the internet site is good, the problem is inside the forum and specifically inside the post. For example in this thread , all the post are microscopic and very difficult to read... I don't know if this happens only to me.... I use an apple computer and Safari... I will try to use another browser... Thank you for your hard work...

I attached some photos using the Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 in the Marelux Sony A1 housing with Marelux 180mm dome port and 55mm's of extension. That is 5mm less than I use with the Sony 20-70mm. Regarding using the 140mm port I would not expect to get great results at any f/stop. All taken in several springs in north Florida USA. For Nauticam with the 180mm you will likely use the 35.5 adapter and 35mm extension for a total of 70.5mm of extension or 30+40 with an N100 port.

cool I will look at that too. The US hospital in Guam will certainly provide of peace of mind.

Maybe Palau as well? It's a short hop from Guam, and it's practically a US territory. Palau citizens can join the US military, interestingly.

New weefine wide wet lens specifically for smartphones WEEFINE WFL 16 Lens contruction - 2 elements e groups (1gp1) Magnification 0.72x Compatible camera sensor size 13.2mm x 8.8mm Compatible lens 24mm (35mm equivalent ) F/1.5 Dome lens Optical grade Polycarbonate resin Glass/coating - optical glass / Multi-layer BBAR coating Mounting M67 Depth rating 60m

Cool thanks I will look into Fiji and Guam. Hawaii is such an easy one week trip for us, and honestly I haven't been too impressed with the diving there.

I would consider Fiji or Guam. You are not interested in Hawaii I take it? Seattle is excellent in October as well but maybe you don't like cold water? I would not consider Indonesia at all, probably not the Philippines.

I live on the West coast of the USA and I have two weeks off in late October. Possibly, my wife could be in the 2nd trimester or early 3rd trimester of pregnancy by then, so we would like to stay in a country where emergency transport and healthcare is easily accessible. I am hoping to go somewhere with excellent opportunities for diving photography, especially macro. I would love to go back to Lembeh or Tulamben but I am worried these are not good in terms of access to healthcare. Also, because my wife will not be diving, it would be great to go somewhere where there are things to do on land. I was thinking Okinawa might be good? Philippines maybe? Maybe Bali is actually one of the better options? Any other suggestions for overlap between world-class tropical diving and accessibility to civilization/healthcare? I probably have misconceptions about healthcare in non-Western countries so feel free to correct me. thanks

Markus - Super curious on: 1) HOW you would get a Kenko to work with the Nikonos 13 as the lens seals to the housing. 2) WHY would you put a teleconverter on the Nikonos 13? What view/ advantages/ etc?

For me it's better now, thank you

Glad you told me that one!

MFO stands for Mid-range focus optimizer (according to Nauticam) 😁