All Activity

Hi Stephen A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Really great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Send me a link to the dome you are looking at. Maybe it will start my creative juices. 😃🤞

Depends on the situation. With a fair amount of ambient light I use live view. If it's dark I use the other mode (Sony shooter).

Yeah, I know. I still can't get my head around which compromise is best. How do you handle it?

My old eyes 😃 I can use the Fantasea UMG-02 (AOI UMG-01) magnifier to make the image bigger and easier for me to compose. There are no similar magnifiers for the EVF, at least with the AOI housing. Moreover, I cannot see the full EVF display when viewing through the AOI housing.

Keep in mind the live view will only show the background exposure unless you are using video lights.

Hi Adrian I've just bought an OM-1 to replace my lost D500 but havn't yet got it underwater - not even into a housing! I'm intrigued though that you compose on the LCD screen rather than in the EVF. Is there a reason for this?

OM‑1 shooters — how are you handling live view underwater? I’m using the LCD exclusively (AOI housing with magnifier), and I’m curious what others are doing for composition. The OM‑1 gives two LV modes: Standard and S‑OVF. Standard LV Mode Gives proper exposure simulation, but at typical macro/CFWA settings, it can be very dark underwater unless the modeling lights are close. S‑OVF Brightens the display by removing exposure/WB simulation but doesn’t reflect actual ambient background or color. For those shooting macro, CFWA, or wide angle with the OM‑1: Are you staying with Standard LV, switching to S‑OVF, or using a different approach to keep the LCD usable underwater?

Fair enough. It seems to me that a port which allows you to use an easily available, fairly cheap and durable dome which is user replaceable would be pretty neat. I might just need to order one and see what would be involved.

Greetings Fellow Underwater Imagers: My name is Stephen Pacetti and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been diving and taking underwater photos/video for over 30 years. I started out with an Ikelite Aquashot that used a disposable camera loaded with ISO 400 print film. Next was a Nikon N70 film camera in an Ikelite housing. As the digital photography era arrived, I started with an Olympus C-5050 (5 megapixels!), and progressed onto a Olympus C-8080 (Light and Motion Tetra), Nikon D100 (Subal), Nikon D200 (Subal) and Nikon D7100 (Nauticam). As I wanted to dabble in underwater video I shifted over to a Panasonic GH5 and then a GH5 II (Nauticam). Now, I am using a Sony A7IV for stills and a Sony ZV-E1 (both Nauticam) for video. For editing, I use Lightroom and DaVinci Resolve. Alas however, my age and medical status are beginning to slow down my diving. I hope to continue and look forward to this site for inspiration. My local diving is in Monterey, CA which is cold water, but can be very good depending on the conditions which are highly variable. And I have done warm water trips to many of the popular places. I was (am) a member of Wetpixel, but finally realized that site doesn't work anymore. If you have any questions about diving in Monterey please let me know! Cheers

Hi! I’m not even going to try to type your username! Great to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Best wishes

I am an amateur underwater from the PNW, although I really only dive in tropical reef places during vacations. I got into this hobby through iNaturalist and wanting to document what I see while diving, and I got into scuba diving itself from the saltwater aquarium hobby. The main places I have dived are in Hawaii and the Caribbean, though I have also dove in Fiji, and Indonesia (specifically Komodo). My current setup is an OM TG-7 with a Backscatter/AOI UWL-M52 wet lens and two Backscatter Hybrid Flashes, though I am in the process of upgrading to an Olympus EM10 Mk4. My main subject of interest is stony corals (especially larger-polyped and fleshier ones), which is what I like to photograph underwater.

Hi, no problem. I’ve replaced the batteries in my Solas units before, though it was a while ago. I couldn't remember the polarity, so I double-checked it. Best regards, Markus

@ all: Thanks for your answers! @ Dave: yes, but my charger is broken... and I needed to know where + and - are. @ Chris: There is a diode or something similar in the light, so that you do not short-circuit the beast when underwater. I could measure a very low voltage (< 0.1V), but was not sure if this measurement was "good enough)... @ Muellema: That was the info I was looking for. Vielen lieben Dank! Greetings, Jock

It's a fair amount of work, but doable now that i have a pattern. My issue is more about the motivation to spend the time. For passion projects I get caught up, but not sure I can invest the time for a commission. Reprints of existing designs I do all the time however.

Any interest in printing a port to accept the BluROV acrylic domes? They have a 130mm which seems like it could be suitable for a fisheye.

Price dropped US$1,900

Thanks for replying! Sounds like I’d need to starting build a real rig for a mirrorless camera then! I wonder if anyone tried taking photos and can share a fullres image that I can try inspecting.

Good news. Although the diameter lens spec for the 20-50mm is 80mm and 14-35mm is 84mm, the marelux zoom gear for the 14-35mm fits the 20-50mm (snugly). I took 3 of the rubber shims off the inside of the ring that contacts the lens barrel. Next will be figuring out the extensions required.

RF20-50mm lens arrived. I do not yet have a zoom gear. Tried mapping the PZ zoom in/out to custom buttons, but the R5 does not allow this option, even with the latest firmware. I see Nauticam has a zoom ring for the 20-50. Marelux does not list it, and I haven't heard back from them on whether they plan to. Does anyone know if the Nauticam zoom ring would work inside my Marelux housing?

Thanks for the respond. I have the Nauticam LX100 mark 1 housing. The short port is fused to the housing because I didn't remove it for weeks after diving, so the salt built up etc. makes it impossible to remove. I brought the housing in for service, they tried everything and even broke the red release tab, charged me $150 for labor and not resolving the problem. I have some decent 67mm wide angle wet lens, similar to Fantasea/AOI that I would like to reuse with the L10 housing, by buying the 67mm treated short port (I think it's this one: https://www.backscatter.com/Nauticam-Short-Flat-Port-N50) Thanks for pointing out the Nauticam Bayonet adapter, I'm surprise the store didn't tell me about it. I'm going to ask them about it and investigate the spacing

Any idea what the purple fish are/will be, or the translucent shrimp?

I like the turtle and the snapper. Nice shots. Those who have never dove Cozumel might not appreciate how difficult it can be to deal with the current. Pretty much fly by shooting often difficult to get framing and settings adjusted, one chance at a shot and zoom away.

Yep, I added them 👻