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INON strobes have very sensitive fibre optic receivers, so triggering them tends to be very easy. to test you could try placing the fibre optic port directly over the trigger port on the housing. Also check the housing port by looking into it and triggering to see if seems bright or not, you could perhaps compare brightness to the TRT trigger. You say that it used to work with the TRT trigger, does it still work with that trigger? It's possible for example the LEDs are not well aligned on the housing ports.

Hello everyone, A colleague of mine is having problems with her Backscatter Mini Flash-1 and her new AOI housing for the Sony A7CII. I know that the MF-1 can be quite finicky when it comes to fiber optics, and problems are often related to the cable. I experienced this myself with my MF-1 and the manual Nauticam Sony trigger. However, I eventually found two cables with which the MF-1 almost always worked. My colleague is now having nothing but trouble with her new AOI housing for the Sony A7CII and the trigger. She has tried countless different fiber optic cables. Sometimes the MF-1 seems to work, and other times it doesn't. The INON flashes she still has work without any problems with all cables. The trigger is always in manual mode (WL ON). Could it be that the older MF-1 flashes are causing even more problems with the newer triggers? It worked perfectly with a TRT trigger I had previously used in a different enclosure. Or does anyone else have any ideas? I'm meeting with her again tomorrow and will take another look. And I think it would be best if she also asked Backscatter directly. But collective wisdom is usually even more helpful! Thanks in advance for any feedback, Tino

I have both the Cinebags grouper and the AO cooler. I like them both but for different reasons. The AO cooler is much thicker and provides superior padding when traveling around with my rig in the cooler. It also is much taller so you can get a housing with a monitor on the top to just tuck in. My zipper is still alive after a couple years. It does not travel super flat so harder to get to wherever one is going diving. However, when closed up with the flaps down it is a nice padding setup! The Cinebags - (now Kraken... somepoint would like to know how that happened)- is great for strobe + mirrorless housing and arms but no monitor. Plus it fits nicely in a XL Duffel bag (in particular a North Face one w/o wheels) so I use it as a packing divider for all of my camera stuff when flying/traveling to the dive site. It provides nice extra protection for float arms...all that kinda stuff for baggage handlers. When I get to my destination it then becomes my camera moving device on and around the boat but I am always right at the size limit for it with 180mm dome and a couple strobes. I don't do enough live aboard diving to have an opinion on using either as a rinse tank. I have definitely used both as rinse tanks on the dock at the end of a day of boat or shore diving to make sure they get a good wrinse.

I shoot the A1 with a 90mm and am very happy with it. I use it bare, with the SMC and EMWL without too many issues. Even with nudibranchs I always use continuous AF, we're always moving slightly, and enough to move you off critical focus at such close distances. For me, the key is learning which AF mode to use. For macro I use one of the spot modes and move the AF area as necessary for framing, if I'm shooting moving fish with the 90 I'll switch to a zone / tracking mode Once you get the right setting I'm pretty sure you'll find the hinting drops dramatically Mike

Hi The Subal system doesn’t use diopters to adjust the viewfinder optics. You need to adjust the diopter that’s on the camera and then just for the housing into the camera. There are no diopter adjustments on Subal viewfinder. And yes, you need a zoom ring to change a zoom setting. Autofocus changes the focussing do you don’t need a ring for that. For the zoom ring check out Subal.com. There are number of folks on this forum who print their own zoom rings using 3D printing. If you have the right camera in the right housing the main controls should line up perfectly. If they don’t it could be that the camera isn’t aligned quite right on the sledge. Occasionally you might get slight misalignments on a control or two which might require minor adjustments on a control rod. But such adjustments are, by my experience, not common on Subal housings. It’d be a bit like adjusting a Rolls Royce 😝 Another possibility is that you need to remove the rubber eyepiece on the camera before closing the housing and/or remove and kind of screen protector. Hope these help!

Me too!

Hey everyone, I've recently purchased an old Subal N99 housing for my Nikon F90x. The housing appears to be in fantastic condition, but when I secure the camera on the baseplate, and shut the housing, there are a few issues: Through the housing viewfinder, the camera viewfinder appears sufficiently out of focus as to make any attempts at photography impossible. My housing is not the deluxe edition, and therefore I do not have the option of adjusting the dioptre of the viewfinder. My suspicion is that I need some form of dioptre adjustment eyepiece for the camera itself, as the following image from the product brochure (https://www.marinfoto.no/subal/pdf/en99.pdf) shows some sort of larger eyepiece. The aperture ring cannot be adjusted within the housing (and the zoom can only sometimes be adjusted it seems). I expect I need to source/3D print some gears to solve these issues, but just want to make sure I'm on the right track here. I assume a zoom/focus gear sized for the aperture ring should do the trick there too? If anyone has any further information on sizing (Nikon 24-120mm 3.5-5.6 D) and/or can provide some good options on where to source these gears from, that would be great. Controls such as the on and off switch and mode wheel seem to be slightly out of reach of their respective levers/buttons - as thee only work sometimes (on/off switch will turn off reliably but not on) Hopefully this is enough information, but happy to provide more as needed. Cheers!

Welcome. When I first saw your username, I thought that someone had hacked me, lol.

🤣 you might be a better underwater image maker than me! It's been 10 years since I've took any serious camera underwater and from what I recall, very little of my on-land knowledge gets transferred underwater! In fact, I'm having to watch videos now of experts sharing tips :P

You're right! Some 10 years ago I was using Ikelite housings with a 5D III - without vacuum pumps or sensors, and very meticulous greasing and cleaning! So the Seafrogs with a vacuum pump already sounds like an upgrade! 😂 But let's see, time will tell when I'll have the regret of "oh, i should have gone for smth better!" haha

Heard good things about Djibouti. Downside: Hormuz..

@Lasongo There are currently ~240 boats that have licenses to run whale shark tours in Isla Mujeres. Let's assume 1/2 of these don't go out because they aren't operating, etc. on the day I go out, that leaves ~120 boats I'm potentially sharing that small patch of ocean with. Even if we assume only 50% of these boats actually have customers on the day, that's still ~50 boats. As a diver, I'm also not a big fan of forced life jackets (instead of being able to rely on a wetsuit) and not being able to free dive down to take pictures. Sure, I can "linger" - but why even bother? There are better whaleshark experiences to be had much farther afield.

bump

I just stuck a bunch of tire balancing weights to the bottom of mine. It helps a lot. I have ~100 grams worth on it but could add more. I don't know what you would need for the A7Cr with 20-70 though. Good luck!

@Waso - totally agree - I got that completely backwards!!! 🙃

Prior to 2022 (or was it 2021) it was a chaos, but the Mexican authorities have recently cracked down big time on unscrupulous boats and unlicensed boats. First time I went was in 2010 and it was ridiculous. I went two more years before I gave up. Took about a 10 year hiatus and got hired to go back in 2023. I've now been back in 2024 and 2025. Taking this year off (I have other jobs I got hired for), but will be back in 2027 because my daughter wants to go see them. The rules are now two guests, per boat with a guide (3 total per boat) in the water at one time. Other boats will report violators, so there is also an aspect of self-policing going on. Plus there are enough sharks around that there are more than enough for the three per boat. There is always at least one boat from the Mexican government on location observing. They typically stay on-site until around 12pm-1pm. Most of the snorkel boats leave around 12pm-1pm. There are a few operators that will linger a bit longer, and I would HIGHLY recommend going with them. After most boats leave around noon, you can easily find yourself out there with only 2-3 other boats and 100+ whale sharks. I can give you some recommendations if you PM me (I don't want to be seen as giving preference to anyone). Here are pics I took last July 2025. Notice the tons of back ground divers (sarcasm). I didn't have to wait long to get these shots. Prior to the new regulations these shots would have been very difficult to get. Also notice, I'm not trying to sell you on the trips I guide (I will if you want). Just trying to recommend what I believe is the best location for seeing whale sharks.

Depressing instagram post https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU9X8SegftG/?igsh=b3ljNDV4cXV6c3Zs

Hi all, Working on counterweighting my setup- I am currently running with a sony A7CR and sony g 20-70 f4 in a marelux housing with the 50mm extension ring/ 180mm dome port. The dome is slightly positive and attempts to always flip upwards. In works with a savy 3D printing friend to build a weight collar on the extension ring to offset the current buoyancy. does anyone have experience with this or a similar system that could help me get a rough idea of how many grams I should begin testing with? Was going to begin with fixing ankle weights to the rig, so anything more specific would be very helpful! Cheers!

Same for me, no issues with that lens in a Nauticam mini dome either

I just saw this post. Without a 3d printer, this was my solution on my AOI housing

Welcome to Waterpixels, SwiftS! Good to have you with us. Do start a new post and we’ll do our best to help you. I’m a Subal owner myself…. Love them! Best wishes

I shoot with the A1 and upgraded from the 90mm to 100mm macro (shiny new gadget, woooh). I'll be one to say that the 90mm is fine, generally, yes it focus hunts occasionally but not that much on the A1. I used to shoot the 90mm on an A6000 (which didn't even have phase focusing) and the A1 is just night and day. The 100mm is better but it's not like it instantly focuses either. I also probably prefer the 90mm focal length. Definitely upgrade to the latest firmware of the A1, version 4+. They have added new focusing range areas, and the XS is very useful. I've been happy shooting in AF-C, XS tracking, center focus point, and using focusing+recomposing. A wider focusing area makes it harder to focus on a specific feature. A focus light is useful. There's definitely more hunting without it.

Hi everyone, glad to be here. I've signed up as I hope to solve some issues I am encountering with a recently purchased Subal N99 housing for my Nikon F90x. Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say. Cheer

Great video! Still a month to get there, can't wait.

only very slightly jealous watching this from my outpatient clinic this morning....