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They sell new port glass but its not exactly cheap. Surprise!

The WWL is probably not an ideal choice as you will be snorkeling a lot. Since you don't dive deep it can be a problem with bubbles between the port glass. They clear out if you dive past 3-4 meters but you will splash and shoot on the surface quite often. A fisheye with zoom ability is ideal in my opinion. I did very well with my 15mm fisheye in MagBay with humpbacks, but would have been nice to have more reach. If i get another chance i would add a 1.4tc to get more reach for when subjects are a bit further than point blank.

At a last moment decision I am joining friends in Tonga on early Sept. Any recommendation for photography of whales (a first for me)? what type of lens and setup? Any technique tips? I have an Olympus/OM setup, with either 8mm fisheye or 7-14 pro + 180mm dome, or 12-50 kit + WWL1 Thanks!

Wish i’d have seen this post before I ordered a new macro port from Nauticam to replace one with blotches on the glass.

New price - 1700 EUR

bugger! I'm going in November....

Written review of the Sony A7RVI on Inside Scuba: https://insidescuba.online/p/alex-mustard-s-field-review-the-sony-a7r-vi-underwater Alex p.s. Inside Scuba is also now home for the UWP Mag - searchable archive: https://uwp-archive.insidescuba.online

I have also started to take pictures with the Mission 1 Pro. In this case with the GR140Pro. I had to reduce the file size to upload it, so the quality has been a bit reduced compared with the original, but considering the distance underwater, I find the focusing pretty good. In the next days I will see if there is any difference without the lens.

I am still working on with the Mission 1 Pro and the wet lenses GR140Pro and G165II to understand the best setting for the various situations. In the mean time, some short clips to have a first impression on what the Mission 1 Pro can do. All unedited because I am still on holiday and I give priority to actual diving, rather than video editing 😁

Aloha and welcome Nir!

Ordered from the U.S. - we had quite a lot of work going on at the time and so we had a freight consolidator/forwarder in Los Angeles that happened to be just around the corner from Blue Robotics, we had spare parts and addons for all sorts of exotic equipment from various manufacturers in the U.S. all being sent to the consolidator and every Friday in L.A. the consolidator would box up everything that they had received and send it to us, and we would receive it on the following Tuesday or Wednesday - it worked pretty well for us.

Welcome Nir! It was great to meet you at God's Pocket last year! I hope we can dive together again soon. Cheers, Dave

Wow, what an epic. Contact Christopher Nolan and sell the rights, Homer! Congrats, John!

Welcome on board Nir We hope you will enjoy the forum. Ciao

Hello, I have been passively following the forum but missed the introduction part. My name is Nir Friedman and I am diver and underwater photographer. I know some of the members from various Alex Mustard workshops in the last few years. Most recent dive trip was to God's Pocket (last September) and next dive trip is to the warmer waters of Indonesia (Lembeh in September). Nir

Hi Tim -- Two years later I have finished the job! Been surviving with a macro 60 port and extension but for whatever reason decided today I will change it! Already had the glass out - last time I tried getting the -o-ring in was frustrating and I gave up. But perseverance seems to have worked. So glass bevelled edge facing out from the port - lots of lube on the o-ring groove, outside edge of glass and the o-ring - worked o-ring into the groove with the curved edge of backcsatter snoot insert. All easy until the last little loop is left in the o-ring - tried several times - but good old lube did the trick - added more lubricant to that last little bit and it popped in, hopeful;l;y without me damaging the o-ring! Housing set with vacuum pulled overnight and will see!

Thanks, did you order the material from the US?, or is there an Australian distributor? Looks like a a $US40 block of foam would cost $US35 to post.

Definitely agree quite a bit of torque to twist the camera to point up. I think a block of foam underneath with a portion of the buoyancy will help - probably want less than half of the buoyancy underneath, so the natural attitude is still for the arms to want to remain at the top

It appears this is a stereographic projection fisheye so it is part way between a typical equisolid projection fisheye and a rectilinear lens. See this plot from Bob Atkins: Link to website: https://bobatkins.com/photography/technical/field_of_view.html I plugged the numbers into the formula for a stereographic fisheye and 10.5mm comes out as 183°. So slightly above the lined labelled B. What does this mean for the images produced? Note that the same focal length gives different fields of view as the projections change. Basically you lose some of the fisheye "pop" that comes from the subject appearing larger in the centre of the frame compared to the edges - basically less barrel distortion. It also means that the addition of a 1.4x has less zooming effect as the subject is relatively smaller in the centre where the 1.4x crops to. The Canon 8-15 on the other hand is about half way between the Equidistant and equisolid projections and has a field of 175° at 15mm focal length. and has fairly strong fisheye pop. The WACP on the other hand appears to be also close to stereographic projection based upon that formula getting closest to the reported field of view at full zoom when tuned to calculate the 130° diagonal field at minimum zoom.

I bought the manual version of this lens for E mount recently for under AUD 400. It arrived with very faint distance and aperture markings on the lens, and without the advertised glow in the dark ability. I would have returned it except optically it seems quite good. However after experimenting with it underwater, I'm not convinced manual is worth the trouble (for underwater), partly because the zoom gear I cobbled up was a Nauticam N120 size, which meant the lens has to be removed first, to remove the camera from the housing. You also have to recalibrate the focus scale, which requires a bit of careful maths, and the result is hard to read underwater. So an AF version is welcome... except for one potential problem: The manual version is 185 degrees diagonal. I could not exactly align the lens' EP with the optical centre for the Nauticam 140 dome, without vignetting caused by the dome itself, and that's with the shade removed. So I couldn't improve on an approx 30mm diameter circle centre sharpness at f11, and that's with a small amount of the vignetting. A longer extension to remove the vignetting reduced the sharp centre circle to just under 24mm, which is not great. So be prepared to crop if the AF version is also 185 degrees...

Protective Bumper for the Backscatter OS-3 Snoot https://makerworld.com/en/models/3098875-protective-bumper-for-backscatter-os-3-snoot#profileId-3492758 The OS-3 Snoot for the Backscatter HF-1 strobe looks great, shiny and smooth. Keep it looking sharp by protecting it from dings and scratches. The snoot is pretty long and it is definitely going to get knocked around over time. The end of the snoot and glass are most at risk. Adding this TPU rubber bumper is a quick and easy way to keep it protected and in good working order for the long term. Simply stretch the bumper over the end of the snoot. The ribbed end of the bumper should be oriented towards the base of the snoot. The bumper should slip over fairly easily but it takes some effort to get it off. It definitely won't be falling off in the water. If you do need to remove it or have trouble getting it installed, I suggest running it under hot water for a bit to soften it up before pulling it on or off. Print with flexible TPU 95a, 85a, or 90a for best results. It will not fit or work rigid materials like PLA or PETG. More 3D printed custom solutions: UW Photography: https://makerworld.com/collections/16165730 Scuba: https://makerworld.com/collections/16165676

Would the (E mount) still be around 160 plus degrees on a crop sensor Sony? If so that is a useful increase in FOV over my very much loved WWL. And a better lens than the 16mm pancake with the FE adapter attached.

GoPro Mission 1 Labs is out for V2.0 This is big update for both mainline and Labs firmware, here are the highlights. MISSION 1 PRO v2.0 NEW FEATURES Adds support for Media Mod (Multi-Pattern Mic + Media Ports Frame) for MISSION 1 Series Adds support for Volta 2 (Weather-Resistant Battery Grip | Tripod | Remote) Enables video out using USB-C to DisplayPort / HDMI cables and adapters IMAGE QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS Improves contrast and tone tuning in Dive mode Improves color accuracy, including fixes for oversaturated colors and skies Improves cinematic motion blur tuning USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS General user interface improvements General bug fixes LABS UPDATES v2.00.70 Added EXPL - Exposure lock on capture Added HS30=1 default Hindsight shortcut to 30s Added EXPX Max Shutter speed e.g. $EXPX=200 for 1/200 Added EXPN Min Shutter speed e.g. $EXPX=1000 for 1/1000 Added EXPQ Manual Shutter speed e.g. $EXPQ=50 for 1/50 Added Overlay BURN support (limited to 4K 24,25,30 16:9 8-bit) Enhanced BURN now support variables ‘$VALC%1.6f’ or ‘$M%1.2f’mph Added PMXY for processing message screen position Added AUDS and audio triggers to Mission. Added DTMF for a DTMF detector, running Macro stored in DTMA-D,0-9,S-Start(), H-Hash() DTMF=1 External USB audio, =2 Internal mics Preset with macros can have now have lowercase freeform text following e.g. “SWIM mode” Fixed Labs Photo FOV, EV and WB controls Added system vars (useful with BURN overlays) c:X = GPS lat, c:Y = GPS long, c:Z = GPS alt, c:S = GPS km/h, c:T = GPS days in this year c:W = GPS DOP Labs on Mission is now mostly feature matching HERO13, and starting to add a few extra features. The new DTMF detector might seems weird for most users, but it can serve as is very inexpensive multi-cam controller, or for very long range cable control, where USB or WiFi is impractical (Rocket launches, deep water ROVs, gaussian spat camera arrays, etc.) Labs downloads: https://gopro.github.io/labs/ P.S. I forget to document one more cool feature - Added DIOP=x - Experimental diopter correction. Adding a diopter lens will modify the distortion, and impact stabilization, this attempts to compensate. e.g. $DIOP=4 for +4 diopter lens. Ps: Theres a bug on this version 400 mbits dont work on this version 2.00.70, its limited to 240 Mbits

Fish floats are extremely easy for me to get. Locals use them for cameras with some success. We've also done some 3D printed floats but that is heavier for a given buoyancy. Personally I'd like to get flotation under my camera to make tilted shots less effort. Having all my buoyancy on the strobe arms is a pain.