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Did you focus on infinity for the in water tests? I shot the 15mm yesterday UW and using the focus guides everything should have been in focus but all the images were very soft.

Excellent. They’re so easy to make you’ll be wishing you did it ages ago!

Dave, we were on Harmoni last year. Brilliant! Best liveaboard we’ve done.

@Adventurer again people have been posting their test results to the forum using their own strobes and a supplier provided strobe in the case of the maxi and taking a lot of time to test and compile results to benefit the forum participants. You however again imply an ulterior motive as the reason your strobe doesn't win. As far as I can see the reviewers have detailed what their methodology has been and reasons behind it. Please if you disagree with results or methods don't accuse (or imply) people of having ulterior motives, rather address the issue you have with their methodology, why you disagree with the methodology and what you suggest they should do instead and why. You can also agree to disagree. Implying ulterior motives is a form of ad hominem response and we discourage that on the forum. We are all for vigorous discussion about the subject being discussed as long as it is directed to the subject not the forum member. As far as my question , I believe it a statistical possibility that can't be resolved with the samples at your disposal. You can only draw conclusions based upon the strobes you actually have available to you. As far as a fair way to compare - my thought is that determining the max power level at which the strobe can rapid fire without dimming or dropping frames at a given frame rate (10 frames/sec , 5, 3 whatever the reviewer chooses) and comparing the light output when firing at that rate makes the most sense. The strobe with the highest light on the subject under those conditions wins. Any tests with dimming and/or frame dropping just makes a lottery of whether your shot is exposed correctly or not.

Welcome. I've had a look at some of your ocean stories and they are lovely. I really enjoy the freediving focus on shallow marine life .)

The design for these adapter models has not been published: https://makerworld.com/en/models/2391114-adapters-for-retra-and-backscatter-hf-1-strobes#profileId-2619513

Thx a lot for this link and your correction!!!

The model for this design is now available for download: https://makerworld.com/en/models/2391039-universal-dome-port-cap#profileId-2619412

OK thanks, you could probably utilise the higher power of the S&S strobe. Optically triggering might be better if you want TTL . Wired sync cords have another set of o-rings you need to maintain and only support manual operation it seems. Optical sync of course would need a trigger.

@Chris Ross I use Canon R8 with 15-30 & 100 mm lenses inside Seafrogs housing. Holiday diver, so don't want to invest much.

no, don't believe so, my calcs show around equivalent to a 28-30mm lens and I actually use the 8-15 on my OM-1 which is a 2x crop so the same as a 2x on your full frame, so I can compare fields of view directly. This post has some test shots showing the zoomed in 8-15 has about the same field as a 14mm rectilinear lens - which is 28mm full frame equivalent. In any case you can compare the fields of view through the zoom range from the pics I posted. The advantages of fisheye zooms! - Photography Gear and Technique - WaterPixels

The previous Sea frogs models were pretty poor and didn't work as advertised, very little info available on reviews online so a bit of a gamble. On the S&S the 5 pin cable connection seems to be manual only. TTL underwater is not necessarily better, some of the newer strobes which emulate the camera manufacturers TTL protocols seem to do quite well, slave TTL possibly not as good, probably depends on how well the strobes slave TTL matches with the manufacturers system. Manual strobe UW is not that difficult and is more repeatable. You don't say what camera you use, this can make a difference. If you are using a TG series camera, these strobes might be overkill.

Don't forget Nauticam is not the only game in town, Isotta has quite a big presence in Australia and their housings and particularly ports are quite a bit cheaper. If budget is tight, don't rule out buying second hand, if you are flexible on what system you get, you can get away from a lot of the issues with pre-flash cancel etc with right camera body - one that will allow manual flash and more so if it has a popup flash or like a small accessory flash. Expect to pay 40% or less of new price for one-two generation old gear. I'm sitting on my EM-1MkII housing and camera as selling is a hassle and returns not that high, so I haven't bothered trying to sell since I switched to my OM-1. I was a long time Canon shooter and when it came to buying UW gear I went with m43, in aluminium housings the price for the housing is significantly less, lenses, ports etc are all cheaper. They have a small accessory flash that can fire at 1/64 power and is perfect to trigger strobes. Plus they have arguably the best range of lenses suited to UW work. I ended up switching above water shooting to Olympus as well and find the image quality is good enough for me. Full frame is in general too expensive and bulky to take UW.

While you can attach a Tokina 10-17 lens to the A7C, it is an APS-C lens and the image circle is only designed to cover that format. Apparently it will work on full frame and produce an image but the quality drops off rapidly as you move outside the APS-C frame. Unfortunately strobe triggers are a niche product which are reverse engineered to work with a great many camera models and to play with a wide variety of strobes, the market is relatively small and there is a lot of work to reverse engineer these systems to give you something that actually works. There are manual triggers available which cost quite a bit less, but still not cheap. If you can get an AOI housing for your camera then the built in triggers do save you some money.

It depends on the capabilities of their printing system. Ideally you would soft proof your images using the profile they use in their system. If you send Adobe RGB images into a system that can only do sRGB, you have no idea how it will impact colours unless you soft proof or convert to that profile. Googling Mixbook process says they use a CMYK digital press. Traditionally CMYK has a more limited gamut than what can be displayed on your monitor. Inkjet prints done on a high end printer can match 100% of Adobe RGB, however the prints produced are not really suited for books as they can be quite fragile. So in short given that they don't seem to provide soft proofing profiles, it would be best to follow their recommendations for sRGB.

Chris, I'm starting to get it. Thanks! Evan

I don't believe video editing places any special demands on a monitor as long as it has a decent refresh rate. Might be good to ask the question of an experienced video person though. A separate switch is indeed an option for and is a good idea if you are using two separate machines. Good ones can be pricey if they are 4K capable though. Many high end monitors have multiple inputs that you can switch between on the monitor itself, if you get one like that you can get a basic KM switch to switch keyboard, mouse and any other USB peripherals and they are quite cheap. For example there is a 32" BenQ model that has two HDMI and one display port and one of the Eizo models has two display ports. I would add that we spend all this money on the best cameras lenses, etc. but for 95+% of people we only ever view the finished product on our monitors. I know everyone has a budget they need to consider, but it seems to me cheaping out on a less capable monitor throws away a portion of all that effort to get the best image. There are diminishing returns of course, but I think full or near full Adobe RGB coverage, good contrast and good calibration facilities are important, and this means looking at the colour accurate series for your monitors.

Just found this video which explains the difference between the standards: Which Color Space should you use for Photography

Chris, I've been traveling for work the past few days, so while I read this a couple days ago I went back through the thread and realized I missed a lot. Your point of having one panel for calibrated work makes sense. It's not clear why you would need an Eizo for the second monitor? Wouldn't a less expensive monitor work fine for more pedestrian work? I looked at the 31" as I really want a bigger monitor for video editing. It's speedy! But if I keep my 27" HP monitor and just add the Eizo it won't be too terrible. One thing I like about the Dell is the ability to accommodate a MacBook and PC with a single keyboard/mouse. While not a requirement, I'd like to be able to continue to use my PC as long as it runs, while using my MacBook for Lightroom and iMovie. I don't think the Eizo will do this without adding a switch of some sort. Thanks again for all the info! I'm diving into the Image Science link. The BenQ SW321C seems like it might be a less expensive option to Eizo with a 99% aRGB, although I understand it's not quite at the same level. Also its video editing capability is not clear. One thing I'm seeing is both the Eizo and BenQ brightness is fairly low at 350 and 250 nits, compared to 1000 nits for the Apple Pro XDR and 400 for the Dell 52. I need to do more homework on the difference between sRGB and aRGB and P3. I hear you on the value of the aRGB blues for underwater photography, but I don't have a feeling for what the different standards really mean to images.

Thanks for these tips, Tim, and also for the article on building fiber optic cables! I'm going to be attempting to build my own spares in the near future and plan to make use of the garden hose protection sleeves, as well.

Just on the question of sRGB vs Adobe RGB, if you were ordering a photobook (eg. from Mixbook), would you (re)process the selected photos as sRGB, given that Mixbook recommends sRGB? Or would you leave them as Adobe RGB? And I'd appreciate any recommendations on photobooks anyone cares to make... Thanks

I'd like to be able to have the option of TTL but it's not a deal breaker for me, but shooting in manual without a trigger is important to me. I don't have a ton of space inside with my housing with a third party vacuum pump, and it would be an additional cost to add to the strobes. I think my decision will be pretty clear then, thanks for the great help.

Thanks all. Appreciate the input. How are Eizo monitors for video editing?

Hi everyone! Has anyone used these flashes? Are they good to start with? I'm planning on getting two for WA & macro. There are not much information about it on the internet. One day diving I met a guy who used one SF-01 strobe for his TG-7, but we didn't have enough time to talk to find out more about the strobe. Is it worth it's money? I'm afraid this is the only readily available option for me. Another option is Sea&Sea YS-D3 DUO. Does Sea&Sea TTL work from the box with 5-pin connector? I like that SF-01 uses 18650 batteries, but on the surface I found it better to use TTL in most cases, and I think it would be better underwater too. I use Canon R8 with 15-30 & 100 mm lenses inside Seafrogs housing. What are your thoughts?

Thx! It seems than to be an alternative to the nauticam fcp?! If my calculations are right the setup 8-15 plus 2 tc should be zoomed all the way to 15mm be a 50mm equivalent lens?!