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Hi CCRphoto I've just gone down a similar path myself and the criteria you outline are pretty common ones. A good number of members - especially we, errr, more aging ones, are looking to "downsize" and have less gear to carry. I gave up on FF camera bodies (Nikon D800) in 2017 as having to lug a 230mm domeport - or some sort of big glass wetlens - was becoming a pain. I settled on the D500 APS-C system which, generally, allowed for slightly smaller bits of gear. I lost all that recently so had to rebuild from scratch. I'm not at all persuaded by the marketing charms of needing FF and high megapixel camera bodies for underwater. I sell lots of images and no-one has ever grumbled that they are not produced by a FF camera. I reckon 20MB is plenty unless you want massive prints or are shooting purely commercial imagery. Topside is different (no ports!!). Listening to folks here, I came to the conclusion that the OM System plus Nauticam was the way to go. The OM System is compact and light-weight but still has 20+MB sensor. Nauticam has become, perhaps, the system most used by people who want aluminium housings, providing good support and innovative products which are continually developed. I've now acquired a housing, 45-degree viewfinder, arms and clamps, N85 WA and macro ports, an OM-1ii camera body, and Panasonic 8mm FE and Olympus 60mm macro lenses. The housing is smaller, slightly, than the (Subal) D500 housing, the camera and lenses significantly smaller than FF or APS-C (almost like back to the OM-1 and OM-2 days of the 1970s). But put the whole package together, add two Retra strobes, and weight and volume wise, they are not that much different to my APS-C system. But then maybe I just need to give up trying to pack everything into a heavy Pelican 1510 case! Fibre optic initiation: yep, a definite must. I don't use TTL either but do want HSS. That rules out the Nauticam trigger. But both Turtle and UWT have compact triggers which do the trick nicely. Both are quality products with very good support. I can recommend either. Familiarity of controls: well if you've never stepped into digital, there is a big difference in the ability to customise controls. Effectively the camera body is a mini computer which you can customise to your heart's content. I doubt I scrape 10% of what they can truly do. I set mine to Manual exposure, AF in one form or another, shoot RAW, Auto WB and very rarely, burst shots (without strobes for, eg dolphins). The OM will let you set up a number of, effectively, customised setting folders so you a switch easily between one setup and another. Think one set of settings for macro, one for WA controlled by the flick of a switch. But there is sure a learning curve - even switching from Nikon to OM! But the basic "photo references" remain, eg, ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture etc. And, the most important thing, composition - which is what it is truly all about - is not digital! That hasn't changed at all. Hope this helps a bit! Good luck with it. They are not easy decisions for sure.

You have all successfully convinced me to go for something more modern than the Canin 7D, but I don't know yet what that something should be... so here are some criteria, and ask any questions because I'm coming from 35mm film days and camera specs were a lot simpler/different then! Something smaller than a large DSLR rig would sure be nice as I'm already carrying so much stuff when CCR diving that a large camera system just gets in the way. Having looked at the Nauticam port charts, a Micro four thirds system that uses the N85 ports seems like the way to go as there are a reasonable number of ports and lens combinations for Nauticam and other housings such as AOI in that size range. Someone mentioned in the other thread about the Canon R50, there doesn't seem to be a wide range of ports available for that one though. So I think that limits manufacturers to Sony, Panasonic or Olympus/OM - I've never used any of them so know absolutely nothing about them at all - in fact I have never used a digital camera apart from a phone one. So here goes... in no particular order - camera/housing must be able to use an external HDMI monitor - must be compatible with fibre optic strobe triggering - but I don't need TTL - I'm happy to buy secondhand - must have good low light autofocus - must have a good range of OEM and aftermarket lenses suitable for underwater photography - must have controls/ranges that would be familiar to an 35mm SLR user - e.g F2.8 to F22 or greater, shutter speed controls etc - must have really good battery life - must be able to produce a good quality image - not sure how many megapixels that requires? I've no idea what else are required as far as speccing a camera these days?

Guys, my question about CWB of FX5 wasn't as much about the mechanical process and how to hold the card (although that play role too) as about how and from what camera calculates it. Right now from brief mentions I found (and silly me there was FX5 in showroom near me couple days ago) it looks as if it calculates WB from the entire scene. Pretty much like Canon as recently as R5 did it from capturing the photo. Unlike your A7SIIIs and my A1 and somebody else's FX3s and R5iis where you have square box that you simply point at the middle of your white cards. So imagine 25m depth, colors disappeared, you have your white slate in the frame together with some white corrals in the back and now camera needs to calculate the RGB gains and how is it going to decide... Yes, shooting raw has greater flexibility but as you know from shooting raw images, which have far more flexibility than raw video, if you start on bad footing you are not going to catch it in post. Like shooting ambient in 25m on AWB good luck then in Lightroom... And so in cinema OS on fx6 you are supposed to zoom in and fill the frame with that slate. Which is like impossible with wide angle lens unless you carry a sail underwater :-) But FX5 presumably does not require that and analyze whole scene so that comes back to Canon's way of doing things in the past and its accuracy and challenges. And I am not even bringing out the fact that at depths we are at extended unpublished WB territories where cameras somehow calculate RGB gains but then only say "above 9900K" and "red max" 🤣

I think what I am going to do is forget the 7D idea, and instead come up with a list of minimum specs etc for buying a secondhand rig and see what you all suggest. See https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/3775-which-camera-housing/

Aloha and welcome @Deemoo

So you could see if you buy the viewfinder collar adapter to attach to your viewfinder this converts a 33205 into a 33203. Link is provided above. It's Nauticam 90156.

The 10-22 is 16mm equivalent while the Nikonos 15mm I understand has the field of view of a 20mm lens. If you want small these days for WA a fisheye is hard to beat, the Canon 8-15 will work very well in a 140mm dome. You can use the m43 fisheye lenses in the tiny Zen 100mm dome. You can also use the Canon 8-15 in the little Zen dome at the cost of a little corner performance. I use an Olympus OM-1 mated with an adapted Canon 8-15. Very flexible setup providing a full frame 180° diagonal fisheye with a 14-28 full frame equivalent zoom in one package. You can compare fields of view on a post I made using my setup here: I previously used an EM-1 MkII in Nauticam, haven't sold the setup yet but thinking about it. It's still a very nice setup and being mirrorless you can see the review in the viewfinder without taking your eye from the viewfinder. Very useful with macro.

That's great, thanks - now I have a new DIY project!

Yes, the format is really impressive. I was just pointing out that, even with the highest compression, the files are still about five times larger than what I currently get from my A7S III. That's already a significant jump in storage requirements. As tempting as RAW is, coming back from each dive with 100–200 GB of footage on average is quite something to manage, especially when diving frequently. Saved for special projects I guess.

Hi everyone, Glad to be here. I’m a tech, travel, scuba, and photography enthusiast who is always on the learning curve. Looking forward to joining the community and exploring the underwater world. Thanks for having me!

I am a Nauticam fan but, for reentry into a complex field and the fact that many (of us) have multiple systems this AOI Canon R50. Under $700 and get the camera from Canon refurb for a all total investment of only $1,000ish. Then spend the money on strobes (Retra Maxi) that you can grow with. And the WWL-1 is never a useless investment and show up used frequently as do the CMC macro lenses.

Yes, doing the white balance while holding a card and trying to hold the housing was impossible, lol... Here is a photo of the setup. It's just a cheap selfie stick off Amazon that had a 1/4 - 20 threaded hole in the bottom for the ball mount. Now taking custom white balance is easy as pie and it has made a noticeable difference in my footage. I used aquaseal to attach an old dive slate to the back of the whitebal card to stiffen it up a bit too.

Actually this is the first camera without insane RAW data rates. Raw data rate is comparable with the compressed H.264 and 265. Other raw flavors (Red and Prores) are around 1Gbps. Hence it's the first time that a raw is a viable option for some problematic shoots without taking a mortgage for media cards. Sony FX5 Codec & Data Rate Breakdown X-OCN LT (16-bit RAW): ~389 Mbps (at 24 fps) — highest quality raw option available internally on the FX5. X-OCN C1 (16-bit RAW): ~289 Mbps (at 24 fps) — balanced intermediate raw compression. X-OCN C2 (16-bit RAW): ~232 Mbps (at 24 fps) — maximum raw compression tier designed for smaller files. XAVC-I (All-I H.264): ~384 Mbps (4K 24p equivalent) — traditional heavy intra-frame codec. XAVC HS (H.265 Long-GOP): Varies down to lower distribution bitrates (typically 100–200 Mbps range depending on user settings) — significantly smaller footprint for non-RAW delivery.

I know someone who is quite happy with his lower tier Letonpower 15000lm lights. Definitely not constant output or high CRI but the price was right for a casual videographer.

I'm a huge fan of used shopping, I have gone through a variety of setups to find what I like (and in one case what I shouldn't have sold). But I'd draw the line at nearly 20 year old systems, especially ones which aren't coming with exactly the lenses I wanted.

I would love to see a picture of that contraption, as I also now shoot on an A7SIII and also use a partial Ultralight sled. I've been shooting in artificial light but it woulds way more practical than stretching a whibal card out with one arm like I used to on the previous camera. which comes at a price of a minimum of 65-80 GB of data for 10 minutes of footage in the lightest X-OCN LT 4k 60fps....

FWIW, I needed glass on a macro port replaced. My Nauticam dealer service guy did not charge for the labor, just price of glass and shipping. Said it would take about 10 minutes. Might be worth checking with your usual source of Nauticam (or whatever brand you have) to see what they would charge. I think shipping cost on a port was well worth avoiding the stress of doing it myself.

Yes, that is what I thought. It looks like a great camera to me.

Agree with all the above. I started with Canon FD series (F-1, T90, new F-1), then various iterations of the EOS series (EOS-1), DSLRs like the 6D/7D. The newer cameras, especially crop sensors, are smaller, lighter and faster. The lenses can be similar in size to the old EF lenses if you shoot full frame but can be very small if you opt for smaller sensors like those you find with micro-fourthirds. Autofocus and the ability to track subjects is a game changer. Amazing dynamic range is also a thing. Size and weight for travel is a thing. You’ll be able to make nice photos with the old 7D but you’ll be missing out of seriously excellent tech.

Custom WB could be a problem shooting in H.265/264 but in internal 16-bit linear X-OCN RAW video allows you to change and fine-tune white balance non-destructively in post without losing image quality.

Is CWB still a big deal when you're shooting in 16 bit raw as the FX5 does? I currently shoot with a Sony A7SIII and use CWB all the time but I have a selfie stick with a whitebal card on it mounted to my Ultralight camera sled. I set my lighting, push the selfie stick down, take a white balance, and then I am good. Super easy as a one man show.

Thank you. Yes I meant the collar is not long enough so cannot fit the retaining o-ring. This clarifies and confirms I currently have a 32205 but I need a 32203 to fit my NA Z8 housing https://www.nauticam.cn/upload/portal/20190124/201901241132017209.pdf My confusion came from the fact that the description for the 32203 says 'DSLR' which the Z8 is not so I assumed I needed a MIL collar adapter instead of a DSLR collar adapter. It looks like the old 45 DSLR viewfinder just works on the Z8 https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/3071-questions-about-45%C2%B0-viewfinder-na-32203/#findComment-20934 I will ask my Nauticam dealer anyway but I wanted to avoid the 'is not fully compatible' response as I understand this can be resolved by reducing the viewfinder size on the Z8 to small which has appeared in multiple posts already.

Aloha and welcome @Russell

In live view mode the AF in DSLR world outright sucked as it wasn't using PDAF but contrast detection. Up until Sony came with hybrid translucent mirror and we know where it end up. With mirror up there was nothing reaching PDAF sensors. Do not remember which models if any from DSLR world introduced PDAF on the chip...

Basically the only advantage of these lens if the reduced minimum focus but the WA lenses (Inon 165 and AOI UWL-03 become useless for infinity focus). If there is a good subject within the focus range (the jellyfish in the Nando's video) the blur/OOF effect could be nice but if your main subject is out of the focus range or you are simply panning and truck on the reef the effect is catastrophic. Guys, your tests are valuable and interesting. Please keep posting but we try our best to keep the forum slick and clean so that our member can find easily the content they are looking for. @BeppePADI please do not create a new topic for every new post. I'm continuously merging topics. We have this topic for all with and without wet lenses comparison. @Nando Diver I moved your latest posts here: that thread was about GoPro Lab fw and not wet lenses. Go Dive! 🤿