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Couple of points: if you still decide to go FF A7C route, despite the other options suggested above: 1. Try to go for the A7CII (or A7CR). These have a much more useable EVF magnification than the original A7C (although the EVF is the same physical size). Plus the latest AF. You can use compact and relatively cheap APS-C lenses in crop mode, such as the Zeiss 50 macro or Sony 10-20, which would tick a lot of boxes. Or the kit lens with water contact options. Later, if you wish, you can go down the rabbit hole of FF lenses... or not!

On the issue of sensor size, my strong advice would be to be careful before you go down the FF route. It’s a very expensive, big and bulky route and wide-angle is still not straightforward. For most users, M43 or APS-C are much more flexible and less expensive formats and, as Bill points out, produce great results. I ?downgraded from FF to APS-C and have never regretted it.

I've had a Sea Frogs, never again. To my mind where FF excels is wide angle, although most can use the 10-17 Tokina which is well liked. MFT is probably the most versatile, has lots of quality housings and anything from the EM1 Mk2 or newer will have outstanding autofocus. The used market is your friend.

Nice video. Looks like Condor bank near Faial island about 2 hours away from the Island. @fruehaufsteher2 I was in Pico 2 years ago, try to book princess alice (4 hours from shore) but the weather was not favourable. Its requirement to make pre-dive so they see your skills underwater, the currents can be strong sometimes. The condor is shallow dive, theres no anchor line (the reef is about 180m) The princess Alice bank is about 32m they launch anchor line but if the place is too crowded the last boats will be anchored at the edge of the reef, and the last thing you want is to get your boat adrift while you are secured and line with sharks getting their bait at the end of the line. Both places are very weather dependent I recommend Haliotis dive center for this type of dives, its open sea, make sure the boat is not a small zodiac or is too crowded https://www.discoverfaial.com/experencias/mergulho-com-tubaroes/ ps: Santa Maria is another spectacular Island of azores, especially at whale shark season (august to October)

Wow - saw the videos and I'm still flashed. Congrats to you having such a wife.

My take is that the OM-1 type system will give you everything you need. As for sharpness, I do all the printing for the Southern California UPS groups for the the Long Beach Scuba show. Everything from cell phones, to TG to RX100 to micro 4/3 to Z9 to Canon R5. All prints are 16x20 inches and the micro 4/3 systems are clearly good enough to sit on the wall next to a print from an R5 and no one says, wow that Olympus photo is a piece of garbage. The lens systems for the micro 4/3 are great for underwater and the AOI housing so far (more than 700 dives has been bulletproof. There are now a ton of strobes that speak Oly RC mode if TTL is your thing and the system is small enough to make travel easy. Bill

Hello, I'm looking to by a 6" dome port, Isotta, Sea&Sea or Nauticam. IF it's Nauticam must have the bayonet screwed to its body in order to change it for a Sea&Sea one. If you have one of these domes with no scratches I'm willing to buy it for a reasonable price.

Well, perhaps the big difference with brands like Retra is that behind it there is a development made by photographs like Alex Mustard who knows what you need underwater. Also I guess that the fact that these strobes have a like slightly cold its because of its price. When you want to make a powerful "inexpensive" strobe you have to save money in some areas, and probably they have save the money in these areas. But, for its price, it is worth it if they don't get broken like the Sea&Sea D1, D2 and D2j. I had all of them, the most expensive strobes I ever had, they last 2 years at most.

Thanks Davide!

Hey mate! If you search for Of Shark and Man you’ll find it, it’s on loads of platforms. You’re right, the potential is always there but it’s not linked in the way people think it is. Just by introducing sharks to divers the risk will increase. The other incident you mention is a different part of the same reef and they have very different protocols there, not as defined or strict as those carried out by BAD. It’s the way a shark feed is executed that makes all the difference.

Inme it is a common misconception in popular and mainstrean media that the sharks behaviour is ”altered” or ”modified”. The truth is that it’s very difficult to alter the behavior of an animal who has been perfected through longer time than any animals on earth. What we do when we use fish scraps or plastic bottles is exploiting their natural behavior. Dangerous? It depends, but it is more dangerous than when there’s no baksheesh.

I’d be very interested to see that documentary- is any part of it available online? As for associating divers with food, maybe not, but the potential for things to go wrong is clear. In this video from the same site, a very large tiger may have just been “investigating” but the consequences could have been very serious. Beqa interaction gone wrong I’m happy when they stay 20’ away!

The backscatter MF-1 had the 5 button pushes. We knew about it and complained to Berkeley about it but at the time it was really the only choice for ergonomic small strobe and snoot. They listened for the MF-1 but I think some lights still use it.

Hey all! Last year I upgraded my set up to a RED and have an almost full cinema camera set up for underwater for sale. I've used this set up for broadcast and large client work and it is outstanding. Includes: Panasonic EVA1 Cinema Camera Nauticam Housing for the EVA1 Atomos Shogun Inferno Recorder Monitor + accessories and carry case Nauticam housing for the Shogun Inferno Batteries 5 SSDs 2x 128GB Angelbird SD cards SDI Cable Various extras. Basically, the only things you'd need to add are an extension ring and dome port and it's ready to go. The HDMI port can be a little iffy sometimes but it's set up for use with SDI so this was never an issue for me. I'm looking for £5000 for the lot or the best offer. I'm looking for a U.K.. based buyer ideally and I'd rather it went to a good home with somebody looking to upgrade who would appreciate it rather than sit in the pelicase not being used. I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm based in York.

Just opinions. The TG is a most unimpressive thing. I would not purchase an expensive camera and put it in a cheap plastic housing (Sea Frogs). I doubt anyone but pros really needs a FF camera. But we want what we want and can figure out a way to justify it. I also doubt you will see much difference in images with a MFT vs a APS-C. Either of which are huge sensors compared to a TG. Your image softness with the TG could be the result of many factors including the inability to control shutter speeds. By the time a housing is outfitted with a wet lens, a dome port or macro port, dual strobes and supporting arms, tray, focus light and floats then the size difference between MFT/APS-C/FF begins to disappear. Yes, FF is definitely bigger and heavier and more $. But there are some fairly small FF cameras out there. Here is my tiny little Canon S90 in the equally minuscule FIX housing with twin strobes and floats and a tray.

I made a feature documentary about this very site and the story behind it, I also know the diver in the photos. The sharks there are conditioned to behave a certain way under a certain set of circumstances but I can tell you from experience having tested it myself, it hasn't impacted the sharks natural behaviour at all. I would dive that site on non-feed days to examine the sharks behaviour to answer this very question and you couldn't get the sharks to approach any closer than within 20 feet. They do not associate random divers with food.

Like underwater, more or less 😛

Really nice! I love the soft highlights and the colour is beautiful! The Azores is an amazing place

Hi David, Welcome aboard!

I know this is a sensitive topic, and I’m not here to judge anyone. I know many people in this community enjoy these dives and will keep doing them. I’ll admit, the photos you can get are amazing and it's very tempting, but personally, I’ve decided not to do them. We often talk about how photographers (or simply divers) affect the ocean. For example, everyone seems to agree with the new rules in Thailand about diver experience, or the fact that we can't wear gloves in the Red Sea. No one complains about those rules. But let’s be honest: shark feeding changes how these animals behave. In the end, it’s all part of what we call human impact on nature. The classic justification for these dives has always been that they help debunk negative myths about sharks. But guys, we are all adults now and it’s 2026. Does that still make sense? To change the subject, Shark Week, which used the same justification, continues to cause a lot of damage IMHO. I’d love to hear what you think about this 😇

Hi, my name is David, I'm an underwater cinematographer and DoP from the U.K. working in the industry for the last 15 years. Great to meet you all! :)

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It wasn't... good for the diver... no?

@tailwind_marseille First - you are headed down a path many (many) of us have followed. Virtually all of your thinking to this point is well thought-out. Just a couple of things to consider: - you mentioned you were snorkeling with a TG-6... that may be part of the issue to consider. Getting crisp images when snorkeling is often even harder to do than while scuba diving. Much of the time you could be bobbing around on the surface, that motion impacts your images. In addition, most snorkelers shoot down, whereas most divers are shooting either even with a subject, or slightly up at a subject, which helps tremendously with ambient light (and perspective). Don't underestimate this, many of the best free-diving images taken are shot from this perspective. The TG-6 is a very reasonable u/w camera, especially shooting macro (small subjects), but the camera is subject to movement (leading to softer images). There are a number of reasons to advance beyond a TG-6, however understanding your use case(s) is important in understanding what kind of u/w camera system is going to work for you. - The other thing which you seem to already be considering is adding strobes. These will help you "freeze" your subject in the image to help get the sharpest image possible. That will come down to the interaction between the focusing ability of your camera & lens choices, shutter speed, and your strobe(s) ability to add light on the subject. If your primary use is going to be snorkeling, then I would be looking at a system that has both fast autofocus and the ability to adjust aperture & shutter speed easily - as you'll want to control the ambient light in every shot. If you are going to be using the rig mostly for scuba diving, then fast autofocus is a nice to have (critical in a few situations), but depending on the subject, you may be able to get away with slightly slower focus speed (as @Alex_Mustard mentions in the latest Underwater Photography Show podcast, some lenses, like the Sony 50mm macro lens, can provide great images, but are very slooooow to focus). To your specific question on camera - both my kids started shooting underwater with Olympus housed systems - it was a great learning platform. One has now moved up to Sony FF system, the other to a Nikon FF system, however both did well in u/w photography competitions shooting with that Oly (that then got handed down to a cousin who also learned using that system). It was excellent for macro (some could argue comparable to a FF Sony A7III with the 90mm lens), but was never a great w/a solution. Others here have had great success with the A6400 camera, so that could be a solid choice. If you are still considering the A7C this is a quick read (Sony A7C II Underwater Camera Review - GEAR TESTS | EVENT COVERAGE 2025 | BONAIRE - The Digital Shootout - A renowned annual event for underwater photography and videography enthusiasts.).