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Remote control has been a core technique for my UWP of salmon for over two decades. There are many pix showing set-ups on my web site at: https://www.salmonography.com/Salmonid-Topic/Photography-techniques/n-mnzBPB They are in chronological order with newer ones first. They show Seacam housings most of which are set up to use the Seacam remote control. https://www.salmonography.com/Salmonid-Topic/Photography-techniques/n-mnzBPB/i-ChFJBmw/A shows a set-up placed on the ground. In this pic you can see the bulkhead near the bottom of the housing where the remote is plugged in as well as the remote control “stick” at the other end of a 10-meter long cable, my standard length for remote control. The button on this stick works just like the shutter release button on a camera body (at least for Canon and Nikon, the brands I have used). A light touch on the release button wakes up the camera (if the camera is asleep) and turns on the autofocus (AF). A further push triggers the camera. As the AF technology has improved over the previous two decades I have had to adjust the timing between the first touch and the triggering to allow the camera to focus. I often took a full second way back when, following advice given by Chuck Westfall, the late Canon tech rep, on the net. Here is one example: https://digitaljournalist.org/issue0506/tech-tips.html This is not the one I recall reading which may have been on DPR or Photo.net. Regardless, it is important to finesse the AF system a bit especially if one is using a more computational type of AF such as auto-area which is what I use with Canon. Nikon came out with a similar mode starting with the D4 generation. The many shots on my website suggests this works. There are other makes of remote control besides Seacam. I have used the Aquatica remote with the Nikon D1x which I installed by disconnecting one of the N5 bulkheads from the hotshoe fitting and installing a cord with a fitting for the Nikon 10-pin socket on the camera. The Aquatica remote uses Ikelite cords that connect with the N5 bulkhead as opposed to the S6 bulkhead used by Seacam. The Aquatica release does not separate the wake-up-AF-on and the trigger functions; it is just a simple switch so I connected two of the three wires on the inside of the housing (that goes to the camera) and only used AF priority. Nonetheless the first shot in a series was typically OOF when using the Aquatica release. It might be better for video but I have zero experience with that. Reef also makes a release. See: https://reefphoto.com/products/zen_remote_release_handle. It is a bit cheaper than the Seacam and uses Ikelite cords. I have not only not used it I not even seen one in person. Hopefully someone will provide you with some info on this. The Nikonos RS had a remote control as well. I modified mine to work with the D1X because I could separate AF-on from triggering. The RS release is a piece of junk compared to the Seacam one. I will leave it at that. Cheers! Tom

So it appears that this port was designed to work with a couple of Sony cameras using a 1/2.3" sensor which is 6.2 x 4.5, so quite small. Typically UW ports are designed around a specific field of view on a particular sensor size, so it might struggle on larger sensors. Only way to find out is probably to try it.

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Have only used the wwl-c (nikon z24-50) but can say it is seem a little more prone to produce ugly flares than a lens behind a dome inme. Not a big issue as it can be mitigated by small angle adjustments when you’re facing the sun. Don’t know about the wacp or if it is a wwl (c) specific challenge. Sharpness should be pretty close, with an edge to the wacp, everything else being equal. Allegedly extremely tough to tell the difference in real world images though. @24 - 107 horizontal degrees and 130 diagonal

For those who have shot both the WACP-C and the WWL-1B, have you noticed any difference in flare resistance or overall image quality? I'm particularly interested in situations with the sun in or near the frame. Does one handle flare and ghosting better than the other, or are they fairly similar in real-world underwater use?

For those shooting the Sony A7R V underwater (or a similar Sony system), have you run into any issues using Lossy/Compressed RAW? In particular, have you noticed banding, lines, posterization, or other artifacts in blue water backgrounds when editing files, especially after significant white balance or exposure adjustments? Or has it been a complete non-issue in real-world underwater use? I'm asking mainly in the context of fast-action subjects such as the sardine run or Magdalena Bay, where shooting in Compressed RAW allows 10 fps, compared to 7 fps with Uncompressed or Lossless Compressed RAW. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone has seen any image quality compromises underwater that would outweigh the benefit of the higher frame rate.

So.. I found a real old Gates housing listed for 100EUR. I figured ill just buy it because the pictures showed it had a dome attached (pictures were bad) and my initial thoughts were to buy the Gates-Nauticam adapter, or possibly design and print one myself. So i went to pick everything up today, and the housing weights a ton, cant figure out what camera its for as it just says Gates. Old one surely as it has viewfinder for eyepiece. Could be just pre-digital even? Anyway i would have been happy with the dome (ended up being 140mm acrylic SP44), but the seller then said that i can take the other lens also. Hold on, there was another lens? So there was also a Gates SWP44, in great condition. And this got me thinking more, can it be adapted and used with 28-60 on Sony kinda like as WACP? Or is it just expensive piece of glass that has no use anymore?

Do you guys know if there’s any difference in image quality between the WWL-1B and the WACP-C, particularly when it comes to flare? Or is it the same?

Good news is those z330 are still a fine strobe and any camera from the last 5 years is going to be great.

Its an old threat but maybe someone tested this lens with the WACP-C? Nauticam had listed it as supported but could not find any reviews of this combo? Does anybody know if this combo is sharper in comparison to the SEL2860 plus WACP-C ?

Hi JYK A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. You’ll find we’re great at helping you spend money. Not so much at saving it! Enjoy the forum.

Hi everyone, I'm based in Germany and again I want to jump back into Underwater Photography. In the past I used a Sony A6300 with some strobes and diopters to shoot some macro. Since the camera was limited when it comes to ergonymics I sold my case and camera. Just keept my storbes (Inon Z330). I still shoot some videos and photos on my GoPro but i still want to come back to shoot macro with a good camera. So I will just look around and see if I can manage to save enough money to start again. Looking forward for some inspirations.

I would agree, though I have an 8-15 fisheye on m43 and it's effectively a fisheye and the first 2/3 of the range of a WWL/WACP and it can do the job of both. In Sony you can get this with the Sony 2x with metabones and 8-15.

Decent quality cards are reasonably priced these days as long as you are not at top tier speed, though i notice they have gone up along with many computer items recently. The bonus for faster cards is they will download faster if you have the right card reader. I've been using 200GB/sec sandisk SD cards and have 2 128GB cards and back up to a laptop daily. I could write to both cards in camera but generally don't bother and just keep some backup copies. You only need the really fast cards for high frame/sec shooting of full res images, even video is not that demanding in comparison, not likely to need it UW. My raw files are about 17MB (20MP m43 camera) and I can fit over 4000 images on one card.

Hi everyone, A question came to mind while thinking about a few shooting situations. Do any of you use a way to remotely trigger a camera or start video recording underwater? I’ve found myself wishing I had something like that a few times, especially for cameras left on the bottom or when trying not to get too close to shy subjects. Just wondering if this is something people actually do in practice, and if so, what systems are being used. Thanks!

A bit like Pooley, I shot RAW on a D500 with a 64GB card. I very rarely came close to filling the card on a 7-10 day trip. Again, like Pooley, I would download the card periodically onto a backup system (the excellent ClouZen Tainer - now burnt out along with the D500 in a Maldives harbour)

II find its rare I need to shoot at such speed that I need a faster card, so for underwater use I think most recent cards should suffice. I have 128gb cards and never come close to filling one on a dive, and that's shooting RAW on a Sony A1 Every night I download to a portable SSD and having sufficient memory on the cards gives me the option of leaving all images on the card whilst having the security of the files being on the SSD

what size SD cards do you tend to take on a trip and how many? Furthermore, is there any merit in buying the expensive (faster) ones for still UW photography? A 32Gb card should store 1200 or so 25mb .raw images from my camera which is possibly a whole trip but I am reluctant to leave it all on one I was thinking of taking one card per day and backing up to a portable HDD in the evening (sorry if this specific topic has been covered before) Mike S

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How often do boats 'nudge' the reef without becoming stuck and without any official report? In my experience, it is not unusual. Even for a highly skilled boat captain, there is always an element of randomness in the behaviour of the boat. Then we have to admit that boats are under commercial pressure to give us divers the perfect drop off to start a dive and then have to pick up the those who ignore instructions and surface too close to the reef or do not swim out after surfacing or limit the captains ability to manoeuvre by swimming into danger areas such as by the propeller before being given the all clear by the crew. Whilst captains bear ultimate responsibility for their boat, divers often do not help them to realize that responsibility.

I put together a simple DIY cover for my Nauticam CMC‑2 using a trimmed 70 mm vinyl end cap. Inside the cap, I wove bungee to form four small retention tabs that snap under the lens’ top ledge, giving it a secure, positive hold instead of relying on friction. It pops on cleanly, stays put during entries/exits, and the parking loop on the hinge gives me a backup in case it comes off before I can clip it off underwater. Surprisingly solid for a no‑3D‑printer solution.

Not the first time on that reef either. I was on board the Eco Explorer out there in 2006 and had a fabulous week. It went aground the following week. I believe it never returned to service after the accident.

I use a 10 second time out with the A7riii to lower use, plus C3 to swap to back screen.

As others have said, I have set a button to toggle between the EVF and LCD, and you need to disable the autoswitch which is normally useful on land. In addition I have also set a button to disable the display at all, in an attempt to conserve some battery - this was a fairly useful trick on the A6xxxx, and is faster and less error-prone than the global power switch. But to be honest, on the A! I haven't seen that much battery savings with that trick and can comfortably keep the camera running for 3 dives with the EVF set to 30 fps. Higher fps = higher battery usage. Update to the latest firmware as well, the most recent versions seem to have improved overheating and battery consumption compared to the first versions.

Totally agree. There seems to be one every few weeks.