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Thanks. I find HLG3 with a Rec.709 colour gamut (instead of Rec.2020, since I don't deliver in HDR) works great so far. No colour space conversion is needed other than the automatic HDR-to-SDR mapping, and there's plenty of headroom for grading. I have set a custom WB to 4900K, which is what is required with my mixed light setups after testing. This is a recent HLG-3 Rec709 clip, shot on a murky bonfire dive, on the Sony 100mm macro with the MFO-3: I'm definitely saving S-LOG 3 for ambient light work, or more precisely mixed lighting.

If you are looking at HF-1s then the comparable Retra strobe is the Maxi, not the Pro Max II. I just went through all of this and the winner was the Maxi. Powerful, tremendous range from lowest to highest power, useful video lights if into that and a great focus light. Can shoot a week, hardly an exaggeration, fast recycle and despite being on the larger side are neutral or even positive in the water. I am keeping my Inon S220 strobes for backup. I have used quite a few different types of strobes. I had, I thought an issue with one of my new Retra Maxi. I sent an email to Retra, they answered within an hour with a solution. Turns out the newest software was corrupted on some loads and they set it up for me to revert both strobes back to an earlier software. Problem solved, perfect! I do not think there is any other strobe company that gives you friendly and personal support. Same with Nauticam, while you may not get answers to emails often, there is just huge support, parts and service available for what has become the premium brand. One thing, for an OM based system, I might would go with the Backscatter Atom. A little smaller than the HF-1, still quite powerful, cheaper and supports OM Systems RC control for TTL. The Retras have standard, universal mimic TTL which works fine IMO. I was concerned about the size of the Retra Maxi when I first began looking at a new strobe. The HF-1 support only for OM Systems RC TTL turned me off to the Backscatter products pronto. It really turns out, in actual use, the Retra Maxi is just not that big. In fact, it maneuvers well in the water due to being neutral, the lithium batteries shoot and shoot and shoot, and my systems still fit into my Sam's Club Members Mark insulated bag ($8) like it was made for them. Nothing I have encountered with my Maxi strobes thus far changes my opinion of them, they are quite amazing. For the HF-1 or Atom, you may need 3D printed float collars or an additional float arm. With the Maxi strobes I was able to remove my outer float arms and use bare arms instead due to their buoyant nature. This, even compared to the diminutive S220 strobes.

He bought my Inon Z-330 v2 strobes. They work well, but not HSS. Not a need for him. I am using the Backscatter HF-1 for wide and MF-2 (now MF-3) for macro. Both are great. The Retras are always a very solid choice due to the circular flash tube. If I did not already have the HF-1s I would grab a pair of the new Retra Maxis and add a warming diffuser as needed. The high capacity batteries, overall power and built in video lights are attractive, especially considering they are not super negative.

Europe's 22% VAT is insane - makes everything so crazy expensive when visiting there. I will take a look at Retra's, the Retra Pro Max II and Backscatter HF-1 each have their own pluses and minuses, I will have to spend a bit of time researching each and then making a decision.

At this stage the OM-1 is still favourite for the smaller size and portability, I will take a look at the Nikon Z5 II etc, but the OM-1 + 90mm macro has some appeal to this old supermacro nerd. What strobes did your buddy set his rig up with?

OK will take a look at that too...

The Nikon could be an interesting option - a lot will depend on timing, at the moment I'm not sure whether it is going to take another two weeks for the shares that I am going to be selling to hit their peak - or is it going to take another 3-4 months until after the next set of quarterly financials are released... very hard to tell but they jumped 19% on Friday after the April-June quarterly report was released on Friday morning, and should go up another 100-125% from here now that they have proven that they can mine and process the copper consistently and successfully. Its a very good time to be owning shares in a copper miner.

Europe and Australia recently struck a trade deal making almost all import/export tarrif free. Especially strobes and accessories (tarrif codes 9006.61 and 9006.99) are now free of any tarrif charges except local GST which currently sits at 10% making the final price even more affordable than in Europe where average VAT rate is around 22%. Shipping is fast too, 2-3 working days to most locations from EU to AU. Repairs are rarely required but in case something brakes the turnaround would be 2 weeks from pickup to delivery. The same team that designs and produces the strobe will also service/repair it to guarantee the highest quality.

So I think that quote below sums it up perfectly Options are not a must, they are to be selected from based on needs. Slog3 has the largest color space from profiles offered on Sony cameras and so it is indispensable if: shooting ambient light with CWB and/or planning on HDR delivery Because it has the largest color space it offers largest room for color correction and unifying color look of multiple clips. It is advisable to shoot not fixed ETTR (+1.7 etc.) but to shoot based on waveforms as high as you can. Noise lives in shadows they say and with this approach it will become a non issue even at ISO32000 (max for my A1) which in Slog3 corresponds to like ISO 8000 in standard profile. But if you shoot with artificial lights with AWB then above mentioned doesn't mean that much except of it protects your highlights a bit more. But you could also expose for the highlights (think of reflections) and see what shadows will do. I must say after I switched to Davinci from FCPX my slog footage started to look much better. Now only figure out bullet proof HDR delivery for social networks. What you see on my instagram is often not what I see on my monitor as I try to deliver in Dolby Vision (insta doesn't take HDR10+ as YT does) and often it (i) fails :-) But when it doesn't it is awesome.

Hey @CCRphoto - I'm a long time Nauticam user with several Sony FF models over the years. I just helped a buddy set up a OM-1 in a Nauticam rig and I have to say it is pretty incredible. First, the size. While I enjoy using mine in the water, the smaller size of his rig is much more manageable on and off the boat. Yes, adding the strobes brings on additional bulk, but it feels more comfortable in use. My buddy is interested in an all purpose zoom solution so we opted for the 12-50 and the WWL-C. Again, very small overall. The WWL adds nice corner-to-corner sharpness, even at more open apertures with a 130 degree FoV at the wide end. I compare his images to mine using the Sony and WACP and they are very similar in quality. Nauticam has become the more premium priced housing, but the durability and support warrant the investment. In all, I agree with those above in saying the OM-1 would be a solid option. Enjoy! chip

If I where buying today and wanted something small that and high-level w/o ”breaking” the bank, I’d take a serious look at Nikons new little fullframe z5ii. Throw it in a Nauticam with the 24-50 and put a wwl-c on it and you have a very tiny package with a serious punch. For macro there’s the ”new” z105 lens. Smaller than a lot of cropped sensor alternatives.

In case you intend to buy new and wait for the OM1-III to appear: There are wild rumors that Nikon will offer an APS-C model based on Z8/Z9 technology this year - in case this turns out to be drue, this is certainly very worth a consideration for a small sensor UW-camera system... mirrorlessrumorsThe APS-C Camera Wars Are Here: Fujifilm X-T6, Canon R10...Nikon Canon and Fujifilm are about to unleash three new High End APS-C cameras! Fujifilm X-T6 is coming on September 3 Nikon “mini Z9” is coming in autumn with 45MP stacked sensor Canon R10II with newIn case you go second hand, anything starting from Olympus EM1II and upwards is a very good way to get started with an MFT system (upgrade Nauticam housing and camera at a later stage)... Wolfgang

I think that I am fairly sold on the OM-1 now, will take a look at Nauticam & Isotta housings if I get to the GoDiving show in Sydney in a month or so. Good to know that battery life of the OM-1 will meet my needs! I've got to do some research on Strobes. What are you using and how have you found them to be?

Interesting - will be interesting to see what the OM-1 Mark III is like.

Definitely will need an external monitor. I can see that digital will certainly have some advantages over a roll of 36! I don't think that GenZ would cope very well with film! I haven't looked too far into wet lenses yet, I think that will come later after I have learnt to use the system.

I think that the OM + Nauticam housing will have monitor capability but I will check!

Definitely not a manual focus masochist these days - my eyes are too old for that! I didn't realise that M4/3 was an actual standard - good to know. Great info about the lenses - cheers! Saves some trial and error!

Cheers Tim - all good information to know. Have you had a chance to take your OM-1 underwater yet?

Cheers - another vote for OM-1. Hopefully the Mark III will be released soon - bonus points if it fits the existing housing!

I like to keep things simple... - Nemo - Not Nemo

Hi Deemoo, I would first say that a TG-7 without a housing will be OK for a couple of years then the seals will fail and the camera will die. The seals under the top panel controls are a membrane seal that the buttons work through and eventually the membrane fails. I always recommend a housing even if it's the OM housing which works fine. Once you add a tray to allow you to add arms to hold your strobe the compactness advantage of the TG-7 without a housing is lost. In the manual the fine print says you should have the seals changed once a year. The housing has the facility to plug in fibre optic cables to trigger your strobes. then you just attach them to your strobes and you are ready to go. As for choice of strobe it's hard to go past the little INON S-220, it's small and compact and has a good beam as well as being quite powerful. If you still want to use the bare camera you can get little stick on ports for fibre optic cables you can place over the flash. If you use manual strobes you can set the flash to low power manual on the camera and any light leakage will be minor and unlikely to cause problems.

Welcome Steve, hope you enjoy being part of the community.

Tim has covered the basics of the case for m43. I would add that particularly in Australia also include Isotta in the mix, they are quite popular here and will be cheaper, how much depends on what model you are looking at. You can also opt for the OM-5 and the housing will be somewhat cheaper still, but the battery is smaller. My OM-1 is good for 3 x 1 hour dives on its battery and still has some charge left. Another option is second hand with an EM-1 MkII or MkIII which has most of the features of the OM-1 and you will save quite a bit on the housing. I wouldn't get too worried about whether a OM-1 III is in the works or not, it needs to be announced, then released then the housing manufacturers need to decide to support it and release the housing. I wouldn't expect night and day improvements, most cameras these days in spite of all the hype are incremental improvements. Regarding strobes, no matter who you pick service will likely be sent off overseas somehwere, better to go with a brand with good reliability reputation. on the OM-1 housing - it is 307mm across - noting the handles are adjustable in and out. The Isotta housing is slightly smaller.

Hi everyone, I thought it was about time I stopped lurking and introduced myself. I’m Steve, originally from the UK but now living in upstate New York. I’ve been diving for many years and, like many people here, the photography bug gradually became just as addictive as the diving itself. I spent nearly a decade living in Malaysia, which gave me the opportunity to explore many of Southeast Asia’s incredible dive destinations. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to dive places including Sipadan, Mabul, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Tubbataha, Anilao, Bali and the Similan Islands. More recently I’ve been exploring closer to home with dives at Blue Heron Bridge in Florida and a recent trip to Kauai, Hawaii, where I went expecting to spend the week shooting wide angle but ended up completely distracted by frogfish, harlequin shrimp and all the other macro life. I currently shoot with a Sony A7R V in a Nauticam housing, mainly using the Sony 90mm Macro, the newer Sony 100mm GM Macro, or the 28–60mm with a WWL-1B, together with a pair of Sea & Sea YS-D3 strobes. I’ve recently started shooting with the Sony 100mm GM Macro and have really been enjoying experimenting with it. There is clearly a huge amount I still have to learn, and one of the reasons I finally decided to join is because there seems to be an incredible depth of knowledge here. I’ve been reading WaterPixels for quite a while and have already learned a huge amount from many of you, so I thought it was finally time to join in rather than just searching old threads whenever I had a gear question. I’m looking forward to learning more, sharing a few images and trip reports, and hopefully contributing where I can. Thanks for having me! Steve

The issue I have with many Sony cameras is the slow sync speeds and always on TTL flash. The Sony A7cii has a 1/160 sync speed in FF and 1/200 in APS-C mode. Most Canon and OM seem to be 1/250 for flash sync. Owning both a Sony A6400 and a Canon R50, the sync speed difference is not huge but definitely an advantage to the faster little pocket rocket, that being the R50. And Canon color in jpeg and white balance is just better.