All Activity

Where I do most of my dives (the Pacific Northwest), 10-15 ft is considered good viz and once I drop below 50 ft, day and night are pretty much the same. I use a Kraken Hydra 1200 focus light on the hot shoe, but it's mounted with a long clamp to give a little more offset to minimize backscatter on the subject and keep the camera trying to lock focus on particles. With the long clamp, I can angle it to the left to allow me to see past it easily enough, and it's set to wide to give me some idea of what the strobes will pick up around the subject. I use a tight beam dive light in a soft hand mount on my non-dominant hand for spotting. It's an older light from Dive Gear Express, but anything in reasonable size range would work. Overall, this is a fairly minimalistic setup; I've considered more lighting but it just means more drag, more batteries to deal with, and more moreness to scare away critters and irritate my dive buddies. My strobes have modeling lights built in, which gets me the redundancy I need for safety.

Correct, Cinebags is no longer available, but the Kraken would be the direct replacement. They are exactly the same in every way (layout and size) but I have been told that the Kraken one is now of better quality. The cinebags one for the price had some hardware durability issues and really could have done some refinement. My gripes with it are: Stitching: I had to redo the stitching on the pockets, bungee loops, and handles as the stitching came off. Material for eyelets and bungee ties: Eyelets were normal metal and corroded. I had to replace them with stainless steel. Bungee ties frayed and pulled out of the bag, I had to sew them back in. Drainage holes: The accessory pockets don’t have a water proof zipper, so sea water is bound to enter the pockets and don’t drain (they start to smell bad). I needed to punch drainage holes for the accessory pockets. I wish they just used the old plastic mesh for this so the pockets don’t hold moisture. I am always having to wipe the inside of the pockets to dry and store at the end of the day. Everything else about it I love: the layout is well thought out and usable, accessory pockets for everything, base material is super durable and water repellent. It does fold flat. But is still like 2 or 3 inches thick when folded flat (Lots of material). But it makes it easier to fold flat and store in your dive bag versus an AO cooler.

It looks like the Cinebags cooler is no longer available, but the AO cooler is. I can't tell from the photos--does it fold flat? Thanks!

I think the “personal rinse tank” is many things. As a bag it can serve multiple roles: it’s my travel bag, boat bag, and rinse tank. I always bring it because it covers those three functions. I’ve used both the AO and Cinebags versions. I am the same. On crowded boats, I avoid the communal rinse tank since people often toss gear in carelessly. Heavy systems can easily damage mine, so I set up my bag in a quiet corner of the ship — away from foot traffic. That way, I can safely soak my camera without worry. Its main value, though, is as a protective boat bag. It shields my gear from impacts on the boat and keeps essentials organized—prescription dive mask, computer, phone, gloves, food, water, and camera—all in one place. For that alone, I think the soft cooler is worth it. In practice, I use it about 10% for transport, 80% as a boat bag, and 10% as a rinse tank.

Hi All, this is a general question to compare notes on how do you conduct night dives, as I am curious at how others do it. What dive/focus/modeling lights do you use? How have you set them up on the camera? How do you use them for navigation, search and modeling? On my own journey these are my notes: In my first setup, I used a single focus light (Light and Motion Gobe 1000 Wide) mounted on the hotshoe as my navigation, search, and modeling light. This worked well for navigation and search since the beam aligned with my camera’s view — I simply pointed the camera toward where I wanted to move or search. However, in murky water the in-line light illuminated suspended particles, causing the camera to struggle with focus. Additionally, because the light was hotshoe-mounted, it blocked my line of sight whenever I looked over the camera to visually recheck the subject. For my second setup, I moved the focus light off the camera and mounted two lights on the strobes (aligned with their direction) — Light and Motion Sola 1200 Photo. This gave good cross coverage and avoided illuminating particles directly in front of the lens. The drawback was navigation and subject search—because the lights weren’t aligned with my vision, it was difficult to peer into crevices or see far ahead when navigating. My third setup I decided to just have a single focus light (Light and Motion Sola 1200 Photo) on a triple clamp at the base of my strobe arm. This kept it clear of my line of sight when looking over the camera and angled enough to avoid lighting up particulate matter. For navigation and subject search, I decided to use a separate hand mounted dive light (generic dive light). This allows me to move freely without constantly maneuvering the camera — keeping it light and nimble until I find a subject, at which point I bring the camera into position. I am now thinking of optimizing the focus light to just light up the immediate working area and minimize disturbing subjects (red or low lumens) — the Sola 1200 is too bright on both the red and white light. I am thinking of getting one of the inon focus light as I heard they can go very dim. Any suggestions here would be happy to hear. While the dive light can be bright and provide good long range illumination — again any good suggestion on dive light would be appreciated. I am looking to the OrcaTorch D570-GL Light with Laser Pointer at the moment, thinking a laser would be helpful in pointing out subjects.

I've got a pair of YS-D2 and z240 I'm currently using.

You should have a good starting point with 4800K strobes. The idea behind warm strobe light is that to colour balance you shift to cooler colour temperatures. which gives you a deeper blue. I don't use Lightroom so can't offer anything specific there, though I would think any sort of profile designed for land use might be problematic in water. I'm not sure what the adaptive profile does, but I expect if the initial results are good it shouldn't matter - all the profile is doing is providing a starting point. I would suggest a number of things: Work in Adobe RGB, the blues are more extensive there, if publishing to web ensure a colour profile is included so it display properly. Don't convert to sRGB as it will crunch the blues Work in 16 bit colour - it gives you more latitude to work with, you can change to 8 bit when you save if you want to reduce storage space Have you tried camera matching options - it sets the image to what you set in camera. You could also try Neutral as the starting point for your own preset? What sort of display do you have? if it is limited to sRGB, it just can't display the deeper richer blues. I'd also ask what settings you are using in camera any settings are typically recorded and as I understand things applied to your image as a starting point. I'd also mention that ISO400 f8 and half power sounds like you should try to get closer, the Ikelite is quite a powerful strobe and people shoot at f11-13 regularly with similar or less powerful strobes. If you are not close enough the flash on the subject is diluted more with ambient light and the whole image needs to shift warm to get the colours you want on the foreground, but this warms up the blues.

Which strobe are you using?

Maybe try here for a reduction ring? Underwater Light and MagicUnderwater Light and Magic

I'm sure it's coming, I think these are custom-printed. Reach out on his contact form, he wrote back to me in an hour.

Strangely no Nikon / Nauticam model. I didn't even know Aquatica was still in business and there are models for that. Perhaps its because Nauticam includes a simple manual flash trigger in their Nikon housings with a similar infinite battery life.

I watched the UW Photography Show video an hour after it was posted, and it was in my cart before the video ended. Rechargeable manual flash trigger that uses lasers to fire the strobes. 200k flashes per battery charge over USB-C and it costs 120 UKP. He also makes beam restrictors and a bunch of other toys. I think Alex said something about gel fiber optic cables? The only downside is I only saw this a week before leaving for Anilao so it will have to wait for the next trip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDO6saYuXU https://underwaterlightandmagic.co.uk/

….. and let’s move on please, gentlemen. Nothing more to see here.

When you engage with any form of customer service with insults and aggression you are putting your emotions in the path of a solution. These organizations rarely hear from happy, fully satisfied customers. They get the people having problems and frustrations. Having worked on customer technical support in my career, I can assure you that being a jerk rarely gets the best results.

I forgot to add that if you use a Linear node and the GAIN wheel method, set the Luma Mix to 0.

I am sure that our moderators hate this discussion here, but since the first version of your (now corrected) post contained a strong offense against me, I feel the need to clarify the situation. Your post is full of half-truths and falsehoods. 1) The trigger which was ordered was advertised on the UW technics website exactly as I needed it. Therefore, if it was a "customized" converter, your website must have been wrong at that time. Worth mentioning in this context is that the first version of the TTL board had the wrong pin-out and was not compatible with the isotta bulkhead and you had to re-build it, thats the information I got from you. For me it seems that this converter was the very first of its kind you ever built, not a "customized version". 2) Its not true that the connection of my N5 cords were unreliable. After some discussions, we both agreed that this cannot be the reason since I tested 6 cords (4 from me, 2 from my friend), all showed the same problem, while another converter worked perfectly fine with the same setup and with each of the cords. I dont get it why you bring up this point once again which was already ruled out! 3) I already mentioned that the TTL converter worked with the oldest Subtronic Nova flashes but NOT with the newer ones. Your theory that the age of the strobes is the reason for the problem is therefore not true. 4) At no point was I informed that UW Technics had reimbursed my dealer. That wouldn’t make any sense anyway, since I hadn’t returned the converter. That’s why I don’t understand the procedure described here—and certainly not Pavel’s (now-deleted) comment that this was, in essence, a dirty trick on my part. Such accusations by a dealer against a customer in a forum are, to put it mildly, outrageous—potential customers can form their own opinion on the matter. 5) My messages you mention to be "inadequate" asked you for help to narrow down the problem together with Subtronic. Be honest and don't talk such bullshit. Here are the original messages I sent: "Its a pity that you ignore customers although you made money with them. Mr. Tick from Subtronic is still trying to solve the problem, he is reprogramming the Subtronic software in order to become faster. In other words, he tries to adapt the Subtronic flashes in order to make them york with your converter. It should be the other way round." "lets narrow down the problem. I am still experimenting here and in intensive contact with Subtronic. Mr. Tick currently tries to adapt the software for the flash by removing "pauses" (whatever that means) in order to make the flash faster. He asked me how many pre-flashes Olympus has. As far as I know, 2. But I read somewhere else that it depends on the situation. Do you know? Do you know if the pre-flashes of the old OMD E-M1 have a lower frequency than the preflashes of the new OM-1? Which serial numbers do your Subtronic flashes have? Today I found out that it works a bit more reliable (still far away from perfevt) with program 6 for Inon Z330. Maybe that helps for narrowing wodn the problem. All this information would be helpful." As long as there are no further offensive posts against me and no misrepresentations of the facts, the matter is settled for me. Regards, Jens

@Davide DB Thanks for the video, but since the automatic function in Pinnacle Studio has been working so well, I haven't been using a white card for a while now (even though I specifically bought white fins to use for that purpose). I just got lazy, I guess. I can't count on having a good white spot to grab from with the eyedropper, so until I start photographing my fins again, I won't be able to use that technique, even though that is probably the best way to go. @Rich W I did see that button, and tried it - and you're right, it does not work anywhere near as well as the function in Pinnacle Studio. In fact, it sometimes makes it worse. @gstrek Thanks, I will give that technique a try.

I bought the Wolfbox MF200 for my recent trip to Roatan, and really liked using it. Thanks @Chris Ross and the rest of you for that suggestion.

Please tell us all about the crystal balls on your camera! Do they create prismatic lighting? Fish attractors? Or just Bedazzling the camera? 😍

That would be heaven to me, I usually come up with way too much air. Lol...

I just bought a similar battery powered electric blower (the one that @Chris Ross suggested) for this recent dive trip, and really like it. I feel as if it does a good job helping keep the salt water out of the controls, and made the cleanup at the end of the trip much easier.

This has been annoying me for the best part of a decade so now im revisiting just thought id ask. Going back to basics after doing very limited UW photo for a few years and awaiting new housing. How are people getting nice blue water column shots? For reference im using Canon (RAW) and DS161 strobes (4800K colour temperature) and processing in Lightroom Classic. Whatever default picture profile i use produces different blues but none "nice" They all tend towards green or on darker/bluer ones the saturation looks hugely excessive and the whole image has a cartoony look (im not adding any extra). Typically shooting 1/160 to 1/250 and ISO 400 ish (any lower i cant seem to get enough strobe output. On 400 theyre 1 stop off full without diffuser. ish. subject dependent).. Well aware of shutter speed controlling the background water brightness but this is specifically the hue and saturation i can never get correct. WB is auto or daylight (but RAW so doesn't matter - i adjust after the event). I can get the foreground colours correct but not the ugly background. A few examples. These are raws just spat out as jpgs with no editing hence messy look, deliberately to show what i mean. First example the odd, saturated, fake look of the water behind. This in about 10m in indonesia. f/8 , 1/160th, iso400. Picture style "Adobe Colour" Here the light/green hue and so on. f/8, 1/160th, iso400 @ 10mm. Nusa Penida...So its blue in reality. Background just looks odd. Again saturation. f/8, 1/200th, iso400. Nusa Penida in about 15m Similans somewhere. Greeny, light blue. Not pleasing. 1/100th, f8 ISO200. Gili Air, Indonesia in 6m Plenty of other examples. Shots deliberately not edited to show the default issues. What are peoples workflows for a starting point "nice" blue? Ive tried standard, faithful, landscape (helps foreground, oversaturates background) with ideally Canon? What can i do to get the images less cartoony? Reduce foreground light too? "Camera Landscape" shifts towards blue but seems to over saturate at the same time. FWIW the new "adaptive profile" run gets the water to a nice blue on most of them but its a black box. I have no idea what or how its doing it so dont like it instinctively. Added bonus tips, less "vivid" or cartoony looking images. Which maybe lighting related.

I have been using a mini electric blower for some time now. I use it at the end of the dive day after a good rinse to blow the water out of the controls and surfaces. Not as forceful as using compressed air but very effective at removing water especially behind buttons and lens surfaces. I think I am going to purchase a small corded electric blower to replace the rechargeable blower to reduce my "battery" count as I want to carry such things in checked luggage.

Would have to bite my tongue over some of those things after quite a few seasons working there. Ive got a "hall of shame" list of divers grabbing/sitting/kicking coral and the like. Certain liveaboards are common offenders, as are certain groups. Rangers, yup park fees and sometimes work permits of the guides along with checking the number match. They also transfer the illicit alcohol bribes from the boat captains/dive centres to the shore that way. The worst offenders i see with cameras (and worse, selfie sticks) are guides. Again certain groups, certain boats. Want to take a group photo sat on a table coral at Tachai? Your guide will help with that. Strong current at Ko Bon? No issue - the guide will line you up nicely on the ridge all holding live coral so you can enjoy the show. You get the idea. Not all guides/boats - there are some very good ones there But certain ones and certain boats you can pretty much guarantee what you'll see underwater. The camera ban thing wont be enforced at all and is generally targeting the wrong group. I did consider putting the hall of shame into an article or photos online but realised i might want to go back there and dive one day so havent done so. The poor quality there starts with the guides and drops downhill from there to the people they supervise.

Here's my trip report from Divers Lodge Lembeh - they dont seem to limit dive times, you come up when you're air is down to 50 bar.