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This chart from the article is interesting showing recycle time compared to guide number - I have selected the fastest recycling strobes. It is possible that there might be some strobes that are even more suited than the Backscatter HF-1 for shooting say 10 frames per second continuously. The HF-1 tops out at around GN10 before the recycle rate suffers, whereas the Supe D-Pro doesn't suffer until at least GN18, and the Sea&Sea YS-D130R is at GN16. It would be interesting to test these three strobes for their ability to maintain a continuous 10 frames per second.
Today
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Hello Simon, welcome on board! Congratulations on your research on sharks and your work as a photographer. Ciao
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Hi all! I'm a whale shark scientist at the Marine Megafauna Foundation, a US non-profit focused on conserving endangered ocean wildlife species (with a particular focus on sharks and rays). Much of our research focuses on the population status of these species and, to that end, I helped pioneer photo-identification as a non-invasive research tool in sharks. I'm currently a Science Advisor to the global shark photo-identification library at Sharkbook.ai, which hosts ID photos of over 26,000 individual sharks across multiple species. That work also nudged me into underwater photography; I've been shooting with Sony full-frame cameras since 2018, and I work with Sony in New Zealand and Australia as a Digital Imaging Advocate, giving talks and workshops, etc. I've been lurking in the forums for quite a while; it's been fantastic to learn from you all. Looking forward to contributing. Very best, Simon.
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Simon Pierce changed their profile photo
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I too would like to thank Backscatter for their enormous amount of work putting this together! A ton of useful information there - some new, some confirming what we sort of knew (or suspected).
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For Sale A$3,000.00 Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australi…All items are now sold.
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Rumour also has it that Sony are going to be releasing a 10-? zoom fisheye sometime very soon.
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For Sale A$450.00 SydneyDon, Is it a genuine full hemisphere (i.e. optical centre is in line with port mounting flange)? If not, how far behind the mounting flange is the opt…
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It could be sulking but maybe a tiny difference in the o ring thickness, such as between metric and imperial can be an issue ... I had an Isotta OM-D EM 1 mark ii housing and used an Inon 45 degree veiwfinder.... worked great. Then I bought an Isotta Sony A7Rv housing and when I used the same viewfinder it had a couple of drops leak in past the viewfinder o ring. No harm done, but I thought there must be a fault with the round hole machined in the rear clear window on the Isotta housing. I happened to be visiting near south Lake Garda so I visited the Isotta factory with my housing. They tested the housing and Inon viewfinder together and identified the problem. The housing was perfect but the o ring on the viewfinder from new-to-me was actually not the correct size. It was original and in good condition but I had bought it from an on-line retailer. Somehow it was very slightly the wrong thickness (too thin) but the correct diameter. This was a small enough tolerance to work fine in one housing and not the other. Isotta also have Inon viewfinders as an option for their housings and very kindly tested and put a new correct o ring on the Inon part and re-tested. Despite the hassle and time, and the housing itself being perfect, and the Inon viewfinder not being bought through them or one of their dealers, they did not charge me anything. An added bonus was a really interesting tour of their small artisan factory. Lovely people with great products. Many hundreds of dives later it is still working perfectly.
Yesterday
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Want to Buy
Looking for a pair of Ikelite DS-series underwater strobes, preferably DS160 or higher. Very interested in a complete setup if available, including ba…
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robertop01 joined the community
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I have been testing the 7Artisans 10mm fisheye in the pool today between the rain and lightning storms we have been having for over two weeks in South Florida. All the rain water is clouding the pool and causing algae blooms.. The camera used is the 66mp Sony A7R VI, Marelux housing, Marelux 140mm dome port with the sun shade and 20mm port extension. Using the 20mm pushes the lenses closer the the port glass than I would like and with a 30mm extension the port shade vignettes noticeably. I am hoping Marelux will offer a 25mm extension which may work with the shade in place or at least greatly reduce vignetting. At some point I will try the 30mm extension with the shade removed. All images are full frame and shot at ISO-320, A-priority, at F/8, F/11 and F/16 for splits. When the lens is set on A for aperture control from the housing (without a gear) the lens reverts back to F/2.5 when shutdown and turned back on. For a bit of size reference the pool light is 15cm (5.91 inches) across and the closes shot is with the port touching the pool light. Like with all fisheye lenses shooting a flat wall the center is sharp and the edges and corners are soft. The pool jet (round white plastic) is 5.5cm (2.17 inches) and the closest image is touching the jet with the dome glass. The pool thermometer is 1.5cm (0.59 inches) across where it says patten pending. It is clear to me that as reported by YouTubers the lens is quite sharp and is clearly a great budget choice for an AF lens V the AF zooms. Build quality also seems good and the lens is a bit on the heavy side.
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Browning Pass is full of jellyfish this week! It's been years since I've encountered a Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens) up here and this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm, WWL-C, f10@1/200s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobesBrowning Pass is full of jellyfish this week! It's been years since I've encountered a Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens) up here and this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm, WWL-C, f10@1/200s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes© @David_Hicks_Wild_Images
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Browning Pass is full of jellyfish this week! It's been years since I've encountered a Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens) up here and this is the most beautiful one I have seen. Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm, WWL-C, f10@1/200s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes© @Dave_Hicks_Wild_Images
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Welcome to my world
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For Sale A$250.00 SydneyDon Wally here in NC USA . wreck and big animal diving since early 70's. kind of like me ... early 70's. I dove a nikon d200 and then d300 wi…
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A funny video and crazy use of video with an AF demonstration 😁
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How about over 70 and still diving?
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Thank you Backscatter for all the work that went into this -- it's really an impressive and useful data set for the community, and responsive to some of our comments going back 2-3 years when Backscatter started doing this testing but published it strobe-by-strobe in a less easily comparable manner. I see no reason to doubt the impartiality, as the results accord to the testing many on this forum have done, and my own testing of the HF-1, Apollo III, Inon S220, Ikelite DS230 and UW160 from 2024. For what it's worth, I think their methodology is about as impartial as it can get. Inevitably with comparison testing choices must be made about methodology (e.g. how to test recycling times, color temperature, beam spread) and I think they made good and defensible ones that have created the best data set out there on this topic. And importantly, a data set that simply didn't exist before, for which I think much recognition should be granted. A few observations that jumped out at me as interesting (my own earlier testing pointed in this direction, but it's great to have it confirmed in a quasi-lab enviornment with the right instrumentation!) Color temperature is a spectrum, not a point reading. It seems all of the strobes pretty much get cooler at higher power outputs. There's nothing magical about the Seacam 160d -- despite it's historical mythical status for light quality :) Color temperature, output, beam pattern -- newer strobes match or exceed all of that, which is great, because it means we can pay significantly less for great performance. The Inon S220s are really impressive for their size, weight and boyancy characteristics. It's hard to do better without doubling the travel weight.
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I’m a coffee devotee - some would say a coffee snob. Some years back I bought a pretty expensive espresso maker and grinder which I use several times a day. After lots of practice and tweaks, I can pull a pretty decent espresso 95% of the time. But….. if I am away for a few days, the next time I make coffee, it’s not, well, it’s not the best. I swear the machine sulks. I talk to it, frankly, plead with it - and batch 2 is usually back to full form. What has this to do with underwater photography? Having lost all my camera gear, I’ve been on a rebuild with an OM-based M43 system and, a first for me, a Nauticam housing. I was 26-years a Subal man. I bought a new Nauticam flatport but went for a secondhand Zen 100 domeport, in excellent condition, from a totally-trusted member of Waterpixels. He hadn’t used it for years and was happy to sell it on. When it arrived it was the final piece of what is always a complicated jigsaw of equipment. I was delighted. Put the camera in the housing, a little lube on the port o-ring and pushed it into place. It wouldn’t fit. Odd, I thought. Remove clean, replace, push. I could not get the port with the o-ring far enough into the housing throat so the Nauticam locking mechanism would engage. Let me say at this stage that, over 26 years, I’ve fitted loads of ports: domes, flats, megadomes, Zen, Subal…. my Nauticam flatport. I like to think I know what I’m doing. Remove o-ring, try without o-ring, no problem. Fit o-ring, slight lube again. Nope. Wouldn’t fit. Frantic WhatsApps to the seller. Loads of helpful ideas, photos, images. Nope, It would not fit. Email to Zen. Head scratching all around. Leaving for a dive trip in a few days time, I was facing the possibility of no wide-angle capability. Argh. A call to my nearest Nauticam/Zen dealer - Onderwaterhuis. Bring it in, they offered. 90 km drive. Their Nauticam specialist took one look, removed the o-ring, lube, placed it back - and pushed. Nope. More head scratching. Fitted without the op-ring. Clearly nothing wrong with the port, nothing wrong with the housing, nothing wrong with the o-ring. One more time, talking to the domeport - come on, you can fit - and bingo, in it went. It’s now as easy to fit as it should be. Push and lock. So what happened? The domeport hadn’t been out of a cupboard for some time. Was it sulking? Talk to your gear nicely. Be wary of sulking domeports. They cause panic. Big thanks to Onderwaterhuis.nl! (one of our supporters) Espresso, anyone? -
I have a Sony video camera and underwater housing if you are interested. You can email me msg.david.hale@gmail.com and we can discuss if you are interested. Where do you live in Italy? I was stationed with the US Army between Livorno and Pisa in 1980-83.
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WaterPixels is getting ready for Members Choice, and the new homepage will support it when we go live. (Forums will stay as is with no changes.) What’s coming Each month, community likes on Showcase photos will decide the top images. On the 1st of the month, we count likes from the month before and place 1st (Members Choice), 2nd, and 3rd. Those photos will be featured on the new homepage, and winners can receive award badges. Nobody picks winners by hand — the likes do. We’ll also introduce a Yearly Members Choice, based on Showcase likes across the full year. We’ll also roll out a new, easier way to like Showcase images (Member Showcase Review). Your existing likes are kept — current like history carries forward. Showcase rules (in place now) Up to 5 Showcase photos per calendar month (multi-file uploads use only the slots you have left). Delete frees a slot for that month. Deleting also removes that photo’s likes, so they won’t count toward Members Choice. You can’t replace the photo file on edit (caption/credit only). Need a different shot? Delete and upload a new one. Member Albums stay unlimited and do not get counted in Showcase. What to do now Keep uploading to Showcase within the monthly limit, and keep liking photos you want to see on the front page. When the new homepage and Review flow go live, Members Choice will use that same like activity — with winning photos featured on the homepage and badges for the placed shots. Likes will also feed toward Yearly Members Choice. More details will follow as we flip the switch. Questions welcome in this thread.
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Establishme joined the community
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Thank you Dave, Eventually I would be interested in a real cinema camera.
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https://xray-mag.com/magazines/142 https://xray-mag.com/magazines/142 Sorry little late. -
I want to thank Backscatter Photo for the most informative and fact based comparisons on strobes ever. We can quibble over details that might subtly affect the results here and there and improvements in the graphics but regardless, huge effort, thank you..
