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Dry suit? Ha ha ha…. yeah, sold that. If it’s not 28+degrees you won’t find me there 😝Definitely feel the cold in these, errr, later years. Very tempted to add a heated vest to my gear.

Congrats guys!

You should try out Sydney diving, I started a gym program to improve leg strength and general fitness ( a gym junkie I'm not) makes a big difference, But diving in Sydney involves traipsing down to the entry 20m below by steep narrow steps. Diving dry means 15kg of lead, and my steel tank is 17 kg full. It keeps you in shape for traipsing through airports with all your gear. Summer diving is a comparative luxury with lead reduced to 8kg.

It’s ok. Once you hit the Big Seven Zero you realise you don’t need so much kit….. housing, two lenses, two ports, two strobes and a snoot. And you’re done 😝

At the age of 60 (turned 60 few months ago), the sea still feels like home for me. I first went beneath the surface at 12, following my father into a world of silence and light. And, really, I never truly came back. More than 3,5000 dives later, I still find the same thrill in each descent, even though i am 50+: the calm before immersion, the dance of color and motion (not only in Asia, but even in lakes in Switzerland), the quiet connection to something vast and eternal. What keeps me diving being 50+ is not only the beauty I find down there, but the humility it teaches. The reminder that life is fragile, magnificent, and fleeting. As long as I can breath, I will keep returning to the water. 60+, 70+, 80+.... It’s where I feel most alive, and where, one day, I hope to rest for the last time. I mean, my ashes.

I'm thinking more along the lines of an emergency spare. I was doing a single day's diving ahead of a work trip one time and left my cables behind. Found a store selling toslink cables and was able to rig them up and they triggered my strobes fine. As for a supplier I found this listed on Alibaba, seems like a cheaper version of the MCQ-1000: www.alibaba.comAsahi Kasei Mcs-1000p Multi Core Fiber Optic Cable For Se...Asahi Kasei Mcs-1000p Multi Core Fiber Optic Cable For Sensor Field - Buy Mcs-500p-10 Mcs-1000p Mcs-1000p-13 Shmcsn-1000p-18-22pf(eb) asahi Kasei Sensors Mcs-500p-10 Mcs-1000p Mcs-1000p-13 Shmcsn-1000 The spec sheets I found for this and the MCQ-1000 are identical apart from The minimum bend radius, it's 1mm for the MCQ1000 and 2mm for this product 613 cores versus 217 cores. They report the same attenuation spec for LED light. Looks like you would need to buy a roll but the price is about equal to two finished cables.

Oh how bghazzal writes what I believe too! I look back at every path I RAN down for the next shiny toy I imagined would propel my images into the stratosphere :) Only to end up selling 90+% off after frustrating myself....... Once you find your magic formula of shooting (style or whatever you want to call it) just go spend more team diving and shooting. In 1990 when Phil Rudi, I and a few others got to spend 5 days with David Doubilet in West Palm Beach one evening at dinner I believe one thing he said stuck with me. He was talking about what National Geographic gave shooters once committed to a story. "Time in the water was more valuable than anything else." That idea has stuck with as I traveled, photographed, sold photos, used them to promote hosted trips and more. I"m lucky to been diving long enough through the go go years of scuba growth. Dive computers, BCDs, better thermal insulation and especially digital imaging.....I could go on and on all I've seen in 55 years of diving. It still thrills me keeping me enthusiastically "in the game". I won't fault anyone buying what they want, but when I see many continue to be "getting ready" and never using said equipment enough to get their desired images or videos it does sadden me a bit. So get out there more :) David Haas

Thanks Tim, I have a couple of INON made fibre optic cables that I've been using for while, they have the INON screw mount at the strobe end and the INON made right angle attachment on the housing end. I can't say that I've ever needed to burp them, they get connected up before the dive and removed when I soak the camera post dive, I break the whole rig down to store it away till next dive. When on Liveaboards/dive resorts I do similar but without removing strobe arms. I do use the Olympus mini flash for my trigger which has plenty of light so may be able to get enough light through any bubbles that form? Most of my dives are shore dives in Sydney, rig strapped on and getting in and out over rocks with a bit of swell thrown in for good measure. My INON cables have stood up well so far, I don't attempt to attach them to the arms at all and they seem to survive just fine, the only time I broke one was when I handed my rig to someone else getting in. Occasionally one of the S&S connectors at the housing end pops out but mostly no problems apart from the strobes causing the arms to flop down while walking in/out from site. For cable you may be able to use TOSLink cables, I've found that the square plugs will fit into S&S connectors after shaving them a little on the corners of the square plug. They are commonly used in home entertainment systems so might well be a lot more available. Googling trying to find the MCQ-1000 fibre is frustrating, all the links are for armoured communications cables with lots individual fibres inside and only one or two pop-up for that product and they are in the US.

I run phones until they die and buy cameras/housings at least 5 years old. I look at the images they created when new and can tell I've got a ways to go. I'm not exactly well liked in camera or dive shops.

Will do. I've resigned myself to expecting bleaching just about everywhere, given the global mass bleaching event: Seeing images of bleaching across Cape Kri a month after we were there last fall, and saw healthy corals, was gutting. But we're both optimistic by nature, and whatever the hard coral situation the reef fish, macro life and occasional whale shark at Pemba will give us joy.

I might be wrong (or just old and confused), but it seems to be about people who started diving after 50, not those still diving but who started earlier.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

@Gudge Congratulations on the result, and the photo is truly stunning! It looks like a painting! Bravo!

Cracking piece, Ben. Thanks! I’m no video guy and picked up a lot from this. It's well worth a second and third read as you’ve flagged up so many issues. Much appreciated.

I think the article was quite clear that the filters remove light and this is their limitation. The article also goes into having the right sort of red filter that doesn't just block everything below red but transmits some deep blue as well to help get nice looking water colours. The article's primary focus is on the limitations of the auto correct algorithms that artificially boost red channel which means you can't colour grade them afterwards as it brings on strange casts and fluro colours. This makes sense as the grading in the video software assumes certain things about the light spectrum and all falls apart if the auto correct has done strange things to the colour data. It seems to me that the primary problem in processing video from such cameras without filters is the inbalance between the channels, the red channel has much less information in it than the green and especially the blue and without a filter red needs significant boosting, while trying to control the blues and greens. When you add a filter you end up with a balanced histogram but with a bit more noise in all the channels. You have to stretch each channel a little bit less and this is generally good for not having the image fall apart. Having them all even makes processing such as noise reduction easier as each channel needs the same treatment In stills this basically means the RGB channels when viewed in the histogram are all full, So each of the RGB channels runs all the way from 0 to 256. If the red data is all bunched at one end it breaks apart as it is stretched to fill out the histogram. This is effectively what you are doing when you are trying to colour balance an image. 10 bit vs 8 bit helps a little with this but can only do so much. For all this to work properly the right filter is vital it needs to attenuate each channel by the right amount so you have a good histogram in each channel and it is balanced.

I can still order some if there is some demand. BVA

We are booked to dive Pemba next month. Going out with Afro Divers, which have good equipment and a good reputation. I'll report back.

Pemba Island in that region also interesting. Was many years ago, spent a week on Manta Lodge on its north tip. Very different to Zanzibar as it sits outside the continental shelf and has very deep waters all the way up to its shores. Kind of fjordlike ”gaps” that cuts into the island with 100+ meter deep walls. Pemba channel 1000 meters deep. Don’t know if there are any good DC:s now. Mafia and Pemba would make an interesting combo.

Images and thoughts on trying (pre-production) Retra Maxis in the Maldives in March/April. Quick summary - performed very much as you'd expect them to - mega powerful, good ergonomics. With specs that are very similar to Backscatter HF-1 (Retra can claim to be the most powerful strobe on paper - but basically max power on these is all but the same as FULL +2 on HF-1 in the real world). Dry weight same as HF-1, but fatter, so much closer to neutral underwater. Quality of light not as nice as Retra Pro Max, but I still produced very pleasing images (just a bit more care needed on strobe positioning). Alex

Is there a solid statistical analysis available how the numbers (e.g. 16 boats lost in 5 years) compare to other regions of the world? I mean that one needs to normalize these numbers to the sheer number of diving vessels that cruise in the Red Sea - I guess the number of vessels cruising there is many hundreds - with the number of vessels that cruise in other regions (usually a few vessels per region - and also there boats are lost from time to time). Only then a comparison of the numbers of accidents makes sense... My personal observation is that the safety protocols in diving vessels are poor in Egypt, but I did not observe that these protocols are any better in other regions of the world (e.g. our Safari boat in Raja Ampat 2020 did not even have a second emergency exit from the lower deck in case of fire)... Wolfgang

Hi everyone, We don’t typically attend dive shows as exhibitors. The costs for these events can be quite high, and we believe our resources are better invested in developing cutting-edge strobes and providing top-notch customer service. That said, some of our partners do represent Retra at these events. For example, PanOcean (Roland and Claudia Conrad) was at BOOT and carries our products. They’re a great source for anyone who wants to see Retra gear up close or discuss it further. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to us directly, we’re always here to help!

Love this eye-opening piece Davide, and love the accompanying footage. I've never seen Italy underwater before, so thank you for sharing this. This year almost 200 sq ft of marine life vegetation literally disappeared where I lived in less than a week. I raised my voice of concern but my local authorities weren't interested. It is lovely to see others caring. Keep up the great work Davide of showing how beautiful our underwater world is.

Wow, there's just no words for how amazing this piece is. Huge well done Ben and thanks for sharing it with all of you. Maria

@Davide DB heres link of 4 raw videos made today with gopro 13 2x standart videos 2x log videos No filters, no AOI external wide lens, just 2 x dive lights 2500 lumens each I can't get accurate colors with LOG compared with what im getting with standart/Natural , maybe you can try to calibrate the LOG videos and share the results back. Looking forward to see the end result from GP-LOG https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4vvbaqd9ob7o59943mx9h/AIeRNqsh42ruXzktJhjkHgc?rlkey=pk1zpi0xxwc2dpu7xxq9yqpud&st=th25ealw&dl=0 color GP-LOG 8:7 4K60 wide WB auto iso 100-400 ev comp 0.0 Color Natural 8:7 4K60 wide WB auto ISO 100-800 ev comp -0.5 CIAO

The image is backlit with the strobes pushed well forward of the end of the EMWL objective lens and angled inwards and backwards. The outer surface of the soft coral then acted as a diffuser which created uniform lighting inside the soft coral.

Sea lions ate three cables in a single weekend?! Fabulous! Thats a classic line right there, Dave. Right up there with Freddie Star ate my hamster. Totally agree with you on the merits of straight vs coiled.

Coiled cables seem like an instinctive recall to old, coiled telephone handset cords. They don't provide any real utility used with camera strobe arms. And if you have anything but the shortest arms, they actively get in the way. Straight cables are cleaner, more durable, and less likely to get tangled. I stop using them after sealions ate three of my coiled cables in a single weekend, and I decided to DIY rather than pay hundreds of dollars for replacements.

Oh wow great piece Ben. I've been struggling with this for awhile I'll definitely be coming back to your article several times to fully digest 🤔

This is very much true, more so in bad lighting environment but then even custom WB on a full frame ambient footage won't do wonders as for red. See below for a good light environment sample. This is also very much true. However the big Q is a kind of footage achievable in poor light environment with any sensor and whether further light penalty stemming from use of red filter is beneficial for such footage overall. Here again, in channel theory all very true except of 10bit importance compared with 8bit. 10bit will allow for some tweaks unavailable to 8bit footage and so the results may surpass footage taken with red filter because with decreasing light the action cam footage is getting mushy (especially in shadows) very quickly. Here is example I found from my recent Halhamera trip. I had my Action 4 Pro running as chase camera for when I took stills but it seems they were running simultaneously with A1 on video too :-) . The depth was 17 meters and the skies were not blue, it was off season Indonesia light overcast at around noon. First is screenshot of unprocessed footage side by side next is footage with tweaks and here is resulting video with settings in description:

This is how I have my arms setup with velcro straps holding the optical fibers. They sell velcro straps in a rainbow of colors, so feel free to get creative with it!

Get some velco straps to keep the cables flush against the arms.

Ive been using solid core cables that I made a couple of years ago for about $5 a piece. The ends are removable so if a cable has a problem i just slip the ends on a new piece of cable and away we go! I was told that the solid core cable wouldn't work well, but never had a problem yet. My cables are not as organized as some of yours I'm sure, but its worked for me. I dive about 200 dives or more a year. Its great on my setup of Sea & Sea strobes and both a Nauticam and UWT flash triggers. I think I bought the cable (about 10') and end caps on ebay.

2mm radius is a pretty tight curve. I think they'd fit in the INON adapters which are pretty cheap all things considered.

Wow, that’s really kind, thanks! Much appreciated. I’ve never thought about making my own. I’ve not got into 3D printing (I suspect my partner would kill me) and have just bought inexpensive ones when needed. I might be in touch though!

Fair point, Ben! Yeah, that struck me as an issue too. Maybe just using wider tubing?!? The more I see of coiled ones and the tangles they can get in - rinse tank, anyone? - the more I think they are to be avoided. Even when the coil needs extending, the additional strain on the system is not insignificant. I figured it was just better to create straight cables with a couple of extra inches for flexibility. No immediate plans for a group buy of the MCQ-1000 cable. We did one about this time last year and I think 6-7 members joined in. If there was enough demand we could look at it again. We were lucky last time that I met up with an NYC-based mate in the Red Sea and she brought it for me. Bless him, @bvanant offered to mail it last time - so that might be an option.

Thanks @TimG for your solution... The funny thing is that I used the exact same pipes to go inside my floating arms

Agree with all the above - there's a whole eco-system (eco as in economic...) built around product releases, spec speculation, unboxing and what not, but in contrast very little work being done with most cameras (other than "old faithful" models people seem to actually use for a while). Talking-head videos - what some of us call shillfluencers or shill-tubers - are a very good example of this self-feeding marketing bubble. That said, I would updgrade my rig if I could - for videography, 4K 60fps - a long lasting battery pack, HDMI screen connection possibilities, along with access to dedicated lenses are practical tools I certainly would like to have access to. A more debatable point would be fast autofocus, which would be good for tracking small fast-moving subjects in a shallow DOF (think blackwater/bonfire videos) - but it isn't clear if the tracking technology is there yet for video... And for postproduction, image quality would be increased with 10bit capture, and something like manual white-balance qualities of a Canon camera would certainly be nice for ambient light. On the action-cam front, I still haven't upgraded the GoPro7 - there again, 10bit would be nice, but it's low priority given how little I shoot with it these days. So yes, these are feeding my desire to upgrade, and have been for some time. What's holding me back are housing costs – even for a second-hand old model, it's still very steep in my current situation. While I can't decently upgrade the rig, I do have the chance to be in a situation at this point in my life where I can dive with my old and limited rig very regularly. And film at will. A little fiddling with the rig (there's always something) usually does wonder for soothing the GAS urge to update. Practical accessories for one's existing camera rig fall in this sort intermediary space, offering something new to something you already use, which can be rejuvenating... On a larger scale, this constant state of dissatisfaction isn't limited to product consumption and aquisition. It's something that weighs on our lives in general, as we plan and think ahead, and thinking ahead also often means having something wish for or look forward to (the next holidays, a paid off mortgage, a better job, retirement...). It's easy to be always projecting on the future rather than making the most of the present. Marketing stategies simply tap into this urge, by offering quick fixes – which are usually never good enough.... I really like the idea of buying better water, or buying more time in the water. If you think about it, what would make the most difference, buying a new camera, or doubling/tripling/quadrupling the time spent shooting with your current rig? What do you think would give you the most satisfaction overall? Of course, if you have the ressources to do both and keep both your kidneys, just go for it! 😆

been to both mafia and zanzibar. I would go back to mafia, I liked it there. We also did shore diving / muck diving, stuff like (hairy) frogfish, seahorse, ghostpipe fish etc we saw in the few dives we did from shore. Zanzibar I would not go back to, the diving was very poor in my opinion, also very crowded with tourism.

Thanks Tim, don't believe the patches are available in Australia, only the pill form is available. I believe the concern was that the patches did not reliably provide the dosage required if I read the article correctly. it says: "which has been used internationally for motion sickness but has been unavailable in Australia due to issues with manufacturers unstable delivery mechanisms. " I'm guessing it delivered too much initially for them to ban it. Wonder if that may be something that makes this problem worse? I got pretty bad sea sickness on a (rather rough) the trip out to Rowley Shoals and we had a doctor on board who suggested I double the dosage ( I'm a fairly big guy) Really noticed the drying of the mouth compared to just one pill when we did a second open ocean leg and seemed more effective. Of course check with your doctor before doing this. With hindsight a better solution to sea sickness may have been to not have dinner that night - much better after it came back up again!

its interesting how much they look like marelux housing...

Hi Phillip, Thanks for the lovely words. I hate saying this but I honestly think Smartphones and action cams have shaken up the underwater photography world and created a hugely positive ripple of change in underwater imagery, especially amongst the younger generation. There's something about videos that captivate so many. I personally love the Tough range and have rarely shot using full Manual Control. I'll never forget Daniel Norwood, one of my course guests, now on the Editorial Team for DivePhotoGuide winning the British Society of Underwater Photographer's Best Beginner competition with a semi-manual compact, like the Olympus Tough range, and beating the runner-up with a d-SLR by 27 points. He could achieve black backgrounds, snoot shots and of course wide-angle too. What do I think? I think that the Olympus Tough range has taken giant strides in the compact market to be the real leader, particularly with its macro capabilities. It's almost impossible to equal or beat at the moment for size, affordability and results. Plus more people are starting out with a Mirrorless System now like Sony's A7 range. Who knows what will happen in the future, I'm just going to grab each day as it comes with a large zest for learning and creating. Happy Shooting! Maria

It works fine for what it is. If it had 1 stop more power it would be awesome. Someone asked did I get it for free? and the answer is no I paid for it at Divervision. I think if you are shooting full frame it might not be as useful but to make a really compact system (no arms and only one handle) it is a good answer. Bill

And a small selection of shots taken with the Retra Maxi strobes in the Maldives Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP Sony A1, Nikonos 15mm Sony A1, Nikonos 13mm Sony A1, Nikonos 13mm Sony A1, 28-60mm, WACP Sony A1, 28-60mm, WACP Sony A1, Tamron 90mm, MFO-1 Sony A1, Tamron 90mm Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP

Thanks so much Tim, Chris, Davide and Rich for the lovely welcome. I'm so proud and excited to help you all. I've loved using many compact brands such as Fuji, Olympus, Sony, Canon Ixus, Canon G, Sea & Sea, Sealife and of course the incredible Olympus TG series plus Ikelite, Backscatter & INON strobes. I really am that geeky about them all and look forward to helping :) Hey @Mark Don - wow, so pleased that I helped to inspire you too. I'd love to see your images. Have a great Easter all of you!

I get your point, Wolfgang but is statistical comparison really relevant in something like this? 16 boat sinkings in 5 years highlights your point on poor observance of safety protocols for dive boats in Egypt. Does it really matter whether that's better or worse than, eg Raja (where I'm off to shortly!)? Fact is it's bad. There has been such massive growth in the liveaboard business and competition in Egypt perhaps it's not surprising that corners are being cut. Back in the mid-90s, when I first dived there , there was a dozen or so boats out of Sharm. Now there are what seems like hundreds. Even Marsa Alam is now packed with liveaboards. I bet corners are being cut!

I made a designed an add-on fix for the Inon 330 "bastard button". It was actually the inspiration that prompted me to buy my first 3D Printer! Inon 330 UW Strobe - Button Lock by AwkwardSwine - Thingiverse

True, their lens are acrylic, quality is very low. Regarding the SSD + Divevolk case, theres a model LEXAR GO and would fit inside the divevolk + iPhone 16 pro, but is not recommended by divevolk to use underwater, this is what they reply to me. Small ssd are good options to save large video files while on vacations. Regarding the Iphone 16 pro or pro MAX, the blackmagic camera app will film up to 4K 120fps.

Hey @bghazzal Thanks for the thanks 🙂 - it copes very well as that is the set-up I use. I wanted to include it in here but I was aware that the article might end up very long. I used mine with my TG4 and attached it to an Oly housing to take split level shots. There was a little bit of vignetting but it still gave me an image which I was happy with here of Kimmeridge in Dorset, UK (low res attached) and was Highly Commended with it by the British Society of Underwater Photographers on my first attempt using an INON S-2000 strobe. Hope this helps. Go grab it and have fun I say, I still have mine here and still love it 🙂