bghazzal

True, but in a lot of locales liveaboard ops use dinghies/RIBs for entries, specifically to be more precise with the drops and to avoid bringing the main vessel close to the reef. More manoeuvrable, more reactive in an emergency, etc. It was a major issue in Thailand's Similans and Surins NP, for instance, but park regulations were amended to make "big boat drops" illegal a few years back. Indonesia is mostly dinghies, and in the Maldives dhoni drops (though these can be quite large) are common, for instance. Not sure what how it's done in Tubbataha.

Have you tried turning off the eye sensor? I read that it doesn't work in the housing anyway You can map a button to switch between the two instead: https://www.nauticam.com/blogs/news/the-sony-underwater-setup-guide-for-a7rv-a7iv-a7siii-and-a1 EVF/LCD Selection Underwater I also want to manually decide between using the EVF or the LCD (this is necessary as the eye sensor doesn't work underwater). To switch between the two underwater we need to disable the automatic switching and assign a custom key to toggle between the two. To do this, we need to navigate to: 'SETUP' > 'Finder/Monitor' and set this to 'Monitor (manual)'. NOTE: We choose 'Monitor' for now, otherwise you'll have to do the rest of this step while looking through the EVF. Next, we'll assign the toggle control to the 'C3' Button which is easily accessible with your left hand on the rear of the housing. Navigate to: 'SETUP' > 'Operation Customize' > 'IMAGE Custom Key Settings' > and assign 'C3' to 'Finder/Monitor'. In the 'Finder/Monitor' menu you can also set the brightness, color, quality and frame rate of the EVF. I prefer to maximize quality and frame rate and generally leave the color and brightness as is.

Very nice, thanks for sharing. One compact you could also look into is the Lumix L10 as well: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/3591-panasonic-l10/ Though you won't get Canon colours, Panasonic WB is really good as well (and there's always the option to use a good filter like the Keldan SF -1.5), ans so is IBIS, the L10 has 4K 120fps and high bitrates. I shoot video on the old LX10, and would probably get an LX10 is I were to do a compact upgrade. Main downside for me with the L10 is the form factor, which forces you to use ports like with the LX100 series (body is virtually identical). Otherwise have you looked in the Canon R50 V (video version)? It does 4K60fps.

Snake mackerel (Gempylus serpens) maybe? The good folks on the FB blackwater photo group would know for sure.

Hello all, I'd be interested in sourcing a N100 Flat Port 45 (especially one with a plug to remove the focus knob, which I don't need), shipping to Japan. I plan on 3D printing the zoom gear, but if you have it, why not. Thank you!

Yes, this is the LX100 housing / ergonomics problem I was mentioning above unfortunately (on the LX10 I use a double-flip, as it doesn't need ports). I hope LX100 users have a solution for you, as the L10 housing design seems to work the same in this aspect. The L10 does 4K up to 120fps and higher bitrates, the R50 does not, and you'll need the R50 V (video variant) to get 4K 60fps. However, with the L50 you get access to Canon's RF lens ecosystem, which is a big plus for expanding what you do with the camera.

I'm bumping this thread as I now have an A7SIII, firmware 4.00, and unfortunatelly don't have tracking on or toggle in the focus menu. It's only in stills. Apparently this super helpful function is just not available on the Sony A7SIII curse of old age, I guess...

Yes, this is the same type of stain I have on my port as well - ugly when dry, but doesn't show up when wet (on video at least)

As a follow-up, I can confirm the Anker Nano above powers the A7SIII. Handshake works and it charges the battery when idle. I haven't tried filming in 4K 120fps yet but don't there's no reason it shouldn't work to extend in-cameri battery life. Now i need to find a good ribbon cable for a housing setup.

Thank you both - yes, that was easier than I thought 😃 I just pulled on the cables and the fiber optic cables slid out The power bank fits - now I need to test it with the camera to see it it works. If it does it will just be a question of routing a flat USB cable. The powerbank I got is this one: https://www.anker.com/products/a1653-usb-c-portable-charger-5000mah?variant=42733234258070 Capacity: 5,000mAh USB-C Output: 5V⎓3A / 9V⎓2.22A / 10V⎓2.25A Total Output: 18W Max It has a dual output, male on the length (which I plan on using) and female on the side. I ordered a Ribbon Flat USB-C Data Cable 3A 10Gbps female to male and male to male, we'll see.

I've received a PD power bank that looks like it could work (Anker Nano Power Bank 22.5W), and the camera should arrive in the next couple of days. To test the fit, I'll need to remove the optical cables from the A1 housing, but I'm not sure how theses work. Do I just need to unscrew the two nuts, and then the cables can be removed without any risk to the housing? Thanks

To be precise, this is actually Taiwanese OEM manufacturer Howshot (main distribution channel Divervision ) showing that their adaptor works with the Inon UFL-GR140 lens on the housing.

For what it’s worth, Nauticam (Phil) also confirmed that the coating is on the interior surface of the flat port glass, not the exterior (“The optical coating is just on the interior surface of the glass.”). I have staining or etching on mine despite not allowing water to dry on it. I tried a premixed Japanese cerium oxide paste recently, but the marks remain. I did not continue for long for fear of making things worse. As far as I can tell, the marks are not visible when the glass is wet.

Sounds good - not sure how far you can go or how boat traffic is at night but the area between Ibiza and Formentera looks it forms a channel which could worth checking out. Let us know how it goes!

I concur - and amazing subjects! 🤩 if you want to share some tips on BW video, we have a thread open here btw: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/638-blackwater-video-shooting-techniques cheers

Yes absolutely - 60fps is totally fine for macro unless you're capturing a super fast subject (blackwater critter for instance) or hunting sequence and want to decompose the action - 120fps also requires more light in general. 5.6K 60p should be fantastic for this kind of work. the L10 really ticks many boxes!

Keep in mind that the LX100 above has a small crop in 4K as well, though not as marked as the LX10 examples I'd posted - On the LX100 I the lens became 26-81 mm equivalent in 4K, and a 30-94 mm in 4K the LX100 II (vs. 36-108mm on a 1" sensor on the LX10, which is what made it so great macro video). 4K on the L10 is uncropped, which is great for wide angle, but will mean smaller subjects in the frame for macro. On paper, it's closer to the LX100 mI than mII. And as the LX100 mI example above shows, you can always export to 1080p from 4K and crop in for extra magnification. If you're posting on social media you should be exporting to 1080p anyway, so even on an uncropped sensor like the L10, you still have plenty of room to play with.

Yes, totally agree with studying seafloor topography. Also, one way to prepare for BW it is to go during the day and look for current-lines on the surface - scout an area with interesting topography, and go check it out during the day, looking for areas that concentrate plankton - clear surface current lines and debris agglomerations can be a good indicator, even during the day. Always take GPS points (Navionics or similar app for instance) so you can return to points. Once you find a place that looks promising can then go in with a mask and snorkel and see how it looks, or even do a bluewater dive to scout it. There can be lots of interesting subjects during the day, just more difficult to spot and shoot. On the downline, read this article if you haven't: https://codelift-managed.xray-mag.com/content/getting-blackwater It has a clear illustration of Mike Bartick's downline assembly: I've recently returned from an assignement assisting a Japanese blackwater photographer in the Maldives. Technically, we scouted offshore locations during the day, and did bluewater dives to confirm, and dived the most promising ones at night. The downline didn't have a pumpkin, but a smaller fishing buoy, into which a 2m flagpole with a flag was inserted. It was well balanced so the flagpole stayed upright, and we had a small coloured flasher light on the the flag to help the boat follow it at night. This buoy + mast unit was attached to a secondary white fishing buoy about a little smaller than a football (volleyball size?) to which the downline was connected Be careful with the size of the buoy you use for the downline - a bigger buoy is more visible but can drift faster as it catches wind and acts like a sail - you don't want it to drift faster than the divers. The flagpole helped minimize buoy size while staying visible even if it's a little choppy. You also don't need a lot of weight on the line either, we used two kg or so and it was fine. Our line didn't use powerful lights, but they were setup as twin sets. We also had pairs of flashers (strong flashing lights, 3000 lm each) near the surface and on the line itself for visibility. On bluewater dives we ony used the pairs of 3000 lm flashers on the line (be careful, it's more easy to lose sight of the line on a bluewater dive than blackwater). We also tied small flasher lights on the tank valves at night for visibility, and used our strong narrow beam spotting lights to shoot a line signal in the sky on surface for pickups. At the end of the dive, it's nice to mark the GPS location so you can check how much you've drifted and in what general direction (can be complex) - for us it ranged from a 300m to 8km drift on a single dive. hope this helps! cheers

https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/847-housed-smartphone-as-a-budget-monitor/#comment-3662 I actually bought this Divevolk solution after having terrible experience with Weefine's WED7 couple years ago. The problem with workarounds like divevolk is that they do not tend to work when one would need them. Forget about the lag, it's not that bad, the connection and the reliability of establishing it over and over - at least on Sony - is the real issue for me. So when I imagined logistics on a live aboard where most of my dives are with 3-4 dives per day checking the footage in between the dives - it was a real nightmare. Plus the element attached to the housing should be placed on acrylic effectively blocking access to camera monitor..

I use the CMC-1 on a LX10, which has a crop in 4K - so the 24-72 mm equivalent lens becomes roughly 36-108 mm equivalent in when shooting 4K video. It works great, and now that I have a flip adapter there is virtually no vignetting (40mm instead of 36mm). However there's a catch: you will need to get close to your subjects, veeeeery close. Shaun the Sheep and other nudis won't really mind, but other more reactive critters will, and lighting will also be tricky (not impossible, but takes a bit of getting used to). On the LX10, I shoot macro only in MF, using focus peaking. These are the working distances I measured at different focal lengths with my diopters on the LX10 in 4K on the AOI double flip adapter I now use. I tried to measure working distances at 36mm (choosing the minimal focal length to avoid vignetting otherwise), 50mm and 108mm equivalents, 4K, f/11. Working Distances on the Lumix LX10, diopters mounted on an AOI double flip, 4K video — NO DIOPTER f11 36mm min: glass <10mm max: infinity 50mm min: 90mm max: infinity / > 260mm 108mm min: 170mm max? — AOI UCL05 LF +6 f11 (vignettes to 55mm) 55mm min: 10mm max: 450mm 108mm min: 90mm max: 200mm — INON UCL165 +6 f11 (no vignette) 36mm min: glass max: infinity / >220mm 50mm min: 30mm max: 210mm 108mm min: 75mm max? — AOI UCL09 +12.5 (vignettes to 55mm) 55mm min min: 15mm max: 90mm 108mm min: 45mm max: 88mm — NAUTICAM CMC1 +15 (vignettes to 40mm) 40mm min min: 5mm max: 60mm 52mm min: glass / 5mm max: 60mm 108mm min: 37mm max: 54mm As for some actuall examples of high magnification footage using the CMC-1 on the LX10, here a couple recent ones. if you know these critters it will give you an idea of the magnification range. (I do have some Costasiella / Shaun the Sheep shots but nudis are not my favorite subjects for video, so I haven't done much with them. But yes, possible, at least on the LX10 with its cropped 4K - stills might be a little different). Need to see how this would work uncropped on the L10... Hairy Shrimp and Skeleton Shrimp (CMC1, possibly stacked with a +6 on some shots, can't remember) Green Turnicate Shrimp (really tiny - this was stacked CMC1 and +6) Ryukyu Sea Dragon (same size as a Lembeh sea dragon) Emperor Shrimps (slightly bigger subject) Skeleton Shrimp and Juveniles (these are older shots, from my time in east Bali) Hope this helps cheers!

Good choice - in the compact world, I'd say the main competitor would currently be the Canon V1 in that price range - it does 4K 60fps, but with a hefty crop: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/2147-canon-v1/ https://personal.canon.jp/product/compact-digital-camera/powershot/v1 https://www.nauticam.com/products/na-cv1-for-canon-powershot-v1-digital-camera You also have the Sony RX1 R3, but the camera itself in a totally different price range...

For what it's worth, I bought a pristine (美品 - bihin) second-hand GoPro13 at MapCamera for 210 euros, shipping to Okinawa included in January - not a tourist so no tax free for me. WA lenses improve corners and IQ quite a bit in my experience. Here's a quick side-by-side test I did with and without the AOI wide lens on the ol' GoPro7: https://youtu.be/RNcaR-fzBAo

⬆️⬆️ Like Davide - in your situation I would go for a Lumix L10 - it's almost what I did a few years back, building a rig around the Lumix LX10, but the new L10 has so much to offer. You can work with this camera for a few years for sure, and go from wide to real super macro on the same dive if you're so inclined (in reality you probably won't). This is the amazing thing about compacts. And full manual control. Two major downsides: 1. weight - compacts are bricks in the water and you'll need a lot of + buoyancy 2. battery life for video

Actually you're right - I just realised that I was looking at only half of the picture: I actually have twice the size, with the other half of the housing, which is completely empty... I've tested again and if I remove the strobe trigger cable I can actually fit two 21700 batteries in there! 😆 One fits even with the cables still in place... wow I'll look into available mini powerbanks, see what exists with an interesting format, and test them with the camera when it finally arrives.

I haven't removed the flash trigger cables yet, but I can fit 2 to 3 AA batteries, either vertically or horizontally. Not much room for a PCB though. There is an angle but I measure roughly 40mm depth for 45mm width