bghazzal

Thanks Davide, I'm really happy with this one. That treasure-chest of music you introduced me to is quite inspiring! Thanks a bunch Maria - he's an absolute cartoon cutie Thanks Craig - Yes, I think it works well - [boomer mode ] just too bad 80% of content is watched without sound these days 😅 [/boomer mode]

Hi JapanDiver, Welcome to the forum and rainy greetings from Okinawa main island. I just did my last two dives of the year this morning and the weather is breaking down, I hope you have better conditions in Shimoda! Cheers! Ben

Thanks Bill - I have more time than money but unfortunately I'm also quite clumsy when it comes to this kind of stuff, so might need to reconsider. It sounds like a disaster in the making. AOI hasn't got back to me about conditions since my last email. cheers

Hello everyone, Here’s a short clip I shot recently on Okinawa Main Island, a cute little jawfish hard at work on his burrow (🎧 sound on please 👷) Shot on the good ol'Panasonic LX10 compact in 4K 30 fps (with some upgraded 1080p 60 fps footage used for slow motion during the rock-spitting sequences) Lighting was two Kraken Hydra 8000-lumen lights and one Backscatter MW4300, as well as a remotely mounted Kraken Hydra 1500. I used a Nauticam CMC-1 for most shots (so yes, I was very close), and an AOI / Fantasea UCL-05 +6 on others. Cheers, and keep on diggin’ Ben

There is no miracle, and the solutions have been given. And yes, it also really depend on what you're planning to do with it. Canon V1 is a very capable modern compact, but like most compacts if video is the focus it will need to be souped up with floats, hence killing the compact form. Compacts are bricks in the water. For photos or the odd short video clip, yes, you can use it as is, if you're ok with a very negative rig. Just to give an idea an LX10 in a Nauticam housing is over 1 kg negative in water by itself (before adding lenses, lights, clamps, coffee maker....) Phones rigs I've seen tend to be quite big given how unpractical ergonomics are for dedicated use... Your best bet is a TG series camera. It's light, already waterproof like an action cam (meaning you can use a light polycarbonate housing, and it's neutral), it does great macro stills and video with an integrated flash (just add a small light or get creative with a dive light, it's macro after all). It also does very average WA (for which you'll need a lens). Footprint is slightly bigger than an action cam.

That boat sounds like a nightmare - if even KSA/Manta Queen is scared of them, must be something 😅 The mantas are transient - they're mobula birostris, aka giant "oceanic" mantas, and usually seen at the cleaning stations on Koh Bon and Koh Tachai - they tend to stay a week or so then move on, possibly to Myanmar. Very rare in the Similans, the occasional fly-by, but Bon and Tachai is where it's at. This playlist is footage I shot when I was working there, you can see footage of quite a few mantas and whalesharks over the years. Whalesharks are more consistent, usually in February March - a whaleshark at Richelieu with a crowd of trevallies in tow is quite something 🤩 cheers Ben

Ouch, yes, unfortunately a rather poor choice. It was something of everyone’s nemesis, to be honest. At one point they even ran an IDC program, so freshly certified, newly arrived instructors could get a kind of work experience on the boat after passing their exams. If there is a next time, look into operators like Junk/Phinisi, Deep Andaman Queen, Smiling Seahorse (mostly for Myanmar) Sea Bees, or Big Blue. I have been away for a few years so things may have changed, but these operators were generally regarded as well organised and professionally run. Looking at the itinerary, that Surin site would have been Ao Packard i guess. Interesting to see elephant head pinnacle in there, as it's less common. Finishing on Hideaway Bay is a bit of a downer though. We would usually finish on Koh Bon (especially if mantas had been spotted), or the murky depths of the Boonsung wreck for macro - I think the Diverace is lying on the bottom close to it after it sunk. Makes me nostalgic - my favourites were Richelieu, Koh Tachai (dome, pinnacles...) Koh Bon (bay, west/north ridge, pinnacle...) and Three Trees and, to a certain point, Elephant's Head Rock. For amazing regional flashbacks of days gone by, do check out the great Nick Hope's Reef Life of the Andaman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncUVddkK3Q cheers

Yes, the major problem is that there is only one Richelieu Rock, and all the liveaboards include it on their itinerary. The worst I have seen was 14 liveaboards moored around the site, all planning three to four dives there. That meant 200+ divers in the water on a very small site. I learned to guide specifically to avoid people there. Liveaboard planning is extremely tight. Days are short in the tropics, and once you factor in meals and surface intervals, you only have about 20 minutes of leeway in the dive schedule. Meals and snacks have to be offered, tanks filled, dishes washed, cooking done, housekeeping handled, etc. All of this has to fit around the diving before nightfall. Which means everybody goes at roughly the same time. There is no way around it. The only way to manage this would be a booking system, like the one implemented at Batu Bolong in Komodo. I was working there at the time. It was not the greatest idea (carrying capacity restrictions), but it did reduce congestion. Unfortunately, Richelieu Rock is in the Surin area and handled by a different authority than the Similan Marine Park, and when I was there it was extraordinarily inefficient at enforcing even the few rules that existed. You had liveaboards mooring directly on the site, which is not allowed, in full view of rangers who were there to collect tickets. What you describe, basically a DSD situation, is also not allowed in the marine parks. Introductory and training dives are prohibited. Of course, this is not followed by all operators. There are many shady operations, but also some very good ones doing what they can. That base you mention has been around for a while. The platform boat was moored at Koh Bon when I was there, and they ran a hop-on hop-off service from Khao Lak or Phuket. I worked for Big Blue in Khao Lak, which had a speedboat going there four days a week. The other company running daytrips was Wetzone, also from Khao Lak, or more precisely Ban Nam Khen. We would alternate days. The good thing about the speedboat was that we would often hit the rock during the liveaboard lunch break, and sometimes had the site all to ourselves, which happened a few times a year. When the park ticketing system changed, with advance booking required, things became more complicated. Our go-to site on days when it was too rough for Richelieu was Koh Tachai, which is in the Similan National Park. That meant we could not reroute there with Surin NP tickets. So we started exploring the Surin more. Ao Tao, for example. Nice coral, but generally less life. The last season I worked there was 2020, the pandemic year. I have worked in quite a few great places, but some Richelieu dives, especially sunset dives, are still burned into my mind. It is good to hear that sharks are being spotted more often. I worked quite a few seasons there, and apart from whale sharks, reef sharks were very rare. You might see white tips on early morning dives, maybe the odd blacktip cruising by, and very, very rarely a grey reef at Tachai. That was about it. Carpet sharks such as shovelnose rays or guitar sharks, and leopard (zebra) sharks, were relatively common. The Surin did have a bit more shark activity. Juvenile tiger sharks were spotted a couple of times, but we were not doing night dives there at the time. Hopefully the shark population has had some kind of rebound.

Great shots. My old stomping grounds. I was diving Richelieu four days a week when I was working there. An incredible site with so much to offer 🥰 But yes, a little too popular unfortunately, or more precisely, badly managed. Where was the shark shot taken? Reef sharks are quite rare in the area.

As a follow-up, there's been some movement on the AOI side who has approved to the handle the service for the lens as an exceptional accomodation. So positive step from AOI, which is appreciated. However, the conditions are as follows: This will be a charged service, and you will be responsible for the shipping costs both to and from our facility. Since we do not currently have the unit, we are unable to provide a repair estimate upfront. Once received, our technical team will inspect the lens and provide you with a repair quotation. Our standard service timeline is 7–10 business days from receipt, depending on the complexity of the repair. So nice of them but concretely it's a bit of a gamble as it could end up costing more than the price of a new model of the same lens, the UCL-05N. If it's just a question of changing the o-rings and the lens isn't actually vaccum-sealed, it could be best to try to service it myself (using air from a scuba tank when sealing for instance. I need to give it some thought...

I did, and this is the answer I got today: We have checked the serial number UL30012889 printed on the lens, which corresponds to the model UCL-50LF. This was a co-branded product developed with Fantasea in 2019 and was sold exclusively through Fantasea’s distribution network. As such, Fantasea is solely responsible for sales and service support for this model. We recommend contacting Fantasea directly for further assistance regarding this lens. Fantasea doesn't seem to exist anymore Since the lens was produced by AOI, is co-branded AOI, and is identical to the AOI UCL-05L (the only difference being the extra branding...) I asked if they could not help out (give me info on the o-rings used for instance) but it really doesn't look like this is going anywhere unfortunately 😪

Yes thanks - it seems to be that - Fantasea was probably a US distributor - anyway they don't seem to exist anymore. The AOI branded lens I have seems to be identical to the AOI UCL-05L, which is the predecessor to the current AOI UCL-05N Here is the 2023 AOI website listing: which seems to be identical to my lens: Uploading Attachment...

The foggy mystery deepens... AOI responded We are unable to identify "UCL-05 LF +6 diopter" within the AOI product line. After further review, it appears this may be a product from another brand, Fantasea. Since we are not familiar with Fantasea’s products, we recommend contacting them directly for assistance: Fantasea 1124 Fir Ave., Blaine, WA 98230, United States Telephone: +1 (989) 785-0540 Email: [email protected] Which is a little odd since it is branded AOI, with a reference to their current website... On the otherhand, Fantasea.com does not exist, so I very much doubt my email will be going anywhere... Maybe this diopter is a ghost, and fogging its way back to the world of spirits, where the air waits 👻 Anyway, I think we're on our own here 😅

Thanks, it's a little odd - there are no traces I can see other than the ones I posted above, but yes, I agree that that condensation must be coming from somewhere. At the moment the lens is still useable - the traces are not yet visible on the footage, so I'll keep using it see how it evolves. I'm waiting to see what AOI has to say about this as well, maybe they'll know what's going on based on construction specs, and if anything can be done to save it.

I just tried warming it - interestingly enough the traces didn't change, but this did make a central condensation point appear (but seem to be more on the bottom of the lens?), which then disappeared when I cooled the lens. However the main traces didn't bulge... Not sure what to make of this... 🤔

Thanks for that - at the moment the traces do not seem to vary with temperature - we're currently around 22°C on land 23° in the water and humidity at around 50 to 60%. What I tried to do is leave the lens in a ziplock bag for 24hours with some powerful dessicants, to see if it might affect condensation but nothing happened. Traces are still visible unfortunately.

Thanks Chris - I haven't tried warming it up a little, but will to see if it evolves. Servicing might prove difficult for this model I think. Yes that's what I'm afraid of. Not sure if it's actually possible to fix such an issue. I wrote to AOI, we'll see what they say.

Hello all, I have a very nice AOI UCL-05 LF +6 diopter (the old model), which I use a lot as it's way sharper than the Inon UCL-165 I used before. However, some faint traces have appeared, and seem to be inside the unit. I first noticed them underwater. I'm guessing this means something is failing, maybe the retaining ring? Can anything be done in this situation? It's an old model, and I'm now in Japan so sending it back to a dealer seems to be difficult. Thanks! Ben

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it 😀 Thanks Evan, appreciate it 🙏

Thanks Craig. Yes, it’s still in Cinelike D. The main change I’ve made is lowering the Kelvin setting when shooting artificial light. The Backscatter MW4300 has a low CRI and adds a yellow cast to the footage when combined with the Hydras. I ran some tests recently, and lowering the Kelvin value gets rid of that, which is nice. Yes, this little guy was really cooperative! If you look closely, the gills have a pattern that looks a bit like the branches of a stinging hydroid!

Hello all, Well, I’ve been giving in to the times and working on vertical-format edits, even though I’m not really phone-oriented (I know, I know, O tempora, o mores! 😢). I thought I’d share this one here, as I’m happy with the shots - the pipefish itself is about as vertical as they come, and it was cooperative enough to let me get close for some nice details. I find the eyes, gills and tiny swimming fins rather fascinating. For the boomers and purists in the back row, a more traditional and civilised UHD edit - horizontal like nature intended - is also viewable here 😁: https://youtu.be/za96mthi8xE Gear-wise, this was shot on the ol' Lumix LX10 in 4K 30fps, with a Nauticam CMC-1 diopter, two Kraken Hydra 8000V2 lights and a Backscatter MW4300. This was filmed last week at Kin Bay, on the Pacific side of Okinawa’s main island. Cheers! Ben

Really looks like a juvenile painted frogfish (Antennarius pictus) to me. They usually have specific markings at the rear (but juveniles vary a lot) - would you have another shot showing the rest of the body?

It's practice - you used to get a little ruler with the lens to estimate distance and shot sharpness - but honestly, for macro video focus peaking is the way to go... I think it was introduced at some point on action cameras, not sure how that is going - peaking is difficult to use on a small screen, the expensive AOI housing+screen combo seemed promising in this regards, if you're really into fighting with a gopro for macro. A TG series camera is a more logical choice for that, really

As previously mentioned, Weefine lights are constant output - SUPE/Scubalamp/Fotocore/Divevolk are not, at least not previous models. Same goes for Big Blue lights for instance, not constant output until now. This means the amount of light drops constantly while the light is used, which is not a problem for a dive light but does have issues for video, as your light dims as it discharges (and you never get the lumens advertised, which are probably already pumped up for most of these product). In other words, go for constant output lights whenever possible. More on this here: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/1524-constant-output-video-lights In general, small cameras with a small sensor and a wide field of view, like action cams, require more light. But then it really depends what you are doing with artificial lighting... If you want to shoot night dives, low viz, close up shots or macro, then yes 2x 7000 lumen can cut it. If you want to light an actual wide angle scene from further away, then no, that won't be enough - get the strongest lights you can afford, 10,000 lumen or 15,000 lumen (or more). If you want to use ambient filters (there's a gorgeous GoPro + Kraken 10K Solar Flare Mini with ambient filters video here btw ), get the strongest lights you can afford, as filters will halve the output (unless you're using lights for highlights on closeups). If you're rich, get Keldans and keep them for the rest of your diving life and don't look back or regret anything. Otherwise as an alternative, look into Seafrog SF150 lights - if it is confirmed they are indeed constant output, they're hard to beat budget wise: https://www.seafrogs.com/npublic/opdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=https%3A%2F%2Fomo-oss-file110.thefastfile.com%2Fportal-saas%2Fpg2024061210334464153%2Fcms%2Ffile%2Fsf-150%20video%20light%20user%20manual.pdf Design is very similar to Kraken/Weefine models which are coming out of a Foshan plant near Shenzen. Kraken/Weefine lights are solid products, even if design could be refined. They also have a remote which is great for video (so do the Seafrog) cheers

Hi Rachid Unfortunately the weather's been really bad for diving the past 10 days, with strong northern winds making it very difficult to dive the west coast, and not many boats are running. Keramas will also be difficult to reach, though I saw on FB that English Empire divers did make it over a few days ago (very bumpy ride). Most operators will stick to Gorilla Chop in Motobu (north), which is a shore dive and flat and has a big school of sardines and juvenile frogfish at the moment. But it can get crowded (avoid the weekend if possible), and is almost 2 hours away from Naha. Operator-wise, maybe try Okinawa 39ers (Naha), English Empire Divers (Yomitan), Bubble Addicts (Nakijin) or Piranha Divers (Onna). The weather's really not on your side, but you'll have no issues squeezing a couple of dives at Gorilla Chop I think.