bghazzal

Great, thanks - I've started looking into the Saga - can you confirm the dual flip can be positioned with a diopter on both sides (3 and 9 o'clock)? Also I've read somewhere that in some cases the diopters are not fully aligned with some ports with the Saga - what you make of that? I'd use it on a Nauticam M67 compact port thanks!

Hello all, I’ve started looking into 67mm dual flip options for my rig (Nauticam compact housing) and have two questions for those who use dual flip mounts: How does the Nauticam Dual Flip compare to the AOI M67 Dual Flip and the Marelux Dual Flip? Are there any specific reasons to choose one over the others? Does the Nauticam Dual Flip, or others allow you to choose the mounting directions to mount lenses at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock? I have very limited space on my rig, and the best workable setup would be having the lenses mounted at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. I’ve seen a lot of 12/3 o’clock configurations, but I have an arm at 12 o’clock, so I’d need to avoid that if possible. I think the AOI allows flexible mounting directions, but what about the other two? Do flip adapters increase vignetting, compared to screwing a diopter directly onto the port? Thanks in advance! Ben

The CMC-1 is generally accepted to be a +15 diopter, whereas the CMC-2 is around +10 - not precise, but confirmed by empirical tests. In terms of high optical quality, the AOI UCL Pro line of diopters is also excellent (+12.5, +18.5, +23.5), maybe surpassing the Nauticam range in some aspects: https://www.aoi-uw.com/products/wet-lenses/aoi-ucl-prs-01.html

Cheers Craig, appreciate it 🙏

It’s on the east coast (Pacific side) and one of the best muck/macro shore sites here, I think, the other being Tengan Pier. I don’t know the seawall sites well yet (there seems to be a lot of good stuff in Sunabe, especially on night dives), but the diversity of habitats there is quite special. Not sure how many operators dive it — the main east-coast one is Crystal Blue, I believe — since it's a bit off the beaten track for most, being on the east side and also a macro-focused shore dive with often iffy to low visibility. We can always dive it together next time you’re around. It’s pretty easy to get tanks for shore dives here — rental’s about 550 JPY on average for a 10L aluminium or steel tank. The rest just comes down to car and weather logistics.

Thanks Chris! Yep, it definitely took a bit of patience — the movement and focus distance were tricky, but the action and interaction going on made it a fun challenge. That explanation makes a lot of sense. Yes, the shrimps were constantly picking at particles drifting by or on the nudibranch’s body, and it looked like they were competing for the spot near the feeding mouth. Really interesting behaviour to watch unfold — seems like a pretty efficient little system.

Thanks Ludo, and cheers for the ID and mantle details — great info. I’ve edited it; should have asked sooner! 😊

Thanks! Glad it landed well.

Thanks, really appreciate it! This one was fun to shoot and put together.

Thanks a lot, Davide! I'm happy to have found a new playground after the move over here. From what I understand, the shrimps mainly feed on detritus and mucus from the nudibranch as it feeds, as well as any bycatch it dredges up from the sand.

Here’s a little clip I shot this week on Okinawa Main Island’s Pacific coast (Kin Red Beach) — a classic but colourful commensal / symbiotic combo: Emperor shrimps (Zenopontonia rex) riding their lofty nudibranch palace (?Ceratosoma trilobatum?). Edited to “Raindrop” by Tomotsugu Nakamura (sound on if possible) This was shot on my old Lumix LX10 compact in 4K/30fps, using either the Nauticam CMC-1 alone or stacked with a UCL-165 close-up lens. Lighting was from two Kraken Hydra 8000 V2 lights and one Backscatter MW4300. There was a bit of water movement and suspended silt, so I'll need to be more careful with light placement next time using the triple-light setup... Cheers and happy bubbles, Ben

Wow, that looks very nice! I'm really curious as to how it will handle, especially with the photo-style flexitray handles close to port. Do you mind linking to the material you've used, and the weight system that plan on using for trim? cheers

It's a little better in youtube, at least the vertical format fits... Yes, not super sharp indeed... otherwise on YT I get a garbled image up to 0:19 seconds or so - thought it was my connection but it seems to be in the clip compression / player / cache, as it's systematically on the same point. this is what is looks like: and it clears up here 0:19 I think strange beast, these youtube shorts... cheers

as a sidenote this YouTube Short format you posted in is unreadable on my laptop (Firefox) - I get this massive long display which takes ages to load and can't display properly even zooming out. This is what it looks like zoomed out fully: Wonder if other non-phonies are in the same boat? Can't therefore comment on the vid/camera results, though I would have liked to see what it looked like! cheers

IIRC you're allowed one personal camera, so you would most likely be taxed on the lens and lights... Maybe keep the lights in your jacket pockets?

I'm a little lost - is the discussion mostly centered on macro/supermacro stills or video? Video tracking AF and photo AF are quite different animals, and for very few lenses support the super fast advanced AF offered by Sonys when shooting video (mostly G-Master series lenses, like the Sony 90mm). As a rule, lenses need to be somewhat optimised for video use to be fast enough to AF track efficiently when shooting video - especially at higher framerates. In general, macro video is mostly shot in manual, unless dealing with a fast moving small critter, where shallow DOF and fast movement mean it becomes very difficult to follow (small critters in blackwater or worse, predatory action fueled bonfire dives for instance). The critter swings in an out of the shallow focal plane, which is more of a problem when shooting a sequence than when freezing an image. This is where fast video tracking AF could really come into play. Videos of fast moving tiny critters are very rare though, and most out there is super slowed down high-frame rate (120fps) footage, to extend the short moment when the animal or an aesthetically acceptable section of the animal was in focus.

I saw it over here in Japan - one of the really interesting features is that it has 4K 60 fps, but with 1.4x crop. This would be really useful for underwater imaging on a compact.

Really nice, great shots and lovely naturalistic colours, lighting, contrast - Nikons are less common for video, so it's really interesting to see what is possible to do with one! Did you manually white balance regularly or just set it to something? I really like the turtle sequence. Some of the hammerhead shots are a little too far and deep and really contrasts with the lovely closeup encounter you have 50 seconds in - it's good to have some wider shots but maybe a few have been left out in the edit (though I totally understand the desire to include more of this trip highlight), same goes for a couple of the slightly more shaky shots around 1:30. Otherwise same remark as Davide on the music - this is highly subjective of course but the're a bit too much of a manic crescendo for the images in my opinion. For a first vid, it's really great and I look forward to seeing future ones! cheers

Looking very good!! I'm still trying to figure out the best magnification on these. I have multiple strength readers, but as with closeup diopters, it's a trade-off between, errr, minimal focus distance and magnification. The stronger ones will have more magnification but this also means one's face will need to be closer to the screen, weaker ones will have a longer MFD, but less magnification. I guestimate my eyes are usually around 30cm from the screen, and I think something like +3 seems to hit the sweetspot for me - issue is I've only compared them on land, and water does affect things already.

Interesting thanks - the UCL-05N looks identical to the AOI Fantasea UCL-05LF +6 Comparing the specs the lens, are similar but the new one is lighter This is the former AOI Fantasea UCL-05LF https://www.uwphotographyguide.com/fantasea-aio-ucl-macro-lens-review and the new AOI UCL-05 https://www.aoi-uw.com/products/wet-lenses/aoi-ucl-05n.html Here is a review comparing the Inon UCL165 to the old AOI Fantasea UCL-05LF https://simonmustoe.blog/review-of-fantasea-ucl-05lf-6-macro-lens/ I have the UCL-09 which I like, but it's a +12.5, and I just use the CMC1 +15 instead now. The Pro series is very nice, but I think the first one is +12.5, so not what I'm after. Kraken and Weefine used to share factories, but have split and developed their own product lines, lights for example. Design is still similar, but specs vary. Thanks Chris, I'll look into it!

Hello all, Not quite sure where to post this as I shoot video on a compact, but I guess it doesn't really matter. For macro / supermacro, I currently use the following diopters: Inon UCL-165 (+6) and Nauticam CMC1 - I also have an AOI UCL-09 (+12.5) but leave it home since I got the CMC-1 However, I'm starting to get a little frustrated with the contrast/image quality on the Inon - focusing with the CMC-1 is night-and-day, much more light/contrast, sensor is happy and my focus peaking points are happy. The Inon is also quite soft in the wider range, very soft corners. Would you have recommendation on +6 to +10 diopters offering a better image quality than the Inon, especially more light/contrast. I'm also interested in a good MOD and depth of field (crucial for video, as smaller subjects swing in and out of focus). The +6 was very flexible for this. I've found the old AOI Fantasea UCL-05LF +6 which is supposed to be quite good (the design is identical to the UCL-09), and the Kraken KRL08S (+6, but more rare, bulkier and more expensive) Another option is the CMC2, which I've tested before and loved, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to go up to +10. Any suggestions? Thanks a bunch!

PM and email sent Thank you.

For macro I'm in full artificial light and just set the kelvin value to the lights', so it's true that it's not much of an issue other than for ambient light / mixed lighting / wide angle. For sure there must be a reason why the RX100vii, a macro-beast according to specs, doesn't seem to translate to actual footage online. Something is off. I've seen some good footage from the RX100V and VA though. Yes, that crop on the a6400 sounds really tricky - but it would be great if you could test things out on a compact - coming from the 90mm macro to a compact's zoom lens could take a bit of time to adjust to, and potentially lead to some regrets I think I was actually planning on upgrading my compact rig to a Sony a6700, but having moved to Japan postponed this project indefinitely for financial reasons. Look into it, it's an APS-C, great for video and, if lightning fast video AF isn't a requirement, it should work great with the new 16-50mm kit lens, which is a zoom lens and optimised for video, or the Zeiss Touit macro 60mm (which doesn't support fast video AF unfortunately). AF is actually outstanding on this camera, but video-AF supporting lens options are scarce, especially for macro, unfortunately. It would also solve port removal issues and should be fantastic to work with for macro video (and you also would gain 4K 60fps, which none of the compacts have, and can be very useful for small fast moving critters / working with shallow DOF)

Hi - yes, I shoot video exclusively, but have never tried the G7xIII - if I remember correctly, its greatest flaw for video was the manual white-balancing process, which implied working from a still shot, rather than simply using the white-balance button. These kinds of ergonomic issues were the main reason it wasn't on my list when I was deciding which compact to get for video (even though I love Canon colour balance in ambient light) If you're shooting macro exclusively, the LX10 works well, but for macro in artificial light the Sony RX100 series, especially the latest in the series, have humongous zooms which sound really good on paper - they will, however, lock you into a macro-centric port configuration, and I say on paper because other than specs, good macro footage shot on these is not that easily found for some reason... Also while a compact's zoom lens is fine for macro, especially coupled with a +6 to +15 diopter on a compact and the 1" sensor helps in this regard, (you can see some of my macro video on the LX10 here ) , it will still have more limitations than a true macro lens. cheers!

Yes, please do tell - very interested in how people are organising this in different places. We actually have a little thread up on the subject here: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/1671-bonfire-dives-light-trap-dives cheers! ben