Christian K

The photogear insurance sound interesting. I will look into that for sure. As for regular travel insurance and incidents / accidents, I am covered by my home insurance for 45 days abroad, assisted by SOS international, evac, treatments everything.

Sad indeed. Manta rays and sharks are seldom eaten though, very poor meat. Finns dried and sold to the Chinese. Meat become animal fodder. Still, it’s their part of the world and they’re free to do as they wish with their natural resources.

2.4 with padding, which I won’t use, only thin foam in bottom and lid, then cloth and bubble wrap. So it’s close to two. A very swift and easy move of a couple of items, 10 second operation, to my private :) fanny .. gets me close to 7. Carrying the Nauti house as personal item an option, many do it. But I very much prefer to have it tucked in a case, so it can be ”tossed around” a bit. Have never considered putting the camera inside during travel. Tried to chose everything with weight in mind for solo traveling. Dropping the pelican might save another 400 grams or so… worth considering. Kind of want the protection though, I’m used to travel that way, old dog, new tricks… Now when I go with my daughter … it will be a non issue. She only has a gopro with a small handle and lamp. We just pack e v e r y t h i n g in two 7 kg carry on pelicans. Then 2 x 30 kgs checked.

Yes, unfortunately so. According to locals there used to be plenty of manta rays, but all fished out since 25-30 years ago. There’s a reef in the Fundu gap that they called manta reef or manta point, which is a cleaning station. No more. Still was an incredible dive even w/o mantas. Explosion of life. The best area inme together with the reefs that dropped off into the abyss north of Pemba. It is an oceanic island different to the other ones in the archipelago , in some ways like Sipadan compared to the other islands in the Sulawesi sea off NE Sabah.

”Best” season for Pemba is November to April roughly. Outside that period chances for good conditions are a less. It is very tide dependent. Only a short window every day is good which means only two good dives a day. Intimate, local experience and knowledge absolute critical. There were fields of dead coral already 20 years ago—dynamite fishing had been practiced by local military according to the dive center—but very limited. It seemed to have escaped the big bleaching in 1998 that hit the Indian Ocean badly, Maldives in particular. But for the most vast areas of living, beautiful coral. Visibility incredibly clear and lots and lots of fish. Roaring currents. Also bigger schooling fish like barracuda and trevally, and game fish. No sharks or mantas. It was inmo a lot better than diving around Zanzibar.

Pelican Air 1485 2,07 Inon Z-240 x2 1,24 Nikon Z6 III+battery 0,76 Nauticam Z6III-hus 2,70 Cables 0,15 WWL-C 1,05 Nikon Z 24-50 mm 0,20 Nauticam Macro Port 6 0,35 Bayonet Mount Converter 0,115 Total 8,635 kg Moving the wwl-c and perhaps the 24-50 to my ”personal item”—a fannypack with 4 arm segments and six clamps—will get it down to 7ish carry-on legal weight. NiMh AA:s, chargers etc. and additional gear in checked luggage—I’ll be able to shoot even if checked luggage is delayed or ”lost”, batteries and chargers can be replaced in most semi civilized areas. A plan in theory in this moment. Will test it in a month or so :)

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.

Gotcha. Cheers, the 1.xx kgs apparently the 24 mm variant…

No matter how long you’ve been on it, you have the right idea Helen! Welcome.

🤣 Let’s not jinx any accidents. But yes, good like in the saying ”… for the buck”. Made in Japan.

Most bang … : IKEA ladda.

Is that the travel friendly 1.xx kgs wet lens or the 4 kg ”lump”.

Get really cheap dive gear. The only ”expensive” stuff i have checked (and might plan to check) is ports. Otherwise arms, clamps and batteries. Housing, camera, strobes and cables in carry on. Lenses and wwl-c in big fanny-packis my plan (personal item).

Rules seems to be tighter and tighter. So does the slack given to ”sinners” :) I know, because I am one too. However with flying several times per year luck can’t be a part of the equation and business is out of budget. So most has to be checked it seems. And what I bring kept more or less within regulations.

WWL-C for me too (checked with arms and port(s)). Planning on dismantle handles tho, in theory. Does not have the housing in my hand yet (with my dealer) and new to Nauticam (Nikon z6iii). Big hassle? Seems easy enough on paper. Weight of big concern, hence the 1485. Bon chance in Coz. Heading to Indonesia in early September to ”baptize” my new gear.

Cheers. I’m going to see if I can fit (most of) my rig in a 1485, if not I’ll resort to what you have—the 1525. May I ask what camera body you Nauti is for? I’m new to Nauticam.

Is that the 1485?

Will most likely demand a large dome. The 122 degrees is pretty close to the wet lenses 130, so that would be a good comparison.

Wet lenses was a game changer for me as a Nikon DX shooter since 20 years. Was very reluctant towards FF because of all reasons already mentioned, but mainly for the lack of good rectilinear WA options. They all needed big ass domes and very expensive high end glass was disappointing once put behind that big ass dome and brought UW. APS-C was much better in that aspect. So I was about to swap brand when a fellow shooter and distributor of housings convinced me to go FF with wet lenses. Made it possible to continue shooting Nikon too. Not that is was all that important, but old habits die hard I guess.

Isotta looks sweet and kind of remind me of now dismantled Hugyfot, which has been my choice of housing. But we have no Isotta dealers in Scandinavia. Call me old fashioned, but I like to have someone close for support, which I have with Nauticam. The Z6III is a pretty awesome 25 MP camera with incredible AF and the latest tech. I struggle with motivating ”the need” for the extra MP performance or reason for me to pay € 1500 more for a larger Z8. Z6III with Nauticam, a small port and a wet lens will be a pretty swift kit delivering top notch in every aspect (video too—which I haven’t really considered or really, weighed on that much). So the dice is rolled. I ordered a Z6III Nauticam housing with a macroport and the wet lens already. 😊 Cheers.

That is what I (and my sad wallet) has concluded.

I’m with you. Isotta seem nice, have no experience from them tho and there are no dealers in Scandinavia—however, buying a brand new alu housing and gear to make wet optics to work for a 10 year old camera … I don’t know. The Nauti z6III is 2.7 kgs and the camera body 6xx grams (a couple of hundred grams lighter than D500). So 3.3ish kgs together. Is the Isotta D500 a lot lighter? I’m looking for a good second hand housing too, but no luck so far and time is running out for me. I’m consulting a good UW photographer here in Sweden too and he say wet optics hands down. The Z24-50 might not be the a great lens comparatively (tests show its pretty sharp tho), but look at the Nikkor 14-24… fantastic lens. Sheit UW. There are so much happening when we put it behind a dome and uw so it’s not always an easy comparison lens to lens. Appreciate your feedback and the time you put in to answer Chris! Thank you.

TVC:s.

Cheers David. Director from Sweden here. Welcome.