Kristin

I just bought the insta Ace Pro 2 and like it. As I was reading and watching reviews/footage people shared, I liked it best for what i thought I wanted. I didn't look at the prices of anything so can't compare it, but I'm sure there's a site somewhere that does. I've not used other action cams (other the insta360 X4), so don't have any personal experience with others. I am happy and think it's a solid choice. https://youtu.be/0_MN55Feqfc

as far as I can tell, my newest Pros are not counterfeit. Must just have a wonky batch. My super old black Pros that are all at 60-80% give me the same results - missing shots - as the brand new ones. It is what it is, I probably should have contacted the company after the first time I noticed it and gotten swaps. If I had access to Ikea, I'd buy theirs next time. I probably would choose the white standard eneloops over the black pros if I had to choose between them right now.

I recently bought eneloop pros because my regular eneloops were getting on in years. They are crap. My old white eneloops last well longer and recharge way faster than these new black ones - I actually miss shots now, which has never happened before. I'm kinda grumpy about it, tbh. YMMV

thanks, all. I am talking with Elie now :)

I don't have instagram but will try to find him on ebay, thanks! You mean here? If anyone wants them, please do reach out :)

I have two lovely NikVs doing nothing for me but taking up space. Is there any market for these at all or are they destined for the bin? I'm in Australia, but I'll be in the USA in a few weeks and would drag them along if there might be more potential to get them to a new home from there. What do you all think?

thanks to everyone for sharing some of their processes! I find what others do so interesting - super stickybeak of me, I know. I'm in the quasi-hoarder camp. I'll do a cull of the crap first up - I use LR and do the X for adios and 8 (green flag) for keepers. Each cull session ends with selecting all the Xs and deleting them from disk forever. Stuff that doesn't get either hangs out on the hard drive for some future cull session or the aliens, whichever comes first. I do like to wander through old stuff on occasion and sometimes I find a gem that I skipped. I also very much like to a have a visual record of things so even meh photos serve a purpose for me sometimes. As others have said, storage is pretty cheap in the scheme of things (and honestly, the ssd drives are so danged cute!) I often think I'd like to be one of those people who take more great shots than meh/crap per dive, who really push my boundaries to try new shooting styles, who tag/keyword stuff, who has friends/family who'd genuinely love a calendar or booklet or something (but I suspect mostly their interest is politeness) and who gets organized enough to print things to display in my own home...but, yeah, nah, I don't see that totally happening anytime soon!

LOL all my kit looks better ;) Good that it's getting a lot of use and not sitting in a closet!

thank you both for the extra information! I did not know that and it adds food for thought. I'll have to have more of a read about the video @Chris Ross I'm still leaning to the new R7 later in the year, but always good to have more options (sort of!)

Yes, it's nauticam. Thanks for the help. I guess once it's on, it's on? Do I need to leave the camera on? I wonder how long the battery lasts - looking forward to finding out!

Wait, what? Isn't the R5 a FF camera? Now I'm very confused. If it can be an aps-c crop, will it work with my 60? when I did my little test, it only played nice intermittently but clearly I am missing a whole bunch of knowledge!

I have been lucky enough to have a friend let me borrow a R5 to try for a few dives. It has this piece so I can use my same fibre optic strobe cords and i'm hoping people can chime in if there's any tips or tricks to using it? Thanks

@Chris Ross thanks! I do love the teensy stuff and there's an endless variety of critters, never get bored :)

I did. and kinda got lost a bit overall. I'm pretty confident I'll be sticking with crop and thought that was what AlexM was using and liking. Seems like it's not a must have out of the gate...maybe Santa Claus 😁

I didn't want to hijack the other thread so hope someone pops in here again! As I am considering my options (and waiting for the R7mkii maybe!), I am wondering if I should consider adding the Nauticam MFO-1 to my kit. I have the older version 100mm macro and the 60mm macro. I may update to the RF100 but that may come later - my budget is healthy, but choices need to be made and planned for. thanks!

Thanks for posting your photos and what you used!

Wow! Thank you all so much for the massive amount of information you are sharing! Amazing group of people here. I'm still a little confused on the AF aspect of video with these new cameras. I thought that people would be singing its praises, but it seems that isn't the case and MF is often preferred. @dhaas I was very tempted by the R50/R100 options. Still am some days! I think the video rules them out, overall. I'm loving looking through your images and posts. I feel a bit of deja vu here as I seem to be in the same place as I was a decade ago when moving from Canon 20D to the 7Dmkii. I was a bit too late to jump on the original and had to wait a bit for the next version. But it has served me very well for 10 years, so hopefully I get at least half that out of the new one. Sight unseen, it seems like the R7mkii is going to be a good choice for me. here's hoping! I may have a chance to use an R5 soon, but likely without strobes as I don't have the right cables, I don't think. Still be worthwhile and I'm looking forward to it even though I'm pretty sure FF isn't in my future. Thank again for everyone who has chimed in!!

I'm considering add-on lenses for using my new action cam underwater. I have the backscatter air M52 air lens but not sure I will be able to use it with this camera? Also need advice on which holder/adaptor suits the housing. I had a link to an AOI one that was suggested, but the link goes no where now so... Flyby turtle photo tax (not taken with the AP2!) Thanks!

I use the same glass subal dome with adaptor that I use with the 17-70. Works great with the 7dmkii, not sure about FF so I'm keeping new dome on the list of expenses for now!

@Chris Ross thanks for providing such in-depth information! I have other lenses languishing in a closet including the Canon 10-22 and the Canon 24 that a friend really likes for uw video. Lenses for video is probably something I have to have a look at and fully expect to have to splash some more cash in that direction and for a better video light set up if I expand to more wide angle stuff. So many toys! Would you mind if I drop you a PM about something?

@Chris Ross thanks again! how irritating that I'd need a nearly $900 adaptor for the stupid ports. That's a big enough annoyance to put a tick in the win column for a different choice! As I already own the Tokina 10-17 and 1.4 tc I'd put off adding the 8-15, but it's good info for the future!

Thanks for the nice words about my photo :) This is amazingly helpful, thank you for taking the time to provide so much clear & helpful information! I hadn't every heard your point about the difference in nailing focus on the uber FFs vs the crops, very interesting and actually explains something I couldn't understand when I was playing with my friend's R5. I am still undecided, but I feel like the input I'm getting here is excellent.

Thanks so much, that's super helpful information that's keyed in on what I need and want. really appreciate it!

Thanks for your reply and the info on various housings/ports. Gives me more to read! So you reckon head to FF? 1 - I quite like everything, I'm not a specialist 2 - I would to make sure that my camera can handle all of these including quality video for projects. 3 - I think pretty much everything is better on the new bodies! The 7dmkii doesn't suck by any means, but new autofocus, video capabilities, image quality, screen are all worth updating, imho.

I'm hoping for some guidance as I am wanting to change into some new technology but am confusing myself and being terribly wishy-washy. I'm trying to be brief but it might drag a bit, sorry! I know that there are multiple great options and it's individual for "best", but getting some real world input may help me clarify my own thinking. I have been using dslr for over a decade, though the past year + I was only using my Oly TG series. That's been great fun, but the limitations and image quality for some types of images were starting to annoy & drain some of the fun for me so I brought the big rig out of the closet last month. My BGC is currently Canon 7dmkii and Nauticam with Inon 240s. I have a bunch of lenses & domes/ports & dioptres for macro; I also have the Kraken KRL-90S that I think I remember having fun using, but it's been a long while. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use what I currently have with the new system with an eye on updating components as needed, so am fairly confident I'd l like to stay Canon/Nauticam. My shooting style is often wandering around the dive and taking whatever comes, versus setting out with more specific goals. My 17-70 macro lens offers great flexibility for those days; other days I enjoy the Tokina 10-17 and Canon 60 macro. I have an older Canon 100 macro and I think that is one lens I may want to update to the RF version eventually, but for now, will hopefully be able to limp along with it. Going forward, I'd like to explore shooting video & wider scenes as these are things I haven't pursued as much. A friend let me borrow her Canon R5, but sadly I wasn't able to get it underwater as conditions were yucko. I may have another chance soon, though. I was able to see which of my lenses worked with it, so that was nice and all but the 60 played nicely. It was my first time using mirrorless and I liked it. At first I was ready to make the jump to FF, but now I'm back to not being sure if that matters so much to me; I don't think I have a strong preference either way, though when I used the R5 on land, I did miss my "extra" reach! Seems FF is more expensive, too. I have considered everything in Canon's range, but keep flip flopping. I think the Final Four are R50 (backscatter suggested this set up and it was very tempting; love the form factor), R7, R6mkii and R5mkii. I don't think any would let me down for image quality, but I get a bit lost trying to pinpoint how much benefit I would get from moving up the chain. And, it sounds like there are new models coming later this year so maybe I should keep waiting; I don't have to have it right now, though I kinda would like it before our summer diving starts in Nov/Dec! What I want is probably what everyone else wants: excellent autofocus for both stills and video; great video - I am starting to explore this and would hate to get a body now that is too limiting (and I think I read that was an R50 issue) because changing bodies when housings are involved is just painful imho. I'm a happy cropper - I do try to get the image I want, of course, but sometimes I like/need to crop. While the R5mkii is undoubtedly an awesome machine, I do feel that choosing something else would do me just as well and any difference in costs would be put to good use on trips, lighting, lenses that would benefit me more. Whew, is that too much info? Have I given enough info to help me narrow my choices? I hope so...i seem to be able to talk myself into anything but then fall down the rabbit hole and don't end up making a decision. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Adding a photo so this post at least has something fun to look at!