Ajay

Nice photos, and glad you had a good experience. Richelieu brings back some memories from almost 25 years ago, when Kitty and I were total rookies. We jumped in (near the open-end of the horseshoe) with a rookie DM, immediately got pulled away by the currents, and couldn't find where the site was - what with the viz and general rookie-ness. We floated around for 5 min in the murky blue water, and then called it a dive. Later that day, the more experienced DM on the boat (Rhapsody) took us down and we had a good dive. It wasn't so crowded back then. I was sorry to hear a few years later that Rhapsody caught fire and burnt down during a Similar trip. Kind regards, Ajay

This reminds me of a program on BBC some time ago, where they had a guy who specialized in cat photos. He said he would add some random cat hair on the (black) backdrops as a 'signature'. I thought that was interesting -- for amateurs (like me), I just don't care if the AI model makers (or humans, even) download my images and use them for anything, but for people who made a living doing this, it's going to be tough. As an aside, one interesting thing is that I can input an image into perplexity (running gemini pro for me), and ask it how I could make such an image. And out pops a "how-to" guide. How much more fun, than, you know, asking a real human how they make these brilliant images.😐 [I tried this, using the image on https://www.uwphotographyguide.com/saga-magic-tube-review, and got this response from the Perp: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-want-to-get-this-kind-of-spe-kbbx7T7DQ1Wh2EzmaxuvSQ#0 ] Another scary thought (😅) is that I could just let the AI make my images, and dive to enjoy the UW scene and experience, eyes wide open, rather than through the viewfinder.. Kind regards, Ajay

Love the report, love the photos. Just one note: when in HK, you should have taken a day to hike Maclehose Trail #2. :-) Kind regards, Ajay

Indeed. Couple of years ago when I upgraded, I was also comparing the A7C series with the A7 IV. Finally, a post here (it might have been Phil Rudin?) compared the weight of these systems rigged with Nauticams, and the difference was not significant. So I ended up with the A7 IV. My deciding factors were: A7C - lighter and easier for top side (like hiking), vs. A7 IV - better viewfinder. Kind regards, Ajay

I think there are projects for fish ID.. Google does a pretty decent job of it already, but one issue of UW is that we don't have a good way to connect to a remote server (EM waves don't travel well through water). We can run a pre-trained AI "in-mask". We'd would need a fairly powerful computer.. maybe Arduino will not cut it - perhaps need something like a Raspberry Pi. Plus you need to power it, I guess battery life would suck. I think it's a great project. It should come first to those UW rovers, which are larger and already have cameras.. Cheers Ajay

Good question, and I suppose the answer would have to consider the effect (short and long term) of Sulfamic acid on O-rings.. Perhaps someone from the housing makers will have done those tests? Personally, apart from the final rinse that I give at the resort, I dump my housing (and all other housing/torch/...) in hot water in a clean tank when I return home from a dive trip. Usually two rounds. Also, that little bit of whitish patina -- I don't think it's harmful, and is a visual cue about the experience for the housing. Kind regards, Ajay

Nice report. Too bad you didn't get better encounters with hammerheads -- that was one big reason I was thinking to make the arduous journey there sometime. That and (supposedly) the large numbers of snakes.. did you see those? Ajay

Just reporting a couple of mating shots form our summer trip to Lambeh. The full trip report and tons of photos are on my website. The web page is likely slow to load, since I am just running it off of my personal computer. And it's a record form my memory, so there are fair number of not-so-great photos. By the way, in this trip we stayed at Solitude Lambeh, managed by the friendly Germans (Patrick and Anna). And I got to reflect how much I appreciate these folks who, really, sacrifice so much to run operations under challenging conditions, just so we can enjoy these great trips. I could also recall several others, like Leeza English of Triton Bay, Patrick Schwarz who started Scuba Seraya, and so many others running liveaboards. Here's a gentle thank you to all of these folks! Kind regards, Ajay Images: mating flamboyant cuttlefish; goby with eggs on tunicate; the kiss.

I was there last week, and found these gobies cleaning out the rubbish (mostly sand) from their rubbish home.. But maybe that's not what the OP meant. 😬 Humming that old Police song, with kind regards, Ajay

Welcome Noel. That night shot of the Ragged tooth.. really nice! (others too.. ) Ajay

Hey! you can't talk about highlight without a photo or two :-)

Love the video.. sometimes felt like the music was a bit uptempo, compared to the nudis and critters that were rather chilled.. :-).

Google says these are the CIPA sales volumes for DSLRs; I'm sure the trend has carried past 2023. My guess would be that we shall see some consolidation in the manufacturing space.. some M&A. Ajay

Love the bobtails.. Ajay

I was planning to just use a tiny piece of 0.3mm steel strip, bend it to deflect the light up, and epoxy it to the front of the flash. It seems there is around 5mm of space at the front bottom below the strobe window, so it should be plenty to hold the strip. Once the flash arrives, I will post details. Ajay