Jens H

The advantage of a focus light is worth the extra weight, which I can easily compensate for in my case with buoyancy aids from Mike-Dive (unfortunately no longer available). It is exactly as Nemrod said: „…now and then…“ and that's exactly when you'll kick yourself if you don't have it with you. Better to have it than need it.

I use the Wurkkos DL08 as a red focus light in poor lighting conditions. Almost all fish are unable to see red light, which means you can get closer without scaring them away. I also have the Orcatorch D710 on a neoprene Goodman handle as a diving lamp on one hand. This combination has proven to be the ideal solution for me. The Wurkkos can be switched between cold white spot light and warm white flood light at any time – also ideal for filming with the Osmo Action, which is mounted on my housing, or for additional light during night dives. However, this is just another idea, everyone has to find their own solution that fits perfectly to their needs.

Update: the UW-Technics converter works with only one of the 2 Novas (the other one always flashes only once at 100% power), while both Novas work perfectly with the Heinrichs-Weikamp converter. One of the flashes doesn't even work in manual mode with UW-Technics converter when I select manual mode it in the camera menu. It only works when I select the manual setting on the flash itself. The flash can definitely produce a short flash sequence, because if the camera and converter are in TTL mode, but the flash is set to 1/32 or 1/16, for example, then both the pre-flash and main flash will fire. Obviously, the problem is not a defective flash, but a major compatibility issue of the converter. Still working on a final and reliable solution. What a troublesome issue.

I think you misunderstood the effect of warm flashes. With warm flashes, the foreground is colored by the warm lights, making it necessary to correct the white balance of the whole pic a little bit to the blue - which renders the background which is out of the reach of the flash more blueish. The warmer the flash, the more blue the water becomes in wide angle photography.

After an initial problem with a leaky cable, I have now been photographing with two Subtronic pro 160 units for more than 13 years without ever having any problems again. The Subtronic replaced the Inon 240 I had been using previously. In terms of flash power and illumination angle, the Inon is a poor toy compared to the Subtronic. The pro 160 is at least twice as powerful as the Iron. Subtronic support has always been reliable, fast, and friendly. When it comes to quality, many manufacturers could learn a thing or two from Subtronic.

That’s not a stupid question at all. However, I am working with mechanical shutter. I will get 2 Subtronic pro 270/nova soon and will report back if the converter works better with these flashes.

Hey Wahrmut, how nice to have someone from the old UWPix community here - what a pity that this forum came to an end! A friendly welcome ("Seawas") from Austria! Jens

I used the float arms from H2O-Tools for more than 10 years without any issues. However, these are not available any more. Since I needed more buoyancy for my new setup, I got 2 float arms from 10bar (4,5 cm diameter)recently. One of them broke on my third dive day, they are cheap and not robust at all. Now I have buoyancy arms from UW-Lighting (https://ocean-photos.es/gb/buoyancy-arms/1399-uw-lighting-10-carbon-fiber-float-arm.html), they seem to be very robust and add even more buoyancy at surprisingly low costs. Regards, Jens

Here we go with an interim update: After a few test dives in cold Austria, I can say that for now, setting the converter to “6” (for Inon Z330) and approx. -1 flash compensation works acceptably, but is far from perfect. Compared to others, the converter is extremely sensitive to reflections and stray light, so you have to switch to manual mode relatively often. For example, if the flashes are not perfectly aligned in half-and-half shots, they always fire at 100%. More intensive testing in Tenerife will follow soon. Greetings, Jens

No action camera is designed for close-up or macro photography. If you want to take macro photos regularly, an action camera is not the right choice for you! Before you start equipping your action camera with close-up lenses, etc., you're better off getting a camera that is designed for this purpose. I also had close-up lenses and filters on my GoPro so that I would be prepared for all shooting situations (Flip system from Backscatter). However, fiddling around underwater and, above all, the poor quality of the recordings despite everything annoyed me so much that I got rid of it all.

To the best of my knowledge, action cams have fixed focus lenses and, therefore, cannot lose focus. Osmo Action has a larger sensor than others and therefore a larger minimum distance to take your footages.

I cannot comment on Osmo Action 6, I got Version 5. I had several GoPros before and never will get one again based on above mentioned reasons. I don’t know AcePro but I remember that I read some not-so-great reviews during my research in order to decide between Osmo and AcePro. Both are likely to have their advantages.

That’s the correct way, but use WORMS page to check if the name is correct or outdated: https://www.marinespecies.org Once you have determined the scientific name of an animal, you can find out about its lifestyle, behavior, ecology, etc., regardless of whether you look up Discodoris atromaculata or Peltodoris atromaculata, for example: you will receive the same information. Names are pretty irrelevant; it is more important to know about other things. And I say that as a biologist. :-) Far too often, some divers know the exact names of underwater organisms, whether scientific or popular scientific names. But they know nothing about their way of life and ecology. It should be the other way around!

I switched from GoPro to Osmo Action and never looked back. Much less noise, better colors, better low light quality, intuitive and quicker menus, 3 to 4 times longer battery life time, no crashes.

The “bible” of nudibranchs. Here you will find almost everything you need to know about nudibranchs that you might encounter underwater. Unfortunately currently out of stock, try to get a used copy or a PDF: Nudibranchs of the World (Debelius, Kuiter), ISBN 978-3939767060. Nice book on creatures you see during muck diving. However, it is still not complete -that would be mission impossible: Muck Diving: A Diver's Guide to the Wonderful World of Critters (Nigel Marsh), ISBN 978-1921517815