Mike Saunders

I suspect that I am being dim but how exactly do I get a photo of a nudibrnach with a black backround like some of the stunning images on here? I can think of three options: snoot - I can't imagine that this would get ris of ALL of the surrounding scenery create a mask in lightroom and get rid fo the background actually manipulate the nudibranch - either picking it up and putting it on a black surface or fenging it into mid water and shooting it like a clay pigeon shoot before it hits the deck (this suggestion not entirely serious btw) I imagine the third option would give you the best results but is it actually OK to touch wildlife? I realise that it is a slug not a turtle but still. Option 2 feels a bit like cheating. Mike

I'm very interested to hear how people get on with the zeiss 50mm I have recently gone to an N85 housing and already have the 30mm sony and port but am looking for a bit longer as well - I suspect the 90mm sony macro I have will be too much of a handful for practical use, particularly diving in groups with non photographers the sony requires an 85-120 adapter and new port where the zeiss just requires a 30mm extension ring on the port I already own this is probably more than the cost difference between the zeiss and the sony so that the Zeiss option would be cheaper and more space efficient for travel any updates on your experience very welcome

a fantastic post and a great photo that tells its own story Given the standard of professional underwater photography in 2026 and on this website - I realise that it is unlikely that I will ever sell any of my underwater photos, or win any prizes but that really isn't the point. I see things that I love and just as above the water, I want to photograph them. It brings joy to me and pleasure to others and as you suggested, helps to educate and inform. I also just love the tech and the messing about with stuff. I love the underwater world. Leave only bubbles and take only photographs - It's a great motto

I’ve found a used nauticam housing for sony alpha 6xxx looking forward to the red sea trip

Hi there I am very much a novice but my experience to date for what it is worth I'm using A6000s - initially because I was concerned about flooding and loosing an expensive camera and the A6000 is available cheaply second hand. I'm considering getting a 6400 because the autofocus is much better but it still fits the same housing I bought a cheap salted line housing which is OK but not great. Some of the controls don't work at depth. I am also considering upgrading to a nicer housing (eg Isotta) at some stage, especially if I am going to go to the galapagos in the future I launched a thread about full frame vs apsc or 4/3 last month and I think most agree that there is little advantage to ff. A great thing about APCS is that the housing and domes are smaller for travel purposes. I'm getting the feeling that the favourite small set up on here is the Olympus one. I'm going to stick with Sony as I have lots of lenses etc but if I was going to wipe the slate clean I would probably go Olympus and a decent housing.

yep - three night dives are planned so I will take a short macro lens and port anyway which shouldn't upset the other half too much... definitely planning a hoody and tracky bottoms for the evenings

very helpful thank you

my next trip is a liveaboard in the Red Sea in late November from Hurghada visiting all the well known sites , thistelgorm, brothers, ras mohammed and others I haven't been to the Red Sea since 1999 so my memory of the dive sites is a bit hazy I am presuming this is mostly proper wide angle territory rather than macro? My wife got a bit 'bemused' by the amount of kit that came to Indonesia, so rationalising it a bit would be good

we were first week of september I thought the vis was ok but not stellar lot of backscatter in photos- but possibly poor technique as well

what day did you do the manta dive? I think we were there on 3rd september mike

and thank goodness for raw files hopelessly underlit image of a black frog fish hiding in a hole. wrestling with 90mm macro focus and strobe arms but play around on lightroom and there’s an image there

Gili Air was a great place to stay less spectacular but my first experience of muck diving in two dives and less current and easier to find a spot to stop and take images first frogfish!

just coming to the end of a wonderful trip to komodo and gili air. came with quite a lot of gear that I hadn’t really used much before - but after doing Alex Mustards excellent reboot course and then fannying about underwater for a fortnight several things are apparent taking good photos on a group dive is impossible- you need time and ‘normal’ dive groups don’t give it to you. ‘drive by’ snapping are very hit and miss you get what you pay for. The salted line alpha 6xxx housing is usually waterproof and cheap but don’t expect to be able to change the settings at 30m- at one point it was randomly scrolling though the iso settings for no reason - another times the shutter wouldn’t work the sony macro 90mm 2.8 is a stunning lens- when you can get it to focus! next time i even think about it i’ll put it on manual and set the focus before the dive - use a snoot and just take pictures of things that way. Should be great I’m definitely coming back to Indonesia

as a footnote, years ago I used to dive with a Nikon 35mm film body with a 60mm macro lens I now keep the lens at work in the drawer in clinic with an old d700 body to take pictures of patients - it still takes beautiful pictures every time I get it out I am staggered how heavy it is and equally staggered that I used to take it underwater in an Ikelite housing

wow I though the original question was quite simple but this has turned into a technical pandora's box and I have been fascinated to read the replies I'm on a sony alpha 6xxx set up which is firstly portable and secondly cheap(ish) I have always presumed that if you are shooting with a dome, the dome becomes a part of the lens system and may well be the most important quality limiting step as most lenses, even cheap ones, are pretty good. The second thing, at my stage is that there are far more significant factors limiting image quality than sensor size (technique, experience and so on) but I posted the original question while I was wondering if going from alpha 6xxx to alpha 7 ff would make much difference. My guess is not... thanks for all the excellent replies

what you can achieve in that environment and what the two cameras might be capable of, are two different things very much so!

technically speaking what are the advantages and disadvantages of the APSC and full frame cameras? clearly bigger sensor and more pixels with full frame, but beyond that are there any specific technical or optical matters of relevance to UW photography? Mike S

thanks I think I may have over darkened it in lightroom

thanks everyone I'm not underwater until September so i am using BBF on my camera at work and getting used to it I can see the advantages immediately but it is not second nature yet the recent shark dive with ultra wide angle produced very few out of focus shots but my attempts at macro in the past have been much worse - it seems like a definite for macro at least

do serious underwater photographers use back button focus rather than the standard shutter release? I'm wondering if it is a new skill I should try to master

bugger! I'm going in November....

Tamron seem to be producing a lot of interesting lenses I have the 11-20 2.8 apsc lens which is pretty sharp and much cheaper

accidentally overexposed on the strobes a bit but as I was shooting in raw I was able to take this down and give the photos a much more dramatic look by reducing the overall exposure. Quie pleased with some of these If anyone is in the South of the UK - these trips run from Plymouth with InDeep and a few out of Penzance compared to flying halfway round the world to see sharks at a distance this was an amazing experience. The sharks turn up eventually and then swim round and round you until you fill up your sd card or run out of batteries!

thanks for the advice strobe definiely made the images better I'll submit a few more when I have had time to sit down and process in LR