JustinO

Wet Wide Lens is right, Davide. Suggest we could also add the following, some of which regularly come up in reviews/ debates: IQ: Image Quality SMC: Supermacro Converter CMC: Compact Macro Converter and in the alternatives: FFO: Fish F***ed Off - a common saying in our household when one of us exhales at just the wrong moment!

I seem to have a thing for Scorpionfish... I am sure it arose from obliging the kids with a picture every time they saw one! Many shots later, I've still not got "the one" as their camouflage makes them buggers to separate from the background. This pic is my favourite not because it's technically brilliant, but because it reminded me about "being there", and setting up the shot to get some depth. On the day in question, conditions had made diving impossible until late afternoon, and the viz wasn't great. The fish was initially lying on the coral in the background, and I couldn't get a good angle on it. After a few shots, I moved on - then my partner pointed, and I turned to see the fish repositioning in a much more suitable place into a position that let me flatter it much more effectively. Just wish the sulphur damsel near it had swum back into shot for a bit of extra drama and colour.

I am going to put my head above the parapet as a Sea & Sea YS D3 user - and say I'm happy, both with the units and the service I got from S&S. That said, I'm only in the water 3-5 weeks a year, and I am very particular about keeping my gear in order. Sort the gear then the beer, is my mantra! I shoot M 4/3, and find that the dome diffusers with the 8mm fisheye gives a nice spread of light across the scene. The flat diffusers that come with them I use for every other lens. I also have the snoot - cheap for what it is, and the prism in it ensures the focus light on the strobe can be used - which is harder to do if one makes one's own. I could see myself getting very frustrated without the light to help know where it's pointing. The out the box snoot is good for WA snooting; for macro it's a bit wide, but there are some easy mods that slot into the snoot and can give a really nice focussed beam. I made my own, and was also given a pair of printed ones to test - am planning to post my findings up one day, with some pics. I know others have had issues with performance, and with customer service. I posted about an issue I had with my strobe on another forum. That issue had a happy outcome, in which my unit was replaced free even though it was outside of warranty.

HI Tim, Thinking about making a crack at this.- an idea to throw out there that might help build the community and engage new members before I bring stuff over. Wonder if under one of the forum areas we could start a "Getting the best out of your gear" series, that focusses on tips from the community on using specific and popular bits of kit, under their own thread. Some of the old threads inevitably got into the weeds of other things, like IQ/ merits and demerits of one lens over another etc. So am wondering if by drawing community experience under one area might help overcome the issue of not being able to pull archived data over, thus rebuilding some of the wealth of advice and experience, but bringing it together more coherently. For example: Subject: "Getting the best out of your gear" Thread: "Oly 60mm" (but with other threads for other kit) could include: - How folks have programmed their rigs - How to best use zoom gears or whether folks recommend them or not - Using the CMC / other wet lenses - etc. etc... Not sure how practical that might be to set up the hierarchy, eg. "Tutorials, How tos, DIY" > "Getting the best out of your gear" > "(thread per lens /etc.)"

Beautiul footage, and really sensitively lit. The sequence on what I think is a sponge is a really nice introduction - the contrast of the animal on the substrate is pleasing to the eye, as is the way you've captured a slightly different foraging approach there as it probes the pores. Well done, and thanks for sharing - makes me realise I spend a little too much time on stills, and less on the video side.

Well done all you super-experts who got this up and running! Am moving over, but keeping my same username. Have also got records of some of my other posts in case the old threads can't be resurrected but the content might still be useful. Shoot WA and Macro on Oly M4/3.