Paulkzk

Wow, thanks for pointing that out @Grantmac ! I wasn't aware of this and you're right, it's not expensive at all! Perhaps this will be my next upgrade since it'll not arrive in time for my Maldives trip!

I have a seafrogs 8in dome and it's extremely buoyant! I bought a few things from Aliexpress to test out and see if I can DIY a trim weight "thing". I decided to create a DIY thing because I didn't want to add stress on the port (I have a budget seafrogs thing, so I didn't want to risk anything with the integrity of their already cheaper than big brands materials. I know that Ikelite sells a trim weight "system" but I think the main cons of that setup is that you cannot sit your housing down flat unless you remove the trim weight. So I'm exploring a way to have a quick release mount for the whole trim weight "thing". I'm ordered a combination of stuff: 1. Drop-in quick release: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003763408928.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.40.72c418020eyXO5 2. Z tripod head: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008154501496.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.10.72c418020eyXO5 3. Camera bracket: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010258279569.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.25.72c418020eyXO5 And here's what I envision will happen: 1. Drop-in quick release connecting my tray to the Z tripod head (this part is just so it's easy to remove the whole "weight thing" on the boat 2. Z tripod head so that I can adjust the angle of the weight depending on the port extension I'm using 3. Camera bracket to hold the weight with hand-screws to make adjustments underwater

Thanks for responding guys! So, yes, as @Chris Ross said - I was thinking about my solution of opening just the bulkhead instead of the backside for this exact reason. In South East Asia some times we do surface intervals on boats (and those boats could be those "thai long tail boats" if you can relate or random beaches - opening up the whole back part of the case can be tricky when it's wet, a small space to work in on the boat, or sand on the beach. Hence why I thought opening the bulkhead would make charging the camera / clearing the memory card during surface intervals a lot easier since its a small opening. So instead of: finding a table, finding somewhere clean to put the backside of the housing, plugging in the USB / removing the camera to charge / transfer files then making sure 2 large o-rings are clean, vacuum pump test and dive again With this solution: I just need to put my entire housing into some "cooler bag" I have, open the bulkhead, pull out the USB cable, charge / transfer files then make sure the small o-ring is clean, vacuum pump test and dive. Anyways, I bought some cables and tiny velcro tape strips to try this - will let you know it goes!

Amazing video!

Hey guys, On my Seafrogs Salted Line housing (for the A7V if you must know), I have a pretty huge bulkhead "opening" it's M33 so I can literally fit my finger into the housing. I was thinking of buying a simple USB C male to female cable, stick it to the side inside the opening and maybe a 4cm slack so that I can pull it out when needed and connect a longer USB-C cable to it. I guess if it's hard to look for a 90° FPC USB-C female-to-male cable, I can get the a normal USB-C cable for inside the housing and find a female-to-male for use outside the housing. Do you think I'm crazy? I don't seem to find any holes in this idea since it doesn't impact the integrity of any seal since I can close it back with the original screw cap apart from: A. Not being beautiful B. Having slack can potentially jam the zoom gear inside (but still no flooded housing) Does anyone else have any good ideas / can point out to flaws to this idea?

🤣 you might be a better underwater image maker than me! It's been 10 years since I've took any serious camera underwater and from what I recall, very little of my on-land knowledge gets transferred underwater! In fact, I'm having to watch videos now of experts sharing tips :P

You're right! Some 10 years ago I was using Ikelite housings with a 5D III - without vacuum pumps or sensors, and very meticulous greasing and cleaning! So the Seafrogs with a vacuum pump already sounds like an upgrade! 😂 But let's see, time will tell when I'll have the regret of "oh, i should have gone for smth better!" haha

Thanks for your input @Grantmac. Yea, I think I'm pretty aware that if I really want to get serious seafrogs isn't really the deal, but let's see! Wasn't ready to spend a fortune yet!

Hey everyone! I joined the forum because I was looking all over for a thread about wide-angle lenses for full frame cameras, but I couldn't find one! (correct me if I'm wrong though, and feel free to let me know: "just check some other thread". So, anyways, I just got myself a Seafrogs housing for my Sony A7V since I will be going to the Maldives for an 8 day LOB (hopefully with beautiful pelagics!). I was looking at ultra wide angle options for this trip, but I couldn't make a decision and wanted to listen to some of your opinions. As you read above, I'm on a Seafrogs housing so all the expensive Nauticam stuff won't work for me. I was initially thinking of using my Canon 8-15mm with a 2x converter (as recommended in some of the photography threads and it totally makes sense) and a Tokina converter (since the Sigma one doesn't do AF in video), but then I realized only after "putting all the converters into the cart", especially coming from a photography background, that the fisheye would be really weird / distracting on video! Although, I'm not sure if that's the case with Mantas, Whale Sharks and Nurse Sharks - and the reason I didn't refer to the reef sharks is because I think I will be using my 16-35 for the "reef-hook-dives" since I think some reach will be required there (and here, I'm really open to opinions since I've not been to the Maldives and the last time I went on a reef hook dive was in Tenggol Island in Malaysia looking for whale sharks with the 8-15mm, but it didn't really work since the whale shark was quite far). That being said, I went on to look for some ultra wide rectilinear lenses, and read some nice reviews from @Phil Rudin (nice articles there!) So, if I may ask - to shoot large stuff, like mantas, whale sharks, groups of nurse sharks would you recommend: - Canon 8-15mm fisheye with / without 2x and which lens converter would you recommend (I was going for the Tokina because it was cheaper than Metabones, but not sure about AF speed difference) and not sure how the fisheye effect will play with large stuff. - Perhaps the best way to shoot video is with rectilinear lenses and if so, I should consider ultra wide angle lenses. And if so, what do you recommend? I was looking at the Laowa 10mm / Laowa 12mm / Sony 12-24 / are there any other lenses to consider? Thanks all in advance for taking the time!

Haha! Thanks for the welcome :) and well, aren't we all pretty good at spending our life savings on beautiful images 🤣, love the candid nature of this forum though!

Hello everyone! I'm Paul, an ex-professional photographer, shooting for luxury fashion brands like Hugo Boss, YSL and then into motosports specifically for Petronas motosports in MotoGP and F1. That all got me to where I am today - founder of a Marketing Tech company. A long time ago, I used to shoot with a 5Dm3 and a long list of canon lenses; underwater I was shooting with the 8-15mm / 100mm macro in an Ikelite housing, but that was perhaps 10 years ago! Fast forward to today, I'm looking to get back into underwater photos (but a bit more interested in videos!), so I bought a Sony A7v, Seafrogs Salted Line but have not decided on lenses I will use, and that's why I'm here to get some opinions!