Don Silcock

I would like to share my experience with the SEACAM Optical Precision Port (OPP) over the past 21 months. But before I go any further, let me declare upfront that I am a SEACAM ambassador - so I am obviously somewhat biased by my experience with what I regard as a truly exceptional company. That said, I also try to be as honest, objective and rational as I can. So the link below are my considered thoughts on the usability of the OPP in a very wide coimbination of locations and subject matter. Having used both the Nauticam WACP-1 (5 years) and the WACP-C (3 years) before making the switch to SEACAM, I believe that I have quite a lot of hands-on experience with water corrected optics. Based on that experience, for me the OPP is a truly exceptional example of optical engineering that has been thoughfully and carefully designed to solve two of the key problems underwater photographers face. Namely taking images in water with lenses designed to operate in air (different refractive indexes) and traveling with our equipment. I personally consider the OPP to be the ultimate travel lens as it does so many things so well in a relatively small package Since I joined Waterpixels several people have reached out to me for comments on the OPP, but I wanted to wait till SEACAM had completed their thorough and very objective testing of the system in their purpose built test tank. Pixel peeping of images taken on the fly underwater is not objective as it only provides an indication of the optical performance. SEACAM have really quantified what the OPP can do optically under very controlled circumstances with that testing and I highly encourage you to follow the link in my article and download the results of that testing. Which, in a word is impressive and fully reinforces my impressions from 21 months of field testing. Here's the link: https://indopacificimages.com/ultimate-underwater-travel-lens/

I am looking for a second-hand Seacam housing for a D850 - anybody selling one? Don

Fixed the link - thanks for letting me know!

I first dived the USAT Liberty wreck way back in 1999 and developed somewhat of a fascination with the site itself - which was and can still be an incredible dive - together with how much Tulamben and the overall experience has changed. These days it would be very easy to take one look at the divers kitting up around mid-morning and simply get back in the car and go to a different site. On a busy day at Tulamben there can easily be more than 100 divers on the wreck and it's pretty easy to see that many of them don't have a lot of experience - hoods with white rabbit ears are a key indicator... Underwater that lack of experience becomes even more obvious! And yet, despite the damage that traffic around the wreck has done, it's still a great dive if you understand the site and know when to dive it. In my early experiences on the wreck I used to get lost all the time and basically just meandered around photographing interesting stuff as I stumbled on it. Then back in 2012 I decided to get serious and booked a week of diving with Tulamben Wreck Divers (TWD) who enjoy a very solid reputation. I dived the wreck five times a day for that week and really got to know it and its moods (It does have them). I repeated that experience again in early 2020, just before the pandemic, and in March this year I went back for another week with TWD. Which means I have digital images of the wreck going back to 2005 (plus some earlier film ones...) and, combined with my understanding of the wreck paints a very interesting story. That story has just been published in X-Ray magazine and can be read on this link:

Hi, this is Don Silcock and I am an Australian underwater photographer, SEACAM ambassador and photojournalist based from Bali. Looking forward to being part of and contributing to WaterPixels! Don