CCRphoto

Locally it is probably more to do with the loss of big industries that were the major employers - paper mill had 3,300 workers, a local company made such incredibly good underground mining equipment that Caterpillar bought them and then a couple of years later moved the plant to Thailand - 600 jobs gone, paint pigment plant closed - 250 jobs gone, and so there just wasn't the money in town any more to support things like a camera shop.

Cheers - sounds good!

Totally agree, unfortunately I don't have a local bricks & mortar camera store apart from a Harvey Norman (who are pretty clueless), don't even have a brick & mortar dive store either - can get a wetsuit at the surf store but that is about it.

I'm tending to use https://www.youtube.com/@DustinAbbottTWI/videos when I am looking for decent lens reviews - they are pretty thorough.

I will remind myself how lucky I am next time I am doing yet another two hours of deco above the wreck🤣 What limits me most with my project diving is bottom time vs decompression obligation, and weather - if I could go back in time 2000 years I would tell them "no don't sink it over there - sink it up there - behind the reef - so that there is a bit of protection when I come back in two thousand years to document your ship(wreck)" Having said that, given that we are documenting a wreck that is basically unique as no other intact wreck from this era of sea travel and maritime trade has ever been found, we owe it to history to get the best images possible.

If the images end up on a wall in a museum then I would imagine that they would be quite large. We would be a bit further along with the project by now if everyone hadn't started lobbing bombs again in the Muddle East☹️

In my case I think that it comes down to where I think that my archaeology project might be heading (possibly an entire museum built basically around it), and wanting to record things insitu with very good resolution both for scientific purposes and as some of the images will certainly end up being used in the museum.

Cheers Terry! Marketplace might be worth a shot too - hadn't considered that.

Cheers Chris! I can certainly see how not having something in stock and not telling you until after you order would not be good! Will certainly be avoiding grey importers - I don't need that hassle! Digi Direct do have one redeeming feature - Qantas points with every purchase😀 Will google as you have suggested too!

Ta - will look them up! Digidirect stuffed you around with order fulfillment or unreliable product information or ...

I can get by...

I've got no camera gear retail shops anywhere remotely near me (apart from a Hardly Normal), so what online camera gear retail shops do those of you living in Australia recommend? I've stumbled on webpages for - - https://www.digidirect.com.au/ - https://www.ozdigitalonline.com/ But I haven't really searched yet, and frankly I'm more interested in recommendations from people in Australia that have dealt with online retailers rather than searching a thousand different online retailers for the best price.

I reckon it would be pretty amazing to visit a big photography trade show in China! I've been to a couple of trade shows in other fields in Shanghai and Beijing and they were totally amazing!

It gets a bit like that! My CCR will probably end up about equal with a new Z5ii setup that I am eyeing.

To me the first question became mirror or mirorless, followed by then choosing FF, APS-C or M43. I was initially leaning towards an OM-1 MkII and thus M43, however I'm heading to the GoDiving show in Sydney in a couple of weeks to take a good look at the Nauticam Z5ii housing with a view to going FF. The main reason for this is after reading some posts on here about noise and how pixel size and density have a fair bit to do with noise and then doing some research - it seems to me that the best pixel to sensor size ratio is a fullframe 24.5 megapixel sensor. I could be miles wrong though.

Also interested in your reasoning for going from the Weefine 7" to a smaller monitor, and also what your thoughts were on the Weefine 7"

Nice! I'm a Divesoft Liberty backmount with FMCL.

BTW which CCR are you diving?

That - and by using Tribolube for the camera too you can't accidentally put silicone grease on something that goes in your rebreather - I've seen what happens when someone does!

Off topic - I remember the first time that someone came into Jim & Cathy's with an RS and we all were thinking that it was one hell of an upgrade from a Nik V!

Interesting - will do some more reading once I've had some sleep!

Cheers - that might be worth playing with - I will research those!

Cheers - that is useful information for some image ideas that I am working on.

@Dave_Hicks with the Maxi's - what power levels are you typically using when doing macro shooting nudis etc using the Nikkor 105mm?

I might have to do some testing sometime, and also see if white PVC increases (or has less of a decrease) than black reduction rings.