makar0n

It's not that bad in my opinion, personally I avoid the flight route though. Last time I've checked, flights were at ridiculous morning times and then you land at Tablas, completely different island. Getting over to Romblon then takes quite a while, and involves a car and a boat usually. Much better route was always the ferry - take one in the afternoon, have a good night sleep on the ferry (and get over the jetlag) and arrive right in the actual Romblon in the morning - have breakfast and jump straight into the water. Well, ferry times have changed a bit now, so it starts in Batangas earlier and gets to Romblon earlier, but still preferred that than the flight. And no need to worry about baggage allowance for once.

While holding vodka martini in your hand I suspect. Shaken, not stirred.

@TimG BOOT mission goal is clear - sneak in, infiltrate, report 🤣

Wooohoo, finally! Still waiting patiently 🙂

This and the shoddy quality of their circuit boards...it was not a matter of if, but when the light will fail. When they worked, indeed were quite nice, definitely liked the switch as could change the power level even with my nose should hands be full 😉 But inevitably one by one they would break and the issue was usually the circuit board. What was worse, the company was not exactly helping past the warranty period - absolute refusal for sending any spare parts, demanding that light be always sent to their authorized service center and of course bill from those being as high as a cost of a new light. And not sure they could be called US manufacturer neither - I think all the parts were made in China and merely assembled in US.

Personally I am always removing the handles - apart from cleaning, housing wouldn't fit into the backpack otherwise ;] Screws are going into a small zip-lock style bag, so no issue losing those. Also greased with lovely Lanocote (marine grade grease) from time to time - also useful for any other metal screwy parts like clamps etc.

Still confused about this and somehow had the impression its the cure for short working range on diopters...

Seems that port charts have now been updated. No clue however how will it work with the likes of CMC as well... 452 Euro on Nauticam site: https://www.nauticam.com/products/mid-range-focus-optimizer-1-mfo-1

Interesting considering the crusade in the other topic from Retra affiliates against Li-Ion 😉 Specs do look interesting but the weight is quoted at 1150g...tad heavy travel wise, but seems almost neutral in the water, if I understand the buoyancy value correctly. And let's not post those prices the same misleading way Retra been doing since beginning - they are based in EU as such by law have to publish prices with VAT included, at least to private customers. I won't even mention the fact that prices are in USD and not in EUR....And even in US, not every state is tax free. Price now shows as 799 USD (guess intro, w/o video light), 879 (with video), 999 regular for both. Thats 966,76 USD including 167.79 VAT (as calculated by Retra checkout) and 1063.69 (including 184.59 VAT) That represents about 21% VAT. So regular price will be about 1208 USD.

its the usual: -piece of string - 1 Euro -the same piece of string but labeled "diving" - 5 Euro -the same piece of string labeled "diving and camera" - 50 Euro And the plugin falls into the last category. I wish they offered support for other software, including open source Dark Table, rather than just the Adobe "let me force you into never ending subscriptions" Photoshop. But one can dream 🤣

Email Nauticam regardless, they do have pretty good customer service. Had a couple flooded years back (the older generations, think now its 3rd or 4th one) and they did exchange for latest and greatest without any issues, and if my memory serves me correct, the second time I was out of warranty as well.

There is quite a few topics on Scubaboard - Aggressor fleet is a bit controversial. Seems the individual boats operate on franchise basis under as single brand, and when anything smelly hits the fan, parent company washes their hands off anything. There are certainly lots of positive stories out there, but also quite a few total wrecks (latest one in Komodo, where boat stayed in port whole week, and refused any refunds). Seems as long as it goes well, all guests are happy, but if anything goes bad, then you are on your own. Might be worth combing the accidents section, that fleet seems a bit fire prone. Also this might be of interest, also few recent guest reports towards the end: https://scubaboard.com/community/threads/belize-aggressor-iv-mooring-breaks.639886/

And this is exactly why I come here, all this water photo thing is totally secondary 🤣

I knew I should have not edited the post and left the original text - "...and asked me to take it out" .

Hmm now that is an idea! I was eyeing that Ayegear thing as well, but indeed this looks like it is going to sag...and once it is apparent you are carrying something they might ask you to take it out. I did have that experience once, when tried to hide a small-ish laptop bag under poncho style wind cover thing. Check in person noticed the bump and asked to see whats there then proceeded to weight it. So maybe vest under and some thick jumper to cover the bumps (which would be hopefully smaller) will work better indeed. Then build the housing, including WWL and camera inside and do that as "personal item" hanging over the shoulder 😉 I have also taken to carry a dive thigh pocket over trousers - so far no issues and a nice big extra pocket fitting lots of stuff. Unfortunately, at least in Europe, airlines are going nuts - 7-8kg is the new norm. Och sure you can pack it into the checked in baggage, but neither the airline nor insurance will take any responsibility for it. If it goes missing its your problem.