makar0n

How to say "I'am living in Australia" without actually saying it 😂 Now (bad) jokes aside, most of NVMe enclosures rely on passive cooling, i.e. enclosure acting as a heatsink. As long as it's semi decent (aluminum and not too much plastic, good thermal pad and large contact area), this is usually enough for a normal usage. Might of course wary in very hot climates, but again, most NVMe drives are rated up to 70 degrees before they start to throttle. There are very few passive cooling enclosures that are really designed well enough to handle full on, constant maximum use of the NVMe drive. But then again, such usage is rather extreme, and is not going to happen by just copying or editing a few pictures. Example would be SilverStone MS12/MS12-40G. Enclosures with active cooling aka fan, can be a better choice in some cases, as active cooling will always be superior, but come at the cost of being quite bulkier, and possibly nosier (small fan). Example would be Icy Box IB-1922MF-C32. Much more important performance wise is not to go for bottom of the barrel DRAM/SLC-cache-less NVMe drives - that will hurt you much more when writing a lot.

Blasphemy! Burn the heretic. Kill the mutant. Purge the unclean! Yeah, USB-C ones are a bit magical, not just a simple cable :) I am normally using Club3D ones (they also make very good Display Port and HDMI cables) - solid and most importantly USB-IF certified. Quality gets even more important when you are planning to use these as power as well, and shoving 240W through, or to run an external monitor. Example below, USB4, 40Gbps, 240W, 8K60Hz https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2600/usb4_gen3x2_type_c_bi_directional_usb_if_certified_cable_8k60hz_data_40gbps_pd_240w(48v-5a)_epr_m-m_1m_-_3.28ft/ Even marked as working with Apple. Oh horror 🤣 There is also a crazier one, 80Gbps, 240W, 8K240Hz version: https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2675/usb_80gbps_certified_240w_4k540hz_type_cr_1.2m_-_3.94ft_black_cable/

New laptop and a PC one at that (words "MacBook" and "keeping cost down" do not belong in the same sentence), with a USB-C 3.2/4.0 interface, ideally 2 ports minimum. For external drive grab a 4TB NVMe SSD - either "premade" one (like Samsung T7) or DYI e.g. SSD separately + and an enclosure (for example Samsung 990 Pro 4TB and Sabrent EC-NVME (basic but it will do)). Additional benefit will be that these will be more reliable in "on-the-road" environment - hard drives are mechanical devices and do not like shocks and bumps, they will fail sooner or later, rugged or not. Add some small UHS-II card reader (ideally also on USB-C) and you will have copy speeds ~200MB/s - emptying that SD card will take seconds, provided its also a fast one (again, Sabrent makes very good ones, that aren't cost prohibitive and reach 190-200MB/s easy). And you can then work on those images/videos straight on that drive, as it will be fast enough.

Well, for Retra I recommend rigging a car battery 😂 But jokes aside, Sanyo (Eneloop) also carries a 2700mAh battery, HR-3U, but I believe these have even shorter lifespan than Pro. Not sure there is anything better in the AA NiMH world, at least not coupled with a reasonable lifespan/reliability. You would need to consider Lithium, but those, while better in some applications, might not be best suited to be used in flash units, due to quite the heat they produce under certain loads. Below is a very detailed review of a XTAR 4150mWh 2500mAh 1.5V Rechargeable Li-Ion AA: Gough's Tech ZoneMega Review: XTAR 4150mWh 2500mAh 1.5V Rechargeable Li-Io...Around two months ago, XTAR approached me with the opportunity to review their latest, highest-capacity 1.5V Li-Ion Rechargeable AA battery rated at 4150mWh or 2500mAh with a matching L4 USB-C 4-ba… Towards the bottom he has also tried those in a flash: "I did test the batteries in my Yongnuo YN560-II photographic flash unit as it is quite a power hungry device that chews through batteries and found that recycle times were not appreciably better than with Ni-MH and occasionally the unit would just get stuck and need a long time to recharge. Upon opening the battery bay, it smelled hot and a check with the Kaiweets KTI-W01 thermal camera confirmed the converters of the cells being extremely hot." No idea how such would perform in Retra, depends how the battery compartment is designed and if it could perhaps act as a watercooled heatsink maybe. XTAR now offers a 3000mAh variant as well: https://www.xtar.cc/product/xtar-aa-lithium-lr-3000mah-usb-c-battery And let's not forget the good, old HKJ battery website: https://lygte-info.dk/

Hmm so I did just take the LM3 out, and played with it a bit - had to wait for recharge when on full, but on 1/64 it was indeed fine (well during the limited testing). Sequential was a bit weird though - mechanical, 10fps, 1/64, it would fire on the 1st, then around 8-9th again. Sequential silent, 20fps, just the 1st pic would flash. Dunno, I really do not remember how I had it exactly set up, but it was definitely lagging then. Could be indeed it was on full or higher than 1/64 though, something vaguely rings a bell that I had one of the fiber optic cables a bit mangled, hence maybe I kept the power higher (otherwise it would not trigger)? Or there is something wrong with my unit. Either way, good enough as a backup. Do not think it was anything to do with SD cards - using Sabrent UHS-II 256GB ones, both test at around 185-195MB/s write and files on OM1 are generally <20MB. And did not notice any slowdown (write; when taking pics) just now, using the sequential silent mode. Either way, I definitely prefer the mini trigger, and at ~280 of them euro things, I could not refuse ;)

Assuming by "mini flash" you mean the FL-LM3 - Hmm I would go for about the same average shot wise. Do not remember how it was set though so do not want to say it was 1/64 but definitely was changing the battery after 2-3 dives max (each on the longer side). That said there would be still some %% left but felt like I am a bit on the edge so better be safe than sorry was my thinking. Last thing I wanted was a dead camera underwater xD Speed wise - definitely noticed that on some consecutive shots it was sometimes not ready and I had to wait for it to charge. This was on a trip couple years back though, literally the only time I had to use the backup, it just sits there since. With mini trigger - not a single speed "issue" and do not have to worry about battery life at all. Even after 4 long dives, often enough juice left to the point that I could do another few the next day if needs be. Definitely noticeable difference in terms of battery life. Had a similar experience with GH4 built-in flash vs GH4 with Nauticam mini-trigger as well - could also see the difference in recycle time as well as battery life. Maybe I am doing something wrong but definitely prefer the mini trigger 😁

Buy cheap, buy twice or something along those lines xD While the Nauticam/Turtle/UWT triggers might be pricey, its pretty much a one-off purchase, that will last you even decades possibly. Also they do offer two major advantages, at least from my point of view: a) recycle time - FL-LM3 is noticeably slower, even on lowest settings. Very annoying when you want to shoot a couple of pics in a quick succession, only to realize you cannot because the flash is still charging up b) camera battery life - perhaps the biggest advantage - with OM1+FL-LM3, I can kind of a do 2 dives /2h, after that the 3rd dive/hour becomes a bit "risky" depending on how many pictures I've taken during the previous two. With mini-trigger (using Turtle myself), I can do 4 dives/hours, and only have to worry slowly around the 5th one. Major plus when on the boat if I do not have to open the housing and change batteries, or, when doing long dives. Yes, I still keep the FL-LM3 around - it is basically a backup, should anything happen to the main trigger during the trip. And indeed it has saved my bacon once - better slow recycle than no recycle at all 🤣 Speaking of Turtle, they have literally just announced v3 of their trigger, might wanna check it out. This might mean that there could be some good offers on v2 coming.

Finally a user replaceable battery and USB-C, neat! It looks like the LED plug has been improved too - good to see, these were sometimes very hard to unplug.

Right. And Adobe will once again offer their software as a one time purchase.

Europe is not getting better neither. MFO was 425 EUR on Nauticam website, at least in December 2024. Now it shows as 524 EUR. So a lovely 20%+ hike. Off we go to a flying start. Meanwhile 3rd party shops all have it at 449 EUR.

I still go for the MotherF****** Optics (or Optimizer)...it has a certain power emanating charm somehow 🤣

"The company cited “a challenging economic environment" (...)." Yeah because 7.5B USD or thereabout in net profit for 2024 was not enough. Poor, poor Sony. Yup, there it starts.

Spot on. Once the companies have an excuse they will ramp up the prices everywhere. Just look at energy companies behavior in 2022 and their record profits afterwards. So let's enjoy the EU prices while we still can.

Come to the EU we have cookies cheap Nauticam stuff 🤣 ...and it gets even cheaper in low VAT countries or if you are from the "outside" and can claim the tax back. Though Australia is a special case...everybody prices stuff there as way more as you are seen as rich down under.

This is some powerful dark magic, you be careful there ye mighty wizard.

I really love you now 😆

If that does not work, Nauticam website lists two stores in Manila - guess shipping is an option. Their cable will definitely work but it won't come cheap. https://www.nauticam.com/pages/store-locator Good luck!

Are you using the housing flash trigger on R7 vs built-in flash on Olympus? If so, it could be the fiber optic cable is simply not up to scratch - either single core or very much mangled. Basically flash triggers produce less light, hence with a bad cable, simply not enough will travel over to trigger the strobe. That is the very exact behavior I had years ago when first switching to a flash trigger - ended up replacing the cables and all works perfect. DIY is an easy route, see below. Or need to buy a premade one - i.e 613 core.

I wonder what the heck is "cTTL" ...and there seems to be two manual modes ? Could it be HSS hiding somewhere there ? Light seems upgraded too, now one can choose between white and red - good idea, while inserts were fine, it was not something that was easily changed during the dive really.

Same here. Also while the port chart mentions 45 and 60mm lense, 90mm is conspicuously absent.

Pay an arm and a leg for strobes, be forced to spend another half a grand on pretty much "mandatory but not included" battery extension that also increases strobe size/weight, and get to carry half a kilo of batteries alone plus an armful of chargers. Could not resist. You may spank me now😉 At least left that "Apple 8GB of RAM" thread alone....for now 🤣

Pretty much a monopolist who refuses to sell the software, instead forcing the users to rent it, raises the price whenever they feel like it. Totally unexpected 🤣

Hmm I might not be the knowledgeable one when it comes to those flashy things, but Olympus FL-LM3, which is also a "normal" flash, works fine. I think the major issue with the Godox will be fitting it inside the housing - FL-LM3 only fits because Nauticam designed the housing with the necessary space.

Hmm had similar issues with Nauticam trigger and Z240s - issue was the cable (original multi-core Nauticam) was basically half broken - i.e. after years of use, too many strands have failed and not enough light went through. That said, putting a stronger trigger (TRT) did help with another cable that had similar issues (DYI multi-core one this time that I did not make very well...). Silly question - you sure its original Inon cable and not some cheap replica? As looks too cheap for an original and don't think Inon makes them in 2m length neither. Such random cables often use shitty quality (or single core) fiber optic and that might result in not enough light being carried to trigger the strobes. Again, speaking from experience of buying similar once and not being able to trigger the strobes as well - it would work fine with built in flash, as it was more powerful, but not with the Nauticam trigger... You can very easily make you own cable - see here: And here: