atus

Yep, it's a bit deep, about 35 meters more or less. The problem is that it's not easy to go. That dive it's located out of the reserve. And because of the winds there are only few times in the year that it's possible to go. i was lucky enough to be there. The name of that eels is Heteroconger longissimus there is a huge garden of that eels in a dive site called "el desierto" i've been told that it's more than 1 km long large. They start in around 25 m depth. And it's a challenge to take them a good picture. I know the Rafa Herrero's work but I have never meet him.

If you are new to Lightroom, and assuming your Nas is linked with your Nas, get the habit of everything you want to do with the pictures you do it from LR. So select the pictures, go to the file "picture" and the last option must be delet all selected pictures. You will get two opttion, delete only for LR or delete from your harddisk. Choose delete form your hard disk and it's done.

Sorry, I wanted to link the gallery and I don't know how to undo this mess.... This is the link to the gallery... https://www.flickr.com/photos/atussub/albums/72157717702398828/

Not a single coral reef. El hierro is known by the grouoers, there are lots of them and they are very friendly. And there are lots of them because the people discovered than groupers are more valuable in the sea than in your dish. So they don't fish it, furthermore, right in front of them there is the marine reserve "el mar de las calmas" where only local fishermen are allow to work and there is a real surveillance of the marine reserve with big fines when doing bad. A part of groupers you can find lots of trunmpet fish, parrot fish "endemic vieja canaria", thousands of fire worms, morey eels...really many fish. Their star dive spot is a vulcano named "el bajón", an spot with strong current but plenty of fish. Here you can see my El Hierro pictures on flickr from my last trip there in 2021

I've been at El Hierro 2 times, great place, great food, great diving, but I wouldn't say the best diving in Spain, There's a few spots almost the same good, but El Hierro is very budget friendly, in fact, the last time I've been there, I made 10 days with 800 euros, all the meals and beers at the retaurants and 3 dives per day, two in the morning and a night dive everyday. There are up to 12 dive center in La Restinga. Cabo de Palos in Mediterranean Mainland of Spain is another must to go, but althought meals and hotels are budget friendly, diving is definitively not budget friendly. And for photography is complicated, currents, bad visibility, depth... Illes Medes in the mediterranean north of Spain could fit you, but i don't really know how many dive centers are open in wintertime. And, my home, Balearic islands. I live in Ibiza, only a single dive center remains open in winter, but if you like to dive from the shore there is a filling air station. If you love Posidonia, and all its critters, easy to find if you know how and you have the patience, that could be your place. But again, it isn't budget friendly, in fact it's the most expensive. In Mallorca, the same than Ibiza, but could be a bit cheaper, the El Toro marine reserve is spectacular. But mediterranean is a very weather changing place, nobody could warranty that you come and can dive.

I would like to add in Tulamben, Bali. Matahari resort, good accomodation, the dive center is 10 meters away from the restaurant and swimming pool. Amazing dive spot just infront of the resort, black water, the best creature spotter guide I have ever seen... Fantastic place for macro shooting. I have been twice and I will probably return.

Housing bought, thank you all

I know this can be a long shot but, who knows...I'm not in a hurry but I need a change. I am right now shooting with an Aquatica 5D housing adapted to a 5D MkII, updated with vacuum valve and optical trigger but this housing is very old and I am having issues with the painting and the inox buttons so I need another one. I am planning to buy a whole new underwater rig in about 3 years. In resume, I need a housing but I don't want to spend a fortune. I need a housing for a 5D mk II or MKIII, it doesn't matter the brand if I can switch easily wit a ring from all my Aquatica stuff to that brand, assuming that ring doesn't cost a fortune, or in other words, I am looking for an Aquatica housing for a 5D mk II or mk III but I am open to other brands...Subal, Nauticam, Sea&Sea...I am only considering alluminum housings. If you have something like that for a fair price pleasse make me an offer.

Exactly. And not only myself, my two others photo-dive partners are doing the same. Guess what happens when we travel together. Everybody looking at us at the airport queue. It's funny

I didn't know anything about this, but in my experience the service has change a lot for better. i had issues with one of my 160 pro fusion unit during a trip to Tulamben, the green led light was blinking while diving and the flash didn't fire anymore, so I sent it to Subtronic when I arrived home, in 30 days I had my strobe back again at home and working fine, they said it was an overheating issue and had to replace something inside. I paid 200 euros shipping incluided. I was all winter long using it while diving in Ibiza, then I went back to Indonesia, and the second day ( I'm not the luckiest guy) the same flashgun start failing again with the same issue, so I sent a very angry email to Subtronic, I had an answer in less than 12 hours, asking me to do something with the dials which didn't work, they said Sorry and I sant them back to Germany when I arrived home in Spain. In less than 2 weeks I had my strobe again at home, thay said than the first issue was caused by this other piece but they didn't detected it at the first time. They charge almost nothing for this repair and I paid the shipping again. Now I am diving with it for more than 6 months, in the cold winter mediterranean waters and the last time was today with water in 25 ºC. No issues, they are working flawlesly. In october I'm going in a trip to the Red Sea. I hope I will not have issues again. But almost the service they give me was fine.

IMO this is just a company politics. If you take a look back in the days when Nauticam was launched the housing were as cheap as an Ikelite but with the quaity of a Sea&Sea or Subal, now a Nauticam housing has more or less the same price than a Subal or even a Seacam. They launched the brand and got captive clients because of the domes and ports for its price, once they had a good name, a good product and several captive costumers they increased the prices. Pure marketing. And IMO Retra have done the same, when they launched the brand the strobes had a very fair price, and in every single version they have increased the price, the only difference is that is more difficoult to make captive costumers with flash accesories, but again I think is a marketing plan.

Sorry about the late reply, I had very busy days. In the pictures above the difference of power of about 1/2 stop in the pictures above is clearly noticiable. Take a look at the carpet, it's darker in the pciture to the left. But I agree with you than the hotspot is still more noticiable in the Ikelite strobe. Now I'm fancy to do the same test with the Subtronic and the Sea&Sea D2 which I still have one, let's see how much does it last...

I haven't done this test this way, but I have done underwater with the inon Z330 and Z240 and with the Sea&Sea D1 and D2, and in all of them the hot spots were noticiable with difussers and without. Furthermore, the use of diffusers to reach a determinate quality of light means loosing of power, and when you are shooting aganist the sun in shallow waters you need all the power avaliable. Specially when shooting with a FF camera.

Yes, there are significant variants depending of the light bulb and the reflector in terms of power but again the GN is not true guide. How do they calculate this number, on land or underwater ? what about the iso ? Did they use reflector or zomms ? I don't trust in a guide number if they don't calculate ir fairly. And in my experience comparing with partners using the third generation of Retra the difference is 1/2 stop between Subtronic 160 and Retra pro. That said, another very big question is about quality of light, and this quality is impossible to reach with square bulbs. So this leave a part all Inon, Sea&Sea (except old YS 250) and Marelux. These strobes are fine for macro shooting but not for wide angle.

Well, as I said, I never care about the GN, because everybody lies about it and there are so many ways to calculate it, the only accurate number is watt/s and these 160 plays in the same league than the retras's, for power and for quality of light, compare a Subtronic with an Inon is comparing a Ferrari with a Renault. I normally dive with partners with Inon's and Retra's and I have test all of them. I have had Sea&Sea 120, D1, D2 and D2j, Inon z240 and Z330. Trust me, no Inon have nothing to do against a Subtronic, and the only Sea&Sea which can make shadow to the Subtronic is the old 250. We can talk about the batteries used, the system for the batteries, the size, how heavy they are or even the design, the website only in german, but in terms of power and quality, they are definitely in the top league. Even the service is top, I had to use it two times, quick and unexpensive. When I said that none cares about the spaniards I didn't think about the football, or the tenis 😜