atus

Yes, they do, but with a very small boat, so only about 8 people allowed.

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 😜

Well, it's true that the website only in german doesn't help. But it must be me, spanish, that I am used to translating all te sites from german, english, french...because in this little underwater photography world nobody seems to care about about spaniards. It doesn't matter, I speak english. Anyway, Subtronic have always answer in english to my emails in english. About the GN, it's not a number anyone can trust, I only trust in watt/sec. There are many ways to calculate that GN, in land, in water, with an snooot, without. In watts/sec there is no possible confusion. That said, the Subtronic 160 pro it's way smaller than a Retra Pro, and comparing with my partners with Retra only 1/2 point of difference as much in terms of power, better the Retra. The battery it's not inside the strobe, they are external connected by wire, and you can choose between an strobe arm-battery or a battery which you insert in the neopren cover. One unit with no accesories is worth 880 euros vat incluided https://www.subtronic.de/produkte/Pro160-ohne-Zubehoer.07966.php Add about 500 euros in accesories per strobe and you will be so far from retras with almost the same performance.

I can' understand why nobody consider the Subtronic strobes. Made in Germany, with the service in Germany, great light quality with circular light tube, 160 wat/sec and lithium batterry pack.

Well, I don't have experience with the Retras's, but I have experience with my olders Sea&Sea YS 120, which works with 8 AA battery, so I finally found me travelling with 32 AA batteries and 2 chargers for 8 batteries each, changing batteries after every single dive on a trip. After change to that shitty Sea&Sea D2 which gave me nothing but disappoinment I finally got 2 Subtronic 160 pro fusion, which work with battery packs made with 2 x 18650 cells each. I have 4 batterry packs but I don't like the battery packs, they stop working fine always in the middle of a trip because Murphy exists and he is a motherfu..er. I remember a trip to Bali which I had to dive 5 days only with one strobes due to issues in my battery packs, and those packs are expensive. So I finally made my own battery packs, in which I can remove the cells and charge it. This way if the cells have issues I simply replace it with no worries and unexpensive. Now I make my trips with a 8 cell 18650 charger and 16 cells. With this battery packs I can do 3 dives without changing batteries and I have spare for everytihing.

Hi all, I own two Subtronic Alpha 160 pro fusion, which I really love because of its power, light quality and size. for me the handicap of this flashes is its batteries, they are dedicated and I don't really like it. The main thing that I don't like about it it's the charger, only a red or green led to know if they are charged or not. Several times I have noticed issues with the charger, I connect the batterym switch the power on and after 15 minutes turns green, It feels strange, so I restart the procedure and this time the battery is charging for 2 hours. If i don't notice I'll run out of batteries in 10 pictures the next dive, Presumibly just before you find an Orca having sex with a whale shark. So as I was tired of the situation I planned to do on myself new battery packs that I can control the cells individually in a normal charger. Then I noticed than the original battery packs are simple as two 18650 cells connected in series, so they give 7,4 volts (nominal). So I decided that if I am going to do it I want to not charge batteies in a day during a trip, tipically 4 dives. So I made my packs with two packs of two 18650 batteries connectd in parallel, so I double de mah. resulting in this packs you can see in the pictures. I made the design and went to a turner to make the pack with the threads and the o'ring channels, I bought the cables with the conector already welded from Subtronic and I bougt the battery holders from Aliexpress, sended the alluminum pack to anodize and I got the cable penetrators from BlueRov which i had to modificate a little bit in order to hold 6.5 mm cable. It's been a bit expensive, around 300 euros each plus my time and my job, but I can control every cell one by one, but everytime I go to the water I am absolutely sure they are perfectly charged, if any of the cells it's damaged i can change it for a ridicculous price comparing with a wole pack, and I can do on myself in seconds. The contra is that this battery packs are big. So now I am planning to make another packs with only to cells in serial connection, ir order to make it thinner, to use it when at home and tipically dive once or two a week. The connector is an S4, so if Seacam uses the same voltage this would also work with them

I have done on myself several dome ports, zoom gears, flip brackets for macro lenses....What I have found about 3D printing is no piece which have to be waterproff must be done on 3D printing, I don't trust on it. So when I am planning to make for example a new dome port I use to 3D printing as a prototipe provider. I build the whole piece in 3D printing and make all the tests needed in dry. After that, I divide the dome port in 3 pieces, bayonet fitting, cylinder and dome. I order the dome to a workshop which makes it the way I need and really cheap for my surprise, then I take the prototype to the turner and ask him to make an exact model in Delrin (way cheaper than alluminium) and I finally print in 3D de bayonet fitting for the housing. Then I put it all together, tipically the bayonet screwed to the body and the dome glued with polyurethane sealant. The last 4" dome port I did this way it's now 2 years that I'm diving with. And it costed me about 150 euros.

Thank you very much !! The picture was taken in Ibiza, there was a time years ago that was quite common to sea the John Dory's throw the island, after that I have been a lot of years of not seeing nor a single one. And suddenly this year we have had two months of see them almost in every dive.

Even if the price has grow up a lot in the last years and the quality of the buttons is getting down with each new version, me and some of my dive partners have been using this chinese diving torches for years https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005003416026342.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.6dfb71e60NAPpf&algo_pvid=b126115e-3507-4451-b3aa-896adf429855&aem_p4p_detail=202401181233001582522761348160000439163&algo_exp_id=b126115e-3507-4451-b3aa-896adf429855-1&pdp_npi=4%40dis!EUR!112.92!59.85!!!120.19!63.70!%4021038e8317056099799656540eb44f!12000027370551359!sea!ES!2040584551!&curPageLogUid=qd6dCTn2kINB&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A&search_p4p_id=202401181233001582522761348160000439163_2 They have been with me a lot deeper than 40 meters with no issues and they have been with me in a lot of trips. The oldest one that i own must have around 1000 dives. I don't believe they give the 20.000 announced lumens, but if is around 10.000 for me is more than enough, anyway I always use it in he half power. With good batteries i have done 100 minutes night dives. It never switch off when low battery, it simply gives less light.

My favorite pictures of the year. Not for being stuning, just because I think those are pictures that every single photographer wants to have on his portfolio. All of them were taken in my last trip to Tulamben last october

What I do for travelling is to put the camera inside the housing with the macro lens and its port and I carry it with a lanyard hanging from my shoulder. The rest of the equipment, strobes, arms, batteries, dome, lenses, laptop...in a cabin suitcase with me all the time. Since I do that I have a less problems in the airport filters and my cabin suitcase is much less heavy so I have less issues with the airline.