SwiftFF5

Good to hear, thanks.

I was watching the hurricane tracks and wondering how the folks at Reef Photo did. Is everyone OK?

Here's review from Interceptor121 with the camera in the water for anyone who hasn't already seen it: https://interceptor121.com/2024/08/16/panasonic-gh7-review-for-underwater-photography-autofocus/ and his second review: https://interceptor121.com/2024/08/21/panasonic-gh7-review-for-underwater-photography-image-quality-and-housing-ergonomics/ They are a bit short on details, but are generally complimentary.

I am not sure from your specs if the 40 mm is the ID or the OD, but here's a source as well: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/o-rings/system-of-measurement~metric/cross-section-shape~round/id~40-000-mm/material~viton-fluoroelastomer/?s=o-ring+40+x+2.5mm+epdm+70

I only have one trip to the Philippines (so far), and only went to Puerto Galera, but loved it there. All the dives are at most a 10 minute boat ride from the resort, other than Verde Island, and there is lots of variety there. I am sure that the other places mentioned are great too, I just haven't visited them yet. Have fun wherever you end up going!

I just checked with Backscatter and they still haven't had one in the water yet. I am a little surprised at that, so the wait continues. They said they would probably know more in about a month, though.

We just made our reservations for our next trip "home" in January. We are already looking forward to it. I used to really dislike the Mr. Bud, but now that it has some growth on it, it is one of my favorite dives, along with the French Cay Cut.

Wow, good job! Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I have an old pelican case with an old Light and Motion housing for a Sony HDR-HC9...

Yeah, I hope that when the time comes to purchase a GH7 and housing, that my current GH5 and housing might have some residual value to offset the upgrade cost. We will see, I guess.

That's too bad. I almost bought a used GH6 housing as well, but decided to wait until someone else gets one in the water and tests things like WB, etc.

I love night dives, thanks for sharing.

I was just wondering if anyone has had a GH7 in the water yet?

Back when I was still a youngster and was working as a mechanic at a gas station, we would often use Coke to clean up corroded batteries and battery trays in cars. The phosphoric acid in them was good for that. You do have to thoroughly clean all the sugar out afterwards, though. A good flushing with clean water was usually sufficient.

@bghazzal wrote "for video nailing the 10-seconds-minimum of focused, stable footage required for moving pictures often requires a different type of control over the camera." Amen to that, getting the subject in focus is one thing, but keeping it in focus long enough to be useful is the hard part. Something that we all, probably, struggle with.

Interesting topic @Davide DB, thanks for starting it. I shoot with a GH5, and try to use autofocus as much as possible, to be able to track small moving critters. However, it sometimes won't focus, or focuses on the wrong things, which gets very frustrating. I switch between MF and both autofocus modes, depending on what I am doing at the time, but it doesn't always work well, and I have missed some really good clips because of that. I am very interested in seeing what the PDAF autofocus on the GH7 will do, but I am waiting until someone gets one in the water and sees what it will do, especially with white balance, before I spend the money on a new body and new housing.

I was finally able to post my request, and so far have two replies saying that it is a "parrotfish of some kind, but too young to be sure which one"

Sorry, no. I tried to join the FB group mentioned above, but was having FB problems. I will have to try again. Thanks for the reminder.

Cool, thanks.

I had not heard of Loupedeck before, but unfortunately, it appears that they don't support the video software that I prefer (Pinnacle Studio). Oh well, they look interesting though.

FWIW, I use my video lights on low setting as my lights for night dives, but I add a couple of extra older, retired lights as backups, just in case I run into a problem.

Well, I found a used GH6 housing and was pretty much set to pre-order a GH7 and buy the GH6 housing now. However, I had a talk with the sales rep (who would have been the one selling both of those items), and he suggested that I wait until they can get some time underwater with a GH7. His reasoning is that one of the main problems with the GH6 that caused it to be such a flop is that Panasonic messed up something in the white balance, especially for video, which is all that I shoot, and he does not know if that has been corrected with the GH7. That was enough to convince me to wait a bit for now. I have a trip to the Blue Heron Bridge lined up for September, so I will need to have a camera for that trip. Anyway, just wanted to update you with that, and see if anyone else has heard something similar?

@Cromagnon I am also a fan of Kroil, it is good stuff. I haven't tried it on anything optical yet, though.

How about this: https://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/aquatica-panasonic-gh6-housing Unfortunately, I have several ports for my current Nauticam housing, that I am probably going to have to stay with Nauticam.

Agreed, but at least new ones are available, if pricey, and won't need to be designed and manufactured.