Alex_Mustard

I do think Nauticam's promotion of the MFO-1 has caused plenty of confusion around this lens, because they have drawn attention to minor features equally to its main purpose. I asked Nauticam to develop this product because I wanted a high quality, but weaker close up lens than the SMC. There are lots and lots of subjects that are a bit too small for a straight macro lens and too big for a SMC. The MFO was designed to plug this gap. The optical design of all of Nauticam's close up lenses includes a correction for the image aberrations created by using a flat port in water. This is beneficial for image quality (especially away from the middle of the frame) and also by presenting the lens with a clearer image - improves focusing performance of the lens a bit. The MFO also improves focusing because it stops the lens hunting as much because it makes it impossible to focus on very distant subjects in UW terms (as the focus range is now shifted closer) . This is particularly helpful with mirrorless cameras (PDAF) - which can struggle to know what to do when a subject is totally out of focus. That said, I would say AF improvement is a minor benefit of the MFO. Image quality improvement is also the same as other Nauticam close up lenses (they all aim to do the same correction for the flat port). I like Mike Bartick's comment on the MFO-1 in this regard - "think of it as a make it 'betterer' switch - stick it on your macro lens and just go and use it". The MFO will allow you to fill the frame with smaller subjects, stop you shooting things that are too far away, give small improvements in image quality and AF. The optical correction that all Nauticam's close up lenses make for the port is the reason it does not make sense to stack the MFO and SMC. As both perform a correction - you end up with a double change, in other words as far away from optimum as having no correction. So they work together, but without the image quality benefit. The other point I want to mention is that you should not ever use the Focus Limiter Switch on your macro lens whenever you might be using UW close up lenses. You need this full range of focus to properly exploit the full range of these lenses. I previously used the FIT +5 and the Nikon 5T for the role of the MFO. But these did not have the same image quality of the MFO, as they did not correct for the flat port aberrations (which is why I pushed Nauticam to make the MFO). I have shot the MFO for over a year (in pre-production form last year). It does not record in the EXIF, but there are 25 pages of images on my website since I started using the MFO and most of the macro shots are taken with it: see this page https://www.amustard.com/library/page/search/alex/26/ and forward to 1, which cover the last year (my most recent trip was sharks - so ignore the newest 90 or so images - pages 1-5!).

I have two videos about my setup (for Sony A1) - where UW stills photography is the priority use: and

I use the Nikonos 15mm lens quite regularly (but I don't always tag the lens in keywords, so it is hard to share a gallery of images). I just use it on Nauticam's stock adapter. It is the lens I have owned from new (30+ years). Here are a few recent ones:

We've got an episode of The Underwater Photography Show coming out about this later today.

And a small selection of shots taken with the Retra Maxi strobes in the Maldives Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP Sony A1, Nikonos 15mm Sony A1, Nikonos 13mm Sony A1, Nikonos 13mm Sony A1, 28-60mm, WACP Sony A1, 28-60mm, WACP Sony A1, Tamron 90mm, MFO-1 Sony A1, Tamron 90mm Sony A1, 28-60mm, FCP

Images and thoughts on trying (pre-production) Retra Maxis in the Maldives in March/April. Quick summary - performed very much as you'd expect them to - mega powerful, good ergonomics. With specs that are very similar to Backscatter HF-1 (Retra can claim to be the most powerful strobe on paper - but basically max power on these is all but the same as FULL +2 on HF-1 in the real world). Dry weight same as HF-1, but fatter, so much closer to neutral underwater. Quality of light not as nice as Retra Pro Max, but I still produced very pleasing images (just a bit more care needed on strobe positioning). Alex

Thanks guys - Waterpixels got the obligatory plug as Website of the Year in our end of 2024 episode.

We’re closing in on the 100th episode of The Underwater Photography Show (2 to go)! Thought I’d do a post to check it out, if you haven’t already: https://www.youtube.com/@UWPhotoShow/videos Alex

Congrats guys!

I'd love to own one of these...

We all want to know if they finally replaced the B*stard Button with a switch! Alex

I have not tried the production version of the MFO yet. I think they have been in high demand and Nauticam haven't been able to supply one yet. However, I have had MFO prototypes since April and taken one on every trip as it is so useful. The production MFO is a little different to the prototypes - and I will wait to shoot it before posting a review (I obviously have lots of sample images and test images from the prototypes). What the Nauticam lenses always deliver is excellent sharpness across the frame. Some others are sharp in the centre and blurred in the corners.

Retra sent me an email with the specs last week and I was reading it to a couple of the guys on my Red Sea workshop, who commented it seemed engineered to beat the HF-1 in each department. One of them then quipped that Retra should have called it the Backscatter Xterminator! The guide number scale makes the difference seem much larger than it is. I've tested (only on land) it against the HF-1 and it is marginally brighter centre frame. But you have to look to see it. And that is with both without diffusers, which is not how you are going to normally use them. But I also understand why Retra have made this - because quite simply some of their customers or potential customers have said that this is what they want. While others, like me, prefer the philosophy of the Pro Max for my photos. And I think it is great news that there is now a wide variety of quality products out there offering people the chance to choose what they think is right for them.

This was very sad and, as always, scary news. I have never been on the boat, but always thought they were very nice people. It must have been terrifying for all on board, especially in such a remote location. We were moored next to MV Nouran at Deadalus on the day of their fire. We left at sunset, and the fire was later that night. We spent much of the day diving beneath their boat with the oceanic whitetip sharks. Waiting Not waiting! This is probably the last photo taken of MV Nouran (far right), as we left that evening:

I'd just say it does the same job as the SMC-1 (but is also optimised to work with the Sony 90mm as well as the 100/105mm lenses) and incorporates what Nauticam have learned about optics in the 10 years since the SMC-1 was introduced. If you have an SMC-1 and are happy there is no need to upgrade. If your SMC-1 is getting a bit tatty then this is a good reason to replace it. If you shoot Sony and regularly see the cut off with the SMC-1, then this gets rid of it. Alex