JohnD

Very nice. I don't suppose you have extras lying around...😉

On the topic of float belts, I have had issues getting the Stix float belt to stay in place on a couple of Nauticam macro ports and requiring some DIY efforts to keep it still. I see that beneath the surface has different shapes. Anyone able to comment on those shapes fitting on Nauticam 60 (+ 20mm ER), 80 and 87 ports?

Makes sense and you are right, can adjust easily enough and less important for macro anyway.

There is also the Marelux flexi buoy: Available in 400, 800 and 1500g of lift. Honestly, when I saw it I was half impressed by the idea and half amused by the idea. Okay, maybe mostly amused. I have never used one nor seen one in use and I cannot quite imagine swimming around with a big green bag floating in front of my face, but it is inexpensive and offers a lot of adjustable buoyancy. I just can't see using the thing, but maybe someone here is familiar with them and can share their experience

The float belt is very commonly used in macro photography, assuming you need so much flotation. It can get in the way of strobe placement if you like to put your strobes next to and parallel to the port, but moving them out or tilting them gets around that. I often use two Nauticam or Inon float arms off the camera housing and next are two arms with Stix floats and that is sometimes enough or gets me close. You may wish to get a couple longer clams to give you full articulation with the fat floats. If you do not mount a focus light or other accessory on top if the housing, another option some people like is to use triple clamps off the housing and then run a smaller diameter float arm across the top of the housing. I have never been fond of that, but some like it. It sounds like this would not work for you, though. The belt should not be much of a problem as far as placement on the sand for a low angle, I would think, although I don't think I have ever done that, so I could be wrong. I am pretty sure if I was THAT low, my reg would be in the sand as well.

As already stated, Stix are pretty much the standard if they provide enough flotation. On an 8" arm I can fit 2.5 of them for a total of about 450g of buoyancy. I use Stix, but they often just aren't enough and I need to add something more. If you want/need the serious buoyancy arms, the Inon megas are much less expensive than the Nauticams and I have never heard of them leaking, but they aren't quite as floaty as the same size nauticams. But close. The Nauticam carbon arms provide the most buoyancy but are overpriced. Nevertheless, I use them when I need all the floatyness I can get. In that case I will pair two of the Inon or Nauticam float arms with an arm with Stix on it. I generally use the jumbo ones and have cut some in half for additional flexibility in flotation. There are other brands out there, but I don't know much about them. By the way, if you go much beyond 130' deep, the Stix will compress and they don't regain their shape right away. By about 150' feet, they lose a lot of their buoyancy.

Does anyone know the color temp of these? I have just spent 15 minutes looking, even downloading the manual, with n success. I am pretty confident they are cool, probably around 6000-6500, but the actual temp rating appears to be a secret, or my internet search skills are lacking today. 2. Does the remote control work feature with any master strobe, or does it require only another Backscatter strobe as the trigger? The manual and promotional stuff seems to suggest a Backscatter strobe is required, but there is not great clarity and they would surely prefer that customers use the same brand, so there may not be much incentive to be clear on that point. Thank you

My understanding is that this is true; if you want any form of TTL, you need to purchase a Backscatter trigger and use that instead of your UWT. I was interested in this issue as well because although I have not used TTL for quite some time, on a recent macro-only trip I switched to TTL part way through the trip, out of curiosity, and was very impressed with the results, and may start using that mode for future macro and was thinking a single small strobe with snoot would be interesting. That lack of TTL, if desired, would severely limit the choices in a smaller macro strobe, since there are few of those that offer TTL and accommodate a snoot. If the snoot were not an issue, the Inon S220 would likely be my choice.

Just a thought/question... Granted, we are always concerned about corrosion caused by salt water but when talking about the type of corrosion or damage caused to contacts as addressed by Sealife in their instructions or as shown in some of the photos earlier in this thread, I got to thinking about it and wondered if any moisture in a battery compartment, combined with high electrical current and/or heat could cause the type of damage we have been discussing. Some brief research suggests that is so. Overall it was dry and technical reading, but the AI summary (I know, but still) is this: High humidity can lead to condensation on electrical contacts, causing corrosion and rust, which can damage the connections. Additionally, heat combined with humidity can exacerbate these issues, leading to electrical failures and reduced performance of devices. putnammechanical.com cable-world.co.uk When diving we are generally in high humidity environments, or at least I am. Perhaps as we increase the power demands of lights and strobes and the energy provided by more powerful batteries, the increased heat and current combined the moisture in the air alone can cause damage?

Wow. Excellent thread-very educational, and I don't even do video!

Good idea. If going the tape route, another option is matte black gaffer tape. I use gaffer tape for other things and projects often because it usually is easy to remove with no residue or pieces left behind yet holds well. I have never had a reflection issue in ports so have not tried it for that.

That was my assumption, but wanted to see if there was something else I should be looking at. I have a focus light or two, so not an issue. I have generally not needed them during the day previously.

Thanks Dave, The viewfinder had been set to auto previously and when I began having issues on this trip I did go through and change many of the various custom settings without much success.

I don't know what lens you have, but there are a number of companies that make anti-reflection rings for lenses and there is likely something that fits. Search for anti-reflection rings. If there are no anti-reflection rings for your lens, then a flat black marking pen or paint pen should do the trick. or don't shoot into the sun

On my recent dive trip I exclusively shot macro subjects, which is unusual for me. There was often quite a bit of particulate in the water and, especially early or late in the day, and/or at some depth, things were a bit dim. I of course understand the the reason loss of color at depth, but I am more used to a non-electronic viewfinder and found that the viewfinder on my Z8 really struggled to show much color and therefore after spotting a really tiny frogfish or nudi, trying to locate it through the viewfinder became rather difficult without any color clues. A bright orange baby frogfish became just one of many gray specks on the seafloor. Frankly, even in somewhat better light, the viewfinder image was closer to a black and white view of the world than color, and clownfish, for example, tended to appear gray and white instead of orange. The photos were fine and i could clearly see color with the naked eye, it was jsut the view through the viewfinder, and I was using the "adjust for ease of viewing" mode. I tried adjusting the color temp of the viewfinder and increasing brightness, but that was only marginally successful. I am thinking that a focus light might be necessary going forward, and that is not a problem if necessary, but thought I should check here and see if there is something I failed to try or some trick I don’t know. Thank you

Thanks all for participating. The various theories are interesting.. Housing O rings are the easiest for me. I only dive on dive trips, so when I return home, and after everything has a good final soaking, the O ring comes out and goes in a plastic baggie, stored inside the housing. On a trip, I try to leave it in place for the duration, unless I see something that suggests I need to lube it or remove and clean it. Little O rings on things are more challenging because they usually need to be stretched or pulled over screw threads or a light barrel or whatever to remove, and I worry about damage. I think I am going to start greasing them in place more often.

If you are asking me, no thank you, I want to keep the 45, and and the 20mm ER, and would only add the 65 if I can find a clean one at a good price. Sometimes, in really sandy or silty conditions, I like to reduce the number of O rings and extensions as much as possible, and that is really my only incentive. Same reason I am looking for a N120 80mm.

I think seller is some sort of asset or estate liquidation company. In this case, for $100 less than new retail, the risk exceeds the reward. If it were about a hundred less than their current asking price, I might go for it. Besides, I don't really need it...the 45 with 20mm ER does the same thing.

Thank you for letting me know. I saw that and have it in my watchlist, but due to no returns allowed, a limited description of condition and limited photos, I am a bit hesitant unless price comes down more.

I don't typically remove the housing O ring either during dive trips, I was thinking more of dive and focus lights and such, where the o rings are smaller and have to be slid over threads or pinched hard or stretched.

Let me know if you have either of these and would like to move them along to a new home.

I have traditionally maintained O rings by removing them, inspecting and cleaning if warranted, lightly greasing, and replacing. I have tried to be careful about stretching the o rings or damaging them on nearby screw threads and sharp edges. In general, this has worked fine for me for many years. Recently, though, I saw a maintenance comment from Retra that suggested leaving the o rings in place on the battery cap, and just greasing the visible portion. I asked Retra about this and the response that removal or leaving them in place was fine with the caveat not to stretch or damage the o rings during removal. Similarly, my dive computer mfr warns that in removing o rings from the battery cover, remove the O rings from one side only, avoiding the threaded portion of the battery cap so as to minimize the risk of damaging the O ring. I also have a couple of lights for which removal of the O rings is difficult and I worry about damage and/or stretching, and I have considered just lubing them in place absent some evidence of grit or dirt. So, it got me to wondering what other folks do: Are you a take-it-off person or a leave-it-there to lube it person or does it depend on the O ring and equipment in question for you?

Perhaps it because uses a battery module instead of bare batteries and that makes a difference? Perhaps better quality contacts? Maybe luck? I have lithium-powered lights on which I have never cleaned the contacts and the manufacturers don't say anything about that, but they are expensive lights and other items intended for hard use and not used underwater and mostly made in the USA, Germany or Japan. Maybe manufacturing quality matters? I believe the RGBlue stuff is/was well made, no? Maybe the relatively low power of the light and the absence of strobe functions? Just speculating

This has been an educational discussion. I guess Sealife is ahead of the curve and if using high power strobes and lights with lithium batteries, take q-tips and isopropyl alcohol and wipe the contacts with every battery change. Luckily, isopropyl alcohol can be carried on planes (under 3.4 oz). and is readily available. Wondering what Oskar from Retra thinks about this, now that the maxi strobes have gone over to the dark side (Lithium). By the way, when I comment on lithiums, it is in large part because one of my sons is an engineer working in forensics, and travels within the U.S. and internationally investigating fires, explosions, train wrecks, boat fires, etc. Earlier in his career he was employed as an engineer by Panasonic, working primarily on battery technology and testing, and has set fire to, exploded, crushed and otherwise abused a large number of lithium batteries. I have numerous lithium battery devices and will undoubtedly have more, but am aware of their downsides including significant fire risk. Take a look at what Backscatter warns about their lithium battery devices: Never do the following: Never charge batteries in unattended areas. Never charge while sleeping. Never charge below decks of a boat. Never store batteries below decks of a boat. Never store batteries in the light below decks of a boat. Never use batteries without protection circuitry. Never dispose of batteries in the garbage or trash. Never put batteries in checked baggage when traveling. Never walk around with bare batteries in your pocket, especially with other metal objects than can easily bridge battery contacts. Always do the following: Only charge batteries in common areas where and when others are around. Always remove the battery from the Macro Wide 4300 light when not in use. Only use batteries designed for end use by consumers with safety protection circuitry. Only store batteries in a battery box designed for 21700 batteries. Always travel with batteries in cabin baggage.

Good points. Several years ago I ordered a set of "scratch brush" electrical contact cleaners and carry a couple of those with me on dive trips. I only had to use them once on another person's strobe, but they can clean contacts that suffer some corrosion or other issues. They are cheap, light and small and can be purchased on Amazon and at other places. May be worth sticking in your gear somewhere, in case Coke or contact cleaner or alcohol isn't available after a leak? As far as preventative maintenance goes, I know Sealife warns that: 1. IMPORTANT UPDATE – Clean battery contacts every time before charging Applies to all Sea Dragon lights with 1200+ lumens and Fluoro-Dual Beam models. Clean the gold-plated contacts on battery and inside battery compartment EVERY TIME before charging the battery. Use a clean cotton cloth moistened with isopropyl alcohol to thoroughly clean contacts. Not cleaning the contacts will permanently damage the gold plating and result in the device not powering on. DO NOT store the device with battery installed. Remove battery before storage. Left contact shows black spots resulting from not cleaning the contacts. Kind of boosts my appreciation of my old Inon lights with their AA batteries. But I know Lithium and massive lumens are the future.