Luko

For wide angle : Sahaung 1 & 2 of course, Batu Pendeta can be very currenty but the coral colors are amazing, Batu Gosoh is very mineral but beautiful with cliffs over the surface, Batu Mandi is a very pretty site, like a manucured coral garden, on the mainland side, giant frogfishes can be seen anywhere on Busa Bora, Tanjung Husi or even on Demak bommies. Macro : pygmies were for the most on Demak, Busa Bora (closest sites to Bastianos/Murex) for pontohis, long ago there was a bommie where you could spot multiple pontohis and even a couple of the rare Rufus festucalex pink pipefish, bargibantis and denise pygmies on Batu Tiga. Paradise pier used to be a fantastic macro dive site for froggies, nudis, I don't know how it evolved, Sampiri coral rubble was good for cephalopods. You can also ask for the sites where they come across rarer nudis like Melibe colemani or Cyerce nigra (on the western side of Bangka IIRC). One advice I would give you for a very short stay in Bangka is not to waste your time on the more sandy sites like Peter Sponge. It can be rewarding in the case you meet a dugong but that would be a very minor chance.

Fabio said it all. A fisheye lens is great especially for Sahaung (try diving Sahaung as much as you can) or the big giant frogfishes you may see about everywhere in Bangka and try some CFWA. Macro is good too especially for pygmy seahorses (lots of pontohi pygmies) , you should dive wide in the morning and macro in the afternoon. Here are some examples of what I shot in Bangka at the time with a Canon 7D + 10-17mm Tokina and Zen 4" minidome. Sahaung Batu Pendeta And some other closer sites to Murex like Busa Bora or Demak

I have been using a MFO-1 with a Canon RF100 lens on a R7 for 1,5 year now. It possibly gave me marginal improvment on AF efficiency while I noticed results on the image quaility such as absolutely no more color fringing (which I hate) and a sense of crispier image (but maybe marketing got me on this one because the RF100 rendering was already very sharp without it). I'm now using it 90% on my RF 100 shots.

You could dive Dumaguete on a macro setup only -I was never very impressed with Apo- however if Puerto Galera is part of your trip you'd be frustrated not to have a fisheye or a wide angle converter for the Verde island dives.

I used to shoot with a 7D 15 years ago, at the time it was a really good camera with fast AF (comparatively to what was available) and a good sensor . It's an APS-C cropped sensor, which is good for macro, even excellent for supermacro when coupled with the 100mm. I used a Canon EF100/2.8 USM lens (Canon EF100 IS/L woudl be better, watch out the Canon non USM 100mm is painfully slow) and the CAnon EFS60mm for macro. For wide angle my preferred choice was the Tokina 10-17 fisheye with a Zen 4" domeport (great for travels!). The Canon 10-22 lens didn't have a good reputation AFAIK, fisheye lenses with or without 1,4 Kenko multiplier had better results. Problem is that for 100mm macro/supermacro it definitely needs an external viewfinder such as a cheap Inon45. WHile it was a good choice this camera is outperformed by newer mirroless cameras (equivalent now would be the Canon R7 in the APSC sensor category) and its eletronic viewfinder which can give you a clearer view especially in low light as well as much faster AF. The sensor and image processor are also outdated, the 7D 24MP sensorused to wash out highlight/sunballs too easily, in the opposite range of lower light the noise at high ISOs has so much improved then. It was impossible to get clean images above 200 ISO, while now I don't see so much difference between a 100 and a 800 ISO pic with the R7's 35MP sensor. You'll find plenty of 2nd hand EF lenses for the Canon 7D however the newer RF lenses for the mirrorless R series prove to be faster and better, such as the RF100L/IS which is one the sharpest macro lens ever allowing a 1,4 magnification ratio (40% more than the older EF100). Problem is that you cannot fit R lenses on EF systems while you can use EF lenses on the R system with an adaptor.

I was replying to NandoDiver asking for general tips in the Visayas. But to your question about Moalboal, not a specific critter but for me outside of teh sardines school the hightlight would be the coral walls on Pescador island, which is one of my favorite dives in the Philippines. Go the earlier you can in the morning, ther used to be operations that scheduled early morning dives on Pescador for REAL divers, however I don't think anymore as all the dive centers are now waiting for the truckloads of Asian group divers coming from Cebu around 10 AM. = where you can find HUGE spanish dancer nudibranches (I really mean HUGE like 40-50cm large!!!), but you need to go deeper around 35-36m to find them .. or the usual giant frogfish on a sponge in the shallower parts.

My take on the philippines Visayas which I haved dived regularly these 15 past years : Depend on whether you have itchy feet and want to see a lot or you want to settle in 1-2 places. In two weeks you could do at least three spots (even a fourth one if that is on the road and you optimize your itinerary, but let's not spoil it), traveling in the Phils is quite easy. It will also depend on the way you fly out (either Manila or Cebu) I would list thise potential places for diving with their pros and cons : Malapascua up north of Cebu is known for threshers, sometimes tigers, some macro it's a nice sandy beach island, however IMO there is not much., I would say plan 3-4 days diving not more of you want travel to other spots. Problem is that it will take you some time to get there in and out since it's 1hour boat+4 hours car drive from Cebu. You should go there first to secure your fly out since it's far out in the sea and not the most reliable place. If ever there is a storm or a typhoon you may not be able to cross the channel (been there, done that). Alona beach on Panglao/Bohol provides all range of resorts from small villas to huge 5 star resorts and restaurants. It's also a good starting point for sightseeing Bohol (chocolate hills, tarsiers, etc.) True it's busy, however to me it provides the best coral and blue water diving on Balicasag island, which has a limited number of diver per day. You'll find there schools of Jacks and Cudas as well as great corals, somtime sin feb if you're lucky a whale shark roaming around. ideal for both diving and family snorkeling. YOu'll have to be selective with the dive center and book your Balicasag trips beforehand, I can wholeheartedly recommend Philippines Fun Divers german/japanese run dive center (think reliable), they answer very fast and they are also very flexible., Since they own two large bankas they always have more "allocations" going to Balicasag, even other dice center join on their boat They will also dive other islands around such as Pamilacan or even Cabilao on demand. Alona local dive sites are not that interesting except for Napaling with sardines schools as well, sometimes a jack school at Doljo. You could stay anythying from 4 days to a week in Alona if you do some land tours with the family, it's also easy to get to since there is an airport that flies internationally or to Manila and a ferry at Bohol Tagbilaran port that takes 2hrs going to Dumaguete (Dauin). Otherwise Anda on the same island is only 2hours drive. It's much quieter (I would say too quiet) than Alona, has good beaches, However I was really disappointed with meh diving consisting of boring uncolorful tan/beige corals with limited fish life, although turtles are plentiful or white sand macro not nearly as productive as Dauin. Your family might like the place personally I haven't seen anything exciting to me. Another option off Bohol is Cabilao island, extremely quiet, used to have great wall diving with lots of coral and snorkeling option for the family but I don't know how it went after Odette typhoon in 2022. Cabilao divers at Cabilao Marine sanctuary beach resort would be my top choice. Excellent accoms and very flexible dive center. Only worth 3 days max on h s small island though. If you take a ferry from Bohol to Dumaguete on Negros island, you easily get to Dauin which is mainly black/whie sand macro diving, black sand beaches. there are a few upmarket options to stay there as well as mid range. Negros is quiet and tidy, however if macro is not your thing, I wouldn't recommand diving Dauin. Apo island is not far away (and day trips can be arranged with the dive centers) tahta said it doesn't compare with Balicasag with regards to schools of fish and fish life in general. Another less traveled option would be Sipalay which is on the opposite side of Negros. Good sandy beach, Good midrange accoms and dive center at swiss run Easy Diving. Deeper diving (in the 30-40m range) is great with schools of fish, however the shallower dives are not that spectacular, a mix of coral, white sand and algae rubble. It takes something like 4 hours car drive to either go to Dumaguete or Bacolod in order to fly out of Negros. Moalboal on Cebu is not that far from Cebu city, I wouldn't stay there with a family (been through I've been 5 times there) it's devoid of beaches. and used to have some "bar life". Lots people coming from Cebu in the morning by busloads or some other men staying overnight with "paid company". However Moalboal hosts two main dive attractions : the sardine school with is a shore dive in front of Savedra and Pescador island which for me used to be the best coral wall dive in the Phils (incredible colored soft corals on the southwestern corner of the isalnd). That said I wouldn't give it more than 2 days diving to flee the mix of backpackers, taiwanese & korean divers, the advantage is that you can do Moalboal just before coming back to Cebu for your flight out (4 hours drive from Mactan airport). I am ruling out Padre Burgos/Sogod Bay which IMO is too far to get to, doesn't provide any beachside and wouldn't advise to take your family too due to uncomfortable resort options (My non diver wife did not like at all the place although she was Ok with all the other ones and honestly I thought that divewise it suffered a lot from Odette typhoon)

I was NOT assuming OP had multicore 613 fiber (that's why I recommended purchasing this kind if he couldn't solve the issue). Believe it or not when I had sync issues with older fiber optics, I found that sometimes unwinding fibers caught around the clamps and even loosen the velcro straps attaching the cable around the floats (I also use velcros for 2m cables) helped, it proved it worked "somehow" better. Hence my experience is that for with lower quality fibers too much twirling does impact on the signal liability.

Had a similar issue with an old Nauticam Port which 67mm thread was completely damaged, it couldn't screw and hold anything like a macro wetlens. I used a neutral filter mount I had removed the glass before, and glued it to the damaged thead. It worked for a year and 2 dive trips, I anyway had to buy another (new) port since I changed my whole rig as well.

FWIW I've had similar issues with strobes from other brand (Fotocore) for which the strobe light detector is known not to perform that well (unlike Inon or Retra strobes for instance). Here are some actions that willl allow you to test and may improve the light transmission, at least it did on my side : (if none works, I'd suggest you purchase new fiberoptics, S&S multicore 613 fibers would be my choice) I assume you're using S&S type connectors : check your cable bush plugged into the strobe port. do not use double hole bush, it might not work (I got this hint from the owner), it seems critical that the strobe end cable is centered into the optical port, hence a single hole type. check how the cable connector is fitting in its hole (I had a loose one that didn't work). In this case I'd rather change the connector & use a new rubber bush : first cut the cable end with a sharp razor blade (not scissors!!!) and try triggering your strobe adjusting the cable end with various insertion depth into the bush (ie. cable barely visible from the bush end, protruding 1/2mm from the bush, etc.) until you get a consistant firing. Make sure your cable does not twirl too much around the strobe arms or the clamps, the light might be lost through those twirls.

I guess you know NIck More's fantastic slow shutter images of blue sharks : https://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/motion-blur-blue-sharks-uk/ Personally I would definitely bring a strobe, -maybe just one would be enough, just to get at least a sharp front part of the shark-, sometimes available light images look a bit washed out when you need to balance the sunlit surface and the shark itself .

NIce ones, I love shooting gobies on tunicates too, especially with the help of our mutual guide and friend Ajiex. btw I think I saw you dining at Chops & Hops when I was in T'ben 2 weeks ago with some friends (around april 28th). Did you have a good trip? I thought Tulamben was pretty deceiving this time, water was much too warm (30C!) and many critters AWOL.

Up for me as well, there was someone still posting until yesterday...

Landbased at TBD, it was the third time I tried to go then either canceled or on a (denied) waitlist. I could have been their 2nd client 10 years ago : 4 months before my planned stay, I met a manager from a very famous resort in Raja Ampat who told me Triton Bay Divers was a joke and that they'll never open in this area. Usually I don't listen to such "opinions" and like to go my own way, unfortunately I did this time. However it confirmed how some famous people of a very famous resort can be full of BS. Would never trust this guy.

Great video! Still a month to get there, can't wait.