Luko

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.

I don't know who are are the freelancers operating from La Chevrerie. However if you can book Dennis Corpuz, besides being a very nice guy to dive with, he's hands down the best photography guide/instructor in Anilao, you'll have a great photo time. I''m not sure he can work with La Chevrerie however I already booked him while staying to various resorts such as Eagle Point, Acacia or Aiyanar some of them not mentioned in his webpage . You may still check out with him https://anilaounderwaterphotography.com/ Otherwise anyone from the Corpuz family (Obet, Ronald) can be recommended as well.

Tulamben in Bali has a lot of (freelance or inhouse) guides that cater to specialized macro photographers. Some of them are very good at lighting or snooting assistance in particular, you'll see many contest winning photos that were taken in Tulamben. Most of them are proposing one to one private guiding. PM if you want names or more specific details.

Actually I have... without knowing who he was, he was sitting next to Mikiya and describing me the endemic japanese pygmy seahorse in Osezaki.

A Japan "dive tour" is on my wishlist since a couple of years, I am also looking for all sorts of information (besides Ben and Kayo's insights), especially around this area. FWIW 2 weeks ago at Paris Salon de la Plongée (The french dive show) I discussed with Mikiya Watamatsu the chief guide from natureinn.jp an Osezaki operation (the macro site located inside the bay). He told me it was possible to organize both Mikomoto and Osezaki dives, probably they have a partnership whith Mikomoto hammers op (they were neighbors sharing the same Japan booth) It requires a 2hrs drive from Osezaki to get to the south of the peninsula where Mikomoto dives start. From the photos he showed me, it seems there is more than macro in Osezaki, like 2-3m high dendronepthya soft corals (!!) and monkfish. Maybe worthwhile mailing this op on whether they organize "best of both worlds" package or try to meet them while they're on tour attending the european trade shows (I suppose they were also at BOOT, probably Houten and Bologna too... a bit late for Tampere) .

Meaning you have to depart from Cebu City (no direct flights from France) + 3 hrs ferry ride. Almost equivalent if not worse routing if you need to take a flight back from Manila. (How come typhoons or rainstorms in november don't suprize me :) , I never dive the Phils outside Feb-May, had too much problems with weather in my stays end of the year.) Personally Sogod Bay was one of the place that didn't lmpress me at all in the Phils (been in 2022) : the top of Napantao was wiped out by Odette as most of the shallows everywhere else, their signature night dive at the pier is now closed and the so called "little Lembeh" is more "little" than anything else.

It's a drag to get to Sogod Bay! Fly to Manila (from Paris only 2 direct flights per week with AF) + domestic flight to Tacloban + 4hrs land transfer to Padre Burgos/Sogod Bay. Add on top there is absolutely nothing to do around for non divers, limited food options, snorkeling with whale sharks that happen only a few times a week with limited space and the accoms are quite basic divers resorts. Palau or Australia or Solomons : flight price from France will be crazy expensive, for Palau needs to get to Manila or Taipei + additional flight to Palau with "long haul" pricing, for Oz Paris-SIngapore + international flight., for Solomons add another flight from Oz. Manado : except for some very specific and deep dives with hammerheads (Batu Kapal on Nain) and pure luck to spot a dugong on Bangka or Manado mainland sites, no real big fish action. In Indonesia, one of the easiest and more reliable island for manta spotting/snorkeling will be Bali/Nusa Penida. In malaysian Borneo, my daughter loved snorkeling Sipadan where we went 3 times in the same year when she was 9yo : lots of reef sharks, turtles, schools of cudas, jackfish. Takes a flight to S'pore then regional cheap flights to Tawau. Closer to France, Maldives will certainly be your best bet. Otherwise Mexico on the caribbean coast can also provide whaleshark snorkeling in season (Holbox). Everybody's still looking for the easy to go, affordable flights and accoms, great sightseeing and fantastic diving place. I guess that if it might have existed once, it's not anymore.

There is no method but rather a "feeling" : if you see through your finder that the frogfish is very slightly moving its jaw like chewing on something, there are chances it will yawn within the next 2-3 minutes, it is then worth waiting. Hint : the second yawn is always more spectacular than the first one. If the froggy is quite cool and relax then it will not yawn. Each froggy has a different personnality, some will yawn others won't : I would say roughly 1 out of 10 is a potential yawner.

I am using a Canon R7 in a Nauticam housing so will answer only on this part according to my own experience. Personally for bigger animals such as sharks or Manta rays, I prefer the RF18-45EFS + WWL1B combo : it doesn't need any adapter and fits a smaller N100 flat port I find is more adapted to animals in the distance with a longer range although I can use it for wide coral reef images It is often even sharper in the corners than the 10-17 tok fisheye+minidome (which I also own and seldom use it anymore) Otherwise I don't understand your remark about a mandatory TTL trigger (I am using a manual trigger currently which works fine with the R7 and most of the strobes). FWIW after having used alu housings of different brands (Subal then Nauticam) I wouldn't go back to Ikelite (which I have also used in the beginnings). I know investment can hurt financially speaking, however when it's time to change you should be aware that the cheaper might be the more expensive in the long run (less reliability, frustration leading to forward another change, etc.). Providing you are mainly focusing on big aniimals, you should invest into more powerful and even lighting than entrry range strobes mainly thought for macro. There are now a number of brands which have rolled out these 2 past years some quite powerful strobes under the 900€ price tag (think Supe, Fotocore, Kraken, AOI, Backscatter, etc.) : they should be more suited to your kind of subject and worthwhile the investment. Manual mode is not so much an issue with a little experience and will not need a TTL trigger btw ;) )

French based UW online store , that would be difficult for you to order from Oz. (Wondering whether the owner is not part of this board btw) I guess you can find the same model from Asian located online stores. https://eocean.eu/en/accueil/116-686-focus-ring-for-12-50-olympus-and-nauticam-housing.html#/51-housing-nauticam_m14

Been there, done that (except the reason was that I LOST the cap and figured it out a night before my first dive in a trip to Dauin). That was the older NA M14 vacuum model without the red push button : you had to screw/unscrew a ring around the vacuum. I removed the vacuum with a wrench, cleaned the O-ring as much as I could and went diving. After a gentle cleaning, I noticed it took a longer time for the greenlight to switch to yellow-red (about 2 hours or so) . That was enough for me to go diving : after all, how did we survive before the vacuum times? Back home I purchased a noname M14 vacuum, almost half price of the Nauticam model, coming with a smaller vacuum pump .

To me it looks like a juvenile Rhinopias. How big was it ? I would guess around 7-8 cm. Juve snouts are not as developped as fully grown ones, reminds me one I've seen in Padang Bai, we spotted it by chance in the algae, while I was trying to fiddle with my camera focus : it was less than 4cm. <a data-flickr-embed="true" href="" title="Juvenile Weedy Rhinopias">

Do you dismiss a Lembeh frogfish Nudiantennarius subteres hypothesis with such a long and fluffy rod? When juveniles the round marking on the side doesn't seem that visible or showing up. Check out example in Frogfish.ch website

One of the many color variations of the saron marble shrimp, Saron marmoratus.

First with a tint of humour (which never hurts btw). If you think at it, the videogame industry has always been on the edge of design novelty. Seriiously I think it's really a nice piece of design which changes from usual underwater stuff, or reminding of the rounded earlier Hugyfot aesthetics.

Oh wow... nice design! Could be an object out of a Super Mario Kart videogame. (I don't how it would be used though : snoot Bowser at full power and you get 100 additional golden coins? )

I don't think that was the same place : most of the pix I uploaded above in my first post with gorgonians and soft corals are from Proco Bambu. A year would not explain that coral growth. Besides that no coral wall, more of a slope completly COVERED with corals. The other member who's been twice to Proco also confirmed he thought the housereef was spectacular.

Sure, Komodo and Alor are also places where the currents get nasty sometimes. However I have seldom noticed any current on/off switch that transforms it from "Zilch" to "Let's start to panic" within a sec. Most of the time you see it coming, turn away or -at the most- end the dive, etc. (for the record the only current I was really surprised with was during an earthquake in Nusa Penida/Bali. Real on/off button, even had the "Reverse" and "Tornado" positions. Scary.) Best proof is when we started to dive Proco Bambu house reef, there was a mild to sporty current in the end, however the site itself was beautiful, suddenly it revealed colors we didn't have on any other sites. I would understand liveaboards being cautious with spots they dive twice a year, not as much for a 7 years old operation on site diving their sites everyday (same experience in Alor were LoB can go completely wrong while land ops dive these sites on relatively good and safe conditions a couple of hours earlier or later ). And if for any supernatural but sensible reasons we were doomed to only dive the tame places of the area, then I 'd still state that it might be not worth diving. After all isn't diving (and shooting images) our main purpose ( Or what am I doing in this "good housekeeping" board? Where can I find a good recipe for the strawberry jam ?). That's also how my inside voice is questioning me. The answer is perhaps. "On est toujours le (vieux) con d'un autre" On the other hand you may call that experience as well. I might be wrong, the experience of repeating dive places teaches you to focus on the overall rather than the jetsams and flotsams, one trip maybe not as good as another at the same place weatherwise, visibility wise, fish wise, etc having said that you learn to see the core features or the potential without all the external conditions. I recently read posts in another board where first visitors were complaining that Raja wasn't worth diving anymore because the place had a bleaching episode at the start of the year. In my book they obviously missed a few points focusing their attention on the finger rather than the moon it was pointing at (FWIW I dived R4 this year as I did last year and the year before, etc. I think that Raja is fantastic OVERALL despite everything). Personally I didn't fully click on the Halmahera "overalls", from a landbased resort that is to say. Talking about "old people", our favorite motto becomes "Life is too short to [insert whatever action/dive site/wine producer which didn't match for you]". If age doesn't matter you can add on top " Wallet is too small to...". As stated above, I think shooting UW images is our main goal. Typically I try to organize my trips with UW photography in mind, let aside some constraints (non-diving wife meaning no LoB, comfortable accoms as we had our share of mandis in our younger times). I am questioning on this trip about what was really worth shooting? Then if that was just about putting my head underwater, what's that fuss about carrying 60 kgs of equipment mainly geared towards shooting fish and their underwater neighborhood, waking up at night checking that the battery charger was doing its job despite the random power shutdowns, stressing on which lens/port I should kit up for the next dive and whether the alarm system is still green? All in all, I think not everything is equal, and talking about my own UW shooting and likings I am not sure Halmahera is the place to fit me (That was also a valid statement for at least two friends I know, even though I don't need an external validation for what is more personally suited for me.) . A member on this board stayed a couple of times there and liked it very much, as I understand. The housereef that I dived (with some current) was probably the most spectacular dive of the trip. For the blue whales, you'll have very good chances to spot them in Alor in October, where they are regularly seen (even on the housereef of a dive resort!)