Luko

Mid August 2025 I stayed for a weektime at Sali Bay Resort located in the Bacan Strait, southwest of Halmahera. My dates overlapped with another WP member diving from a liveaboard (who might jump in), we exchanged impressions of nearby dive sites almost in real time and got only subtle differences between resort-based and boat-based diving in the same region. Alike almost all of Indonesia this year, the weather in northern Indonesia was unsteady, with grey clouds and intermittent rain squalls. Surface conditions were exceptionally calm—some days felt like on a frozen lake or ice-skating rink. Despite the flat seas, the overcast skies muted underwater light and the absence of current on most of the dives reduced overall visibility (from 10m to 25m when the current was exceptionally present). I hired a private guide but except when a group came in, all the divers (majoritarily a european experienced crowd from Germany, Netherlands,or Italy) used the same big and comfortable boat. Up to 4 dives a day could be planned on demand. The spots we dived alternated Lembeh style black sand dives (to my surprize) and lush coral reefs sloping down to a sandy bottom. Most sites featured abundant hard corals, though broken sections were visible in places (storm or human cause?). Incredibly large and healthy coral fields contrasted with areas of rubble, suggesting a reef in partial recovery. Soft corals were not that abundant although could be very spectacular on some specific sites in teh current. I encountered zillions of small reef fish—anthias, damselfish, and purple queens—but virtually no medium-sized schooling species. Blacktip sharks appeared on almost every dive over reef slopes. Problem is that the resort dive boat avoided even mild currents, despite divers’ experience levels. On one occasion we skipped a site enjoyed by snorkeling families (with kids!) because our guide assessed the flow could be too strong. Which resulted too often on boring dives where I surfaced with 80–100 bar remaining after more than an hour underwater because I prefered to stay in the shallows with the clouds of reef fish rather than finning over semi deserted hard corals. I even found myself switching to video (for the first times in my life!) for a quick and dirty try. Exceptionally, the guides were probably not expecting it, a manageable current picked up at the house reef near Proco Bamboo Resort and litterally transformed the dive. Within fifteen minutes, corals unfurled their polyps, colors intensified, and fish activity spiked. That single drift dive was the trip’s standout. Macro was OK, one of the black sand spots hosted lots of Halimeda GPF and two wonderpus, although not as much abundance of other critters than Lembeh or Tulamben. I had hard times to have my guide confirming beforehand what was the specifity of the site we would be diving, in order to select the kind of lens I would kit my camera with (macro or wide angle). Except for some obvious sites, (black sand for Macro or Proco housereef for Wide ) Often the answer was "whatever you prefer" which in my mind didn't sound really promising in terms of critters to be spotted or for the expected reefscape. Overall this area of SW Hamahera felt like a hybrid of several Indonesian spots: • A touch of Raja Ampat’s reef structure but with fewer fish • Alor’s terrain but with reduced visibility and less colors • Komodo’s drift potential without its vivid coloration and no fish schools • Lembeh’s black‐sand sites yet lacking a dense critter populations Overall biodiversity was respectable but not as spectacular as the Indonesian marquee destinations. It really lacked the currents and the fish action. On the other hand, swiss italian owned Sali Bay Resort excelled in every non-dive aspect: • Spacious, air-conditioned bungalows with open air bathroom and a large terrace only 5m away from the sea • A dedicated camera room at the jetty for gear setup • A lively housereef with walking sharks on night dives • Fresh, varied meals (foccacia to die for) and friendly, super efficient staff The only downside was the divestaff’s reluctance to tackle currents—even when conditions were well within diver capabilities- and quite iffy Nitrox analyzers (after a the initialization readings for ambiant air randomly in between 17% and 26%, I simply set my computer to a minimal 28% ) Unsurprisingly, our return direct flight from Manado to Bali on Lion Air was abruptly canceled. They rebooked us on an earlier flight going through Makassar that departed four hours before our scheduled landing in Manado, despite a single-PNR booking from Labuha (the airport on Bacan) to Bali on Lion Group airlines. Did that raise an eyebrow on their side, I guess not even. Resolving the routing via WhatsApp took my wife seven frustrating hours. So boohs to LionAir as usual. Conclusion Halmahera is quite a long way and tedious to get to due to unmatching flight connexions (Wings air flight Manado-Labuha flies only once/day departing early afternoon, hence not allowing a same day connexion from Singapore ). Sali Bay Resort delivers top-notch accommodations, service, and easy access to calm, (too) friendly dives. However, the conservative current management and modest marine life—particularly the absence of schooling and intermediate fish—may leave thrill-seeking divers wanting. In this respect Halmahera didn't live up the hype it is currently getting. I’m torn on a return visit: the resort operation earns full marks, but I’d hope for more energetic drift profiles and richer fish action next time if there is one. Here are some shots from the reefs : all wide angle shots taken with Canon R7 / RFS 18-45 / WWL1B

I am shooting macro 70% of my time. My own thoughts when I considered the HF1 as a more powerful replacement for my older Retra original strobes (New Retra strobes are out of my budget) : can it be manageable to handle a snoot with focus lights that are located on the periphery of the strobe? My point is that the internal focus light is paramount for snooting with a strobe, it needs to be aligned with the flash bulb, otherwise you won't illuminate what you're currently lighting with the focus light. There was already a problem using a Retra LSD with the Inon strobes since their focus light is slightly off centered. On the other hand snoot lighting is perfectly accurate with the Retra strobes since both focus light and bulb are centered. I also wrote to Backscatter a year ago asking them when and what kind of snoot they were expecting to roll out for the HF1. They replied a custom snoot was scheduled for the end of the year (that was 2024). Nothing moved since, I am quite dubious they will find a satisfying solution with their completely off centered focusing lights, IMO the problem comes from the design of the HF strobe itself. I agree only a custom made snoot like Iardino's could handle this problem (however depending on the model I have been informed that Iardino's snoots are more or less accurate, you should ask first whether he will use optical fiber which should be the most accurate technical solution) I eventually bought Retra Pro strobes second hand for the price of new HF1s, I happily use them for both wide angle and macro with a Retra LSD

Not a flare but rather looks like the reflection of the camera lens (inside the housing) into the front glass. I don't know for the specific case of the EMWL but in wide angle photo, it used to happen with some dome ports (particularly the non optical glass ones) when shooting in the sun light. You need to prevent shiny parts inside your housing to reflect sun light esp the front of your camera lens, I used to stick some non reflective black felt material around the camera lens front so it limits the light reflection. Once again I don't know whether this workaround would operate with a EMWL.

The first one definitely a sacoglossian, not a nudibranch. Looks to me like one of the numerous undescribed Elysia sp. seaslug. the rectanglular head with eyes on the side (almost like a small cow) are quite characteristic. 5 -6 cm long ??? I guess you rather meant 5 or 6 mm... For the second one no other photos?

Glad although sad to hear/see a bit of my youth country (taem mi stap pikinini). Thanks for that John. I don't know where exactly your place is located in Port Havanah but I know the general location. Although living just on Erakor lagoon in the mid 70's, not far from the namba3 Golf course, on certain sundays we used to drive north to PH and go snorkel just at the Lelepa landing. Aquaria was our goal at thet time (yeah, I know seventies... whip me : no sunscreen no shirts, collecting shells, putting clownfish in aquariums, -it was the TVscreen replacement in the living room : TV was non existant in the NewHebrides) Man, PH in 1976 that was the coralliest place I had ever seen and still remember , not even 1m deep at lowtide the hard corals were almost fluorescent. Mi no kiaman! I swear I haven't seen that anywhere else in my life. Okay I'll try to explain : everyone raves about Melissa's garden in Raja Ampat, imagine more coral variety and more colors, just snorkeling, in 1-2m deep now you get it? I returned more than 30 years later diving Moso, just in front... "where had all the fish gone.?" was my first impression and that was only 15 years ago from now looking at the photos it's got even worse. Even with the dramatic photos I doubt people who have not lived next can understand what damages have been done! Earthquake activity, yep I remember that too, particularly a day where there was continuous tremor and shakes all day long, at the end of the day, the sky was red in Vila with fumes coming from the volcanic activity in the further islands, so I fully understand why the land elevation. When I came back 30 years later to see the places I used to live at, like the Erakor Lagoon : that was crazy I thought someone had siphooned water from the lagoon, couldn't believe my eyes at Rentabao public beach blue hole either : now the blue hole is almost on the beach while you had to swim into 1-2m deep water before reaching the blue hole. Oh well....

That's Ceratosoma tenue, (broken purple margin and third mantle lobe on the side) Apart from that, very nice footage.

Personnally I moved more than 2 years ago from the Canon APS-C dSLR range (7D then 70D) housed inside a Nauticam housing to a RF Canon R7. The leap to FF didn't sound so attracting as I was looking for a more compact/lighter housing and a more affordable option as well, the Nauticam R7 just came out below the 3000EUR to confirm and speed up my initial choice. As I'm doing a Iot of (super)macro also purchased the RF100 as a replacement to my old EF100, with the hindsight I think the RF100 is probaby the best macro lens I have used. I also partially switched from 10-17Tok/Zen 4" dome to a RFS18-45 with the WWL1B wetlens combo, this gives me a zoom range from almost fisheye like coral reef scapes/fish schools to bigger animals I wouldn't shoot even at 17mm. I found the image quality in the corners is so much improved with the WWL1B. I really enjoyed the better AF, the image quality (esp.the dynamics compared) and the ease of shooting and reviewing photos with the EVF although the EVF of the R7 is not up to the R5 or R6.. I would now probably wait for a R7-2 with an improved and more defined EVF, for all other aspects I think the R7 is a great camera, I am not sure the R50 rivals in terms of AF and image quality (dynamics and definition). In every way I think the RF100 is a fantastic lens to invest if you're keen on macro,

Favorinus sp. nudibranchs ( such as tsuruganus, mirabilis or others) are very common in Tulamben/Bali, you usually find them feeding on mollusc egg ribbons or spheres. When the feeding ground is big enough it's not rare to see 2 or 3 sharing the same plate on a common area. [url= on top of the world[/url] [url= nudibranchs eating snail eggs[/url]

I already experienced a Red/Blue flashing vacuum light during a dive. Started to ascend, the light went back to green, hence continued my dive betting on that it was just a system malfunction (I'm a player), the system alternated red/blue and green during the whole dive. Once up, I checked on land what was going on inside the housing, apparently nothing wet. Closed and vacuumed the housing until green. Continued for the 2nd dive, Same pattern : green then Red/Blue sometimes back to green. Back to the hotel room I changed for a new battery and everything went back to normal the day after.

That's a good question for macro where sharpness is critical. A long while ago when I was using some of the initial Canon IS lenses with land camera (such as 24-105L IS), the IS was quite effective for handheld/slower shutter in situations like available light street portraits, however I would still feel the old IS "buzzing" into the lens. On a fast shutter speed it was no benefit and to an extent, some photographers would say it could be a nuisance to the sharpness as the optic groups would slightly move. I could also experience that on some of the still images I was shooting at that time : sharpness but not ultra sharpness as expected when the IS was on. IS has certainly progressed since, I have now a RF100 IS that I use for most of my UW macro shots but I must admit I never wondered about switching the IS off. TBH with the hindsight, ie. using a fast shutter like 1/200s with the strobelight freezing the subject for some ms., add on top that the density of water environment don't allow fast shake movement, I don't see what would be the benefit of the IS in these conditions. On the contrary I can only guess the inconvenience of using more battery life and maybe some residual slight internal "shaking" (certainly at a lesser level than 20 years ago). Hence probably something to think about when not using continuous lighting and slower shutter.

Well you probaby forgot the past years before : many people living in the Phils will tell you that in the recent years, typhoons have frequently been hitting the Phils in the last quarter of the year, and most this violently. This is the link to the data of the main typhoons hitting the Phils since 2018: https://www.worlddata.info/asia/philippines/typhoons.php You'll notice that within the past years 2024 (to be complete : 6 rainstorms or typhoons hit the Phils in October november 2024), 2022, 2021 and 2020 have all had typhoons from end of october to late december . You probably have heard about Rai aka. Odette ,the most devastating typhoon that hit the central Visayas mid december 2021, which wiped out many of the shallow coral gardens in all parts of the Visayas. FWIW the last trip I planned end of the year in the Phils was for Xmas 2014, we had to cut our stay on Panglao short because of a typhoon coming in. Marine coast guards had locked all boats at deck and prohibited trips from/to Cebu. We eventually had to charter a bangka in Cabilao to cross the channel to Argao in 2m waves and heavy rain falls hours before the Typhoon landed. For the record, a year before in 2013 the deadliest typhoon recorded in the Phils known as Yolanda had hit Bohol mid november, I thought that was happening once in a while... huh... from now on I only travel the Phils from Feb to May. So from the theoritical POV November might not be the heart of the typhoon season, real figures have shown, filipinos will also tell you that since the last 10 years, november-december are more frequently hit by rainstorms and typhoons. Since this is quite impredictable, you may go and find decent weather in November, however you should know that there is a risk you may want to play with or not.

A lot of the indonesian archipelago is diveable early november, actually October to mid november is probably the best season for diving some parts of Indonesia. Nusa Tenggara islands of Komodo and Alor should be great at this time of year (that's even the blue whale season for Alor). Bali for flat seas and North Sulawesi should also good until mid november before the turn of the season I know that seen from far away Komodo seems like the big bad currents spot. After 5 trips to Komodo either resort or liveaboard diving I can testify there are lot of kind of people diving Komodo, some of them very inexperimented, Komodo is not currents everywhere, many divers get certified there : I've been on a liveboard where some of the divers where just out of their OW certification. So if you mention that you don't want currents, the guides will make sure not to bring you on currenty spots. Funnily enough, you seem attracted to Raja Ampat whereas I find that are more tricky currents in Raja Ampat than in Komodo. IMO the most spectacular sample you could get of diving SEA In 14 to 18 days, would be to spend a week to 10 days in Bali for diving and sightseeing plus a another week either staying in Alor or a short liveaboard in Komodo. With the combination of Both Bali (Tulamben) and Komodo or Alor you'd get some of the best reef and muck dives in Indonesia. North sulawesi is alos an option however and even though I find Sahaung on Bangka one of the most beautiful coral spots, don't expect to find corals/fish schools/big fish like you would have in Komodo, Alor or even Bali. As for the Visayas and generally the Phils, august to november is not the best season to travel since you would have chances to hit a typhoon or rainstorms which are not uncommon at that time of the year. (I even bumped into a typhoon alert until late december, that is why I tend to favor Feb to May for diving the Phils).

Ha... been there done that. (with Fotocore GTX strobes similar to Supe D-Pro). Problem is NOT the 613 vs. single optic cable. Fotocore/Scubalamp strobes are quite picky with connectors : you need to have the "appropriate" connector with your fiber optic cable because S&S connectors can be quite loose in the flash socket, hence it needs a thicker than usual connector. I tried with legit Nauticam and S&S cables and couldn't fire the strobes. Also make sure you don't have a double fiber connector, it won't work either. I recommend using the AOI/Weefine connectors thicker like these : https://uw-foto.ch/en/2858/weefine-optical-fiber-cable-long-seaandsea-seaandsea

Yes but not exactly. They indeed have the same body structure and similar performance although the Fotocore GTX adds 2 stroboscope modes with either 3 or 6 flashes in one long frame. I owned 2 of these and sold them back : after one trip my opinion was they were good and powerful for wide angle although not versatile enough for shooting macro, heavy as well. For travel comfort reasons, I wanted to use the sames strobes for both macro and WA. Now I'm back with Retra/superchargers and the carry on load of AA batteries... we can't always get what we want.

I will speak for Tawali/Milne bay. I was there in march a few years ago, I was lucky the rain had stopped at my time of arrival a week before the previous tourists had to walk 2km through some hilly jungle to get to the embarkation pier to Tawali because the roads were completely flooded, fortunately no rain the week after. Expect 30-31C water temperature, 3mil wetsuit is more than enough. I thought it would be a mainly muck place but in fact it's a mix of muck on Lawadi (Lots of Cyerce nudis!) and pristine coral reef. You will often return to Lawadi but the other muck dive sites like Samarai pier are much further away and need to get on a short liveaboard, I don't think Tawali resort will take you there unless the Spirit of New Guinea liveaboard is included for a few nights in your package. Ask for Albert for your macro guide he's as good finding critters as many Indonesian guides in Lembeh or Tulamben. Deacon's reef is just next door to Lawadi, it becomes instantly your favorite divesite, pure wide angle : great corals and a fantastic spot covered with tree foliage in the shallows, so you can do shots with vibrant coral colors and sunbeams coming from the surface. Lacey rhinopias (Rhinopias aphanes) can also be seen on Deacon reef. Other sites are mostly coral walls and wide angle : Coral garden and Barracuda reef near to Tawali are also wortwhile,, hammerheads have been reported on barracuda reef however dont count too much on them. The outer reefs that takes a daytrip like Tania's reef are spectacular so much teeeming with reef life, that said I've been wondering if they would be better captured on video than still image (mostly zillions of reef fish but not much bigger fish). Hence during my stay I would state it was about a third macro-2 thirds wide angle. Port Moresby :I recommand staying at Airways Hotel, decent restaurant with excellent australian Wagyu meat priced reasonably compared to the prices we have in Europe. If you have time after your dive trips, you can ask hiring a driver and go around Mo'sby, nothing much to see except for parliament haus which is a real architectural curiosity. What to buy/gifts? You'll find better priced woodcarvings than what they try to sell you at the resorts in a japanese held small shop inside the Gateway hotel, near to Airways. (If you find Nozaki a japanese lady instructor who was working for Lissenung and Tawali, I don't know where she's now, she will give you updates). If you know girls you like to please, I suggest you ask your driver in Port Moresby to take you to the bilum market. Ladies sell the traditional colorful woven bags called "bilum". I bought 5 or 6 and gave them to my female colleagues. I was the king back at work.

1- yes, I would say every othertime I flew to/from Sorong or Makassar with LionAir. It was either canceled or rescheduled. 2- try to get a TransNusa flight if you can, which is more reliable and cheaper for the SOQ-MDC segment. On top of their SOQ-CGK, Garuda has also opened this year a SOQ DPS flight, not everyday though. Problem will be to get a refund from LionAir, it takes many phone calls (you'd want to kill their web bot) 3- as a rule of thumb I always try to get a day early in/out of Sorong and I spend the night at SwissBelotel.

Many thanks! I can vouch for @CaolIla as a buyer similarly. 🙂

I was at Paris show, no specific Inon booth. Although Takuya Torii was on a local distributor booth. Apparently he told everyone Inon had this new strobe prototype out but couldn't show it... from what I understand his bag had been... lost at Tokyo airport. 😄 (fortunately located in Amsterdam/Schiphol but could not do it for Paris show) https://www.instagram.com/p/DEwHSPhIvZR/

Yep. Adobe announced 3 weeks ago a monthly price increase in Europe starting from jan15th up to 18€ per month for the LR+PS bundle (meaning a 50% increase!). That said the yearly price will remain around 144€.

Nice report from a friend. That is if you can read french (I know many of our italian neighbors can) https://www.forum-photosub.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17907

I tried the trial version this morning. Very easy to download and use immediately after. Of course I wanted to trick it on a photo mixing diver bubbles in the distance with some actual backscatter. It eliminated the backscatter without touching to the bubbles : much better than a hand made selection. VERY Impressive.

If by any chance you are not adverse to reading french (you may use Google transaltion as well) this is a Cabo Verde landside and diving report that was written very recently on the Forum Photosub (somehow a french sisterforum to Waterpixels, you'll be welcome to join too btw). https://www.forum-photosub.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20414

Not for the Visayas though where visibility depends mainly on the sea conditions/weather since it's shallower and sandier bottoms than Anilao/PG. March can be a hit or miss espcially for Panglao/Bohol, in all my stays in the Visayas I had much better conditions and viz late April/May.

Two Waterpixelers trying to get their rollers under 7kgs at the infamous AirAsia post check-in carry-on luggage weight checkpoint. You said it man : Nobody f***s with the AirAsius !

Problem is that the nudibranch taxonomy is continuously evolving (I won't even mention the disagreements between different "schools" and various attempts at categorizing nudibranch families) if you ever compare older books like the ones you mention from Coleman or Debelius (first published 20 years ago or so) with newer ones (say NSSI2 Gosliner, Valdes, Behrens, published some 5-6 years ago) it's completely different, you won't find the same names, even the families are completely different. Hence the older Nudi Id. books are outdated and somehow useless now. I guess the awaited NSSI3 will correct some errors, allocate new names to unnamed sp. nudibranches (about 20% of the nudibranches illustrated inside NSSI2 only get a family name with a sp. number, say Goniobranchus sp.25 for instance) or even propose new families (like Bermudella or Ceratodoris which are already in use but missing in NSSI2). My recommendation would be select some good Websites that are updated to new species names, some of my favorites (but there are many more, depending on your location) : Erwin Koehler's multi location http://www.medslugs.de/E/Pac-W/select.htm S&J Johnson from Kwajalein for Pacific slugs https://www.underwaterkwaj.com/nudi/nudi.htm For Indian Ocean, Ph.Bidgrain's http://seaslugs.free.fr/nudibranche/a_intro.htm There are also excellent Facebook groups like Nudibase where any nudi will be identified by marine biologists. Re- the initial question these are Mexichromis trillineata.