TimG

Just as an update. I did 19 dives with my new system in Sulawesi using the UWT trigger. It performed flawlessly. I actually never really gave it a thought. It just did want it's supposed to do. Using higher shutter speeds with HSS on my Retires was a breeze.

Snap

Haha, funny old world. Me, I find the Library brilliant! I can search all 60k photos and find exactly what I'm looking for (yeah, you have to Keyword of course). The ability to then drop files into a Collection is terrific. Each to his own, eh?!

Totally agree!

Lightroom since 1.0. And, maybe minority view, I think the subscription is actually good value. 😝 I honestly struggle to think of anything I can’t do or that could be significantly better. I guess a lot of that is just that I’ve been using it so long!

Hi Peter! Welcome aboard. Really great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy Waterpixels. Best wishes

Hi Stefan! Very good to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels. We hope you enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Good to have another Brit with us. Welcome Nick!

There's a lot of interest in the OM system cameras, especially the OM-1ii model which is used by a good number of long-term Waterpixels' members. As a result I thought it worth starting an seperate thread for OM Systems. So by all means post here issues, questions, thoughts, ideas, knowledge on how to get the best out of these cameras underwater. God knows I need some help..... 😝

One thing I didn’t mention, which although relatively obvious is important: I’m comparing a D500/60mm (90mm FF equivalent) combination with a OM-1ii/60mm - a 120mm FF equivalent. Perhaps a fairer comparison would be the OM/60 combination and a D500/105 combination (150mm equivalent). That was also pretty difficult to capture a mid-water swimming subject! I don’t think the D500/105mm combination hunted as much as the OM.

Subjectively, yes. Bear in mid that I have never used these OM camera or lenses before and, despite very helpful pre-match advice, I was not entirely sure what settings were available or which to use. The OM-1ii is capable of all sorts of tech bells and whistles way beyond (for me) a 2017 D500. I just tried to keep it simple. Not surprisingly the Panasonic 8mm was fine. No problem at all. Easy to focus. The Zuiko 60mm was more problematic and very prone to hunting in turbid water - much more so, I thought, than the D500/Nikkor 60mm. I've never used any kind of focus tracking on my old system and continued to use C-AF for focussing. Subject Detection was set to Off. I did miss a lot of shots initially. Switching to the 0.19-0.4m setting helped a bit. Yes, I started on 0.19m to infinity. Trying to catch a subject swimming in mid-water was something I could do easily with the D500/60mm. Not so with the settings I was using with the OM/60mm. The AF could be distracted by stuff in the water with AF/ Release combined on the shutter release control. Separating out AF and Release will be something I try next time set up on its own Custom group. So, say, C1 for AF/Release combined; C2 for AF/Release separated out to different controls. The other features I want to try out is reducing the C-AF Auto Sensitivity. The Default is 0 but, I read -2 should help distractions. But then, I'm assuming, so should separating out focussing and release buttons. So, bottom line, subjectively, the D500 with a Nikkor 60mm was easier and seemed more reliable for focussing. But, as I say, very early days and it was an accumulation of using the OM for 19 dives as compared to almost a 1000 with the D500. The OM-1ii is clearly highly capable, flexible and customisable. It will take time to fine-tune and get the best of it. As I wrote, I came away happy I was not frustrated to death with a new system. But I did miss shots I would have taken with the D500 so it is a work in progress.

It was still appreciated!

Yep, it’s exactly that, Dave. The spotting light is indeed on most of the time. And a small mask aperture calls for a lot of power. If you’re reading, Oskar, one thing I’d love to see on the Retras is an indicator that the spotting light is indeed on. I often forget to turn it off and it’s not always visible against the reef. I sometimes check by just putting my hand in front of the snoot. But an indicator light would be terrific.