TimG

I've not dived in Tonga but have dived a couple of times with whale sharks. As @akarnani wisely points out, you are going to be either swimming flat out or hovering close to where they might stop to feed. In either case, keep the gear as minimal as possible. I'd suggest not taking strobes. If it's a flat out fast swim, they are a nuisance and a drag; if the whales are feeding that implies very turbid water, and the backscatter from strobes would spoil the image. As @Dave_Hicks suggests, I too would go with an FE. FE zoom if doable. Definitely a small dome. Whales are big (!) and if you do get the chance to get reasonably close, possible when feeding, you definitely want the FE. Even if you can't get close, being able to get a diver in the image as well as the whale gives a sense of scale. Just keep it simple. I get rid of the strobes but maybe keep a Stix-loaded arm or two for reasonably neutral buoyancy. I usually set up for Manual exposure, 400 ISO, reasonable depth of field, as fast a shutter as I can get away with, then take a few test shots once in the water to tweak the settings. Maybe use burst mode - say 3-5 shots a second; then get ready to swim like you're being chased by a great white...... Great fun. And exhausting. Enjoy!!!!

Urgh, how frustrating. Using 613 fibre, clean knife-cut fibre ends, centring the cable/bush is about all you can do. As Chris posted, I think we’ve been here before with the YS strobes. Annoying.

I don’t think this is just an OM issue. I don't recall anyone on Waterpixels saying tracking underwater worked well on their camera. My gear gets its first runout next month. Fingers crossed. I’m going to be gutted if the OM AF isn’t at least as good as the venerable D500! But I think that unlikely. Will report back……

Sorry but I can’t yet offer a sensible comment on the AF underwater. Mine hasn’t got wet yet. Chris is The Man though - longtime M43 user.

I don't know about "all" the lenses but the Panasonic 8mm is the same mount as the Olympus 60mm and fits on the OM-1 without an adaptor. Without the housing brackets the Nauticam is 230mm wide. The 307mm must refer to the housing plus handles. I can see that for travelling that disconnecting the handles will be very helpful. And it's quick and easy to do.

Hi CCRphoto I've just gone down a similar path myself and the criteria you outline are pretty common ones. A good number of members - especially we, errr, more aging ones, are looking to "downsize" and have less gear to carry. I gave up on FF camera bodies (Nikon D800) in 2017 as having to lug a 230mm domeport - or some sort of big glass wetlens - was becoming a pain. I settled on the D500 APS-C system which, generally, allowed for slightly smaller bits of gear. I lost all that recently so had to rebuild from scratch. I'm not at all persuaded by the marketing charms of needing FF and high megapixel camera bodies for underwater. I sell lots of images and no-one has ever grumbled that they are not produced by a FF camera. I reckon 20MB is plenty unless you want massive prints or are shooting purely commercial imagery. Topside is different (no ports!!). Listening to folks here, I came to the conclusion that the OM System plus Nauticam was the way to go. The OM System is compact and light-weight but still has 20+MB sensor. Nauticam has become, perhaps, the system most used by people who want aluminium housings, providing good support and innovative products which are continually developed. I've now acquired a housing, 45-degree viewfinder, arms and clamps, N85 WA and macro ports, an OM-1ii camera body, and Panasonic 8mm FE and Olympus 60mm macro lenses. The housing is smaller, slightly, than the (Subal) D500 housing, the camera and lenses significantly smaller than FF or APS-C (almost like back to the OM-1 and OM-2 days of the 1970s). But put the whole package together, add two Retra strobes, and weight and volume wise, they are not that much different to my APS-C system. But then maybe I just need to give up trying to pack everything into a heavy Pelican 1510 case! Fibre optic initiation: yep, a definite must. I don't use TTL either but do want HSS. That rules out the Nauticam trigger. But both Turtle and UWT have compact triggers which do the trick nicely. Both are quality products with very good support. I can recommend either. Familiarity of controls: well if you've never stepped into digital, there is a big difference in the ability to customise controls. Effectively the camera body is a mini computer which you can customise to your heart's content. I doubt I scrape 10% of what they can truly do. I set mine to Manual exposure, AF in one form or another, shoot RAW, Auto WB and very rarely, burst shots (without strobes for, eg dolphins). The OM will let you set up a number of, effectively, customised setting folders so you can switch easily between one setup and another. Think one set of settings for macro, one for WA controlled by the flick of a switch. But there is sure a learning curve - even switching from Nikon to OM! But the basic "photo references" remain, eg, ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture etc. And, the most important thing, composition - which is what it is truly all about - is not digital! That hasn't changed at all. Hope this helps a bit! Good luck with it. They are not easy decisions for sure.

I often wonder about reflections in shallower water? Is that an issue?

The Tokina 10-17 reborn!

.... can a Pom wish you a warm welcome? If I don't whinge about something?

Eeee, you were lucky. We had to build the boat first, cut the wood, carve dive cylinders out of tree trunks. Eeee, they were the days.....

I believe an "I survived a Red Sea Liveaboard" t-shirt is all the rage now. There's also a Maldives version.......

Wow, what an epic. Contact Christopher Nolan and sell the rights, Homer! Congrats, John!

Ahhhh, jg3johnson! Better late than never, eh? Welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. Sorry though about the medical condition. That is an utter bummer. Good luck with the sale.

Hey Morgan! A esrm welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. Best way to sell your housing is to put an adin our Marketplace forum. Just click on the Marketplace tab and fill in the details. Good luck with the sale! Best wishes

Good to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels! Weren’t we always suckers for doodads and doohickeys!?

Hi Andrew Automatically, sorry, no... that has to be a mandraulic issue. Just resize the down preferably in jpg format.

In a conversation I had with Oskar at Retra some time back, he mentioned that a centred hole in a bush was important for some strobes.

Totally agree!

Seems like an event every 6-8 weeks at the moment

Woah!!! Thanks. Just sent you a PM.

Do any of our EU members have by any chance a spare length of Asahi MCQ-1000 fibre optic cable, ie the sort we ordered from the US? I lost all my cables and spares in the fire in the Maldives and am trying to rebuild my gear. I just cannot find it in the EU despite contacting various fibre optic companies. I know I could use Toslink etc, but the Asahi cable has always worked so well for me I'd like to use that if I can. Half a metre would really help. One metre would be brilliant! Happy to pay costs/shipping (to Amsterdam) of course. Thanks!

I’m moving to the OM system having lost all my gear in a fire on a liveaboard in the Maldives. See my article A Word To The Wise. I’d being using Subal housings for 25 years always with a 45-degree viewfinder which I loved. I lost a Nikon D500-based system which I saw little point in trying to replace given the camera’s age. I settled on the OM as the replacement given its reputation and size for travelling. Having had Subals, I really wanted a housing of that quality and 45-degree viewfinder capable. Given the increasing rarity, sadly, of Subals and the popularity of Nauticam (easy access to parts, service, resale value etc), I decided to go with that. I only started playing with the housing yesterday. Have to say, early days, I’m impressed. It’s a quality product with very good integration of things like a vacuum alarm and USB charging. So much to learn though with both a new camera and housing! Based on advice from folks here, including Chris, I’ve bought the Olympus 60mm macro and 8mm Panasonic lenses and will see how that goes. These replicate close to what I used on the D500. (Either Nikkor 60 or 105 and the much-loved Tokina 10-17)

gnarliest_gnome! Love the username. Welcome! (Just got my (Nauticam) OM-1 housing)

Just checked the combination. Yes, it works on a Z6iii with the DG version of the Kenko 1.4 but NOT the DGX version.