Skip to content

TimG

Super Moderators

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Country

    United Kingdom
View Profile Find content

Posts posted by TimG

    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.

    • Like 3

    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.

    • Like 3

    9 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

    Snooting is the worst case scenario for a strobes battery life. You have a spotting light on most of the time and usually need fairly high strobe power levels. You will definitely need all the battery power you can get. Don't leave home without the boosters.

    The Retra Maxi is a lot better for Snooting since it has a lot more battery power and it's lighter in the water than the AA powered Retra's. This helps counter the added weight of the LSD.

    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.

    12 minutes ago, Troporobo said:

    Tim, my macro rig is very similar to yours, although different strobes, but it’s not nearly as negative. I’m curious why you need the boosters? I can do 3 macro dives taking maybe 80-100 exposures each time without changing batteries.

    Interesting. Could be just habit from my D500 days! I do find though that using the Retra LSD snoot I turn the strobes power up a fair bit. A 100 images sounds about what I’d do over 3 dives. I’ll try going Boosterless on my next trip and see how it goes.

    10 hours ago, Larry L Jackson said:

    Wow, Tim G it is so nice to know you are around here. Our time with you at KBR was really special. Those were really good times my friend.

    Rich. Thanks so much for helping me get set up. As I mentioned to you in an e-mail, having been a forum moderator many years ago, your job is too often thankless. While new here, I appreciate what you do.

    Totally agree, Larry. You were a brilliant guest! So sad that KBR has gone. I heard Mark died.

    Yep, totally possible with a snoot. Then as @Grantmac sets out, low ISO, high shutter speed to cut out ambient light - and whatever macro aperture setting you need.

    A snoot is the way to go: great fun, massively frustrating to start with - but sheer brilliance when you get it bang-on. There's an article about snooting in the, err Articles section. Hang on a minute! I wrote it.....

    • Like 2
    • Haha 1

    8 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

    With exactly the same setup diving around home , only difference is the model of Retra strobe , mine I recall are 20g -ve or so in water and an INON focus light at 165gr in water, I use two INON 390g float arms and two 135 gr float arms. It's pretty close to neutral, just slightly negative. You would use two of the new 437 gr INON arms and come up at about the same weight I am less the INON torch.

    I always use back button focus in combo with C-AF underwater, seems to work pretty well.

    I've just done a dunk test in a tank full of fresh water. I used the Zuiko 60mm with Nauticam 65 port, the 45-degree finder and two Retras with the Boosters (my normal GoTo), so 16 batteries in total. This weighed 6.5 kgs in air. In the dunk tank it was 1.88 kgs negatively buoyant. I make that to be just over 10 Jumbo Stix! 😆

    So… back from my first M43/Nauticam dive trip.

    Horribly heavy though it was, I was amazed all my gear, except strobe arms and the Retra LSD, would fit into a Pelican 1510 refitted with Pelican’s TrekPak dividers. They are much neater than the padded dividers I’ve been using for decades and free-up valuable space.

    We were boat diving in Sulawesi from a resort on Saronde Island.  I took the OM-1ii with the Olympus 60mm and Panasonic 8mm, Nauticam’s flatport 65 and a Zen 100mm domeport. Over 7 days of diving, macro shots on five days and FE for two. I shot just over 1300 RAW file images over 20 dives.

    I found the system easy to use. My partner said she was dreading me emerging at the end of a dive cursing and swearing in frustration over a new system. IT NEVER HAPPENED. I used fairly simple camera settings, the Retra LSD for macro and happily shot away. The 60mm hunted a bit in some fairly turbid water and I tried various tweaks which helped.

    The Panasonic 8mm was a joy to use and focussing, not surprisingly, was easy. The Zen 100 port is very neat - but you do need to be careful not to smash into the reef using the 8mm! Everything is WAY closer than it looks.

    I had the UWT trigger in the housing which was excellent and worked without a hitch. I switched often to HSS on the Retras with high shutter speeds when shooting wide-angle into the sun. The system coped perfectly.

    The USB port was brilliant and over the course of 7 days I never opened the housing back! Plugging the housing into a USB charger for a couple of hours in the evenings  resulted in a full battery for next day’s dives.

    I’d like to say I did the same with downloading images (ie through the USB port). However my lack of familiarity with the Files app on my iPad led me to stuff up the first download attempt - and I didn’t want to risk it. Back home now I have it figured out and will certainly use that in the future. No need to open the housing to download or battery charge. What a bonus!

    Other bits and bobs: the Nauticam vacuum system is easy to operate and offers a nice feeling of comfort. It is integrated into the housing very neatly.

    I was surprised by the system being significantly negatively buoyant. I was using two sets of arms comprising 5” plus 8” arms fitted with Stix Jumbo floats. If I let go, the whole lot plummeted down. I’m looking into adding a cross bar with additional Stix - which is what I had on my D500/Subal system and liked it. I plan a rinse tank test this week with travel scales to find out how much additional buoyancy is needed.

    I struggled a bit to find the sweet spot on the shutter release - something which was quite easy  on the Subal housing with a D500. I did miss shots by a millisecond. Next time I’ll use the AF button to focus and the shutter lever just to fire the shutter.

    And I struggled to find the aperture and shutter dials on the housing without looking. They are smaller than Subals and my fingers didn’t fall easily onto them. But this is just familiarity and practice.

    And the images? The key factor! Yep, I’m happy especially considering this was first time out with a new setup. Most images are sharp. If they are not it’s mainly my fault. I’m left with 130 keepers which, for me, is about the right ratio: 1 keeper for 10 deletes. Looking at them at 100% in Lightroom, they don’t look any different to the Nikon D500 RAW files.

    So if you’re thinking of an M43 system using an OM-1, it works nicely. Phew…..

    TG60031.jpg

    TG60057.jpg

    TG60101.jpg

    TG60112.jpg

    • Like 9

    34 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

    One of the claimed advantages of the MFO3 is that is corrects for the distortion and abberations caused by the flat port, these abberations are more of a concern for shorter focal lengths/wider fields like you get with a bare 60mm lens. So it should be sharper than a bare 60mm. The MFO3 is fairly hefty however the in-water weight is quite low and it balances quite well in use.

    Chris, you’re using it on an M43 system with the Zuiko 60mm, right?

Retra

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.