TimG

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…..

Beautifully put into words what, I’m sure, many of us have felt on dives.

Falconthrust, eh? Now there's an interesting user name! Welcome! Great to have you with us on Waterpixels. We hope you really enjoy the forum. Best wishes

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

Hi Kyle! Welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum. Yep, stock up on gear…. It’s what we do best, right?! Best wishes

Hey ArcoNaut! A warm welcome to Waterpixels. It’s great to have you with us. We hope you really enjoy the forum and look forward to your contributions. Best wishes

It might be worth us moving this to a new thread as I suspect you’re gong to get lots of comments and suggestions. Ok?

Hey William! Great to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels. A fascinating area of interest you have and we look forward to hearing more. Best wishes

Sounds a fabulous project! Good luck with it and do keep us posted…..

Mirko! A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Wow, like @bghazzal , I’ve spent a 35 year career travelling the world and even more so post-retirement and have never come across this. Incredible.

Yep, dust spots on the sensor. As Chip suggests, photograph a white wall with the lens out of focus. They’ll show up clearly. Good luck with the sensor clean. I found it a bit nerve-racking first time I had to do it. It can take 2-3 attempts. Steady patience and a clean swab for each attempt. There are cleaning swabs available for specific sensor sizes. 1-2 drops of sensor cleaner on the swab then gentle left to right motion across the sensor. I can recommend PecPads as the covering for the swab.

Hi Sean I’m in a similar position. I’ve got the 8mm and 60mm M43 lenses. I moved to them from an APSC system using a 10-17FE and a 60mm or 105mm. With my old system I was never convinced by the kind of mid-zoom. Neither fish nor fowl. In addition, I’ve always been convinced that it makes better sense to dive with one format in mind: WA or Macro. This makes kit choosing relatively simple and, for me, helps me focus on appropriate subjects. I’ve just finished my first dive trip with my new system. I thought it very good. But I did wonder about something a bit wider than the 60mm. Not come to any conclusions yet! Maybe something in the M43 30mm range? I had a couple of options with the APSC. But it was rare that anything other than the 10-17 or the 60 came out of the cupboard. Food for thought.

There’s been loads of posts on this issue. Definitely worth a search. Some options; 50/50 solution white vinegar and water Coke Mothers windscreen cleaner Brasso Cerium Oxide powder (as Dave suggests) Good luck with them. My own experience is that once the film has been on for a while it’s extremely difficult to shift it. Re-glassing has been my experience. With new ports now, I follow the Chris Ross routine: good soak and do not let the ports (and viewfinder optics) air dry. Wipe them dry with microfibre cloth as they come out the rinse tank.

Glad to say I’ve never come across anything like this. Bizarre to say the least. The potential charge was outrageous.

Yeah, despite the numbers, there is a surprising lack of variety?

Emirates insisted on weighing my Pelican 1510 case once in AMS and said it was too heavy. I opened the top, showed them the contents, explained the value, cried, wept, pleaded…. and the manager said ok. I think she was just glad to get rid of me. The only time it has happened in many dozen flights on many airlines.

I always travel with a (now) Kraken (was Cinebags) Grouper XL as a portable rinse tank. During the journey it carries lots of my gear in the cabin. A bit pricey but they are excellent travel bags and rinse tanks.

Hi JMC22 A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Good to have you with us. We hope you really enjoy the forum. Best wishes.

RIP, dear friend.

I LOVED the D300. A brilliant camera and did well over 1000 dives with one. Subal housing. Second hand value, even with a couple of bodies? Honestly, not much. If you got $600 I think you’d have done well. I like @homodelphinius idea of donating. Make someone’s day. Unless you need the cash of course.

Hi Shaina! A welcome to Waterpixels and underwater photography. The fastest way to empty a bank account! UW photography that is. We’re just here to help. Great to have you with us. Best wishes

Well about time! Welcome! Great to have you with us. Lots of people here you’ll know from the Old Days. We really hope you enjoy your new home. Best wishes

Hi hon05 A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum and find all the help you need. Post away! Best wishes

Definitely wide-angle for the day dives. I’ve pretty much given up on daytime macro in the R/S. Macro makes good sense though for the night dives and, yep, not something too demanding in terms of “finding “ the subject in the viewfinder. So 60mm on FF. As CCRphoto says, it’ll be starting to get a bit nippy. Wrap up warm, Mike 😜