TimG

Hey Mark Some thoughts: If you have already decided that you want to shoot macro and WA then I'd suggest an early decision is on format rather than camera manufacturer. So, full-frame (FF), cropped sensor (APS-C or DX) or Micro 4/3rds (M43). All of them are a big switch from a TG6. What do you intend to do with the images may well determine what you choose. If you are shooting for purely personal use, view on screen, show your friends, then you really don't need to go for a large format sensor (ie, FF). DX or M43 would be perfectly good. If you are thinking of huge prints (say bigger than A3) or serious image sales, then maybe you need FF. The camera marketers will try and steer you down the FF path but that is really not necessary and can, I think, be counter-productive. If you go FF you are looking at bigger, heavier and more expensive lenses. Whilst macro is easy to house in pretty much any format, housing wide-angle is much more difficult and expensive for FF than one of the smaller formats. A big domeport is usually necessary unless you choose just a fisheye lens. Both DX and M43 lenses are much easier to house, less expensive and less bulky. If you chose FF then for macro and wide-angle you are looking at, say, a 105mm macro lens; and a 15mm fisheye (FE) for wide-angle or a 16-35mm lens which will give you a rectilinear image and not fisheye. FEs are much easier to house than a 16-35. You would probably chose the same type of lenses for DX or M43, ie macro and FE or rectilinear but because of the smaller sensor size, the numbering might be slightly different especially for wide-angle. So, for example the DX equivalent of a 16-35 is a 10-24; the equivalent of a 15mm FE is a 10.5mm FE. Strobes, arms, fibre optic connectors, vacuum valves are all the same whichever system you choose. All these are items that can be transferred from system to system and are worth careful consideration and not scrimping on. Then cost. A new FF system complete is probably in the region of £13-15,000. You can probably get that down to around £7-£8000 if you go second hand and pick up some good deals. A DX-based system is probably two-thirds of that. M43 a little less again. My suggestion would be that you give serious thought to the end use of the images. Decide the format, then decide what lenses you would like; then see which manufacturers make them for which camera; then narrow down the camera. I wouldn't suggest you start with the camera body. That is the cheap bit of the package, not the most critical and the least long-term purchase. I'm sure others will chip in with views. But for the moment, I would not narrow down your thinking to either Sony or Canon. That might be your final decision but, as I say, get a good idea first what you want to achieve and then work out how. Otherwise there is a really good chance you spend a ton of money and not get what you want; or spend a ton of money unnecessarily. I hope that helps a bit.

We should start a sweepstake to see at what part number on the schematic people get to and find it no longer fun.... 🤭

Great to have you with us, Balazs! Welcome.

Seems pretty poor service to me if the attitude of the supplier and the company is, well when we decide to get around to it, we'll look at sending you a replacement. Yowzers.

Snap! Welcome aboard, François. Great to have you with us.

Terrific! Thanks!

Hey Steen I use the UWT one in my Subal housing. Works like a charm. The man behind it, Pavel, should be appearing here soon. He was on Wetpixel a lot and always very helpful. He's keen to be involved here now.

OK, we don't have the setup yet..... (fair comment!)

Totally agree. Anyone who has a series of shots like these over a period of time, do post them!

Super pics, Dave. Maybe the shock of going from really good viz in the St John’s area to the Port Ghalib harbour messed with my viz calculations 😜. But it was really poor viz where normally I wouldn’t bother trying WA pics.

Tom, do you think you could do a post about your pole-cam arrangement? I think that would be of interest to folks here.

I know a few members use the Retra reflector but I thought I'd post a short piece about using them as it was something relatively new to me. Apologies if this is old hat! I was in the Red Sea out of Marsa Alam a few months ago. The last dive was the usual outside-the-harbour type dive and the viz was utterly cr*p: maybe 3'-4'. One of those dives where I wondered why I was bothering. I'd been using my D500 with the Tokina 10-17 for the whole trip and usually had the Retra reflector in a BCD pocket (yeah, a big pocket!) but hadn't really used it. There were loads of juveniles knocking around on the site so I thought I'd take some pics just for the fun of it. I gave the reflector a go, reducing the power from the strobe a good bit and using the reflector aimed more directly at the subject to try and reduce backscatter. Results on the camera screen looked ok. When I got back and looked at the images on the big screen I was pleasantly surprised as to how well they came out given the viz and turbidity. On the pic below, there is some backscatter on the top left but, generally, give the viz, not a bad result I thought (yeah, the picture is nothing special, I appreciate)

Hi MrC. Delighted that you’ve joined us. Welcome! We hope you really like the new forum.

I agree with you, Wolfgang. The Tokina is amazing underwater - certainly with the DX sensor cameras that I have used. I can't say I liked it all with an FF Nikon D800. Horrible! The only slight hesitation with the lens is the build quality. Over maybe 15 years I've had two of them and they have both had the same issue - the zoom ring detaches. This is user repairable with some tape but it is a bit of a shock first time around. I know too others have had the same issue and it's something to watch out for. But IQ on sub-FF? Superb.

Ian, would you be happy to talk to Will Green and see if he'd like do do something for Waterpixels? I'm happy to contact him but if you know him well enough to ask.....

Congratulations to you guys - a nice ray of hope!

I fear that might her scarily true, Ian

Go for it, Massimo!

Amen to that!

I thought just struck me on re-reading this thread, does it make much difference to the placement of the lenses whether you use a 45-degree finder or a straight-through or screen? Might sound an odd question but when I got my readers fitted in my mask, I found them slightly higher than, perhaps, I would have liked them. The company that did them, advised on the position and said where I had them was the usual place but that it was, of course, largely down to personal preference. They offered to redo them but I felt that maybe I was being too nit-picky. I wonder now reading these posts whether the angle of viewing makes quite a difference? I use a 45-degree finder all the time and I've adjusted the camera's diopter setting so I guess effectively only use the lenses just to read the housing labels or to try and finder macro critters on the reef.

"Investment" eh? LOL, yeah, good one.... 🤣 As I think I have explained in a previous post, I moved from Z240 v4 so I can't give a defect comparison with the Z330 v2. As Dave says, I found a huge difference using a snoot with the Retra after the Inons and shoot macro almost always with a snoot. So for me that was a major benefit. I had never used HSS before getting the Retras. I now find I use that setting a huge amount especially when shooting upwards with wide-angle towards the sun. I do find the Retras easier to use than the Inons. The controls, to me, are simple and self-explanatory. Though I was used to the Inon Z240s, I did find the controls a bit pokey and confusing. Colour and coverage? Hard to compare. I feel that I get a wider coverage and more power with the Retras but couldn't quantify that. The other thing I like about the Retras is the range of accessories. They give you options for controlling and shaping the light. Using a reflector, with lowered power in poor, turbid viz was a revelation for me in terms of reducing backscatter. And I like too the macro rings when not using a snoot.

Thanks, Justin - food for thought for sure. We wanted to try and keep the hierarchy as simple and as flat as possible. But let us chew over this..... it's most certainly worth some thought.

Wolfgang mentions a loupe. Yep, I find one of those very useful for all sorts of small tasks. I got one from Amazon. They're very good for checking a sensor Micnova MQ-7X SLR Clean Sensor Loupe Screen Protector with Dust Illuminating Bright LED's for Canon 6D 600D 5D2 5D3 Nikon D800 Sony Panasonic DSLR Cameras

Yep, the front fits. Unfortunately Retra don’t sell the rear bumper alone. If you want a rear bumper for the new strobes you have to buy front and rear.