Craine

@Davide DB & @TimG A question for you on this ⬆️ section from the first post. Is it the preference of WaterPixels admins that we resize and upload to the forum directly, rather than, for instance, us hosting our images elsewhere and then linking them in? I take the phrasing "they become the assets of the community" to mean that you'd prefer they live on WP servers, so that you can avoid issues with dead links down the line. But as you mention, this can be a costly proposition over time, especially for a forum that isn't "paid-membership" based. My thinking here is that I prefer to upload my images into a place where I have control over them (e.g. on durable object storage), and serve them via a CDN. I can then point the multiple places I post them to to the same source file. But then they aren't under WP control (for the purposes of a consistent forum archive). This is how you've recommended video be handled, which makes sense given it's size, so I'm wondering what your thoughts are for photos as well. I'd also note that if we do link them in, we should still take the steps to resize appropriately so that we don't adversely affect page load times.

Since the thread is nominally about what we're using for shooting the a6700 underwater, I figured I'd chime in with what I have/use/do. The equipment: I'm also using the Nauticam NA-A6700, the s-TURTLE 2 TTL trigger, and a pair of Inon D200 (originals, not the Type 2s) with the 4600k diffusers. I have the Nauticam N85 to N120 60mm adapter as a base. For wide angle, I use the Sigma 10-18mm (set at 10mm) and a Zen DP-170. For macro, it's the Canon 60mm/Metabones mk4 adapter and a Nauticam Macro Port 60. The settings: I have my MR2 slot programmed for UW shooting, with the following settings: Manual Mode Shutter: 1/160 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 200 File Format: RAW & HEIF RAW File Type: Compressed HEIF Quality & Image Size: Extra Fine, L 26MP Drive Mode: Single Shooting SteadyShot: On Metering Mode: Spot/Large Spot Metering Point: Focus Point Link Flash Mode: Fill-flash White Balance: Auto Creative Look: VV2 Picture Profile: Off Focus Mode: Continuous AF Priority Set in AF-C: Release AF Tracking Sensitivity: 3(Standard) Aperture Drive in AF: Focus Priority AF w/ Shutter: Off Focus Area: Tracking: Spot M Subject Recognition in AF: On Recog Trgt Select Set: Animal/Bird/Insect Auto Review: 5 Sec Auto Monitor Off: 1 Min Power Save Start Time: 5 Min Custom Buttons: Rear1 1 (C1): Flash Comp 2 (AF-On): Tracking On + AF On 3 (C3): Flash Comp Rear2 1: Focus Standard 2: Drive Mode 3: ISO 4: Exposure Comp Top 1 (Record): Finder/Monitor Select 2 (C2): Recog. Target Select Dial/Wheel: 1 (Front): Tv 2 (Top): Av 3 (Back): None Some thoughts: Saving all of this as a memory recall set makes it really easy for me to have the right settings when I jump in. I have MR1 set up for bird photography, and MR3 for people/event photography, and with my ADHD brain I will forget to change settings if I don't have it saved. 1/160, f/8, ISO200 is, for me, a good starting point whenever I get into the water. I use AWB and the VV2 creative look to have a baseline for my editing, with the embedded preview in the RAW file. WB doesn't really matter for the end result since I'm shooting then editing RAW anyway, but it gets me most of the way there. I use the VV2 creative look because it makes the colors pop a bit more, and for UW I like high saturation/high vibrance. Definitely a personal preference. The Canon macro is not what I should have gone with, and I am very likely going to sell it in the next month. I will most likely be switching to the Tamron 90mm macro, as I want a little more reach, and the AF on the canon is sluggish and hunts a lot. I don't have the positioning of the DP-170 dialed in for the Sigma yet, but I really like the FoV of 10mm on an APS-C. The corners are pretty soft, and while it's not something I particularly care about (corners are never something I'm really looking at on WA), it would be useful to find the right amount of extension. There are (probably) reasons I chose each of the other settings, but I don't want to bore everyone with a novel here. If you have questions, please ask!

The same happens with the a6700. Turning on the electronic shutter/silent shooting disables the flash entirely. This is true for any type of flash, I have tested this with my Turtle-2, an external wireless strobe controller (for big standalone studio strobes), and a speedlight. I think the e-shutter is the solution for you. I shoot almost exclusively Inon S-TTL all the time with my a6700, and could, if I wanted to disable the flash by switching to silent shooting. I'm not 100% sure how all that interacts with Program mode, since I typically only use full manual, but it should be a starting point for you to test with. ETA: Wireless mode might not accomplish what you want, depending on how you have your Turtle configured. Using the S-TURTLE app you can set different functions for the wireless mode, including "stroboscopic" mode which would (I think) be what folks are using for focus stacking like was mentioned earlier.

I measured my Nauticam a6700 (N85) at 11.75mm from camera flange to housing flange. I’ve got a few ports/adapter handy to measure if the desire is there. Now I need to go figure out the optical center of the Zen DP170 (N120 mount), and I will measure the EP of various FL of my Sigma 10-18. Yes it’s all APS-C which is blasphemy to some, but at least the measurements will be available for someone who wants them.

I recently picked up the Sigma 10-18mm 2.8 and a Zen 170DP to use with my a6700. It is a replacement for my Rokinon 12mm f/2. The Sigma is a much sharper lens than the Rokinon, and while I don’t have a zoom gear, I’m used to a single FL when shooting wide angle anyway, so I just need to play with it in the pool to get everything dialed in. It also has a much shorter MFD (4.6”/11.6cm versus 7.48”/19cm) and a much larger max magnification at MFD (1:4/0.25x versus 1:11.11/0.09x). Once I get it in the water I will report back on the combo, though that probably won’t be until Feb for some dives out of Riviera Beach/Jupiter. Before then I have to stay local which means macro only given conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.

Unfortunately it seems like there wasn’t anything announced, at least as far as my internet searching goes. Which is too bad, because I really want to see what Inon is cooking up, given all the recent strobe releases. I really like my D200s but want something with more power, and was/am holding out for at least the announcement.

It's all good! That frogfish looks awesome. Was that video taken with the A7C?

@humu9679 thanks! I've yet to run across a frogfish, even with all the dives I've done in every season at BHB. Someday I'll find one!

It’s external focusing, so it extends quite significantly to get to 1:1. You’d need a very long flat port to let it get all the way to 1:1, and you’d very likely have a decent amount of vignetting on the low end of the magnification scale. Is also as long as the Sony 90mm before the focus extension (131.5mm vs 130.5mm). If we make a rough estimation from the photos of the extension length, say 45mm, that puts the 1:1 length at 176.5mm. With a MFD of 238mm, we have a working distance of 61.5mm (2.4”). That’s really close.

I took my new a6700 and Nauticam housing out for a few dives a couple of weekends ago. Pretty pleased with how these turned out. Ciliated false squilla (Pseudosquilla ciliata), working on its burrow, Blue Heron Bridge, Riviera Beach, FL Whitespeckled hermit crab (Paguristes puncticeps), Blue Heron Bridge, Riviera Beach, FL Spotted scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumieri), Blue Heron Bridge, Riviera Beach, FL Green Moray (Gymnothorax funebris), 4th Window, Riviera Beach, FL Honeycomb Cowfish (Acanthostracion polygonius), 4th Window, Riviera Beach, FL Balloonfish (Diodon holocanthus), 4th Window, Riviera Beach, FL

Not sure who else saw the announcement a month-ish ago, but Tamron has released a new 90mm macro lens (Tamron product page) for both Sony E and Nikon Z. It has fast AF, reviews of it have it coming in pretty darn sharp (at least on par with the Sony and the Sigma macro offerings), and an MSRP of $699. A few things to note: It's about 5mm shorter than the Sony 90mm at 126.5mm MFD/MOD is listed as 230mm, so you end up with about 4" of working distance before any distance lost to the port it's behind, compared to the 5.8" of the Sony. 12 blade aperture, minimum aperture of f/16 Weather-sealed barrel I'm considering picking up a copy to see how it compares to my adapter Canon 60mm. A few thoughts on that: The working distance at 1:1 are effectively the same between the Tamron and the Canon The fast/modern AF mechanism might be a worthwhile upgrade, even with the most recent firmware for my Metabones mk IV I would probably benefit from an increase in sharpness If anyone here has had or will have a chance to play with one, I'd love to hear your feedback. List of E-mount macro lenses with some random-ish stats

The camera has been sold elsewhere, so all that is left is the housing and related components. Willing to entertain reasonable offers, figuring $500 for all of it including shipping CONUS, split shipping if elsewhere.

Price drop to $900 plus shipping costs.

Hey @TURTLE-Balage, I appreciate the offer! I decided to see if I could get it apart and fix it up myself (because I'm probably a bit nuts). That didn't turn out too well, as it looks (after the fact) that the hot shoe connector is soldered to the IC board, and I broke those solder points doing the dissection. I wouldn't feel right sending it in for repair now, because I definitely made it worse. I liked this trigger, so I went ahead and bought a new Smart 2 from Backscatter (it was delivered today), and am going through the setup now. Planning on taking it out in a couple weeks to put it through its paces.

Battery life was atrocious on my A6400 before I switched to an external flash trigger. Once I did that I could eke out two dives on one charge. As for the bodies, I know with the SeaFrogs/Salted Line housings, they use the same one for a6000/a6100/a6300/a6400/a6500. The majority of the button placements are the same/similar enough, but the rub is the physical dimensions. The 6000 is noticeably thinner front to back than the rest of them (approx. 26mm vs 31mm, as measured on the orange line). SeaFrogs gets around this by using a kit that essentially "shims" some of the dials so they touch the body. I don't know if you'd have that flexibility with the Nauticam housing, especially since the change is dimensions is going the other way (thicker camera in a thinner housing).

I've seen this topic (Housing Flange Distance) but as you say most all of the discussion is around the FF bodies/housings. So once I get my things I would like to get some sort of searchable database going. Maybe if I have some success at getting data I can post an article/link here for all to use... Aha! That (the port ID) one of the things I'm hoping to compile into a convenient list, as I can't find anything of the sort on Nauticam's website proper. I went with a N85-N120 adapter just in case, so I'm good there! Glad to hear there are actually other APS-C Sony shooters in Nauticam here! As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've been using the a6400 in a Salted Line housing for a few years, and I've never been satisfied with the housing (neither build quality not ergonomics). I had seen this before and also balked at the price. I don't need access to the AF/MF switch, and if I have to get an N85-N120 adapter for my WA lens, it didn't make sense to me to get this instead of finding a macro port of the correct length. I've done the same. I've always hated having to crack open my housing to change batteries on a wet, rocking boat. It just makes me nervous.

I had (well have) an A7 IV, in addition to the a6400/Salted Line housing. After doing all the math it’s about $3k-4k cheaper for me to sell those bodies (and lenses I am not using anymore) and buy a full Nauticam kit for the a6700, including a new body. I’m able to sell my IV for $1550 to Keh, and my a6700 body only cost $1400 after taxes. I also already have the appropriate lenses for shooting APS-C, and don’t have FF equivalents, which means more $$$. But cost isn’t the only factor. The a6700 housing is a tad smaller and 1kg/2.2lbs lighter than the A7IV one, and the ergonomics of the SeaFrogs housings have left me unimpressed for the last 4 years.

I'm moving on to a new A6700-based setup, so it's time to part ways with this one. I've got a 1 year old Salted Line A6xxx housing. It's the Gen 3 version. I have the following available: A6xxx housing in white 8" acrylic dry dome with sunshade There are a few light scuffs, I've buffed them with Novus polish, and don't notice them on my images 6" acrylic dry dome with sunshade A few moderate scuffs. I haven't tried buffing these ones 4" acrylic dry dome Some deeper gouges. I haven't tried doing anything here, and don't shoot fisheye, so I don't know if they'd show or not Flat short port with 67mm threads 2x Standard flat ports 2x zoom gears for Sony E 16-50mm 2x zoom gears for Sony E 10-18mm Focus gear for Samyang 8mm F2.8 KitDive aluminum tray with 1" ball mounts VPS-100 vacuum valve kit Lots of o-rings, lubricant, and assorted spare parts Sony a6400 body includes one Sony NP-FW50 battery, AC-USB charging brick, and an off-brand battery charger SmallRig cage with wooden handle and detachable side L-bracket Sony 64GB SDXC V60 memory card Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens Also included is a Sony A6400 body and Sony E 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, along with a zoom gear for this lens I fashioned from the SeaFrogs focus gear intended for the Sigma 16mm. The body has a shutter count of approximately 16,500, has some minor wear on the top edges and on the bottom front edge. Includes all the accessories shown in the photo. Totaled up, this all would cost just shy of $2,600 new. It's been used, the domes aren't perfect, but it all works well. I'm asking $1,250 for the whole kit, plus actual shipping costs to you. Based on the quantity/size of the box needed, it would go UPS/FedEx, insured with signature confirmation. I'll accept PayPal G&S only (for both our protection), unless you happen to be in Pinellas County, FL, in which case I would be willing to meet up in person and take cash/Zelle. I'm happy to take more photos of any item you want to see more detail on, or answer any questions you may have. Thank you for taking the time to read this (quite long) post! Housing, mounted on the tray: 8" Dome 6" Dome 4" Dome Flat ports Gears, o-rings, assorted accessories Sony a6400 Sony FE 28-70mm

Hey all, I’m finally making an upgrade to an A6700, and moving to Nauticam and looking for some help. Currently I’m using an A6400 in a Salted Line housing with an 8 inch dome, with either a Canon 60mm macro on a Metabones adapter or a Samyang 12mm AF. Of course neither of these lenses show up on Nauticam’s port charts I’ve made some not so educated guesses based on lenses of similar physical size and focal length, but that’s hardly fool proof, and buying an assortment of ports and extensions to find the best is an expensive proposition. So I’m hoping that someone has some experience with either of those in any of Nauticam’s N85-based Sony housings. If you’ve found a combination that works well for either of those lenses, I’d love to hear it. Additionally, I’d love to crowdsource and publish a table of measurement for various ports and housings, like camera flange to housing flange depth, port flange to port glass (for macro ports), port flange to center of curvature (dome ports), smallest interior port measurement (diameter and its depth), etc. Once I have my new gear in, I’ll start publishing those specs (along with how I’ve measured) and can take in anyone’s measurements who wants to contribute. Thanks for indulging my questions!

Hey all, Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I’m looking at a new Ikelite housing, either for an A7 IV or an a6700, but neither of those have fiber ports built into them. I’m not interested in switching to any strobe that is electrically fired, so I’m trying to figure out how I would get fiber ports on these housings. Ikelite does make this Manual Fiber Optic Transmitter for DL and DLM Housings, but that is manual only with their (additional cost) hot shoe. Does anyone have a suggestion for a similar bulkhead that just allows an LED trigger (like the s-Turtle or UWTechnics) to be used?

Follow-up for those who are interested and stumble on this thread at some later date. As suggested by @TURTLE-Balage the trigger/flash pin is the problem. You can see in the photos that the pin has completely recessed within the hot-shoe connector and will not come out. It was just barely sticking out when I inspected this at Balage's recommendation, and retracted inside when I tried to grab it with a pair of fine needle nose pliers (rounded end of the pin and all). This being the case I'll probably be in the market for a new flash trigger, since the hot-shoe is a fully integrated piece, and I'll probably destroy it while trying to get the pin unstuck. If anyone (maybe @TURTLE-Balage knows best?) has a good idea of the differences between these three models, I'd appreciate it. Best I can tell, the Mobie's defining feature is the hot-shoe connector being on a ribbon instead of built into the unit, but I'm having trouble with the difference between the first two. Thanks all! s-TURTLE SMART TTL trigger for Sony systems s-TURTLE 2 SMART TTL trigger for Sony systems s-TURTLE MOBIE SMART TTL trigger for Sony systems

Thought I would ask here to see if anyone else had similar issues. I've got a second-hand TRT S-Turtle Smart TTL controller that I been using with my a6400 for a good bit now. It's performed without issue as recently as two weeks ago, but when I was setting up for my dives this past weekend I found I was unable to get more than one shot out of the trigger before it would … die? Disappear? I've charged the battery, checked it against the s-TURTLE Smart Loader software, checked all the pins on the hot shoe connector, tried it on another camera body (my A7IV), all with the same results. I get one shot/flash, and then it disappears/dies/is no longer recognized by the camera. The only way to get it back online is to cycle the on/off switch on the controller, which is a bit impractical 60 feet under. Has anyone else had similar issues with their controller in the past? Were you able to get it resolved? Any tips?

I did find that it hunted a bit if the focus was pretty far off initially, like switching from a fish portrait to a macro subject. But overall it was pretty manageable. The a6400 isn’t the snappiest driving some of these older lenses, but I’m not usually trying to shoot fast moving subjects with it, so it doesn’t bother me.

So I've recently gotten a few dives in with my recently acquired Canon 60m Macro. I shoot a Sony a6400 in a SeaFrogs housing, and have been looking at different macro lens options (see here), and decided to pick up that lens and a Metabones T-Smart EF-E mkIV adapter. Unfortunately for me, the flat ports I have do not fit the combination. Notably the Flat Short Port with 67m threads meant for the Zeiss macro is about 2-3mm too short, so you cannot properly close up the housing. I'm not planning on buying any more items for SeaFrogs, so I ended up shooting behind the 8" acrylic dome I use for wide angle. While it wasn't perfect, it got the job done, and honestly may have been a good thing for some of the fish portraits I managed to get. Gear List: Sony a6400 Canon EF-S 60mm macro USM Metabones T Smart Adapter Canon EF to Sony E IV SeaFrogs SaltedLine A6xxx housing SeaFrogs 8" acrylic dome Dual Iron D200 Type 2 (one with Inon's snoot package) A few samples are below, with the rest of the best in this gallery. Social feather duster Seaweed Blenny Christmas Tree Worms in various colors Leopard Toadfish

I'll second the Samyang 12mm AF f/2.0 lens for wide angle on Sony APS-C. I use it on my a6400, in a Seafrogs housing and behind their 8" acrylic dome. I've been pretty happy with the results to date. I'm sure if you're switching to Nauticam someone could help with the correct spacers you need to fit it behind one of their domes. I threw some samples into an album here: Samyang 12mm AF f2 I'll add more as I get more.