John Liddiard

Back when I first started in underwater photography (1980s), I had a single strobe on a fixed arm. The advice I received was to try hand holding the strobe (disconnect the arm from the camera) to try different positions and angles. Looking back, that advice was the biggest single change in my photography and it didn't cost a penny on new equipment. These days everyone has multi-jointed flexible arms, but the same applies. Move the arm/strobe about relative to the camera and subject to experiment with different lighting.

Not for the hairy bloke who sat on that urchin.

I suspect the target market is more directed at surfers. For divers, maybe there are other benefits. Will it resist other puncture hazards? (I know someone who sat on a spiny urchin and perhaps this could have saved them) Will it last longer? How does the weight/buoyancy compare? Is it less compressible? Is it tear resistant - could it be used for a thin neoprene drysuit? And - how does it compare for cost?

Coron has a good spread of wrecks. Last time there I was defaulting to wide angle for the big wreck scenes. I noticed the deck of one of the wrecks was teeming with unusual nudibranchs. Next day I returned with a macro lens and all I could find was a few dragons. The others had all moved on.

Very neat. What translation of lens strength do you use from above to underwater?

Reviving an old thread. Has anyone tried these https://www.see-deep.com/ ? Apparently they were on a crowd source a couple of years ago, so maybe an underwater photographer on these forums has already tried them from the crowd campaign.

Its OK, found it under > My Activity Strems > All Activity.

Maybe I am missing something. I can't find the 'Latest Activity' link that used to appear (almost) top and to the right, where there was a list of all recent posts by age. Can anyone point me to where that is now?

Good to see the simplified controls. I like the robustness and reliability of my Inon strobes, but after many years I still have not got my phd in Inon. Moving the optical connector to behind the arm mount could also be good for protecting it.

I use the kit 14-42 pancake lens with a WWL. Very crisp at 14mm but needs to be perfectly aligned with the port. Whilst there are many other factors involved, I would guess the slightly wider 12mm lens could be more even more sensitive to alignment.

For a simple DIY, A cheap chunk of plastic - such as an old breadboard. Use a hacksaw to cut a block that covers the housing flash window (so no direct light creeps into the picture to add scatter). Find a drill size that matches the diameter of the plug on your fibre optic cable. Drill a hole through the middle of the block. Use duct tape or pvc electrical tape to tape the block over the flash window.

And don't forget the nasty category of competition - the rights grab.

The stats on sinking are just the tip. I have been on a Red Sea liveaboard where safety issues included diesel fumes being pumped through the cabins by a badly fitted AC unit and the crew denying there was any problem. Most customers ended up sleeping on deck. That was a boat booked by a major tour operator, so it is not just the danger of booking direct based on a web price. Its not just the Red Sea. I was staying at a resort in Raja Ampat where some divers turned up on-spec having jumped ship from a liveaboard they considered unseaworthy. There are safe and well maintained liveaboards. But in general, you need to accept that in many less developed countries none would match the safety standards expected of a boat operating in (for example) the UK, even if they do surpass the comfort/luxury levels of many UK boats.

If a macro lens focuses close enough, maybe its possible to do similar to what @Dave_Hicks suggests trapping bubbles on a flat port.

Unfortunately the proportion us underwater photographers represent of incoming tourists to Mexico is negligible. We could all simply refuse to go there and ... no-one in Mexico except a few specialised dive centres and the relevant 'tax' collectors would notice. Mexico has nothing to loose by letting this continue. If the same 'tax' rip-off was attempted in some other destinations, where the vast majority of visitors are underwater photographers, the drop in visitors would soon be noticed.