Phil Rudin

The new A7R VI will be an exciting new camera offering for those in the Sony universe and beyond. I have seen some speculation regarding the new battery, its size and if the new camera needed it to power the extra features and speed. We have seen battery upgrades for all manufactures over the years and why not if the camera runs more efficiently and with greater speed. The A7R VI comes not only with a new battery but also a notable up grade from the BIONZ XR (A7RV) to BIONZ XR2 Processor which would have been a speed boost without the new battery. The old battery and the new one are almost identical in size 52 X 22mm for the old and 52 X 23 for the new. In the photos you will see the big difference is that the old battery has the contacts on the wide side while the new battery has them on the end. So no big change in housing size only in placement of some controls.

The latest Apollo Y (GN22) has a manual and manual pre flash setting as well as RC, TTL, M-HSS and MTL for up to 10 FPS. Also has 3000 lumens white and 1000 red, uses two 21700 or 18650 batteries with much better speed and total flashes than AA's. The Pre-flash is also being added to Apollo III and Apollo S.

This is correct, the 17mm NA N100 to MX was actually designed for WACP C and the N120 20mm for N120 ports, extensions and wet lenses like WACP 1. I have used all of the above including WACP C, WACP 1, NA 230 dome and Matty Smith 12 inch domes with a verity of lenses. For macro it is best to switch to Marelux unless your macro port can convert using extensions. Attached photos are WACP-1 on N120 adapter, WACP-C on the N100 adapter and MS 12" dome on the NA N120 to MX adapter.

For underwater photography the $2800.00US 33mp Sony A7 V is the best full frame entry level camera in the market hands down. The best verity of U/W related lenses to select from at a wide range of price points, excellent AF speed, tracking speed and much more. Being able to use both the A7 V and the A7R VI in the same housing adds to the value as your needs grow. The housing supports FlashFuel 2100 for manual flash plus extra battery power, it also supports remote shutter trigger up to about 10 meters and has two M16 and one M24 mounts for accessories like vacuum, remote monitor, external USB -C charging, external flash triggers and more. Attached a few photos of the housing and excessories. US retail $3398.00. The housing can be ordered as an A7R VI or A7 V with kit for user conversion for use with both cameras.

Regarding housings for the new Sony A7R VI Marelux has developed a user installable (one) part change that will allow the A7R VI to be fully usable in the new Sony A7 V housing. This new housing ships with the latest updates which allow you to install the FlashFuel2100 which is both a manual flash trigger and battery bank which connects to the camera via USB-C greatly extending battery life. The FF2100 allows manual flash triggering up to 20FPS. The remote shutter module can also be added for remote camera triggering up to about 10 meters away. This housing retails for $3398.00 in the US. The upside to this housing is that with one part change you can have a 66.8MP primary camera with the excellent 33mp A7 V as a backup for extended travel.

My latest update on Marelux optics is that Aquista 135D will begin shipping in July, MacroView 60 will ship in June and the new 180 degree optical viewfinder has not yet been given a release date.

10mm would normally seem like an APS-C fisheye 1.5X=15mm 1.6X=16mm fisheye. If you look for reviews of the 7artisans 10mm FF fisheye it is 185 degrees and covers the full frame, it also gets very good reviews.

Not sure how 7Artisans came up with 10mm for full frame fisheye but they already have one that is MF and 185 degrees with minimum focus of 15cm.

Like with the release of the A1 II Sony is putting four years between the high end cameras so A1 users who passed on the A1 II will not be seeing an A1 III until their cameras are quite dated. That is not necessarily a bad thing many folks are still using DSLR's like D850 and EOS 5D. Having used Sony A1 and Sony A1 II extensively I can assure you that the II is an upgrade over the I for U/W users, the question is will that difference be enough to make you want to switch. Sony A7R V users will be in the same spot of deciding if the extra AF and shutter speeds along with a verity of other improvements outweighs the cost of a new body, housing and spare batteries. Sony is the top contender in the U/W space with four great contenders the A1 I/II, A7R V/VI, A7C II/R and the often overlooked A7 V an excellent camera at 33MP.

Regarding mounting the strobes directly to the housing grips this is something I started doing decades ago with 4/3 cameras and the Olympus 8mm fisheye lenses. The secret is to keep the strobes well behind the small (100/140mm) dome port. If you have a set of a bit longer clamps this becomes easer. Advantages are allowing you to have less drag in strong currents, getting in small spaces like moving through a wreck or cave, quickly moving between landscape and portrait orientations and more. Downsides are less ability to configure strobes to where you may want light coming from different angles, some like buoyancy arms to offset the weight of the housing/port system and more. A photo of my most used configuration with eight and six inch arms is attached. Eight inch on the housing coupled with six inch to the strobes using Ultralight clamps.

The new Canon 24-50 is very close to the Sony FE 20-70 F/4 for full frame with the main difference being the Canon is internal zoom. The both have the same minimum focus distance and magnification so the results should be very close. I have used the Sony 20-70 extensively with Marelux 180, 210 and 230 ports. In my tests the 140mm port it was a bust in terms of corners and not really recommended. I have attached the front page of the review I did (in UWP back issues) along with photos at 20mm and close to 50mm (45ish) to give an idea of the range, both with the 180mm port. The Marelux 210mm acrylic port fits into the same case as the 180mm port and is a little bit lighter and works better for splits so it is my travel dome. The PZ feature on the Canon 20-50 saves the cost of a zoom gear and it has worked well for me on the Sony FE 16-35 PZ. Regarding use behind a flat port with Nauticam/Marelux wet lenses this remains to be seen. More likely to work with dry lenses like WACP-1 and Aquista 135D which is coming soon.

I sometimes use this configuration for fisheye and the Laowa 10/12mm F/2.8 rectilinear lenses.

Regarding Marelux strobes, the third strobe in the line is Apollo Y which has the ability to cancel pre-flash. When Marelux first arrived on the U/W photo scene five years ago they introduced housings only designed for full frame mirrorless cameras. Along with those housings they offered manual flash triggers for around $200.00 which use two 2032 batteries that last for around 10,000 flashes. These triggers were designed only for Marelux housings. Later came FlashFuel 2100 capable of 140,000 flashes and a separate battery connected by USB to the camera extend camera battery life by around double. The FF2100 required a redesign of housings to accommodate the battery. Turtle and UWT also began to design both manual and TTL flash triggers for Marelux housings. The first housings for APS-C cameras were designed around cameras like EOS R7 that have hotshots for MX-triggers and use the native 125mm port system also used for FF. Now that housings are coming for cameras like EOS R50, OM1 II and more the Apollo Y was introduced to include the PRE-FLASH cancelation. Marelux first two strobes Apollo III and Apollo S were designed to allow use of the Lumilink for wireless flash triggering and to focus on speed and battery life. Many folks looking for a new strobe focus first on GN or Watt-seconds without paying any attention to the strobes beam angle. Apollo III, S and Y all have a native 120 degree beam angle expandable to 140 with a diffuser. The GN can easily be increased by simply narrowing the beam angle so while strobes like the Sea & Sea YS-D3 have a GN33 it is at a beam angle of 80X105 degrees. With the included white diffuser the angle becomes 100 X 110 and GN drops to 28. This is not a bad thing but just know that by the time you get to the native 120 angle of Apollo Y the GN's are the same +/- a point or two. Backscatter does the same thing, MF-3 has GN19 and angle of less than 100 degrees. Again the MF-3 is designed mostly around macro so reducing the beam angle to raise GN makes sense. You may also want to consider power source. Nearly all of the newer strobes and video lights that don't have a proprietary battery pack have moved to 18650 or 21700 Li-ion cells. Why does this make a difference just compare specs for the new strobes. The S&S YS-D3 uses four AA Ni-MH cells, S&S spec sheet indicates 220 flashes at full power charge with recycle times of 1.7 sec. on full charge. Inon S2000 with Pro eneloop AA's 500 flashes at full power and recycle times of 2.0 secs. full power. By comparison Apollo Y with two 21700 at full power gives you around 1500 flashes and full power recycle times of 0.6 sec. We of course don't shoot all photos at full power but the specs clearly favor Li-ion batteries. Several talking heads have tried to discourage use of Li-ion cells because of fire risk. Marelux have proprietary cells with protection circularity and because these cells need to be carried in carry-on luggage that also sell completely fire proof bags for travel.

First let me say congratulations on the new strobes and to the newish owner of Sea & Sea who I have known for over twenty years. Above you have stated that you discovered "limitations" with Marelux Apollo S strobes but did not articulate what those limitations are. If you are talking about specs. as opposed to cost/availability in your area I would be interested to know what specs you may take issue with. I would submit that regarding specs. the new $549.00 Apollo Y has specs equal to or better than YS-D3. Could you help me understand what is lacking in the Apollo line of strobes.

Marelux has recently introduced the budget friendly ($549.00) Apollo Y strobes, the third strobe in the Apollo line. This is a very travel friendly strobe that uses 21700 or 18650 batteries. I have been shooting these strobes for a few weeks without using any diffusers with both macro and wide zoom lenses. I have attached a few images to illustrate the Apollo Y performance. Product Features 1. Support TTL, Olympus RC, HSS (The TTL, HSS, and RC modes require compatible flash triggers to be used) 2. With a special designed MTL mode, support continuous flashes at 10 FPS within a maximum brightness of GN9 3. Fiber Trigger: with one fiber port that supports M, Pre Flash(Compatible with compact cameras),TTL, Olympus RC(Supports RC-MANUAL, RC-TTL, RC-FP), M-HSS and MTL modes 4. Guide Number: 22 (on land) 5. Beam Angle: 120 °（140 ° with Diffuser ） 6. Color Temperature: 6000k (5500k with white diffuser,4700k with yellow diffuser) 7. Full Power Recycle Time: 0.6 second 8. Dimensions: max diameter 80mm, main body length 116mm, full length (including battery chamber ) 167mm 9. Weight in Air: 880g(with 2*21700 battery),834(with 2*18650 battery) Underwater weight :230g(with 2*21700 battery),184g(with 2*18650 battery) 10. Battery: 2x 21700 lithium batteries(The battery length must be within 75 mm) ,MAX discharging current 15A (Compatible to 18650 lithium batteries with adapter) 11. Detachable Water Proof Battery Chamber (Patented Design) 12. Full Power Flash Count: around 1500 times 13. Two Video Light Colors: 3000 lumens on white（Runtime up to 120 minutes） and 1000 lumens on red 14. Depth Rating: 100m

My review for the new Rokinon AF 14-24mm F/2.8 for Sony full frame is now active in the latest issue #149 of UWPMAG.com. Samyang/Rokinon. has collaborated with venerable lens designer Schneider-Kreuznach to create this new design. UWPMAG.com is a free PDF download.

I started using the Zen 100mm port over a decade age with the Canon 8-15mm and later moved to the Nauticam 140mm port which if placed correctly gives better image quality in the outer parts of the frame. I to found the DP-100 port shade to be a pain to remove and reinstall underwater, in fact I just left if off completely and covered the glass with neoprene getting in and exiting. I had to do the same with the NA port. When I moved to Marelux I used the NA to MX 20mm port adapter and continued using my NA ports. When Marelux introduced their 140mm port with the bayonet sun-shade my NA-140 was the first port to go. I can now remove and reinstall easily, I put the cover over one arm and the shade over the other or clip it off on my BC. The biggest increase in IQ comes when using full frame cameras with the 140 v 100mm. An upside to the 140mm port you may not have considered is the ability to use other fisheye and rectilinear lenses with it as long as the extensions are correct.

I have shot about 15,000 images with a pair of Apollo S strobes and had no issues. I used them first in manual and later moved to TTL with the UWT internal and external flash triggers having shot about 12,000 of the 15,000 in TTL, again no issues and the most accurate TTL I have ever used. You may also want to have a look at the new Apollo Y strobes which are very competitively priced V specs.

Working distance for the older Canon EF 8-15mm MFD is 15cm V. 14.73cm for the RF version I doubt you will see much difference between the two as the lengths with EF adapter are about identical.

The Marelux Aquista 135D ( D meaning direct mount like the WACP line ) has a max diagonal field of view of 135 degrees on full frame with a FF lens set at around 26-28mm. It will have anti-corrosion and anti-reflective coatings, it uses the Marelux serious 5 port mount, which means extensions and port adapters can be used. depth rated to 100 meters and will retail for $2599.00. I have not yet seen or used the lens but will have it in house by April if all goes well. This design will allow for a greater number of lenses to be used than for the Aquista 110 & 130 designs that mount onto a flat 67mm port. A list of lenses should be coming soon and I will post when they are released.

I have been using the Marelux single flip adapter with both SMC-1 and Marelux Macrovie +5, +10 & +15 C/U lenses for two years now. Both NA & MX mount the same with the lens protruding a bit in the rear of the holder rather than flat. Single flip is $259.00 and the dual is $299.00 and both come with the installation tool.

A zoom gear with a creative design will be needed to get around the filter holder that protrudes out of the rear of the lens if you are zooming from the housing. I doubt the lens will be adaptable to other brands like the EF lenses are. I expect we will see several EF versions for sale just like the Sony 90mm macros when the 100 macro was released. Looks like an exciting lens for U/W shooters.

I have the lens and the only test I have done is with the 140mm dome. As expected soft at the edges and covers about 60% sharply so OK in a pinch but the Marelux 210mm or 230mm ports would be a much better choice. I had the port direct mounted and will try with a 15mm extension as well at some point. Currently working on other lenses.

I have used nothing but two 1500ml Flexibuoys for over two years now with all port configurations from macro to 230mm glass domes and housings from Sony A1 II to compacts. They are inexpensive, pack for travel better than any other system I have used and don't require making weight changes between systems, I.E. adding or subtracting floats. They can be moved around on the housing system underwater to suit your needs and if properly placed will not impede your vision. With each configuration you will have a bit of a learning-curve regarding keeping the inflation end down and buoyant end up especially when moving from landscape to portrait orientation. If you are uncomfortable removing your mouth piece to inflate the buoy you should reconsider your dive training and get comfortable regardless if you use Felxibuoy or not. On most dives you go deep first and work your way up. I inflate at the deepest area of the dive and as you slowly move towards the surface the gas escapes as the buoy expands, open ended system. I will understand if your vanity prevents you from using something that may make you look like a dork or is not used by the current guru you may be following.

As Chip has pointed out several lenses both rectilinear and fisheye work better in a 140mm full or near full hemisphere domes compared to larger non-fisheye domes like the 170/180mm verity. Also Chris has eluded to the physics of virtual image in a dome port where the larger the dome port the further the virtual image is from the lens. So the closer a lens focuses the smaller the port it will focus in. For the 140mm fisheye dome my experience been that lenses that have a minimum focus distance of around 16cm or less work best. These are a few I have tested in the Marelux 140mm fisheye dome port. This is my favorite 140mm fisheye dome simply because the sun shade bayonets on and off making it easy to use underwater. Rectilinear lenses include, Laowa 10mm F/2.8 AOV 130.4 degrees, Minimum focus distance 12cm, Retail $799.00 Laowa 12mm F/2.8 AOV 122 degrees, MFD 14cm, Retail $699.00 Viltrox 14mm F/4 Air, AOV 112 degrees, MFD 13cm, Retail $199.00 (High IQ for cost and better corners than the Sony 14mm F/1.8 at MFD of 25cm and the Rokinon 14mm F/2.8 MFD of 20cm) Sony FE 16mm F/1.8 G, AOV 107 degrees, MFD 15mm, Retail $898.00 Sony FE 20mm F/1.8 and 24mm F/2.8 G lenses both focus to 18cm but at 94 and 84 degrees they will still work Fisheye lenses include Canon EF 8-15mm F/4L, AOV 180 to 175 degrees, MFD 15cm, Retail $1299.00 plus Sigma or Metabones for Sony lens converter, Nikon made an 8-15 much like the Canon but harder to fine in the used market and the Nikon to Sony converters don't work as well as those for Canon. Sigma 15mm F/2.8 EX fisheye for Canon EF, works with the same converters as the Canon fisheye zoom, AOV 180 degrees, MFD 15cm, used market. strHori 6mm F/2.8 circular fisheye, 220 degree AOV, MFD 8cm, Retail $299.00, This is an all MANUAL lens which I set to F/11 with focus pre-set for max DOF from about eight inches to beyond visibility. This port also works with macro lenses in the 50mm to 150mm range adding back original AOV, increasing corner sharpness and reducing CA.