bvanant

Must be new at DEMA, nothing yet on the Scubalamp website Bill

I am pretty sure that all of the multi-strand fiber is in fact PMMA (the Asahi 613 core certainly is). As Dave points out, the 613 core has a minimum bend radius of 1 mm or so while a 2 mm single fiber has a bend radius of like 25 mm or so. Bill

I hear the term "quality of light" all the time with particular emphasis on "wide beam" and "good color temperature". Does anyone have a real world example of similar subjects with "crappy" light and with "good" light. I suspect a bit of this is very subjective, and a bit of "I spent a lot of money so the light must be good". We just got off a Komodo trip where a friend had 2 of the new Backscatter Hybrids on a Z9, and I was shooting with 2 smaller strobes on an OM-1. Looking at pics during a slide show it was not obvious which shots were from which setup; we shot a lot of the same stuff. A couple of illustrations of good vs not so good light would be helpful (to me at least) Bill

Square space also www.blueviews.net Bill

Also for us. At Mainit point historically there were tons of nembrotha of all types. We dove there twice and saw a total of 3 nembrotha. The Rhino only showed up after the Backscatter macro guys all left. Bill

If you are looking for some dives in SOCAL, let me know. We dive a lot on the Giant Stride (mostly Palos Verdes and occasionally Catalina and Farnsworth) and getting on for a weekday should be pretty simple (weekends might be tough). Let me know if we can take you diving. Bill

We just got back from 2+ weeks at Crystal Blue. We did 2 BW dives a few nights, got back to the resort 11PM or so. Conditions were pretty murky and the BW dives were pretty slow but the day dives were pretty good. Saw the same Rhinopias as above (after a few days of hunting for her). January/Feb will have cooler water but BW can be awesome then. Bring a boat coat to stay warm between dives, the pangas have no shelter. Bill

Changes the focus range of the macro lens, resulting faster acquisition of focus with much less hunting. I wasn't award that my focus range was limited with any of the u4/3 macro lenses. Bill

On the US tariff office if you are buying from a MFN then the duty is 0. If it is from somewhere else then 35% is the duty on cameras. BVA

One problem with even Terry's books is that they have annoyingly changed some sp numbers from edition to edition. So if you give an ID you need to like Unidentia sp2 you have to tell what edition you are quoting. Many of our southern Cal nudis have changed genus a few have changed species (Hermissenda crassicornis now Hermissenda opalescens. There are a few groups around doing DNA work but even interpreting that is complex. Bill

EPDM is a bit more resistant to sunlight and ozone than is Buna. Otherwise in terms of mechanical properties (compression set, and durometer they are nearly identical and a very large fraction of your scuba o-rings are likely Buna-N. Call the O-ring guys and tell them you need only 10 of epdm that has worked for me Bill

You should be able to uprez to what you want, but I don't have any thing in the 14-4 aspect ratio Bill

Not a bad idea. Probably you won't need them but more than likely someone will. I am on a 4 week trip and already 2 of my spare strobes and a spare sola have been used, just not by me. Bill

The problem is that most of us shoot in aspect ratios that are different than that. I will see what we have. Bill

I try that but my wife (a good videographer but with simple gear) says that essential is limited to things that she needs, and that I already have too much stuff. Cheers Bill

and there always is a "next needed item" 😃

Is this guy a porcelain crab? Looks like it but with pointy ends for some legs. Thanks Bill

thanks, we did a google image search as well and saw the Japanese photos that looked very similar. We will be going back for more blackwater this week maybe there will be more. Bill

Here is a nice little squid we saw on a black water dive in Komodo on the Samambaia. If anyone has an ID we would love to know. thanks Bill

Great shot Dave. We see them quite a bit at Farnsworth, a friend touched one (but only once). Bill

My rule of thumb for one generation old stuff is something like 80 to 85% of new. For strobes and stuff more than a generation old, something like 50 to 60%. Bill

looks kind like a cross between a tiger and great white. From the perspective of users of images, I am not sure they really care. If you look at most TV advertisements for new cars, most if not all are renderings, rather than actual footage. If I were looking for a pic for an ad needing a shark, why not use an AI one if it were significantly cheaper/better. Advertisers don't owe UW photographers anything, they are trying to sell something. Magazines and websites are an entirely different story. We make medical devices and clearly use stock photos of people that we pretend are real patients but never claim that they are. So a lot depends on the end use. Bill