bvanant

My take is that strobe EV control is aspirational, not real. But the difference as noted is tiny. On some cameras you can set the EV gaps. Bill

I love "egowank" will have to steal it from you. Bill

"I have a friend who had tri-focals done a while back, I believe he had them changed to mono-focals, apparently a common side effect is visual disturbances at night, some people get used to them and some don't. There is also an enhanced depth of field option which keeps a wider range in focus. " I am quite skeptical of this. IOLs can be removed and replaced, but this is both tricky and quite rare. My opthalmologist says that while he does 600 to 700 implants a year he does one replacement every 7-8 years and then only if the original IOL has moved. I just had both eyes done, great distance vision, sucky reading. One interesting observation, I had bad astigmatism and I still have some but it has rotated 90 degrees. Cheers Bill

Here is the last set (before the pool controlled experiment). These are with the OLY 90 macro lens (in 1:1 mode). In general the focus speed seems about the same, but it already was super speedy. These Tenelia sibogae are from Triton Bay. I THINK I can see a very slight difference but it really is hard to tell. Bill

Love the pompano. Guides do what they think will get them tips. If at the beginning of a trip you talk to the guides and say "every time you manipulate a subject your tip will go DOWN" you won't see bad behavior much. Years ago there was a Michael Aw (I think) photo of an octopus in a sunball. For years afterwards, divers showed the pic to the guide and said "I want that". Guides regularly took occtopus up to the surface for the shot. As long as you tell your guide before the dive what behavior you expect, I think you will get what you want, as long as the guide is for a small group. Bill

Underwater gear is an investment kind of like Bernie Madoff was. Every year the Southern California UPSs do a booth at the Long Beach scuba show. Everyone gets to put up 2 pictures. I don't want to calculate how much it cost to get those 2 pics for the show. My wife is a videographer (still shooting Sony Handicam in a Recsea housing), I don't try to convince her that I NEED new stuff. Bill

It might be AOI, it might be that Backscatter is taking a worst case approach. In any case, AOI is now competitive with Isotta (or the other way round). Bill

Longer distance focusing ends about seems less than a meter. At flasher beach the MFO and without the MFO were identical, zero shots in focus (par for the course). We went back with the close focus WA and still nothing. Bill

When we get back home, I will bring a tripod and target to the pool for some more scientific tests. Bill

The MFO does add a bit of magnification in my hands. Here is a weird sea cucumber (I thought it was a Phylidia) at first. The top photo is without the MFO the bottom with ( you can see a bit of magnification). I tried really hard to keep the camera/subject distance the same but we are in Triton Bay at full moon. This is with the Oly 60 macro, OM1 and two AOI RC strobes in RC mode. Differences are indeed subtle, the focus speed improvement is quite noticeable.

Which is which? Bill

Will do, after the dive. BVA

Well I was looking for another AOI RC strobe. Used to be $400 now $825 (Backscatter) and a backup housing, used to be $1000 now, $2249. Sad Bill

I have been shooting with and without the MFO on an OM-1 with the 30 macro (Oly), 45 macro (Panasonic/Leica) and the 60 macro (so far). In general it seems that the MFO really increases the focusing ability of the 45 but does not make so much a visual difference at least for the things I am shooting. The 30 macro shots with it are clearly better but focus speed seems pretty much the same. On the 60 it seems both focus speed and visual appearance are better. I can post some images if anyone wants to see. Bill

Dave: Did you replace the cap? BVA

We are off to Flasher Beach in Triton Bay. I am pretty sure that the MFO will get me the same number of good shots as without it, meaning zero in either case. I will try to shoot some little stuff with and without to see what we see. Bill

No blackwater for us on this trip. Tomorrow I will put it on a flip adapter and shoot with and without. In my hands at least it is a bit faster focusing (still not fast) with the 45 Pana/Leica but sharpness doesn't seem to improve very much but we will see. Bill

Its a long swim, good luck. Bill

Jeff: We need shots with and without the MFO. BVA

Well it works fine for a u4/3 at 60 mm, close enough to 90 on APS-C. Not sure that it really extends the focus range though. You will need more flotation, on a flip adapter it is quite heavy. The spine cheek was shot with the Panasonic 45 on an OM-1 with the MFO Bill Bill

We are on the Welleneeng, today we did Nudi Rock, Whale Rock and Wedding Cake. On the way to Kaimana/ Triton Bay Bill

Well all the AOI strobes have mostly doubled in the last few weeks. I would wait and see a bit. I have their smaller strobes and am very happy, Bill

We are in Misool right now, a fair bit of bleaching, but no where near as bad as Dampier at Christmas Bill

You will know if you need it. On some ports, the lens will hit the glass before it is screwed in all the way. That needs the spacer; if the lens doesn't hit without the spacer you are good to go. Bill

Por favor, sírvase usted mismo las fotografías, tome tantas como desee. Copied from Word, pasted perfectly, Mac, Safari Bill