bvanant

Diet coke is better in the sense that there is no possibility of residual sugar sticking around. BVA

Yet another vote for MFT. I have shot MFT for a long time now (Olympus OM-D EM-1, through the new OM-1 mark II). All the macro lenses (30, 45, 60 and 90) and the 7-14. I am using the AOI housing after using Nauticam for a long time and then Isotta. I don't believe there are photos that I could have gotten with the Nauticam/Isotta that I couldn't get with the AOI. Built in LED trigger and vacuum system and ports that support the lenses. In the long run (as my wife tells me) really no one cares about my or anyone's photos very much and I shoot mostly for myself. The choice of AOI was more about trying something new rather than money (at 250 dives/year x 3 years the price difference is like $3 per dive). There is now an Isotta for the OM-1 series (they didn't have it when I bought the AOI) so that might be a good option. Bill (www.blueviews.net)

We are wanting to donate 3 complete Bluefin Pro housings for the Sony CX550 cameras to some organization that could use them. The housings are all working and they have the flip macro adapter. In addition there a ton of other spare parts, two fathoms wide angle ports, and an adapter for the OLD Inon insect eye lens (we will throw that in if you are interested. You pay the shipping and you will have three great systems for students or beginners to play with. For an example of what the camera/housings can do please see the early videos on our website www.blueviews.net. Contact me at bill.vanantwerp@gmail.com Cheers

The o-ring store has a tool (https://www.theoringstore.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=345) called Olypsys that lets you measure unknown o-rings pretty accurately. A good digital caliper (english or metric) will get you cross section pretty well. Also remember that not all o-rings from Japanese companies are metric sizes, many are JIS. Cheers, Bill

If you can get a space we really like the Samambaia or the Damai, great boats and great crew. We like Komodo later in the year (we did Christmas and New Year on the Komodo last year) and it was great, mostly warm and clear. Bill

2-209 o-rings in buna are like 10 cents and in silicone are like 25 cents. I like softer o-rings for positional stability and change them once a year (when I remember). The only exception to the size is the XIT 404 versions, they use a different size (and different sizes for different XIT balls bill

We did a couple of weeks at Sorido Bay, diving was excellent and the house reef had some very cool stuff on it. Highly recommended. The other place that is excellent is Misool Eco resort, beautiful place but booking is kind of like a liveaboard, only select dates to come and go. Bill

A lot depends on what part of the CI you want to visit. Our favorite is San Miguel the northernmost and furthest out (and hardest to get to). Catalina is the easiest to get to and is a place you can stay on land but to me it has the least interesting diving (at least for macro things unless you can get to the backside and go to Farnsworth (awesome). For overnight trips, your choices are the Bottom Scratcher from San Pedro, the Peace and Truth boats from Ventura. For day boat diving we highly recommend the Giant Stride from San Pedro and the Spectre from Ventura. Check with local dive shops (Hollywood, Zen, Pacific Wilderness, In2Deep etc.) for trips. For a taste of local diving check out https://www.blueviews.net/Videos/local-socal.html particularly the Channel Islands on the Vision for a taste of San Miguel. null Let me know when you are coming perhaps we can help arrange some diving for you. Attached is a nice local nudi (Ancula) from a Giant Stride dive last week.

For sale is a complete ready to dive Canon 7D system in Nauticam housing. Nauticam Housing (1), with leak detection and pump. Nauticam Dome Port( 4 inch) for Wide Angle (1) Nauticam port for 60mm lens (1) Nauticam port for 100mm lens (1) Nauticam SMC-1 (1) Nauticam 45 degree viewfinder (1) Canon 7D Mark 1 camera body Tokina AT-X , 10 -17 mm lens, for Canon.(1) Canon EF-S 60mm F/2.8 macro USM lens (1) Canon Macro lens EF 100 mm 1:2.8 IS USM (1) Inon D - 2000 Strobes (2) Canon batteries ( 2) and charger. Ball mounts for strobes Cables for strobes Various Orings and miscellaneous port caps and other bits and pieces , Oring grease etc New, this was awesome and expensive. Altogether, ready to dive Price is $3500 US. The system is in Australia and will ship from there. You pay the shipping. Great system for someone getting into UW photography. I don't want to piece it out. Note this is for a camera, three lenses (100, 60, 10-17) and Nauticam housing with ports for all of the lenses. Bill

splitters exist for topside FO work. Here is a $13 1-8. Fiberone makes a 1x2. We use some more expensive ones in our lab to run spectrometers.

nice as always Jack

Fantastic book, now like $28 from Amazon. bill

I wonder if it has the same dimensions, i.e., fit in the same housings. Otherwise not so clear how much an upgrade it it over the OM-1. Bill

Too many to try to sort. Here is one from Black Water in Komodonull

Alex Mustard wrote a long review of strobes that he has seen fail during many of his workshops. S&S topped the list as most prone to failure and many of the D2s had catastrophic tube failures. Inon much less so but with limited experience with the Z330 it was hard to say. Having a third is never a bad idea even if you have to rent one. Bill

Why shoot with the 1.4 rather than add a low power diopter on a flip? In my hands on the OM-1 using the Oly 1.4 tele autofocus is noticeably slower. I haven't tried it that way underwater (can't find any extension ring shorter than 22 mm) Bill

we use Solas for video and I use on occasionally for a focus light, but mostly I use a Fix Neo 1500. Red, spot, flood and you can turn it down to very low levels in 1% increments. Bill

My wife has a bunch of blackwater video up on vimeo (https://vimeo.com/nannettev), shot with a Sony 4K handicam in a Recsea housing and two Sola 2500 lights. Mostly these were not tethered, we only do tethers in Hawaii (maybe a US or Hawaii liability thing). I think there are two types of blackwater critters. If you believe in the diet migration business, things living in the dark come at night to feed. They go back down when it gets light (they come up during total eclipse). They don't like light and putting ginormous lights on the downline will keep them away. The second set of critters are truly pelagic and are around day and night. Lights will attract krill type shrimps and bugs and these attract squid and other predators so it is a mixed bag of what you get. We just did a bunch of BW dives in Komodo with some good critters (juvenile blue ring, pelagic sea horse) and tons of squid. For me the lights are to show the divers where the line is and the light on the ball is to show the tender driver where the divers should be. Bill

I think you might be underestimating the need for good distance vision. I have a need for both distance and close correction and have a mask from Prescription Dive Masks in San Diego, works like a charm. BVA

Hi guys. Bill Van Antwerp, President of the Los Angeles Underwater Photo Society, avid diver both tropical and chillier waters. Cheers BVA