bvanant

I am shooting an OM-1 in an AOI housing, mostly (well almost all) and have all the macro lenses (30,45,60,90) and the 12-50 and 14-42. We are doing a Banda trip to Manuk and Guning API to shoot snakes. I would like a wide angle solution using some water contact lenses (not a dome port). What should I buy. thanks Bill

Thanks no rush. BVA

Phil, I was guessing you might be someone who has one. Let me know Bill

We took a portable defibrillator to our friend's resort in Bali. We tried to take it on as a carry on and the crew said it couldn't fly. We pointed out that it was identical to the defibrillator in the cabin above row 6. Finally they agreed (after much discussion). Bill

Hopefully the later one, but either would be OK. Bill

Looking for an Athena Ringflash. I know you have one somewhere in your closet. thanks BILL

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