Dave_Hicks

If you want a padded cooler, get a super cheap one like the one below from Amazon @ $26. I've used a pair of similar bags for many years for all my local shore diving and car transport. I've taken them on trips, filling them with scuba gear in my suitcase, but I don't find them so useful on a boat. You don't need to move your camera around much and they get in the way on a zodiac/panga and the crew won't like/allow it. If you want a personal rinse, sure that's a useful function. But realistically, you just need to dip your camera after each dive for a few seconds. Do a better, longer, button pressing rinse at the end of the trip or end of the day at most.

A padded cooler will not be very useful on a liveaboard. And the boat rinse tank is fine to use. Just remember the tank is for rinsing, not dumping your camera and leaving it in there unattended.

I suggest wide angle on most dives, perhaps shoot macro on the third dive of the day when the sun is low. The MFO-1 is great for most macro subjects, and the SMC-3 will depend on your preferences. There is always something cool and tiny if you look hard enough. There are no dive guides at God's Pocket, so critter spotting is your job.

My experience with both 5300 and 6000 Nitecore batteries in the HF-1 and Maxi is that you will not be able to exhaust the capacity of these cells shooting photos. Video Lights are another story, but can't realistically shoot enough photos in 3 or 4 dives to exhaust the battery.

I don't recommend transporting a housing on flights with the camera installed. It is a risk to bend, fold, and mangle the alignment of the tray and controls. Depressed buttons can damage the camera body. I usually put my well padded viewfinder and optical cables inside the housing when packed. I travel with the housing loaded by car but not if the housing in in a suitcase or roller bag.

Thanks! Maybe in a few weeks. I am in Raja Ampat for another couple weeks.

Look into a Bambu P1s with AMS as the best cost effective option. If you buy without an AMS you will end up buying it later once you realize how useful it is.

I've been using something similar for a couple of years. It is remarkably effective in drying off housings and ports. I think I've shared the Amazon link about a dozen times to people that see it and want to buy. I should get a referral credit!

I made an MFO-1 hood that also fits the SMC diopters. I have not laid hands on an MFO-3 yet to see if its appropriate. https://makerworld.com/@awkward_swine/collections/16165730?appSharePlatform=copy

No strobes or arms sticking out. I did attach a single 12 inch arm with jumbo stix floats as a crossbar over the top of the housing to make it near neutral. Nauticam Z8 with 140mm dome and 8-15mm. I think a 1.4tc would be an improvement over what i did. Shooting 15mm & near 180degs was great for point blank whales and baitballs, but some more reach would have help for 75% of the subjects. I did very little duck diving and was annoyed by the one over-eager dude on our trip who did. I had to "remove" him from a bunch of photos he didn't ruin out right.

I have had fantastic service from Backscatter, especially with the first run of the flaky MF-1 strobe. They also went above and beyond expectations dealing with some Nauticam flash trigger issues. Retra is also very responsive and easy to deal with based on experience of several friends. I had an Inon 330 repaired maybe 5 years ago, no problems. In the past Ikelite service was very good. Recently the experience was not as good.

I load my camera with a 512gb CFExpress card and a 128gd SDcard. I have 10 of the SDcards (numbered) and rotate in a new one everyday as I import to the PC. Its an easy backup with close to zero effort. So all photos are on 2 memory cards and the PC during a trip. I usually have a backup drive as well if i chose to use it.

Be sure to buy the Intel CPU version. ARM is great for everything but Adobe apps.

You are exactly describing the reasons for my position on this issue. 😉

Two months ago Ikelite service charged my friend money and returned a broken and improperly assembled housing. And they would not even replace the broken hotshoe cable without an additional charge. Ikelite used to have fantastic customer service, but this experience puts that very much in question.