Barmaglot

Completely agree. Between Sea & Sea sorting out their reliability problems and Backscatter/SUPE/Marelux releasing credible alternatives, it's getting quite difficult to recommend Retras at their current price point. I like my Retras a great deal, but I got them at the 2018 preorder prices - no way I could justify their current price tag.

While the A6700 has excellent tracking, the combination of an EF lens and video has a big asterisk on it. I can't speak about the Sigma MC-11 adapter, but for Metabones (I have version IV, but I believe version V is basically the same), the 'green mode' which provides superior autofocus and tracking for stills, doesn't have AF for video at all (you're locked to manual focus), while the advanced mode, which does have autofocus for video, is limited to only center of the frame for autofocus spots. https://www.metabones.com/article/of/green-power-save-mode If you primary use case is video, and you want to use a fisheye lens (not a common combination, as extreme distortion introduced by fisheye lenses doesn't work for video as well as it does for stills), then perhaps Canon is the better solution here. Sony's native fisheye offerings are weak (basically the ancient 16mm f/2.8 with fisheye adapter), and while adapted lenses work great for stills, video is another story. If you don't need the 180-degree fisheye look of the 10-17mm, then perhaps a Sony 10-20mm f/4 or 16-50mm + WWL-C can be the solution here. There's rumors of a new APS-C kit zoom coming out soon as well, which may or may not be a good fit with wet lenses.

This should be a pinned article or something.

I don't think you can draw any conclusions about HSS based on the flash duration in normal mode. Because HSS fires a fast series of flickers instead of a single continuous pulse, its actual duration is completely different from regular flash. I haven't done specific testing, but with 1st gen Retra Pro flashes, UWT trigger and a Sony a6300, I got similar results shooting sunballs with HSS, 1/2000s and f/8 as with normal flash, 1/160s and f/22.

Kinda sorta, you need to put the Metabones adapter into advanced mode for video AF to work at all, and this restricts it to central area of the frame for AF, and degrades it AF capabilities overall compared to green mode. If you leave it in green mode then in video mode it's manual focus only.

Do not get the SeaFrogs VPS-100 - it is not meant to be used underwater (its seals degrade and it starts leaking after 70-80 dives or so). Contact Miso at info@vividhousings.com for a SeaFrogs-specific version of Leak Sentinel; it's more expensive than a VPS-100 but it is built properly and will last you longer than your housing.

This is not quite correct. The image circle of Canon EF-S 60mm is considerably larger than an APS-C sensor - it has minor corner vignetting on FF, which goes away at macro distances, i.e. at 1:1 it covers the FF sensor completely.

For stills, yeah, but its video capabilities are somewhat limited. To be fair, on the other hand, I understand that fisheye is not particularly popular for video.

While the underwater community is strong, Sigma's behavior appears to indicate that the astrophotography community is stronger

I wouldn't be so categorical. Take, for instance, the Sony a6700 (I might be biased as I own one, but still). You can shoot it underwater with the Sony 10-18mm or the new 10-20mm or Samyang 12mm, or Sony 16-50mm and wet optics, or Tokina 10-17mm on Metabones, plus 50mm and 90mm macro options. Topside, there's a great selection of lenses such as the Sigma f/1.4 prime set, Sigma 18-50mm f/28 and Sony 16-55mm f/2.8 zooms, the Sony 70-350mm telephoto, etc. There's also access to the old Minolta A-mount lenses via LA-EA5 adapter, which includes some unique offerings such as the 500mm AF reflex lens. All this comes with AF that, by many accounts, is quite similar to that of A1 (I haven't tried the A1, so I can't compare), but at a small fraction of the cost. Even comparing it to, say, A7CII, it's still considerably less expensive, and so are the lenses.

10-18mm f/4 works fine in seafrogs 6-inch and 8-inch ports. I haven't tried the newer 10-20mm PZ. Another option is a 16-50mm kit lens in short macro port with a wet lens such as AOI UWL-09, Weefine/Kraken WFL01/KRL01, or Nauticam WWL-1 (not WWL-1B or WWL-C; those will not fit the SeaFrogs port).

Using Metabones IV adapter with a6700 and Tokina 10-17mm, it has two modes: green and advanced. Green mode has good AF in stills, but no AF at all in video. Advanced mode has limited AF (slower and only middle of the frame) in stills, but does have similar AF in video. I haven't found the 1/160s flash sync speed to be a significant limitation; most of the time my shutter speed is slower than that anyway.

The SeaFrogs version of Vivid Leak Sentinel has never been advertised for sale anywhere that I've seen, but if you email info@vividhousings.com, Miso will hook you up.

I would be a bit wary of adapted lenses on A7R II; the autofocus performance with adapters on Sony bodies that old is somewhat iffy.

They are threaded in, but I'm not sure of the kind of threads - perhaps M6.

Was the Metabones adapter in green or advanced mode? Their documentation says that the advanced mode is limited to a 'small central PDAF area', whereas green mode uses the 'full PDAF area of the sensor'.

This is the port in question, right? https://seafrogs.com.hk/collections/flat-macro-ports-for-sea-frogs-housings/products/flat-short-port-for-sony-fe-28-60mm-f4-5-6-lens-autofocus-only-zoom-gear-included As I recall, it was initially released with the A7C housing, but the camera positioning with regard to port opening should be the same between different housings. On the other hand, this is SeaFrogs, so it's not a given. Have you tried contacting their support about the poor fit of the port/lens combination?

I know; the WWL-1 targets 28mm FF-equivalent lenses - that is to say, it should not vignette at 28mm on FF, 19mm on APS-C, or 14mm on M43. My own wet lens, the AOI UWL-09F, targets the same 28mm FL, and with 16-50mm lens behind it, it loses vignetting at 19mm. The severe vignetting that you experience indicates that either the SeaFrogs 28-60mm port fits badly, leaving too much space between the lens front element and the port glass, or there is some other issue with the lens placement, such as a wet mate adapter (flip/swing/etc).

That vignetting is rather odd; I recall users of older SeaFrogs housings (things like M43 with 14-42mm) report normal performance. I use an APS-C 16-50mm with AOI UWL-09F, which targets the same 28mm FL as the WWL-1, and vignetting goes away at 19mm, just as expected. The 28-60mm should not vignette with the WWL-1 at all. Are you using it on bare port, or is there some sort of adapter in the way?

D-Pro is a manual-only strobe, so TTL is irrelevant. You could use the Nauticam manual trigger, but the Turtle is slightly cheaper.

You can use a Weefine WFL09S/Kraken KRL09S; it's very similar to MWL-1 but costs half as much.

Wetpixel.com is owned and operated by Adam Hanlon. In addition to the website and forum, Adam organized and sold diving trips. Last year, this business of his went under - he took a bunch of people's money and didn't actually organize the trips that he sold. Since then, he has completely disappeared. Wetpixel.com itself is no longer open to registration by new users, the content is not available unless you're logged in with a pre-existing account, and when Adam stops paying the registration and hosting fees, it is going to disappear. WHOIS lists the domain expiration date as May 14th 2024, so that is a possible cutoff point. Waterpixels.net was created as a way to preserve the community following this incident.

@christophe chellapermal recently reported being underwhelmed with Z8's autofocus (on blackwater dives - probably the most challenging scenario for AF underwater) compared to D500.

Preliminary review: https://theunderwaterclub.com/backscatter-hybrid-flash-preliminary-review Looks like they're indeed quite powerful. Considering that a Retra Pro Max with a supercharger is $1780, i.e literally twice the price of this, this makes the Retras a very tough sell.

Weefine's TG-6 housing comes with with an additional battery, but it's easy to see how much extra bulk this adds, especially to a small camera: null