Barmaglot

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected], 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

I use the reflectors on blackwater dives. I have the strobes at 3 and 9 o'clock positions, facing somewhat inward, maybe about 45 degrees. I get some backscatter, but not a lot.

It's still a lot of power to dump into a very small package - this is how YS-D2s ended up blowing their bulbs all the time, and this strobe claims something like 3x the power. All-metal designs like the Retras and Seacams are generally better at conducting away heat, contributing to their better reliability. This one exacerbates the challenge by putting a bunch of LEDs and their associated circuitry into an already cramped housing. I'm not saying this kind of challenge is insurmountable, but it can't be easy.

GN40 at 120 degrees coverage sounds somewhat suspect, but running the numbers at battery capacity (2x5300mAh) vs number of flashes (375), or battery discharge current (2x20A) vs recycle time (2.17s) gives a full power flash rating of around 400 W⋅s, which is like, the biggest ever in an underwater flash? It's quite heavy at 1.1kg all-up in air, but still - this is a hefty claim. If true, I wonder how well it will handle the heat - it's hard to tell from photos alone, but the casing appears to be plastic rather than metal.

Nauticam used to offer it as an option for some cameras, but they discontinued it - maybe there wasn't enough demand, or maybe a supply chain issue. If you're using a Nauticam housing for your a6400, you might be able to find one of those power packs on the used market.