wetdreams

Guau!!! (that is the way we write wow in spanish)... I love that hammerhead! It's like it's about to speed out like a rocket...

Thank you Chip!!!

Hello Phil, Yes, true, we have some very interesting caves in this area, the most important is the Moraig underground river, 6 km of explored galleries, 2500 m. reached (the end has not yet been reached) and depths around 100 m. And, of course, every diving zone has its "underwater Cathedral"... Diving on the Costa Blanca is not very interesting if you are looking for big stuff (groupers, rays and eagle rays are the most representative) but if, like me, you enjoy the macro world, there are many more possibilities. Further south there are much more interesting areas, with both large and small marine life, such as the Cabo de Palos marine reserve, or the Cabo de Gata natural park, in Almería, with very good diving and impressive landscapes. Don't hesitate to ask me if you visit Spain again. And my Fuji... well, it is a pleasure in combination with the Nauticam housing, dials for the most important functions, everything accessible with a simple touch, good focus, very good RAWs with fantastic color, double card, APSC size in body and lenses, very reliable... oh, and that retro look that I love. In love with the X-t3 and upgrading to X-t5 as soon as I can... A pleasure to read your comments, much appreciated. All the best!!!

I miss the islands, I hope I can return next autumn... Cheers!!

Flabellina affinis in Peñon de Ifach, Calpe, Spain. This is one of my favourites flabellina ever, mainly for the simplicity of the colors, and also for the "chubby" appearance of the critter. The crop is just for fun. Cheers!!

That's just my go-to setup for macro, I place my two MF-1 at 10-2 just over my port, powering 4-5 at one side, 2-3 the other, and works very well for me. If the subject is further away, I separate the strobes, according to the distance of it. Sometimes I also snoot, but mostly when I am looking for black background. Great strobes the Backscatters, very good experiences with them. Sometimes the subjects are very close to the background, or there is something in the foregroung that got much light, or the colors at the surroundings of the subject are too vivid, or you simply can't get the desired lighting... Those times editing is the way to achieve the look you want for your picture. I do it all the time!!! By the way, I prefer the darker picture much more... Best Regards.

Lysmata seticaudata in another fantastic dive site close to Benidorm, "La Llosa". It is a huge sunken rock few miles away of the coastline. Sometimes a bit challenging due to the currents, there you can find the most common mediterranean species, both big and small. This shrimp moved away from its host moray eel for a few seconds, allowing me to take a close-up portrait... The second picture is just a crop that shows little details of the shrimp. Taken with the Fujinon 80mm macro at f16, 1/250 ISO 160.

Wellcome to the club!! Happy to hear more people using Fujifilm underwater.

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture, I made it in a hurry... It is about 12,5 cm, glass to end of bayonet thread... It is a custom port, that fits really tight (about 2mm gap) with the 80mm macro. It is, suposedly, the same dimensions as the Nauticam N100 110 port. Hope it can help you!!

My main concern with this lens is illuminating properly the closest subjects. I hope the Backscatters help!!

They made the housing for the X-t5. I plan to upgrade as soon as I get the funds. Keep in touch!!!

Dondice banyulensis in one of my favorite places on the Costa Blanca, the Island of Benidorm. I had to move away a little to get this critter into the frame, since it measures about four centimeters and I wanted to introduce a little atmosphere into the photo.

I was in doubt between the 50 and the 30, but despite its great quality, the zeiss is quite an oldie lens, probably slower when focusing, so another check for the 30, that I think is better qualified to render the 40mp of the X-t5, which is my go-to next underwater camera.... My custom made port is 46mm, quite colse to the 50 of the Nauticam. I plan to test the setup at the end of february, and as I own the CMC-1 and the double flip adapter I can test it as well. I'll give you news as soon as I have an assessment. Did you crop the pictures of the tiny nudi?? It sould be touching the glass on your port!!! Very difficult to illuminate!!! Cheers!!!

I agree you Kevin, in combination with the Nauticam housing is such a great camera. When you need to have a very effective use of time (i.e. underwater photography) the clever controls of the housing and the customization fo the ones in the camera is very good news. You have everything available with a single movement, and that saves you a lot of time.

Love the picture Simón... where did you take it??? They are not very common in Costa Blanca area...

Hey Kevin, really happy to see your nice pictures!!! You are the only person in the world that seems to make underwater photography with THE SAME FREAKING WEIRD SETUP AS ME!!!!! Hahahaha, now seriously really happy because I have been looking for people that shots Fujifilm cameras underwater (I even created an IG account to join experiences regarding this, @fujiunderwater, not much success at all...). I recently bought the 30mm (my normal setup is the 80mm) but unable to test it yet, I hope I can try it at the end of february. I ended having a custom port, made by Saga, because I didn't want the gap between the lens and the glass in the port using Nauticam's options. Well looking your pictures it seems I wasn't wrong in my thoughts about the 30 mm (actually a comment of Alex Mustard about his impressions with the Sony 50mm made me take the decission), because I was looking for a macro lens capable for bigger subjects, as moray eels and fish portraits, but no refusing 1:1 macro... Well, I hope we can start sharing experiences with our weird setups... At least, now I feel I am not completely mad... BTW I love your picture of the crab, I think it could benefit of a little cropping from the top, but it is really nice. Besdt Regards. Philippo.

Thinking about the last episode of Alex&Matthew's Underwater Phothography Show, I tried to find photos where I would have needed an ND filter, and this is one of them. Despite being shot in the Mediterraneum, the August sun and the shallow depth at which this cratena peregrina was located, in combination with my base ISO of 160, made impossible to get a black background. In any case, I loved the result, and more and more often I try to get blue backgrounds in macro, looking for shallow subjects and if possible shooting from a low angle. I await your ruthless comments. Greetings Cratena peregrina near Ifach Rock, Calpe, Spain. Camera settings: 1/250 f16 ISO 160 Fujifilm Velvia film simulation. My setup Fujifilm X-t3 Nauticam Na X-t3 Fujinon 80mm macro Backscatter Mf1 x 2

Not my best picture, but probably my favourite. "The seahorse is gone". This was the cryptic message we received upon arriving at the diving center. Lorena and I were not discouraged (we had been driving for an hour because a seahorse had been spotted at Ifach Rock, one of our habitual diving spots), so we asked the dive center staff to give us some directions to find it. When onboard, we told Sergio, the skipper, we wanted to jump where the seahorse had been seen. "the loco photographer again" he should think. "Ok, we will enter the water a little further, and we will swim towards you little by little until we find each other" said Guille, the Dive Master as Lorena and me were entering into the water. My wife and I were looking for the little horse for half an hour without success, but finally we managed to find it, right where we had been told. In our area, finding a seahorse is the jackpot, so I took as many photos as I could until we almost ran out of air. Then we heard the sound of the boat's engine overhead (Sergio signaling us to surface), and I realized it was time to go. "A couple more photos and we'll start the ascent" I thought... and suddenly, to my surprise someone appeared from the surface. It was Guille, he had never seen a seahorse, and he asked Sergio permission to go down with the little air he had left to see it, since he was sure that we had finally found it. He indicated with signs if could I take a photo of him with the seahorse (I'm not a big fan of including divers in my macro photos but hey, he seemed so happy!!)... so I told him to stand behind the seahorse, then I moved as far away as I could (I had the 80mm macro mounted on my Fuji) and took a couple of photos... The result is this one, which I especially like because of the expression on Guille's eyes. One look says it all. I'll be happy to hear your feedback. My setup: Fujifilm X-t3 Fujinon 80mm macro Nauticam Na X-t3 Backscatter Mf1 x 2 @wetdreamsphoto

Hi Marc There is another brand within the apsc spectrum, which has not been mentioned, and perhaps may be an option to consider, and that is Fujifilm. Unlike Sony, whose best lenses are made for the full frame system, Fujifilm makes its lenses specifically for aps-c (and they are very, very good) which implies smaller size and cost than its full frame counterparts. At 40 mp, the X-t5 and X-h2 are excellent mirrorless cameras, comparable in construction, sealing, technology and reliability to their full frame counterparts. As for optics suitable for underwater photography, there are quite a few options: Macro: Fujinon 80mm macro (120 FF) that is a fantastic lens, fast and accurate, that produces great image quality (I own and love this lens) Fujinon 30mm macro (45 FF) hope I will test this lens in a few weeks Zeiss 50mm macro (75 FF) Rectilinear Wide Angle Fujinon 8-16mm (dome port) Fujinon 10-24mm (dome port) There are also a lot of native lenses that combine with the complete range of Nauticam wet lenses, just take a look at Nauticam's N100 Fujifilm port chart and you will see many options. The only native lens not available from Fujifilm is a fisheye, but with the Viltrox adapter you can easily adapt the Canon mount Tokina 10-17. When considering Fujifilm as an option, there are two issues to keep in mind. Firstly, being less popular than other brands, the second-hand market (housings) is more limited. On the other hand, there are few housing brands for Fujifilm. Nauticam, Ikelite, Seafrogs, as far as I know, which can be a little limiting. But if you look closely, Nauticam has been betting on Fujifilm for a long time, having made housings for its flagship cameras, both the X-t and X-h series and for their full-format older sisters, the Gfx. I guess this gives a little more confidence. As for the budget, $5000 is insufficient if you want to buy new, so you would have to search the second-hand market. X-t3 and X-t4 are excellent options, with "only" 26Mp, and tons of technology and reliability, and with a large second-hand market. I understand that Fujifilm is a somewhat risky option, but in my point of view better than Sony, which has long ago stopped making efforts to manufacture quality lenses for its APSC cameras. Lots of options to think about, I guess, and here's one more. All the best.

Haha, I would need to find time, but no problem. Spain is a large country, with 8000 km of coastline, and I only know a small part of it, mainly the Costa Blanca and some places in Menorca and Costa Brava. But of course, I will be happy to collaborate in any way I can, I can also get información of other fellow spanish divers.. . Best Regards! Best Regards. null

Hello from the warm Spain. My name is Philipp, and I live in a small village near the Costa Blanca (Javea, Altea, Calpe, Benidorm are the most known villages in the area). I am married and also share my life with our little Beagle, Indi. I've been diving for over 35 years, and at a point in my life I decided became an instructor. I was teaching during fifteen years, form basic to tech levels, and then life moved me towards other direction. Recently (3,5 years) I discovered underwater photography, and then the excitement for diving came back. I have been trying to learn everything about uwphotography during this period so I couldn't say I am a beginner, but I am sure I still have much to learn. Due to the characteristics of the area where I mainly dive, I am mostly focused on macro, but I try to improve my WA skills every time I travel to more WA friendly waters. As the title states, I shoot a Fujifilm Xt-3 in a Nauticam housing, which I am very happy with, so much so that I am trying to upgrade to Xt-5 and Na-Xt-5. I will be very happy to help to all those as I can with my (limited) knowledge in UW photography, and share My experiences with the Fuji system underwater, and all those who are thinking in diving in Spain. Best Regards!!!