Fabian

Hi all, Guys, I (almost) did it. I tagged all 4500 pictures from my Philippines trip in April/May with the names of the species photographed. Almost: four pictures of two species are missing 🥴. 1) I found this critter while diving in Bohol, looks a bit like an orang utan crab and a hairy shrimp had a really good time together. If I recall correctly, this little guy was about 2cm (plus minus a lot? 🙈). I managed to take three pictures (photographically I'm not really happy with the perspective, but hope they allow identification) before he decided to hide. 2) Some kind of box crab maybe? All pictures taken with Sony 90mm / A7IV, Backscatter MF1+OS1. No editing done. If higher resolution would help, let me know and I'll upload it somewhere at 100% res and link it. All help in identifying those little crabs is highly appreciated! 🙏🙏🙏 Best, Fabian

Hi all, I'm getting a bit bored with most local lakes, so I started looking into the small streams around here. I struggle a bit with water clarity, although from outside it looks gin clear, underwater it's rarely more than 1.5-2m. Does anyone have some inspiration for this kind of photography? Appreciate all links, Instagram accounts and so on! Thanks, Fabian

Asking @Gudge might help? 🙂

Would be amazing if we could get something like this as well for other port sizes (e.g.140mm, 230mm) 😇

Guys, stop it... my bank account can't take this anymore!

Kudos to @ErikaNydaria, thank you for the domeport. Can absolutely recommend her as a seller!

Looking forward to some test shots! 😉

Sure, here you go. For those that not read the entire thread but only this post: open link, right click on image, open image in new tab -> zoom to 100% https://www.directupload.eu/file/u/80408/pras4rij_jpg.htm ISO 400, F8, 1/60s, 15mm (taken in shallow water but with little ambient light). Port setup as suggested by Nauticam in the port chart for the 140mm. Picture is edited in Capture One, but sharpness is only increased minimal. For comparison, the pike should be a similar distance as the sponges (if I remember correctly, but not sure with the thousands of pics on my drive, I could be wrong) No, I didn't, and as the 1.4x is shorter, it would require a different extension. I'd be happy to make test shots underwater with both setups, but it would require me a different extension (N120 20mm) and the 1.4x TC. If someone has both and is living somewhere in Baden-Württemberg (or willing to dive there 😄) , we can maybe arrange a day to take some proper test shots.

For a 100% crop: open the links, right click on image, select "open image in new tab" and then you should be able to see it in full resolution.

I'm happy with the results (still processing images from my last trip, but looked at a few to judge), just quickly exported 4 semi-processed images. There where not many situations that required the 30mm end (rarley shy animals), but hope this helps to get an impression of the quality: 16mm, F18, ISO100, 1/250s: https://www.directupload.eu/file/u/80408/yubehf35_jpg.htm 16mm, F13, ISO200, 1/100s: https://www.directupload.eu/file/u/80408/mq74kc3y_jpg.htm 30mm, F14, ISO100, 1/160s: https://www.directupload.eu/file/u/80408/yazmhih2_jpg.htm 16mm, F16, ISO100, 1/250s: https://www.directupload.eu/file/u/80408/wnzdo499_jpg.htm My conclusion: Sharpness is fine for me. Yes, the Canon 8-15mm without the TC is a bit sharper. I only see it at 100% zoom on a 4k screen, so what... Corners are also fine for me. In some images they are really mushy, but as this is only in some, I suspect this to be mainly due to DOF. One thing to mention is the light, so despite using similar appertures, I need to increase the ISO a bit compared to shooting without the TC. The increased zoom range (16-30mm) is definatly worth it, considering the price (< 1000€ additionally to the rest of the setup). In case someone needs some numbers to judge, I did a quick FOV caluclation (might not be perfect, just used the equations I found online), ignoring extension tube effects: Focal length FOV vertical FOV horizontal FOV diagonal 30 46 70 85 16 88 137 170 15 94 147 180 8 180 180 180

Nauticam Sony A6500 housing (NA17417) with 2 third party powerbanks and USB cable for use in the housing (to combat the A6500's power hunger), Nauticam M16 vacuum valve II (NA25625) installed, also included is the travel bag for the housing and a few spares. Asking price: 1400€ (2674€ new + batteries, which I can't remember exactly how much they cost, so in total probably just over 2700€) or best offer. Remark: In the pictures the N85 Macro Port 40 (NA36228) is still mounted but is already sold! Condition: very good, we can have a video call where I show you the details. Shipping is no problem (I'm based in southern Germany). Payment via PayPal, PayPal with buyer protection (if the buyer pays the fees), cash on collection, bank transfer. Private sale, no warranty or return.

Not exactly what @boduoguo asked, but this might be of some help:

Great pictures! I really like the background of the pipefish, gives it an artistic/abstract touch.

Yes, considering what I've spent, I'm happy. Quality is good enough for me, although it is a bit better without TC, and the versatility is greatly improved. Plus, I can use this TC topside as my longer lenses are Sonys.

And one more thing: just realized, if you open the links above, the pics still are not full res. Right click on picture, select "open in new tab", and then you can look at it in 100% resolution.

Hi all, I bought the Sony 2x TC and took it underwater to take a couple of test shots. The setup is: camera body (Sony A7 IV), Sony 2x TC, Metabones Adapter (Gen. V), Canon 8-15mm (please ignore the zoom gear, this is the original one for the bare lens and does not work with this setup, I used a 3D printed one from @Gudge). All works fine, the TC and adapter even give the correct focal length in the EXIF data (well, 29 instead of 30mm and 15mm instead of 16mm, so it's probably more of a 1.9something TC). Autofocus feels a tiny bit slower than without TC, but still works really well. Housing: Nauticam Sony A7 IV housing, 35.5mm N100-N120 adapter, 25mm N120 extension, 30mm N120 extension, 140mm fisheye domeport. So, for adding this TC, I added a 25mm extension to the standard setup as recommended by Nauticam. Why 25mm? Closest to the interflange distance of the TC (which differs from the overall length you'll find online): Stobes: 2x Inon Z330, triggered with a turtle trigger from @TURTLE-Balage (Balazs, we need to talk about a spare one for my upcoming trips - so happy with it, I'll cry if I break it during a trip and can't use it). So, enough for the talking, here are the pictures. So, no one comes here for looking at TCs and calipers, so here are the test pics I took on Sunday during a quick plunge. This are not professional test pics, more or less spontaneously made the decision to take some pics for Waterpixels. I tried to capture similar scenes with different settings, don't expect a full blown analysis or anything professional below. Post processing: set all to the same whitebalance and brought them to a similar brightness, exported with standard settings. Upload here in small res, links proviede show them at 100% res for the pixel peepers out here. Series 1: 30mm, 1/160, F8, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/b6y7rcu9_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/160, F8, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/pa54tft4_jpg.htm Series 2: 30mm, 1/160, F8, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/b4rwgmny_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/160, F8, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/6t5aaoj8_jpg.htm Series 3: 16mm, 1/160, F10, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/9ymk6stb_jpg.htm 30mm, 1/160, F10, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/qk9enbpn_jpg.htm Series 4: (just tried to take pics perpendicular to the bottom in roughly the same position/distance - corners here should not be due to DOF like in some other pictures posted here) 16mm, 1/125, F16, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/7gb4qcjc_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/125, F13, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/8xf9zz8q_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/125, F9, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/a2vjmtxt_jpg.htm 30mm, 1/125, F9, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/k7yojcd9_jpg.htm 30mm, 1/125, F14, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/lj6wj5r2_jpg.htm 30mm, 1/125, F18, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/pg4bqvsd_jpg.htm Series 5: some pics have the same settings, this is not a typo 16mm, 1/200, F10, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/edbrtbeh_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/200, F13, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/8mtwm23w_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/200, F13, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/rj8clyj6_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/200, F16, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/w63jru5m_jpg.htm 16mm, 1/200, F16, ISO400 - https://www.directupload.net/file/u/80408/frw6b8yp_jpg.htm I tried to not mess anything up, so if the links do not match the small pictures, please let me know.

Thank you guys! All parts that I worried about are already changed, it's more of a "you never know" thing and a "how pissed would I be if I could not fire my flash due to a broken cable or whatever". Maybe I'll just get everything that is fairly small and not prohibitively expensive twice, just in case 😅

Hi all, I'll be traveling to the Philippines soon, and I'm wondering, of it is possible to get spare parts for my setup (Nauticam) within a reasonable time frame if needed, e.g. a flash trigger, optical cables, ... First few days will be in Dauin, after I'll go to Bohol. If availability of spare parts there is scarce, what would you recommend to carry? Thanks!

Hi Wolfgang, The Sony TC is built different from the Kenko, with a small protruding element. The overall length of the TC is 42.7mm, but as the interflange distance is 27mm, so the lens only moves forward 27mm and not 42.7mm. If helpful for anyone, I'm happy to take some pictures of the dimensions to make it better to grasp. Best Fabian

This might be true for the one selected example, but not for all lenses / combinations you can find a port chart to start with, hence all the threads on wetpixel about setups, and those threads will start here as well. Additionally, some dimensions are not easy to or even impossible to find online e.g. interflange dimensions for teleconverters. If you look online for the Sony 2x TC, it's length is given at 42.7mm. The actual interflange distance is 27.something mm. Next part is: does the protrusion work with the lens/fit inside? So there is a bit more to it than just looking up the length... Yes, one can buy, measure, trying to figure out if you can get the required parts to match the setup. Requires an investment to start with any idea... Or, and that would be my preferred solution, look up what other people did with a given lens, judge the optical quality from some 100% crops and decide if it's good enough to order the parts...

Thanks @Barmaglot, I was more looking into the overall port setup (e.g. "Sony A7IV housing - 35.5mm N100 N120 adapter - 55mmm (25mm+30mm) N120 extensions - N120 140mm glass domeport domeport - custom zoom gear) for this kind of database

OK, that's it, I'm taking the bullet here. I bought the Sony 2x teleconverter. As the 2x is longer than the 1.4x, I need a different extension (already ordered) and will have to modify the 3D model for the zoom gear. This might take a while as I never did anything with 3D design, but on land the zoom range already looks promising with the Canon 8-15mm. Now - any recommendations to learn "3D design for underwater photography"? 🙂 Once everything works I'll share some pictures for a real life evaluation here, but might take a while, depending on how quick I get a hang of this 3D stuff. Different idea: how about a database for port setups like this? I.e. listing lens, adapters, ports, housings, extensions and (most importantly) pictures that allow to judge the optical quality? Figuring out setups is a pain, and being able to dig into what other people tried and found to be working would be awesome. I feel like the admins are soon gonna be annoyed with all my ideas, but if not and you'd like to discuss more about it, always happy to 😇