Andrej Oblak

This is a good point. But I'll take a flash with an even beam just about every time instead of a flash which is prone to hotspots and requires more fiddling to get nice and even lighting. Why? I shoot mostly in the Adriatic sea where the critters are more skittish and don't like you getting too close. I have plenty of photos where in the first shot of the series there was full of fish and by the time I managed to set up my strobes perfectly, most of them were gone by then and all you are left with is an empty scene. But usually my first shot is either under- or overexposed, has hotspots or lots of backscatter because of wrong position & power level. So if a flash is able to give me nice and pleasant lighting without too much fiddling, then there's a much bigger chance that a photo will be a keeper. But this is of course just my experience and I know that it doesn't apply to each and every one 🙂

I'd use it to: Widen the beam Soften the light Reduce hotspots Change color of the light

Thanks guys for all the answers 👍I still use Nikon D500 with Tokina 10-17mm (and occasionally Nikon 10.5mm - especially for cave photography) which gives me enough versatility, even for shooting sharks. I imagine that Kenko TC paired with 8-15mm fisheye gives you this versatility as well, albeit with a bit shorter zoom range. This weekend I used 10-24mm rectilinear after quite a long time (1+ years) and I admit I felt a bit lost at first. I had to forget all the "muscle memory" I gained from shooting with the fisheye - positioning, distance to subject, strobe power etc. That's why it seemed a bit unusual to see that WWL-1 can be used as an alternative to a fisheye 🙂 As @ChipBPhoto said - I see it more as a different tool than as a substitute. I used AOI UWL-09 which was pretty heavy. Dropping it was my biggest fear, closely followed by accidentally cross threading it when reattaching it back to the port. Thankfully neither of these happened, but I must admit that my life is easier now when I don't have to do that anymore 🙂 In my opinion a bayonet mount is a must if you use wet lenses.

A couple of questions I was always curious about (but was too afraid to ask 🙂): How is a WWL-1 an alternative to a fisheye lens? 130° FOV vs 180° is substantially different. Different framing, you need to be further away from the subject, need to drive flashes stronger, different lens distortion, ... I'd understand if WWL-1 would be suggested as an alternative to 16-35 (or 10-24 on APS-C), but usually it's not. And then there's that inconvenience of burping the wet lens. I was always so annoyed when I needed to do that on my previous compact camera system, especially since I didn't have a bayonet mount. Really "fun" to do in a deep water where you can drop it and never find it again. How come only Canon 8-15 is used on modern Sony mirrorless systems, why not Nikon 8-15? How come a Kenko 1.4x teleconverter is used, when both Canon and Nikon offer excellent 1.4x teleconverters? Is Kenko better, cheaper?

Foreground is different color. Left one looks much more yellowish / warmer than the right one. I think the left one should be white balanced to have a more neutral foreground (and maybe the right one too - hard to judge on a phone screen), and then let's see the difference

This topic could've been so much more... I was hoping for some actual and helpful tips on reducing backscatter, instead we have this. Does this forum maybe have the "block member" functionality, where you wouldn't see certain member's posts? I see that more and more topics here are polluted with this nonsensical bickering who's right and who's wrong. Instead of exchanging knowledge and experience, usual trend lately is just one person trying to prove other person(s) that they are wrong. To (hopefully) get back on topic, let me ask a question: does flash gun's tube type influence the amount of backscatter? I.e. circular vs straight. I own a set of Inon Z-330 and a brand new set of Retra Pro Max strobes. The first thing that I noticed is that Retras produce noticeably less backscatter than Inons. Positioning of the strobes is the same (I point Retras the same way as I did Inons - noting changed here), but I get noticeably less backscatter with circular tubes than with straight ones. Would a (lack of) diffuser play a big role here?

I got the "pro" diffusers in mail today and I did a quick comparison. First a strobe without a diffuser: With a stock white diffuser and same power settings: With a "pro" diffuser and same power settings: With a "pro" diffuser and +1 stop of power: With a "pro" diffuser and +2 stops of power: Not a professional comparison but I hope this helps someone. I'll test it underwater soon hopefully. PS.: ignore my fridge and a part of my living room 🙂 This was the largest white wall that I could find in my apartment

Does anybody use Z-330's with dome "PRO" diffusers? Are they worth the price compared to the stock diffusers that come bundled with Z-330? https://www.uwcamerastore.com/dome-diffuser-pro-for-inon-z-330 I had a chance to test a pair of Retras last summer and one thing I noticed is that they produce a much more even and pleasing light than my Z-330. Light from Z-330 was much harsher and prone to hotspots, that's why I need to be much more precise and careful when positioning them. So yeah, one option would be to upgrade to Retra or OneUW, but if these "PRO" diffusers would soften the light and made it more even, I'd then rather stay with my trusty old Inons than spend a small fortune on new strobes.

Hey folks Coming over from the Wetpixel forum. My name is Andrej and I'm coming from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Computer engineer by profession, scuba and cave diver by passion 🙂 I'm diving since 2014. I started with underwater photography in 2016, when I got my first underwater camera - Sony RX100 III. I've been shooting it for about 4 years, then I upgraded to Nikon D500 which is my current camera. I use Nauticam housing and Inon Z-330 strobes. About 80% of my work are wide angle photographs. I shoot mostly in Adriatic sea (Croatia), but in the last couple of years I started focusing on cave diving photography. Here are a couple of my photos from my last trip to French caves in the Lot region. Happy to join this community and looking forward to some great and interesting debates here in the forums.