Pooley

I've done a fair bit of diving in the Red Sea, maybe not as much as some here, but I have tried most areas. As a general rule its 'middle of the road' type diving, fish and reefs rule, and whilst there is plenty of variety on that front its not the best area for really small or really big stuff. Northern sites from Sharm are generally based around the Ras Mohammed and Tiran areas with a decent selection of wrecks available. Very nice but busy and whilst there are a couple of specific times such as snapper aggregations around June or Hammerheads off Jackson reef late summer these are really bonuses rather than basing your trip around. A little further south is Hurghada, and if you prefer day diving this may be worth a look. My favoured area by far is El Gouna to stay in as you have far more freedom of movement than Hurghada itself, and a few choices of boats. Personally I dive with a local guide called Moustafa Housin but private guiding can push the price up quite a bit. Going further south you're getting more into Liveaboard only territory (yes I know the Marsa Alam area has day boat diving). The classic route is based around Daedalus, Elphinstone and the Brothers, and whilst the diving is excellent it will be busy. The boats do their best to stagger divers but you won't be alone at any of the main sites. A big draw there are the oceanic whitetips in autumn but due to a few incidents elsewhere in the Red Sea I've found the boats nervous about diving with them unless you're on a specific shark itinerary. All told, my favourite area is the Deep South, which generally means liveaboards from the Marsa Alam area. Coral bleaching has occurred over recent years but the reefs are nice, there are some small cave systems to explore, and little gems like snorkelling with spinner dolphins at Sataya reef if that can be organised for an early morning Water temp is nice a. year round, but over winter it can get a bit breezy getting out of the water, and you'll often find guides in drysuits simply because of the wind. Personally I jus dump my gear and take a quick shower (no the ones on the rear dive deck) and put on dry clothes - problem solved) Boat wise, the Aggressors are nice but not what I'd call luxury. You can get fantastic deals on them st the start of the season around March though. I had a nice experience on the Ghazala Explorer and the Emperor boats are generally well regarded

If you fancy using the 16-35mm that you already own, then the last thing you need to be concerned about in this particular scenario is soft corners - you'll be shooting open sea blue backgrounds with no corner detail. I have a WWL-1b and last year did a dolphin snorkelling trip - in and out of small boats quickly, no time to burp and never had a problem I'd certainly have the opposite opinion to Chris though, I can't see a 2x converter behind a zoom lens and a port matching the IQ of a wet lens Mike

I did similar to you a few months ago. I had an older MacBook Air, which was used for travel, downloading onto an external SSD and maybe half edit some shots for fun whilst away, but serious processing done at home I went for a MacBook Pro this time due to the extra port meaning I can charge, download and use the external SSD all at the same time I went for 512 and have downloaded PS, LR and photo mechanic which takes up about 110GB of hard drive on the MacBook, so could probably have gone for the 256 and got away with it. Just a few figures for you to think over Mike

Hi Fred, I have one I no longer use. Near mint condition, great port but I moved to Sony mirrorless. I lost the neoprene cover but it will come with the rear cover and the o-ring and a nauticam pouch. I'll pack the lens to avoid any scratches in shipping. New in the Uk is £960 (1111.76 euros), how about 500 euros plus postage? Let me know if you're interested and I'll take some photos I used it with my Nikon 8-15, it was great. If you agree that price I'll throw in an 8-15 Nauticam zoom gear worth 243 euro for free as well. Alex at uwvisions.com sell the port cover for £36 (41.60 euros) if you want one Mike

I agree totally that prices everywhere are getting out of hand - but we must always remind ourselves that we no longer pay for film either

Thanks for the comments gents

Thanks both. I'm glad you both like that one because its probably my favourite, but I think sometimes people can be biased for other reasons, such as this one was really technically difficult due to the size, and using the SMC with a moving subject rather than sometimes being a bit more objective about our shots Mike

I'm lucky to have a Sony A1 and have no plans to change it, but if I did then for underwater only work, I would now seriously consider M43. I got my A1 for topside wildlife work as, at the time, it was far superior to anything else out there in regards of AF and the 'zebras' feature. However, once underwater, these become a lot less important. The only significant difference I have found between the Sony and my previous, excellent, Nikon D500 is for super macro once the SMC-1 is attached as with the Nikon I found the focussing struggled and I often had to 'rock' the housing back and forth, whereas with the Sony it works much better. The other big advantage I find is being able to view an image in the viewfinder when shooting macro as it limits movement especially important on muck dives, and nowadays as long as you get a recent camera I don't think you'll fins using an electric viewfinder too difficult. I certainly don't. There is the odd issue with sunbelts and wide angle but generally I prefer it If I were to sell all my topside gear I'd be tempted to go M43 due to the weight as all my underwater photography is travel based. I believe M43 to be good enough IQ wise if shot well Mike

Thankyou Sony A1 and 90mm in a nauticam housing Nauticam SMC-1 Two retra strobes, no snoots on these as I wanted a bit more background interest Mike