RVBldr

Really great video Peter! I see you got a manta fly-by as well, we weren't so lucky.

Ha! Yes, we most likely did as I was with the Silent World group! Looking forward to your videos! Being a fan of macro and muck-diving (living in Seattle), I thought Dumaguete had the better assortment of critters for sure.

Had a great trip to both Puerto Galera and Dumaguete this month with about 4 days in PG and another 3 in Dumaguete. Stayed at Atlantis Resorts for both locations, which was very nice with great staff. With half-moon phases, currents were minimal and visibility good. Everyone has their likings, but I can say the muck diving at Dumaguete was a favorite with a good variation in muck and reefs, as well as a trip to Apo Island. Also did a side trip to Oslob for the whale shark snorkeling, a bit of a tourist circus but the locals have figured out how to convert fishing revenue to tourist income. I'll spare the pretty reef and common nudi pics, but there's a great variety from the rice-grain Shaun-the-Sheep up to the larger varieties. Equipment was Sony A7C, 28-60mm/WWL-1B/CMC-1, or 90mm macro, or with the whale sharks, Cannon 8-15/Zen D100 dome (natural lighting).

Do you have the extension on the release tab? That makes it significantly easier with dry gloves.

Earlier this year, had a nice trip and stayed at Volivoli, about 2 hours from airport via van. Not really much of a house reef, but you can get the dives in for sure. Some of my pics were posted to this thread: https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/2386-fiji-volivoli-may-2025/

This is a link for Github .stl file, GitHub - CaliforniaCurrentsPhoto/snoot-adapter-BackScatter-to-Sea-and-Sea for an adapter from the YS-D3 snoot, to the Backscatter Optical Snoot if you have a YS-D3 and don't want to use th3 MF-2.

Just my 2-cents. Diving the local Seattle marine waters, I've tried the Marelux snoot on a YS-D3 and it's a very nice snoot with a knob enabled beam adjustment and battery powered aiming, but the downside is really the size and bulk. I've been pretty happy with my MF-2 snoot. I tried a basic snoot for the YS-D1's, but have found that the compact size of the MF-2 is really nice for snooting and much easier. There's a 3D print for an adapter to a YS-D3 to adapt the MF-2 snoot, but I haven't tried that in the water.

Diving cold water weekly, no issue with dry gloves and taking on/off lens. I use a WWL-1B with the bayonet mount so it's on and off frequently depending on the subjects out and about. As Dave mentioned, yea, sometimes a fisheye is great, and sometimes you go with the macro depending on the junk in the water. Summer in Seattle is macro season for sure. Last November, God's Pocket had some nice viz for sure.

Would be interesting to see some blackwater examples when able. Trying to optimize a FF Sony always seems to be a challenge.

Negative, just the CMC-1 bayonet attachment on the 28-60mm kit lens. I wasn't anticipating a lot of macro so left the 90mm and port at home this trip.

For future reference, I had a CMC-1 stuck on a bayonet adapter and tried various methods including a strap wrench. All no-go. The one that did it for me was to hit the aluminum adapter ring with a heat gun and that will expand the ring just very slightly and allow the release of the lens threads.

Volivoli has a very nice camera room, secured at night, with probably 12-16 stations with plenty of room. Dive Ops was pretty good, but depending on how many are on the boat, it can get a bit crowded for sure. There's no pier/wharf, so they back the boats up at high tide, but use a small skiff to run folks to boats when the tide is out. The staff is also awesome and very friendly; I'd give high ratings overall to the entire staff.

Had a very nice, first visit to Fiji and Volivoli this month. Although the water visibility was a bit meh, the reefs look to be in nice shape with the obligator explosion of color in the soft corals. Not a lot of the bigger critters but a fair assortment of nudis and smaller fish. I found I had a LOT of nice reef pics. Travel was fairly easy with direct flight from Dallas to Fiji, followed by a 2-hour van ride. Much more relaxed then trying to reach the outter reaches of Indonesia! Camera is a Sony A7C, YS-D1/D3 strobes, 28-60mm/WWL-1B/CMC1, or Canon 8-15mm/Zen DP100 small dome.

I've used the 10bar floats for years and tend to like them, even cutting them down as necessary. I still use two Nauticam arm floats + two standard arm with 10bar, but I tend to pack the floats in dive bag or other bags to save space in the camera box.

I don't think it's as nice as the straight Sony 90mm macro, or the 60mm Nikon micro/CMC-2, but it does a nice job. Lots of versatility, I did manta shots with the WWL-1B, then swapped to some nudibranch pics with the CMC-1, so you can't be the in-water flexibility from big to macro. While we were there, we heard it was sold out through '29. I can see why!