RVBldr

Just a follow-up from the trip to Lembeh and then Misool. Per thread, I really didn't have any issues with carry-on, consolidating the camera body, lens and batteries in the carry-on backpack. I used a smaller luggage for bulk of housing, strobes, etc, and a 2nd bag for dive gear and shorts/shirts. We did pay for an additional 15 kg which was good thinking as total check-in weight was about 2 kg under my 35 kg limit. The only hic-up we had was Lion-Air not having our additonal weight purchase in the system when we departed Manado, but check-ins at Jakarta and Sorong all went well.

On the bolt snap topic, if you're wearing gloves, you can't beat the XDeep snaps! It's hard to make basic improvements on a bolt snap, but XDeep has modified the sliding latch to make it much more usable with your thumb as well as made the attach loop big enough to get a finger in there to orient the clip. null

I have an inbound lens with a #22 s/n as well as the adapter with V6 firmware so we'll see if I see the same freeze as you did.

For Lion Air, do you guys recommend a Pelican or an inconspicuous bag? I've normally just traveled with a Pelican for carry on, but I suspect I'll need to check the bulk of the camera gear.

Very good to know! Thank ! Yes, I agree on the 50mm - 100%! Very frustrating for sure. Overall, it does produce nice images, but the slow AF is a killer for blackwater or other quicker animals.

I it would be good to understand if that's a serial number issue with earlier lens or a more recent issue.

Extension tube for the Sony 50mm to get it a bit closer to the 60mm. Unfortunately, it does limit the focus on that lens.

I've heard there's a couple of folks using the Nikon 60mm f2.8 ED lens with Monster adaptor for successful blackwater shooting. If so, will that lens and adapter fit with the Nauticam port used with the Sony 90mm macro (N100 Macro Port 105)? The Sony 50mm macro + AC-11 adapter works well, just confirming. From what I see, the Nokon + adapter is 124mm from flange, and the Sony 90mm is 130mm.

Towards end of January I'm heading for several days in Lembah then on to Misool using Lion Air in-country. Any recent travel reports on what to expect for traveling with camera gear? I see a max of about 7Kg for carry-on and 15Kg for checked baggage, but can pay pre-trip for up to 30kg.

Software isn't cheap to build and costs need to be recovered somewhere along the value chain. People don't like Adobe's subscription for the Photo Package, but for about $10 USD/month, I get updates regularly and a solid bit of software. I need to pull down the Backscatter Xterminater package for a demo. I've continuously provided the same feedback to Adobe, but the capability hasn't progressed with them. After 14 years with Microsoft, customer inputs take a lot of time to make their way into the software product cycle, to supporting the small developers will usually provide new features way faster then the monoliths at some minor risk.

It's taken a while to get this zoom gear right, but I finally got a good working version. I have a Sony 7AC with the Canon 8-15 fisheye, and MC-11 adapter. I really didn't like the gear mesh with the Nauticam 100-120 adapter as the lens and adapter gears are at 90-degrees, so movement is a bit chunky, and you had to disassemble half the unit to remove the camera from housing. This zoom gear is designed to place the teeth in the same location as the 28-60mm kit lens, and thus uses the zoom knob on the housing, which has a linear mesh instead of 90-deg (lens zoom is now very smooth). It also allows you to remove the camera without taking off the dome, then the lens, to remove the camera. I expect this would probably work for any of the A7C versions using the Canon 8-15/MC-11 setup. If any of the Sony A7C folks would like a copy of the .step file for your own printing, I'm happy to share. Just hit me with a PM. Jim

Thanks Phil, I get the longer focal range, but to effect that, does it lower the minimum focal distance, extend the max focal distance, or both? In the case of the Sony 90mm, we have the Full, Infinity - .5m, and .5m - .28m. Just trying to clarify how this potentially manifests itself in reality. Does it effectively just minimize the hunting through those ranges? If I select the lower range .28mm -.5m, would we basically get a .28m - 1.42m range?

If that's true, I see a potential to use the 90mm in blackwater, which eliminates the current MFD on the 90mm and makes it unsuitable on the Sony. If so, this gives a potential option to the sub-par 50mm macro.

I'd also contend that the editing process for video is 10x that of stills if not more. Assuming you're not just throwing some individual clips on to SM, creating, editing, annotating, and publishing video is much more involved than some of our Lightroom workflows.

Bring your warm undies! 😉 Water in early October was consistently 47F/ 8.4C, so over a day of diving, it gets chilly.