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Just my own 2 pence on the Sony side. I've been using my A7C for about 5 years now in a Nauticam housing and YS-D1/D3 strobes. I went that route coming from an RX-100 in Ikelite housing, to keep the overall housing smaller. I basically have three combinations that seem to work, depending on the environment: 1) Most versatile: Kit 28-60mm lens, WWL-1B, and a CMC-1. I've captured Wire Coral goby, then 5 minutes later (attached pics) a porpoise pod, and it all fits in a single travel Pelican Air. 2) Macro: Sony 90mm with MF-2 strobe and OS-1 snoot. Recently added an MFO-3 which adds a sizable amount of versatility to the set-up. For travel, now I'm also stuffing photo gear into another backpack for Macro and WA. 3) WA: Trying to keep things compact, I have the Canon 8-15 with metabones adapter, with the Zen DP100. Good dome for close focus/WA, but I'm kind of thinking about a slightly larger dome like the Nauticam 140mm to improve the IQ on the Zen's softer edges. Anyway, just another opinion. Jim

I'd be taking the MFO-1 along and try it on the trip as well. It doesn't take up much room, so why not. Try them both side by side and see what works best for you. Stick it in a pocket and swap it on the adapter as wanted. If you still want to get rid of MFO-1, let me know. Shooting with a Sony 90nn FF and looking to pick one up.

I suppose most didn't catch Matthew's comment, but I'd also be interested in how other color-deficient folks handle that defect. I also have a bit of red-green deficiency but rarely have someone tell me my colors are out of whack.

Thanks Dave, that's what I was looking for and aligns with my thoughts as well! Where'd you find the sea spider?

Thanks Chris, cropping has generally been the practice so far and looking at the general utility. Here in Seattle and our Pacific Northwest, we have our share of the macro critters but there may be more utility in the MFO-1 on a regular basis.

Looking to add to the equipment collection and considering either the SMC-3 or MFO-1 (already have the MFO-3!). I know they are designed for different uses, but from your own experience, is one or the other more useful. For macro, I have the Sony 90mm (on A7C) and have CMC-1 and 2 for use with the kit 28-60mm lens (and they work great), but at times getting a little more magnification on the 90mm without a TC would be nice. Otherwise, having extra depth of field and less hunting on the lens make the MFO-1 a good option. Couldn't find a good thread for both of these lens, so I'm just looking for opinions.

Aren't the softer edges expected with the 140mm? I shoot a Zen DP100 with the Canon 8-15 (Nauticam NA-A7C + N100 ->N120 converter (no extension)) and run into the same, It's just the limitation of the dome size, thus the advantages of the larger domes. Can that be minimized with extensions?

I have two bayonet caddies on the camera rig, one on a float and one on a separate stub arm and can swap lens in a couple seconds. Thought about the pocket solution, but with dry gloves, it just doesn't work.

Not the first blackwater dive in Kona, but the first time using the new MFO-3/ Sony 90mm on A7C and MF-2 strobe. Seas were running 5-6' on the way off-shore, but diving was pretty calm. I always find it interesting that there's can be variation in the various critters from dive to dive.

Kind of depends on what you're doing. If mostly snoot, then attach, if mostly macro and occasional snoot, I store it and attach as necessary. I had a large Marelux snoot that barely fit in a large drysuit pocket, but the Backscatter OS-1 easily clips off with a small bolt snap to the camera tray.

Backscatter OS-1 Snoot caddy uploaded to Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pDRKG. I've added some splines on the Mini-Flash end which match nicely with the features on the MF, it's a snug fit, but it doesn't rotate around the MF.

I currently have a small bolt snap on the OS-1, but thought a mount clip would potentially work as mine is usually off by default. The example on Printables has the aperture slides; nice touch. Always takes about 3 to 4 iterations to get these things right, if not more!

Has anyone made a caddy clip for the Backscatter Mini Flashes to OS-1? If not, looks like I'm off to another project.

Adding to the MFO-3 posts, I had a chance to try the lens with my A7C and 90mm macro in our wonderful Puget Sound Seattle water yesterday AM. The rock fish pics are with the MFO-3 and without, from about the same distance from the fish. The Sea Angel was just flapping in the water column and is about a centimeter in length, so approximates a lot of the Hawaiian blackwater critters. For blackwater, I think this provides a very nice solution from what I'm seeing. Storing the lens is a little more difficult than the smaller CNC diopters and I usually use the bayonet mount. I can see why a flip holder is going to work out a better! There was also negligible weighting issues with that lens being so far out in front. Only one dive so far, but this looks like a great lens. .

Do you use the nauticam with that setup or would those lenses fit with the ikelite? Because the 28-60 does seem to fit a lot of criteria in that case. Yes, I'm using the Nauticam NA-7AC housing.

Just my 2-cents as well, from experience on the 7AC for about 3 years,. I suspect I'm due for an upgrade when I can throw the $$$ at new body and housing. I've found there's basically three different configurations I use: 1) General scenarios: The kit 28-60mm is a nice lens underwater and gives a lot of flexibility. I normally use the WWL-1B for wider shots and carry the CNC-1 on a caddy for instant macro (even swapping in water with dry gloves). This has really served well and provides versatility for anything from a nudibranch to manta on a single dive. 2) Macro: I also used the Sony 50mm for a couple dives and it was a dog! AF is just incredibility slow. I have an adapted Nikon 60mm and it's a better. My general macro is the trusted Sony 90mm and I recently added an MFO-3 for blackwater and some of the bigger critters. I haven't tried the Sony100mm but keeping an eye on it, but could entail a new port. As such, so far everything is using the same port for macro. 3) Finally, dedicated wide angle: I have the adapted Canon 8-15mm fisheye and really like it, and use it with a Zen DP100. Great for CFWA, but I need to get a larger dome for sharper wide angle as the corners are soft with the smaller dome. The main issue with the 8-15mm and the 7AC housing, due to the OEM zoom that resides on teh port adapter, you had to install camera into housing/adapter port, then install lens, and finally, install dome. I created a printable zoom gear that lets me extract the camera/lens at as one unit, and uses the housing zoom gear rather than the port zoom gear.

We've looked into running object detect and identification models at the edge (on-device with smaller hardware) and the biggest issue ends up being compute and storage. Most models today run on GPUs, thus the massive data centers and the associated run-up in nVidia stock! We've been able to run some of the smaller models on-device, but without cloud connectivity, something like a species identification model may be a bit too far for current hardware. You may get something that will identify at a larger level (whale, shark, porpoise, etc), but granular ID could be tough.

Very cool Peter! I think we did Verde Island the day before your group went over.

Found this shrimp in the finger coral at Koloko outside Honokohau Harbor, Kailua-Kona, HI. Any help on this one? Resolution reduction lost hair detail on the front claws.

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.