RVBldr

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!

12 days at Misool Eco Resort (Raja Ampat, Indonesia) in FEB, about 33 dives. Way too much fun with a lot of varied conditions and photo subjects. Always happy for the critiques! Pics shot with Sony 7AC, 28-60mm kit lens, and either WWL-1B or CMC-1.

I shoot that configuration with Sony 7AC, but use the Zen DP-100 (it was a cost consideration). With that dome, the corners get a bit soft but it works for CFWA shots. I wasn't a big fan of the zoom knob on the extension port as you had to install the lens after installing the camera body then install the dome, so I printed a zoom gear that would work with the knob on the housing, allowing me to install the camera/lens as one unit. There's one fisheye on this page, but most of the wider angle were shot with the lens at 15mm. Jim Piavis - Browning Pass (God's Pocket) at 8mm the lens hood shows in the shots, but with the Zen, it's removable as needed during the dive.

@Dave_Hicks Any idea how much closer you're able to get with the MFO-1?

Had a great trip to Indonesia which included 3 dive days at Lembeh Resort - what a great place to dive if you're into muck diving. Visibility was OK, but not too much better then what we find here in Seattle, although a lot warmer! Here's a small set of some of the usual critters and all pics were taken with Sony A7C, Nikon 60mm Micro lens/ Monster adapter, and YS-D3/ MF-2 strobes. Due to weight limitations, I decided to leave my Sony 90mm macro at home as I thought I'd do some blackwater diving (although that never came to pass). Snoot pics used the MF-2 and associated snoot.

Hi Ross, good to see you here, you did a dive with us from Silent World a couple weeks ago. Great little shop you have there at the resort!

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.