Nemrod

Hmmmm, maybe the OP needs a Dave Hicks cover for his rare S&S lens! Maybe I do too for my Nauticam dome ;).

I always keep my lenses covered entering and exiting. My WWL hard cover is drilled for a piece of cave line and bolt snap. The cover is always attached to the lens safety line or clipped off to my scooter ring when in use. My CMC lenses and dome port have neoprene covers which likewise have a small bolt snap for me to clip them off to the camera when on the lens or to my scooter ring in use. Ikelite has several full neoprene covers with a zip drawstring that are easier to slip on than the bikini type. I use one of those on my 4.33 inch Nauticam dome. And, of course, a bolt snap.

Yes, same thought here. I was of the thinking that the WACP would be at least as good as the WWL and IMO the WWL is not prone especially to flare. Flare has not been a problem for me in thousands of shots and I love to shoot back against the sun for CFWA and other WA shots. This photo, divers and boat, is fairly horrid, I missed the moment but it demonstrates that the WWL does not flare. In fact, I cannot recall ever seeing flare though I am sure it can occur, any lens can flare into the sun. The fish ball photo shows flare, Canon S90, Inon UFL165AD (acrylic dome), a lens that is prone to flare if not careful, I have never had the WWL ever do anything like this under much worse conditions.

I have never owned or used a glass dome with a WA or FE lens. However, I have a 4.33 acrylic dome and a fisheye and I find the WWL much sharper corner to corner and much less prone to flare shooting into the sun and general internal reflections. I too am curious as to why the various flavors of the WACP would be prone to flare? Such would certainly be a part of my "dream" system, I thought. Flare can be artistic but it can also be quite annoying.

I usually will burp my WWL. It is bayonet and floods quickly and does not retain a large bubble. But jumping in hurriedly, I usually will find a myriad of tiny bubbles on the glass dome, rear element and port. I have found that if in a hurry swishing the camera about a little and fanning water to the dome and bayonet area will clear most of them rapidly without burping. I am pretty fast at burping the lens, maybe ten seconds but a lot can happen in ten seconds I suppose. Yes, that can be a disadvantage to a water contact optic.

The non removable port housings like the new AOI for the R50 and the two from Nauticam for the little Z and the R50 should not be thought of as full feature rigs. They are meant to offer larger sensor alternatives to the now extinct pro-compacts and are intended as grab and go travel systems. Toss in your flavor of WWL and a CMC and some travel friendly strobes like the S220s and it will all fit into a sub carry on size case. All of that will go in the little carry on with the camera ensconced in the housing, no gears, no tray to attach, no unreliable trigger that needs batteries and multiple domes and ports and multiple lenses. I can get everything in the case but for the hard float arms. Standard arms and Stix floats might go. Not even getting into the CMC-2/1, I can cover a fairly large range of FOV with up to the dome focus and zoom through.

Inon strobes are terribly simple. No Phd needed. The new Retra Maxi is even more so except for the user assignment to the U mode for either the video or pre-flash cancel! What is UI? User Instruction? Y'all read instructions!

If it is GN36 then it will be in the same power class as the Atom and Marelux Apollo and unlike the Marelux it has pre-flash cancel and unlike the Atom it has standard TTL capability.

You probably are right and It is okay with me. As long as they use over the shelf batteries that I can at least order and not some sort of $ proprietary pack that will be discontinued next year. But, regardless, the Inon Z360 is AA batteries :(.

Not sure AA batteries are a handicap. What with all the evolving regs. The case and battery chamber are as always so it is surely four AA batteries. So is the Retra Pro Max with a booster for eight. I am kind of burned on Inon due to the lack of support and warranty in North America. I have tried to get repairs, no go, sent off in desperation to a popular repair place and he has had my strobe for over three years now. Photo from Bluewater Photo site:

Of course they did because I just bought Retra Maxi strobes. I knew it! Darn, well, it was past due a couple of years. And I wanted power but I would have been okay with this 🫤, maybe.

And the trigger module has to fit in the housing and I doubt it will go into the NA-6XXX series housings. It certainly will not in mine.

The Atom strobe will NOT work TTL using your Sony flash. Nor with the UW Technics trigger board. I have both in my NA-6400. And use either as strikes my fancy, when I need 100% reliability I go pop up. No, the Atom flash will not run TTL with either, it will do manual but only manual. Thus my new strobes are Retra Maxi. Which will run TTL with either my UWT board or the pop up flash equally well. And with my Canon NA-R50 also using the pop up very nicely, both TTL and manual. The YS-D3 should also be capable of supporting standard TTL via the pop up. I did not consider the YS strobes because of their poor reliability track record and because they are a marginal step up in power vs my excellent S220 strobes which also work standard TTL from a pop up or UWT trigger board.

Let me verify, you spoke with a knowledgeable person at Nauticam and the WWL-1 and WWL-1C do not have external coatings on the dome and rear element nor their other water contact optics?

What system do you have? The Backscatter strobes do not have universal TTL and only work with their proprietary trigger or OM cameras. There is a big power and size jump between the YSD3 and the HF-1, maybe the new Atom is closer to your needs, assuming you have an OM camera. The price Delta between the HF-1 plus float collar is not that great compared to the Retra Maxi which does have universal TTL and some other features, like a huge power range and neutral buoyancy and a for real warranty I hope not to need ;). YS strobes have not been noted for their reliability now for several generations, not sure if the D3 is any better or their newer D130.