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.

Larger housings actually are generally more buoyant than smaller housings. With Retra Maxi strobes on my NA-6400 (or NA-R50) I need to tie a string on the rig and pull it around like a helium balloon at the fair. I am going to have to remove some floatation or add lead. That is with a 4.33 dome, with the WWL it is a few ounces negative still and either way balance is perfect. I do not know if it was engineering expertise or just luck but the Retra Maxi strobes are perfect in the water, neutral, sometimes bigger is more littler. The price Delta between the HF-1 and the Retra Maxi is not huge, with floats on the HF-1 it is larger than the Maxi. But if I had an HF-1, I think I would want a set of those floats, looks like a great solution to a boat anchor of a strobe and they look professional and I bet they can be gotten in blue!

My WWL-1 has hundreds and hundreds of dives over six years, going on seven, and not a single spot. I keep the plastic cap on, I rinse both the dome glass and the rear lens element and pat or blot dry them with a microfiber cloth between dives if I cannot keep the rig wet in the rinse tank. Same with my housing port. I do have some damage on my housing port but not enough to affect images yet, probably from forgetting to rinse. I will replace it soon probably, sooner or later maybe. High calcium fresh water can spot also.

That is what I am, thinking, otherwise the FLs make no sense.

Still no autofocus fisheye for APS-C Sony?

The HF-1 strobes are 8 ounces negative in saltwater if I recall. The Retra Maxi are neutral to slightly buoyant. A half pound hanging off the arms is quite a lot IMO. Yes, my ball ends/O-rings are worn out but still, with the Maxi I do not need to clamp them down, with the HF-1 set I tried I did, otherwise soon they were dragging in the sand. Of course, if I am swimming hard into a current, the S220 strobes, which are slightly negative but so small they produce little drag do not swing back or down. I expect the Retras/HF-1 and other similar full size strobes to be noticeable in such condition and will need me to pull the arms inward and tighten the clamps when in transit from A critter to B critter. The Atoms AF-1 is nearly six ounces negative, that is still quite a bit negative. Adding floats to compensate bulks the rig up so the question to me becomes large neutral strobes or very negative nearly as large strobes with bulked up floats on the arms, pick the poison. My NA-6400 was about 4 ounces, maybe 6 ounces negative with the S220 strobes or slightly less and now with the Retras it is neutral in the same configuration. With the HF-1 strobes it was a brick and would plummet to the bottom.

Maybe the message is that you need new Retra Maxi strobes? The problem for me with the HF-1 is are two fold. They are very negative in the water, enough so that my clamps have to be overly tight to prevent the strobes from not falling down. Second, they have proprietary (RC) TTL that only works with the TG series cameras and I guess the OM1? May work with some Sony cameras but uses a proprietary trigger that will not fit in my housing which already has a UWT trigger. Backscatter could not have told their China box factory to add a universal TTL mode? Does not work with my Canon either. Same thing with the Atom. Cannot have a standard TTL mode? I have now used my new Retra Maxi strobes in the pool on practice subjects and found that the TTL works quite well with both my Canon and Sony. Yes, I mostly shoot in manual strobes mode but having TTL is a solid requirement for me because there are times I want to shoot TTL. And the Maxi is essentially neutral ln the pool and possibly slightly buoyant in salt water. I do not have to tighten my clamps down to support them.

At least we have Alex and Matt and the Underwater Photography Show to get an underwater camera fix 😀. As soon as my wife hears that intro music she gets up and leaves the room, "if you are going to listen to that again, I am going to go read a book!" I keep trying to explain to her there is more than one episode, ha.

Yes, thank you Dave. My bumpers and knobs are great. Used them in the dive pool today. Great! Cannot wait for my trip in a few weeks to use my new strobes with DH bumpers and knobs!

I have mostly ULCS and Nauticam clamps. The ULCS are US standard 1/4X20 and 1/4X28 (fine). The M6 is quite close to 1/4X20 which is slightly larger in diameter. You could possibly convert your M6 outer clamp to 1/4X20 by running a tap through it and then thereafter use the ULCS clamp knobs in your preferred color. Use a permanent thread locker (271 or similar) on the outer clamp half. Just a thought, have not tried it.

He would have to release vacuum and then turn the switch off. Upon rearming the circuit with the "switch" of some sort he envisages then restore the vacuum. But he would not have to open the housing. I just open my housing in the evening, give everything a once over and then close it back for the next day and pull vac about 30 minutes before departure or when convenient. But, I recharge between dives or at lunch as needed without having to open the housing on the boat or a sandy beach or some other undesirable place.