Nemrod

I use a micro fiber cloth to final dry or even between dives, I carry and bag of them. I also have an electric battery powered blower. It has two (lipo) battery packs, cost about $80. It will blow all the water out of buttons and off a lens or port or housing in a jiffy after a freshwater rinse. Worth the additional battery pack weight. It is a tiny little thing but produces a lot of velocity. I blow dry my camera between dives unless it is a short interval and the camera can stay wet. Glad to hear the polishing is working. That is reassuring there is a solution for film and spots. Now about that white haze that develops on Nauticam housings despite intense efforts to keep it from happening is aggravating as all h-e-----.

BS charged him $250 dollars. And the issue continues now. It has malfunctioned from the beginning. Being my regular dive buddy, I have witnessed it virtually never having a green light. Despite the $250 repair and despite replacing the valve and the electronics. What part is the lemon, I am tending to believe now the whole caboodle.

Two issues issue I see and have observed with my buddy's camera, AOI Octo, the constantly flashing red vac light is being seen in the strobe windows and confusing his YS strobes. The other is that the trigger is very weak and is insufficient to reliably trigger a YSD3 strobe. Probably due to the trigger battery being always dead and under drain from the flashing red vacuum warning light. He might get a green light once out of ten. Ridiculous. His YSD3 strobes function perfectly with his backup TG. One or the other or neither work with the AOI reliably and have even locked up.

Not sure saltwater will make a difference. The Inon 330 did not just look brighter, it was brighter factually than the YS-D130. What is bizarre is that the S&S YS-D3 with the flat diffuser was also brighter and wider than the D130. Well, hmmm, strange. They were on my short list but the YS reputation saved me possibly.

Backscatter did include the D130 in their testing. Maybe not the real world, or maybe it was too real.

Yes, you are right. I give up. I have the entire system in my suitcase. I put the housing in it's original padded bag in the suitcase and bubble wrapped my strobes. WWL in it's original padded case. I will have two checked bags right near the 50 pounds limit. Arrrgggh. Laptop and lipo batteries in my little carry on. And my few meds I seem to suddenly need, I guess.

Leaving for the Maldives in a few days. The Canon/Nauticam R50 made the cut with a CMC-2 macro diopter and my WWL-1 for wide angle and two Retra Maxi strobes. I am not Business or First Class so limited to one tiny personal item and one small carry on up to 7kg. Strobes, arms, WWL-1 will be checked, no way around it. Domestic to the Carib destinations I carry all that on but do not have the restrictive limits that international carriers seem to delight in. I do not see how y'all carry on all the domes and strobes -- ?

There have only been a few studies to look at this question and the results were essentially that strobes did not disturb the creatures whereas video lights did. The study I am thinking of involved seahorses, known for being sensitive and shy. Handling, prodding, spending excessive time on a critter, even proximity alone, are likely to affect creatures as much as a quick photo. But, hang out on top of them and pester them, anyone would be annoyed. With or without a camera and strobes. From the test and in use, I have never seen a strobe that can go from so little to so much with the twist of the dial of the Retra Maxi. It is the most and possibly the least.

More convinced than ever that everybody needs a pair of the little Inon S220 strobes. Almost as bright as the new D130 in the center and notice the beam is wider in the horizontal axis than the D130. Clearly an elliptical beam, but that is per Inon design.

I want to thank Backscatter Photo for the most informative and fact based comparisons on strobes ever. We can quibble over details that might subtly affect the results here and there and improvements in the graphics but regardless, huge effort, thank you..

Nauticam NA-R50, WWL-1, Inon S220X2, Roatan:

I think Back Scatter did make a useful and honest attempt to provide good data. I also agree with Retra that improvements could be made especially in the graphs and some of the measurement methodology. I really enjoy the side by side comparison where I can pick a strobe and add diffusers. There is no serviceability or reliability chart! Inon and YS for example. Basically throw away strobes. True, I have Inon strobes that are 20 years old and still going and several which developed various problems with switches and disappeared into the nether world when sent off for repair. I will gladly pay more, even a lot more for a strobe that has a strong warranty and can be repaired, serviced and even updated. This is fun! Nearly the same brightness in the center but clearly one strobe is producing a lot more power. The problem with GNs! And then the Maxi vs HF-1, just what I see there, the Maxi has a fuller, smoother light output and is if we must say it, slightly more powerful regardless of the charts, I am looking at it with my eyeballs!

You perhaps misunderstood, the 16-45 is the lens that AOI and Nauticam and Marelux R50 housings are designed to use with the intention that the range is expanded on the macro end using various available macro diopters like the CMC-1/2 and on the wide end by the WWL-1 or the AOI UWL-09Pro. Both producing a wide 130 degree field and a huge zoom range. My lament was that had it been a 16-45 I could use the WWL-1C being slightly smaller than the WWL-1 and the UWL-09. Of course the WWL-1C can still be mounted with the FOV limited to 118 degrees vs 130+.

I would like to see brightness measured as a ratio of center vs some standard degrees from center, like at 90 degrees to axis and 120 degrees to axis. Edit, I meant 45 and 60 degrees.

The R50 with the 18-45 suffers from the same things any lens does through a flat port in that wide is not very wide when it comes to big stuff and zoomed in is not quite zoomed enough for macro. Thus the Nauticam housing and the AOI housing are both configured for use with their respective macro diopters and wide angle lenses. Otherwise it is what I call a fish pic lens ;). My one real complaint for the lens is that it is an 18mm and would prefer it be a 16mm, thus the WWL-1B or the AOI UWL-09 will be needed instead of the slightly more compact WWL-1C. The pros are also the cons, no ports to tote about, no expensive trigger than does not work when I need it to, more travel friendly but relies upon external wet optics but you get by with a single camera lens and no domes, vfs, monitors. For surface photography, my complaint there is that please Canon, come on now, give the little thing a modicum of weather/dust sealing please. The R50 is fast to focus, not fussy about dim light, takes pictures like what you would expect of a Canon camera. The guys with the latest full frame Sony AR7-5-6-IIIV-B will not be impressed with their domes and monitors and whatever that $7,500 Nauticam lens is and 45 degree view finders, but heck, the idea was a compact outfit that can produce stunning photos and hold it's own and that is what it is.