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So point 3 is a known issue with them. Frankly, That would be upsetting if in a remote place without internet to find out how to get them working, then to find out it's a known issue with the strobes and not a battery issue. Maybe that should be in user manual, a card in the box or something. You know you have an issue what you don't know is "where and when" it will occur and ruin more than a single dive but also potentially a trip for your customers who in buying your high end strobe are likely to be on expensive trips to far flung places to get the best possible results from their expensive purchase. I get you may not wish to advertise that you have a known fault, but giving all a up front warning and mitigation seems a better path than playing whack a mole cust service and also PR damage control (like this very thread) where you sorta comes across that you pretty much chastise your own customers. (tone is darn hard in the written word, and harder if folks are using as second language)

Hey Cameron, Do you happen to knw if it will fit in the Olympus PT-EP14?

well, that is one way to get sued if Ikelite has trademark on DS160.. just saying

The MF2 and the AOI QC look the same reflector/tube wise in pictures, hold both in hand and you see they are different size with the QC being bigger which makes sense when looking at specs such as the QC GN is 22, the MF2 is 16. I imagine the beam angles are wider on the QC but the MF-2 beam angles aren't listed and never tested either. Using diffusers to get a wider beam on a couple MF-2's for UWA with the lower output I think is truly a "in a pinch" at very best, where as the QC can be surprisingly OK and better than most would assume. Not ideal however.

I had the same thoughts as you, I seem to recall him posting somewhere he uses the dome diffusers on them. They are GN22 apparently, if the dome gets the beam wide enough it's still going to be in the ballpark of a YS-01/02/03/UFL-03 with diffuser. Lots of folks do use them in dual strobes and get good results, but for sure the strobes wouldn't be as forgiving of poor technique, strobe placement, framing as more powerful ones. here is his insta which has a lot more shots. I note the eagle ray is with the new AOI strobes that just released at DEMA.. This is with a single QC with the diffuser that came with, not the dome option , Oly EM-5 M Zuiko 9-18 at 10, f8, 1/160, 200 iso and flash fired. It's far from a great shot, I think I was more interested in the sunburst. I feel that for 8mm fisheye (MFT so 16) using 2x of these well placed and within distance you could get really good results with even coverage, even with the diffuser that came with. For sure you would run into some times that you would want more punch, I suspect however that compared to using the sea & sea units mentioned in this thread you would be much less frustrated waiting for strobe to recharge which is annoying more often than lack of punch for the majority of UWA/fisheye shots most of us are taking. If shooting in the 28-35 range (Full frame equiv) of divers, bigger stuff that are going to be further away for sure you want more power Again, price wise 2 of these are just over $700, that's impressive. My advice is to buy better strobes than you think you need generally (as I posted above) but if you are truly on a budget, worth consideration IMHO

Ok, a bit more to consider. Yes, the Backscatter Hybrid is like I said above an amazing value in a very, very powerful strobe that will last you a long time even as you upgrade systems. If $$$ is a primary concern, and having two strobes that are the same to make life all around much easier, you want fast recycle times,you want small and easy to transport, you want RC TTL for your Oly camera, take a look at what Andrew is doing using dual AOI QC-RC strobes with over here An Olympus shooter in Cayman Lots of self appointed "serious" UW photographers will scoff at the idea saying they aren't powerful enough or wide enough (while also thinking not expensive enough). Meh, they would be wrong. I have shot them myself (and gave to a poor budding photographer/instructor in Bali) and was very happy with the results. I had brought the system (Olympus E-m5, Oly PT-EP08 Housing, 9-18 and ZEN Dome and a 60mm with Olympus flat port to gift/tip when my trip was over having know the instructor had flooded her p&S recently and it was tertiary redundant to my needs. I had been given a AOI QC RC to test/use and keep so it went with it. Few quick macro shots I took w/ the system about an hour before I handed over the system as a gift. (I remember being a young broke instructor in Cayman in 1996 shooting a sea and sea mx-10 and one of my well heeled customers on my advice upgraded to a Nikonos V with 15mm from Cathy Church's shop (Herb made the sale of course, Cathy just chimed in for a few mins) from their Sea and Sea MotorMarine 2 system who handed me that Motormarine 2 system (MM2 with 15mm conversion lens and a 1:3 macro lens with YS-50) and how that was the most amazing thing ever, and how it grew my own photography. So it was time to pay it forward. (I still have that camera actually, among far too many other ones. nullnullnull

You never mentioned what oly camera or housing you are using. If you have a housing system and are using the olympus small hotshoe flash like the Olympus brand housing the YS-D2 is a pretty good match with recycle time which still be a bit slow if a moving subject like a Manta or shark when shooting wide angle where you are more likely to be doing bigger power dumps into the flash and strobes. If you are using a housing system with a fast recycle flash trigger then you may really want to look at strobes like the Backscatter Hybrid (and others) that are more modern and have a MUCH, MUCH faster recycle time so you will be able to get more shots as the subject swims by. Also, the Olympus RC is truly a really good TTL , generally better than non RC TTL (like with your YS-D2) if you use TTL in your shooting (and I have traditionally shot manual with my strobes , but having a couple strobes now with RC TTL and shooting Olympus have been using more and more often). It great with a more modern camera that has great auto focus tracking and using a flash trigger to really increase your keeper rate of big stuff shot wide. Some folks also are using macro but I haven't gone that far with in macro to make a recommendation one way or the other. Last consideration, many buy a great camera and housing first and then go budget on strobes. If you stick with u/w photography, you will regret. The Backscatter Hybrid is an amazing value and you are unlikely to ever grow out of it for photo, if you get serious into video you will however.

the current OM-1 AOI housing does work with either MK1 or Mk2, same as first one.

on the mohs hardness scale.. salt is 2.5, glass 5.5-6. Salt won't scratch glass other than really long term erosions with some energy behind it. It can however scratch coatings that aren't designed or choosen for a high mohs rating. You can get coatings between 6-8 fairly easily and I would hope most glass domes the manufs are doing that... but YMMV. That said, keeping a done wet until after rinsed and then dry it properly is important but I worry more about staining than scratches with glass ports. From a technique POV you gave good advice

indeed, my post was to inform that the common thinking that any scratch on a glass dome is a done deal is not true always. For water marks, much easier to fix.

same, even used it a full day once and fine git sandpaper to rectify a pretty bad scratch in a glass dome one. That said, It's major work, requires power tools (drill with sandpaper on discs, 1500, 2000 then 3000 and a bench buffer for the cerium oxide polish stage first with 2.3 microns then with 1.2 microns). It is "doable" but had I been anywhere close to where could send it for new glass, I would have. Is it as optically as good or strong? Nope, but you can't see the scratch in images, no distortion I can discern and it didn't implode at 180 ft so.. there is that. You aren't going to get much results without power tools, just saying, or be there a week for scratch, for the stains, yeah but use elbow grease (or at least a dremel with appropriate bits It also occurred to me, after I was done, that there are actual businesses in almost everywhere that polish glass for glasses on face and other stuff like construction on the daily and it was likely could find someone willing to give it a go with better tools and are used to polishing glass and I should have tried finding one to give it a go first

ignore my earlier post, see you went different direction

Saw this on ebay, looks like a pawn shop is selling off a bunch of albums full of UW images in E6. I clicked on one and took a look, just curious..and it caught my eye. Seals caught in nets. Then I started clicking thru and I realized whoever it was that took these pictures was very, very good. There are 13 lots of 300, I saved them in my watch list and got an offer of $50 a set, and darn if I am not slightly temped. This stuff could make a book, and I still have no clue who it is. Whoever it is Here is a link to the guy selling, you can click in and enjoy. It's really quite something, for those that have never shot 35mm, these images are truly the work of someone very good. Store on Ebay with the slide collections

It truly looks like a pretty special lens. https://phillipreeve.net/blog/review-laowa-10mm-2-8-af-the-beginning-of-a-new-era/?fbclid=IwAR2pYdcHaDj1zGb97Xz-GoBuAgD82qrv2AWHxaEn9WYQi9kXCpWKghJkZy8

Chris Richardson, I have been shooting UW on and off since the late 80's and full time in dive industry since 95. Currently on sabbatical having decided to take on some side projects and my partner at Deep 6 (Deep 6 About us) running the show daily now after me doing for the first 7 years. Well done to those that have started this up and wish all success