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the AOI UCS-Q1RC does NOT do HSS, the new AOI Ultra InTeLi P1 Underwater Strobe UIS-P1 DOES do HSS

The MF2, I imagine but have not verified their HF-1 will be same.

aperture has nothing to do with FOV

Thread title "Looking for high res underwater photos" In first post in thread by you- "This got me thinking and looking at other people's images. Most people are posting 1920x1080 or smaller, even people with $10k setups. That is great for Instagram or showing a friend your dive trip, but I like having large prints. I really want to compare what I have to what good photographers are taking. Can anyone post or link any high res underwater photos, preferably with the camera, lens and housing models?" I believe people did what you asked for. Be well null

I called myself decent, never said I was great even admitted I didn't take it seriously enough to try and be great, but I do have enough experience and knowledge to spot you are missing some important concepts that are foundational to even being "not horrible" let along decent from a technical perspective, ignoring all the "artsy" stuff like composition and vision. You really can't tell the technical ability of a camera just by looking at folks pictures with said camera outside a controlled lab type test, you can't. Even superb photographers may identify some limitations of the tool they are using (camera) but will also never fully hit limitations of gear in other aspects. Lot's of that depends on what type of photography they do. Birder's tend to find more, for reasons. Underwater, some do a decent job doing tests as best they can, but rarely indeed do they approach truly controlled like in a lab..because water. Underwater, water is a massive part of the optics solution/part of what a sensor is gonna to see, resolve, as is what lens, port, or wet lens , much more than most will believe. That all said, you aren't limited by gear, you just aren't. Not even close

My friend, you don't know what you don't know right now, and you also don't know what you think you know that is actually wrong. You can't test and show the technical capability of the camera when you can't use it in a manner that will explore it. It's just a tool and you are holding that hammer up by the head and trying to drive nails and you may get a few in, to get a lot in without wasting effort or messing up the nails, you need to learn how to use the hammer correctly. If you take a class and learn the proper way things like iso, aperture, shutter speed, strobes or not etc work and interplay you will find that you will actually be positioned to figure out the limits of your system, right now you don't have the knowledge, and pushing back to everyone trying to help is not how you will get it. Being worried about the limitations of you system now would make my heart sing if I was trying to sell you a new system, but that would be doing you a disservice. You need instruction, not more gear.

RC is awesome for BW.. but yeah, slow null

Ok, the cave shot was taken with a 16MP camera, sorry not a reef pic..because honestly most reef pics are a bit boring to me after having been a resort instructor a bunch of years. But you will note, there is a fair amount of detail and makes works pretty good printed on canvas cheaply vs really putting any effort in the print, with good detail to someone looking at the print. The "tech" diver, also 16mp camera and cropped, again, until seriously pixel peeping, resolved better than you higher and bigger files. settings, not gear. These reef shots were also shot on a 16MB camera, the starfish one is a small file, yet the detail for what it resolves is crisp and falls apart under pixel peeping more than your image, but will make a better print than yours. It's not even a great shot by any means or stretch. Your 6300 will do better than this no question if shot the same place and settings, no question. Going after a equipment solution like a A7RV and you start to run into something else that creates a problem, the resolving power of the sensor will expose the slightest fault in your setting used to get the shot, the water itself will create resolving issues which is why the folks shooting that type of resolution are chasing VERY expensive lens (dry and/or wet) and port solutions and spending so much energy on as well as the cash aspect in getting absolutely exact nodal points etc. "Close enough" with the amazing ability of the very top cameras we can bring underwater is not good enough if you want to not just wring out all you can out of the system but ALSO to not have that amazing capability of the system to expose every flaw and produce LESS usable end product. It sounds counterintuitive but well, it just is. I am a decent photographer that can when so inclined make decent images. I actually know enough to know that if I went and got an A7RV and the best len/ports possible that without a question the output I would get (images) would actually be worse than I can get now. I would need to be more disciplined and exacting than I am willing to be because when I shoot, it really is to relax and when I start to take it too seriously I don't enjoy it as much. I spend too much time underwater teaching stuff like cave that I like but not enjoy per say when teaching because need to be 100% switched on when doing. 90% of the time when I bring a camera underwater it's to try and just..enjoy and literally look around with another lens, while not being so in that lens I lose situational awareness(like ask any serious photographer how many sharks, rays or something cool has swam by them a few feet away while they didn't notice because trying to get the perfect shot of a freaking christmas tree worm). Anyhow.. hope this helps a bit. I would be disappointed with my results if I was you based on what you shared as well, and I know you can get MUCH better with technique, skill and knowledge more so with looking for equipment solutions I have other images on flickr ( ) , i don't really curate well or take that seriously enough either. 🙂

if by another league you mean worse, yes it would be a much worse image shot the exact same with a A7RV for good reasons

You don't have some of the basics down seems to me a bigger issue than the lens/camera. I'm sorry, but it's obvious and maybe just saying will help you a bit. you have shutter speed and FPS (frames per second from video) confused. The ISO comment, I think you have a misconception, aperture and shutter speed is more relevant to darkening the background or not. None of the issues you are describing are apsc or sensor size issues at all, I am not sure where you have gotten that idea from. Your interest in getting better detail in a technical sense doesn't solve the underlying issues, and the other Chris was trying to help and you seemed pretty annoyed. I will take a more blunt approach and you can get annoyed or not, it's OK. But if you want better images (including detail), you need to think much more than just what gear. These are same image, adjusted in post just with curves.. the same amount of detail is in both, but how the file is managed makes what we see very different. null I think a good class on underwater photography would benefit you much more than looking for an equipment solution to a skills and knowledge problem.

honestly, your idea may get you an image or two, but I am more keying in on the fact that cave/ccr/taking images/alone/shallow on CCR is starting to add a bunch of layers and a snowball effect regards dive safety is waiting for you. Just my take as a cave instructor trainer and someone that is pretty comfortable in caves on CCR taking images.

I have found in RC the camera mounted only flash can be slow and lag strobes I also have been using set to fill in per older manuals for older cameras than my O-M1 not 1/64 that I do use in non RC TTL or manual. I will note that O-M1 manual indicates in RC mode it can take up to 4 seconds to be ready to fire, which is glacial slow.

the e-m5 lll and OM5 AOI housings have the bump on the aoi housings and option of trigger or oly flash the OM1 (l and ll) AOI housing comes with a trigger built in and no bump/hump so you are using that trigger only option

Because the Olympus flash unit takes longer to charge between shots and many modern underwater strobes can charge much quicker, the flash triggers like the AOI new one can keep up with the strobe, great for fast moving action. Also, the flash triggers like AOI take less to no camera battery unlike the little Olympus flash units, so you have better battery life for more shots. Then there is possibly HSS depending on a variety of factors that camera, led flash triggers and strobe that you may have available.

All work in good to very good condition, never been flooded. The Olympus UFL-3's are $300 each or both for $550- Free shipping ground continental US, outside will charge what I get charged. Throw in neoprene covers for strobes The Sea & Sea YS-02 is $175 - shipping charged what I get charged The Sea & Sea YS-27DX is $75- shipping charged what I get charged Buy the YS-02 and the YS-27 DX together for $225 and shipping charged what I get charged The Sea & Sea YS-110's are only being sold as a pair for $350- shipping charged what I get charged The Sea & Sea YS-D2J's are in excellent condition (I kinda kept using my well used but working well YS-D1's after I got these) are $325 each or both for $575-Free shipping ground continental US, outside will charge what I get charged. Speaking of the YS-D1's, if you want a pair of well used, have some JB weld where the ball mount attached to the body (was starting to crack so went proactive) but never flooded and work great with a set of orange neoprene covers you can get the pair for $400, you pay shipping. They are set up on my camera at the moment as about to head out

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.