RomiK

just a side note - the pad was not photographed from the same distance for presented scenarios so the number of squares in crops and their size is meaningless in comparisons. the purpose of this comp was sharpness and rendering, perhaps CA, - not distortions or magnifications.

Before leaving for Indonesia tomorrow I was able to do a quick comparison between my new addition WACP-C and adapted 8-15 the photos of which I made back in spring. Disclaimer is that WACP samples were done with the strobe at ISO100 while for 8-15 I was using video light at higher ISO and so the results might not 100% comparable. Will reshoot when I have time. First the costs and weights of both systems (8-15 quoted at used price level): Both systems are kind of neutral-ish buoyant in this configuration: The following screenshots have this system: first Fit view followed by 300% comp view with rectangle at left upper corner showing the part of the frame compared. As I stated earlier I picked up samples which showed good focus for 8-15 as weaker light and also shutter speed without flash sometimes produced unfocused images. But these I think were sharp in the center and so let's get on with these. 8-15 TC2x in 140mm dome 55mm+35.5mm N100/120 vs WACP-C both F11: ... and 8-15 TC2x 55+35.5 in 180mm dome vs. WACP-C 28mm: And finally 8-15 TC2x 55+35.5 in 140mm at 30mm vs WACP-C at 60mm I am very happy with performance of WACP-C especially at 60mm as this is what I would be using for smaller subjects and crop heavily on 50Mpix image. I will leave conclusions to yourselves :-). For me I realized that 180 degrees view is not as important as the DOF and native AF lens performance which doesn't mean I am going to sell 8-15 combo - yet. Cheers :-)

No I wasn't using Pure Video... honestly I forgot about that mode the entire trip, I got it like two days before. I am leaving for Indonesia next week so I will try it there. It didn't look though as there would be dark, this video was like at 18m at Yolanda reef in Red Sea during the clear day. There were other dives ideal for that I guess like Thistlegorm but again ... We will see next week ...

Maybe switching over to YouTube would help? These built in players have their own issues, YT should play fine. Just click.

Still not sure what to think about it. I was expecting a little bit more in terms of sharpness. Weirdly it has kind of distance range where it is so so sharp but too close and it isn't (minimum focus distance obviously) but then it's like anything from 3m on is not sharp either. Judge for yourself, shot in 8k30.

Thanks, I've tried but IG no good search and quality 🤯... It may be a good subject for next UWPmag perhaps... I bet most photographers hate to travel with 230 but if 140 would be good comparable for these ultra wide lenses you may get some more sales :-) Myself I will do some pool pics of Sony 14/1.8 in 140 but I don't have 230 to compare it with... Anyway safe travels and if the time would allow it would be great to post some higher res comps here.

I think with flat port and diopter it would be great for macro. I am very excited about this Nauticam housing with this camera - combining (removable) dome port with the 16-50 (supposedly) almost constant length barrel it should provide image quality comparable to (in real world) any full frame camera with 25Mpix sensors. Plus it has good ergonomics plus the trigger for flash... It checks all buttons for ultimate pocket UW imaging device.

This may be a good option for anything wrecks and caves. I hate 230mm idea for its travel limitations but now when I have 140mm available I wonder what would be the real difference in frames quality @Phil Rudin 140 vs 230 - any comps of that 10mm by any chance?

180mm glass will be fine for central part of an image. out of center parts will suffer from CA and loss of sharpness because the light will come through more extreme angle through the glass. And that glass has some thickness... just think about it. That'a why 140mm dome with more curvy glass will introduce less of these. Obviously more you zoom in with TC less of these artifacts will be an issue because you will be using only central part of the dome and the light will come to lens under not so big angle... just physics. Look up my thread with lab examples.

Damn! Sony engineers didn't think A1 would need this function 😣 I guess since it doesnt have flippable monitor 🤦. And even though Shinobi does have flip option there is no way to change it during the dive so I'd be stuck with EMWL for entire dive. Back to topic - a slight disadvantage to using the VF is the loss of surroundings awareness. Like when shooting seals I was scanning with periphery vision what coming next and from where. Also less ideal for video.

In short - sometimes... For comparison first I am bringing 2 images shot on the same location (Carnatic shipwreck at Abu Nuhas, Red Sea) 1 year apart shot using WWL-1B and adapted canon's 8-15 (no TC). I would say it even may be the same corral just shot from different side. First WWL-1B from 2024 300% central part and 300% kind of out of center to show depth of field And kind of extreme corner lower right Now the same for 8-15 at 15mm F10 center off center with background and the corner lower right You can clearly see that 8-15 significantly outperforms WWL/28-60 on subjects sharpness, micro contrast and overall rendering. Where WWL excels is a uniform unsharpness 🙈 across the frame and much greater perceptual depth of field for entire image viewed on a small device. And it's kind of logical. Nauticams wet optics (WWL, WACPs, FCP) final results on Sony (do not know canons and nikons lenses) are held back by poorly performing 28-60 which - compared to canons 8-15 - is soft and especially on tight end with relatively poor micro contrast and overall rendering. On the other end if one doesn't plan to crop heavily or print large HD prints then it doesn't matter that much and this expensive wet optics will produce nice postcard size images🙈. Fisheye on the other hand will produce much greater field of view which also means that one has to get much closer to the subject for meaningful impact which means that one needs to select the scene very carefully otherwise only central piece of image is going to be in focus and the rest will be a mess. Especially for concave scenes (like small caves where subject is in the middle in the back - see pictures below) the use of this fisheye lens would be less then ideal. Basically for CFWA shots like clownfish anemone sunburst it's like 1:10 you could get into a good position while with wet optics much less. These results are not surprising as for DOF and are in line with dome theory and wet optics theory. Simply said with fisheye you need to be so close to the subject that you effectively focus at minimum focus distance for lens while hyperfocal would be much further away. With all DOF implications. For subject-less scenes 3m away this would be different but for smaller subjects you need to get real close. I have had TC2x only on first dive and at first glance I didn't like the results so I skipped using it - perhaps prematurely judging from anemone detail taken at 30mm... oh well. And also this is an example of that wrong scene for fisheye lens. So 8-15 TC2x at 15mm the same scene at 30mm and 300% crop So this is my experience with adapted 8-15 which except for autofocus misses fulfilled my overall expectations even though it brought different set of challenges. And lastly following image shows example of a neutrally buoyant configuration - 140mm glass dome + 35 + 20 + 8-15 + Metabones + Sony TC2x + A1 + Shinobi (NPF970 battery) + Retra Pro X with superchargers

if you can live with tighter wide angle then 20-70 in 180mm produces stellar results and the setup is very light

worlds first mirrorless... man oh man what would it take to have fisheye 15-30 designed and made...

I agree, they seem to be with different focus point - lower right quarters show that. Or they weren't and that would be a bit of a problem. Tough to say.

I'd like to see center frames. It's where usually my subject is. From what I saw so far this WCoptics degrades an image quality a little compared to bare lens. Microcontrast and shapness... the pop.

IDK if it helps but my experience with blackout on Sony A1 and Shinobi - it was there had resolution set to Auto or 4k30 in camera HDMI settings. When I set the HDMI settings to 1080p60 there was no blackout when switching modes anymore. Apparently camera is negotiating with monitor for the best resolution for given mode. When it doesn't negotiate there is no blackout and 1080p60 works well for both photo and video - no need to have 4k when monitor is 1080p anyway... BUT IDK weefine internals so...

If we accept the notion of being able to see what you get affects the artistic expression then it absolutely matters being able to see what you record in HDR if HDR is intended delivery. Only now I am beginning to understand that I am one of only a few which try to shoot and deliver in rec.2020 and I can tell you in these selected few light conditions where you don't see a thing in rec709 but do see beautiful scenes in 2020 renderings it absolutely matters to see what you get. Scenes which you would pass on in rec709 come to life with 2020 but if you can't see that it will limit your imagination.

I think moving shots with fish eye will always be kinda unpleasant due to a moving distortion. Maybe a fish bowl or a big fish without other objects reference might be tolerable but any wreck or corral will be just unpleasant. Having it on the tripod should be more or less fine.

To me it is a wasted opportunity and it is going to be a sales flop. I can't imagine a videographer excited about placing negative 0.86kg (like 2lb) (!!!) on top of their rig and plus having no option for LUT or at least some kind of generic HDR preview like Atomos offers. To me this launch is some kind of a partnership with scuba lamp or weefine kind of companies which launched similar brick products and they just mill out their own housing and their own version of a power source. If I'd be a Nauticam I'd try to work with likes of Atomos to somewhat adjust their touch base UI to more centralized for use with fewer touch based contact point (after all we rarely adjust our monitors on the fly under water), take that product (Ninja or Shinobi) and run with it. Heck they could charge extra for that software version which is like clear profit... Is there an emoji for frustrated... https://www.nauticam.com/collections/external-monitor-recorder-housings/products/nauticam-7-t7-uw-ultrahd-monitor-hdmi-1-4-input-excl-cables

To chime in no need to use Enelopes - Ikea's Ladda 2450mAh work perfectly, priced at less than $10/4pc and did you know they are made in Japan? (do your own research re: NiMH quality based on factory locations) I always transport and store Retra without batteries to prevent contacts spring board fatigue (see point 3) and also to make the carry on lighter if needed. I learned to use fanny pack for all my batteries (24AA for strobes - always charge spare 8 on liveaboards and change one strobe between dives if needed, then camera, lights and monitor batteries) and if I sense problem I just put these extra 2kg on my waist :-) I had my fair share of issues with contact boards as my strobes (Retra Pro X with superchargers) experienced loss of power. I just couldn't swith them on. First I thought these were fatigued terminals and when I tried to spring them back off course I broke them - NEVER do this (!!). So I bought like 4 extra contact boards from Retra. But the issue could have been - all this time - oxidized contact pins inside of the main body. Because when I couldn't start the strobe last time I had quite fresh contact board so I thought this could not have been the issue - I checked the pins inside and sure enough one of them look not ok so I scratched it with flat screwdriver and voila - the strobe was starting again @Oskar - Retra UWT - because we all use these strobes in oxidation happy environment and these pins inside are so difficult to reach would it be a good idea to come up with some sort of tool better then the flat scredriwer as the pins are rounded... Although if future strobes will be Lion acc powered it may not be an issue anymore.

Oh nooo - 🫣 I thought you are Sony when mentioned 28-70 with WACP… canon’s 28-70 didn’t come up in my recollection of wacp chart… so I take it back as I know nothing about Canon’s 28-70

I would add before you do anything switch 28-70 for 28-60 and see results. If sharpness is the motivation 28-60 is sooo much sharper than 28-70. For wide-angle motivation obviously the choice is clear. I would use Sony TC2x as usability of zoom range in rivers and streams will far outweigh any minuscule feelings about quality. Having said that for ultimate quality I'd skip TC altogether as I am sensing in river and streams you want to bump into your subject anyway so I would leave 8-15 at 15 and just shoot those yellow perches out of the water 🙂. No TC 8-15 performance is stellar both in sharpness and micro contrast all the way from F4. Another benefit from using 140mm I would appreciate in river and streams is the small size. The drawback from 8-15 with 140 and especially TCs is that the rig will be a brick. A1 housing with 8-15 + metabones + TC2x and 140 is negative 1kg (!!) May not matter in rivers and streams though.

The collars seem to fix the issue, I didn't see those before... pretty neat simple and slim

I think making strobes with negative 300g is a big design flaw and that by itself would be a big no for purchase. Unlike video lights where one can use total rig buoyancy and mass as stabilizer - assuming he never ever takes vertical video 😅 or macro - working with strobes require frequent repositioning with great "wingspan" and then with greatly negative endpoints the rig will fight even though it would be neutral as a whole. Sometimes it seems to me like the underwater photography gear would be designed by non photographers or people who don't dive 🤷‍♂️

the chimney?... again, it's a personal preference I get it but in my view there is an artistic expression - intentional distortions - and documentary and educational value. Fisheyes in geometric world is all about expression and this is why we see it mainly on skateboard pics etc above water - hence the reason no mfg is rushing mirrorless versions of these. Just the underwater world seems to be stuck in those in part for technical in part for artistic and in part for trend setters... Just my 2c