RomiK

Great idea. I will entertain embassy in Prague with the help of my friend who runs larger diving travel Operations (he also owns safari boat in Egypt 🙈). Let’s put some pressure on 🤟

I have created a petition for this. Please join if you support this: https://chng.it/kkpq5MnYSX

What I meant was that you could use it for a year on a worldwide travel should you choose to travel to other questionable exotic destinations (e.g. recent development in Indonesia - which I think was relaxed a bit) https://www.londonchamber.co.uk/international-trade/trade-documentation/ata-carnet/ata-carnet-faqs/#:~:text=An ATA Carnet can be,the validity of the document. For sure. The ball is at tour operators hand now as only they could put pressure on somebody inside mexgov to issue clarification on camera accessories. That would put this issue to bed.

Wow, things move fast in the internet age... this is disgusting development and certainly is putting Mexico cenotes and Socorro off my list until I am ready to add $400 and a hassle and time to my trip... I went quickly through ATA Carnet options and although possible it simply puts fun out of a trip. Mexico says: https://anam.gob.mx/exportacion-e-importacion-temporal-de-mercancias-mediante-cuadernos-ata-ing/ basic fees: https://www.atacarnet.com/processing-fees ... and something special for Mexico as always: https://www.atacarnet.com/advisory/Mexico-Special-Considerations In theory ATA Carnet would solve out world travel for a year for one fee but in practice dealing with customs on arrival AND departure and various special considerations ... 🤮

It depends what would you want to calibrate it for. On my MBP M2 (same screen) without any calibration I am getting WYSIWYG on my Canon Pro1000 printer. However - on different LCD screens I see different pictures. And it happened when I was in Canon's showroom to test their ProGraph4200 printer their calibrated monitor attached to it showed horrible picture that I brought only for that printer to print it out exactly as it looked on my MBP... So I would approach the issue of the calibration in relation to the output device you would like to see your MBP processed images on... 🤷‍♂️ It's excellent.

I guess it is all about priorities and why would you want to use scooter with camera mounted for video at all. When I tried it my vision was a moving shot, a bypass shot at various angles up to perpendicularly. For these should they last for more than a split second and if you want to have control over framing you really need to control the camera by hand. Otherwise it's a random success nailing the frame and be stable or you just take what you get. Savalia video - talking about shot technique and result - right around 2:20 mark (for example) shows visible wobble caused by the camera placement and the way it was operated. Ok ish for documentary but not a beauty shot. And it's not the only occasion. So for the documentary anything will go. But for good and beauty shots - not really. Having the camera far away on the tip of the scoot only exacerbates the issue.

I've tried the (mini)scooter/SonyA1/Retraflashes once and my take from it was: - need to go really slow otherwise things shake up. UW rig Hydrodynamics not friendly to speed 🙂 - need to operate scooter by left hand and hold the rig using right hand to stabilize the buoyancy issues and control the shot. - I used 360deg rotating tripod bases I could do variable angle shots I'd say the camera placement on the picture above is good for GoPro and small lights for documentary (such as my friends working on 80m U72 submarine wreck down in Croatia last month) and is not good for any creative work Since I fly to dive I abandoned the idea of taking DPV with me as I have too many things to transport already 🤷‍♂️

I don't quite understand what's the fuzz about this. Granted we arrived to Mexico through Cancun in December 2022 but still the rules haven't change did they? As per regs you can bring 2 cameras, three cellphones, laptop and accessories... • Two photographic or video recording cameras; photographic material; three portable cell phone or other wireless networks equipment; a global positioning equipment (gps); an electronic agenda; a portable computer equipment of the so-called laptop, notebook, omnibook or similar; a portable copier or printer; a burner and a portable projector, with its accessories. https://www.gob.mx/shcp/articulos/lo-que-debes-saber-al-pasar-por-una-aduana-mexicana?idiom=es or https://www.gob.mx/epn/es/articulos/que-mercancia-puedes-ingresar-a-mexico That customs want to impose their own rules... well that's a play of habit of southernly mentality but as long as one know it's rights and rules one has ammunition towards such creative individuals... Perhaps print the regs in Spanish and have it ready to smack these on their head?

I meant this (picture)... -100g total is good but the distribution is of an essence too. The picture have strobe with empty main body compartment and full booster to mimic Powervault weight distribution. The powervault sticks out even more and physics arm power law applies correspondingly. Not a big deal and definitely not as big as some video lights but still something to keep in mind when arms fully stretched out. For my gen of strobes (depending on cells dimensions flexibility which you might not have) I would be happy to have slightly less capacity in exchange for compact dimensions. But maybe there is no flexibility on lion cells size so that might not be possible IDK 🤷‍♂️... it's always like what we want vs. what we can get 😑 I am certain retra gen5 will have this inside 🤙

There is a lot of emphasis put on price point which in grand scheme of things .... won't make much difference... The real importance I think is the pack reliability, usability, how fast it charges and so on... Personally I think they should have made two versions for latest and previous gens so they would use that empty space inside the strobes and stick out less. They mill them out of aluminium one by one anyway. This design with this center of gravity will make the strobes quite "ass heavy", in some situations it's gonna tilt the nose up. But at the end it's the company calling the shots and only market will prove them right or wrong, eh?

I am (was🤣) happy with 8xAA supercharger on my Retra Pro Xs. I carried extra 8xAA and 2x 4-bay chargers. And 4 ports power brick. It is (used to be 🤣) part of battery hygiene to have 8AA batteries in a charger and every other dive or third dive to change one strobe's pack and never had problem with power in 4 dives per day scenario. Now thinking I could save travel weight and space on two chargers and 16xAA and charge only overnight is quite appealing. Yes it's 🤑🤑🤑 especially since I already have superchargers but still it's only money for added convenience and then there is that YOLO syndrome 🤣.

I've touched on that earlier in this thread - FCP is not a fish eye lens. It's a fish eye distortion element put in front of a rectilinear lens. So the DOF is going to be lower than the pure fisheye. So as such it will offer blend of subject pulling like fish eye lens coupled with subject isolation of rectilinear solution. So I'd say it's just a tool for some - subject oriented - type of imagery which like @Alex_Mustard prefers (who I guess was somewhat involved in its development) but it's not a tool for other type of imagery. Off course one can only debate it's usefulness and versatility for private arsenal of tools given its cost and mass concerns but for rental circuits - should there be some 🙂 - might be great... And it seems to be excellent tool for it's purpose nevertheless 👏

Yes, it's the same. The TC optical element protrudes out so it won't fit in.

My thinking is that with tele (macro) lenses the focus plane is much less curvy than with wide angle lenses. And so the effect of closing down the aperture with macro lens will be much less pronounced than that with wide angle. In another angle the focus plane filling the sensor will be shape of globe with wide angle while just a sliver of it with macro. And therefore the effect of aperture relative to relative size of DOF will be limited.

@Alex_Mustard thanks for pointing at your FCP images 🙏 Would you be able to post test shots showing distortions at various zoom levels? I am sure there must be some 🙂. I am impressed with sharpness @Sergio images shown at full res at the focal level and I am not too concerned about overall DOF. So I may succumb to YOLO syndrome 😂. Although I wonder whether the whole new system of Canon R7 coupled with 8-15 wouldn’t provide similar results at about the same price to me 😂 (already have 8-15)

So I am (just thinking out loud, not that I would have anything to back it up with) that unlike fisheye lens that is built to project reality on the sensor in a certain way which by nature brings large DOF the FCP compresses the virtual image in a fisheye like manner but this image is further interpreted by rectilinear lens (and not very good at that - kit lens) with its own corrections and then projected onto the sensor which may result in shallower DOF? first image is from Oly EM1II with 8mm fisheye I was testing for friend of mine and the other three are WWL-1B at widest all with lower aperture values. The Oly was right at the anemone.

So it seems at lower aperture numbers FCP offers some kind of separation - first image the diver in the background not sharp, the gorgonias in the middle tack sharp and the foreground blurry... But where it's sharp it's tack sharp! 👍 Very dangerous situtation here! 🤑🤑🤣

… and luckily WWL-1B is a bayonet only so now there is no excuse … 😂

WWL-1B is not that heavy UW, it's like negative 100ish grams so even if it would slip away it would graciously 🤣 slide down and not drop like a stone. Plus has a really big shade to hold comfortably. I would be questioning need for 180 fisheye in the first place. Yes it may offer immersive images but unless the subject is a shark at feeding station the immersive factor is minuscule compared to 130 at wide angle in my eyes. Yes, in a probe form the EMWL160 is amazing, I am thinking of adding - replacing - to my EMWL130 🤑🤑🤑. But in a dome form factor one can't get close enough in a good angle to subject unless it's a whale 🤣 It would be interesting to see a screenshot of Lightroom metadata browser showing the range of focal lengths counts from keeper images taken by 8-15 with 1.4x Kenko. I dare to say we might see higher numbers towards 15mm end 🙂 Plus the distortion ... great for some appalling boring for others 🤷‍♂️ Unless it's a dedicated dive I think WWL is more versatile. Here samples from last week at 28mm i.e. 130deg.

... and I have 8-15 sitting home (together with other Canon L glass) and thinking 'why on earth did I not do Canon route for UW and bought into A1 system'🙈... oh wait, R7 wasn't available 2 years back and R5 was overheating back then... 🙈 never mind that A1 overheats too... although at 4k120 in 30C water ... but still 🙈 Back to 8-15 on Sony - I think it's not worth it with adapters insufficiencies... 28-60+WWL1 will get you there much better. And for dives where you can expect unexpected the 20-70 in 180mm glass is ultimate portable choice IMHO.

I put together first and 5th image out of these published. The first claims to be from inon 🤷‍♀️

Sony indeed output exactly what sensor offers. Clean 16:9 for videos and 3:2 for stills. Off course you would have to opt for clean HDMI and have your controls on the camera screen. If you want to see controls then sony outputs its rear screen exactly as you see it - which is useful for some and not for others.

I dunno but I wouldn't overthink it... In quote I put together non-diffused S220 (first) and Apollo (second) and they seem very similar to me... I might even prefer S220 to Apollo... The fly built in diffuser of Inon is brilliant I think.