RomiK

I will test and tweak all of these next week in Red Sea and I thought I would share the freshwater test results. All setups: - Sony A1 in Nauticam housing - Shinobi monitor with 750bat in Nauticam housing - Retra Pro X with supercharger - Weefine WF074 Smartfocus 10000 with custom floats - Nauticam 200/70 and 300/50 buoyancy arms - Nauticam clamps with shackles and triple Setup 1: - with 90mm F2.8 macro and port - Retra LSD Setup 2: - setup 1 + EMWL 130 with custom floatie detachable underwater in case of need Setup 3: - 28-60 with flat port - Nauticam WWL-1B I am happy to say that all three combinations are neutral to few grams positive in fresh water so I will add just a little bit of weight to balance it neutral in the saltwater. I could shave video lights floaties but I would like to keep this neutral for fresh water. Most importantly because the endpoints are neutral as well as EMWL the rig does not fight different angles and is completely agnostic towards the lights placement. So the system is travel friendly as I don’t need to cary redundant arms or floaties and what can I say - I am quite happy and hope this will help anyone with similar sized components 🤙.

Beautiful Brother! 👏 To me it's even more interesting with sloping water line.

Nice! So bigger body does pay off 👏👍 If only video lights mfg would follow the suit … what is sleek slim body worth when it weighs a ton underwater… any insides on Lithium pack parameters and or vs NiMH re:my comment above @Oskar - Retra UWT ?

1.Could somebody with the new bigger bodies Retra Max measure their negative buoyancy with batteries? My previous generation Retra Pro X with supercharger and bumpers and wet neopren cover show around negative 260g. Thanks! 2. It's going to be interesting to observe the real life performance of the Li-ion battery pack. During a research for NiMH batteries I run across several articles stating that NiMH are better for strobes because the recharge time is shorter. So while Li-Ion are better for constant power devices the NiMH are supposedly better for Discharge and Charge devices which are originally designed for Alcaline or NiMH power sources. Off course the battery pack could be designed with some more circuitry a balancing intermediaries so we shall see. Here is empiric test using standard dumb Li Ion vs NiMh on strobes.

Interesting thread especially with many WACP-C owners experiences which I am still weighing pros and cons to replace my WWL-1B with 🤷‍♂️ when Nauticam themselves answered me they would like me to buy at least WACP-1 🤑 where I don't like the weight...🤷‍♂️ I wanted to chime in re:acrylic for splits as it is tempting for costs and weight but wouldn't it be prohibitive when you decide to do sunsets? Couple weeks ago I briefly tested used Oly setup I got for a friend no flash no nothing and this came up as split with 140mm fish eye acrylic dome. Granted it was used but in pristine conditions and judging my own Aquatica acrylic I have with GH5S it seems to me that micro scratches are unavoidable with acrylic. Invisible for regular shots but may show with sunsets based on subject...🤷‍♂️ And second picture just to add to samples - 180mm dome with A1 and aperture 5.6. Seeing samples above I'd say WACP-C is going to be similar?

wow! the 3:15-3:45 shots are epic! just wondering how long were you finding these...👏

Side by side with Shinobi real world use comp will be interesting 🙂

yeah, sorry, I don't make much distinction about arms... I have few of those and few of these and don't really know which ones am I using at the moment. Then I am sorry if it would be kind of sticking point.

My wife is entering the world of underwater photography and so I've created a fully balanced neutrally buoyant rig :-). It's Divevolk housing iPhone13Pro and Weefine SmartFocus 10000. I added ultralight arm and one handle and I replaced the base with aluminum profile saving me about 100g (!). So the total to balance was around 900g. First version had just 900g carbon float arm but the issue was that unbalanced endpoints - light -360g and housing -530g were then tilting and fighting each other. So I created this (picture still the prototype phase 🙂 ) , tested in Maldives and it's perfect! Floats are Divinycell incompressible to 180m. Happy diving 🙂

I thought Chris, that forum admins are to be impartial. So since you quoted me above how impolite I was what if you would step a little back up in the thread and see that in the topic itself I asked for just samples and no theories no speculations and after his first rude response I asked him again politely and yet he continued in his rambling like some kind of ignorant sociopath? 🤷‍♀️

Nice kit! Would you be willing to share your experience with the UWTechnics strobe trigger? How did TTL perform with which strobes? Thanks!

yes there is, the forum has 'ignore' feature. I encourage you to use it 👍

ummm me thinks that this is what this thread topic was about - let readers decide themselves with no agenda.. that is until this 121 character decided to spoil it...

I have advice for you too 🤣 go back to school and take a class in cognitive reading. Then come back to this thread, read the topic again and try to respond to the subject. Education ABC.🤣

are you for real? 🤦‍♀️ bathtub or pool vs the real conditions? I guess folks over at Nauticam have no clue on what to recommend to users of their products... They probably have no clue designing their products either... 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

thank you for advices 🙈🤦‍♀️ and so the other purple shots - see screenshot from sonys editor - where is the sun in those? btw - if it's not too much to ask - could you please read what I write in its entirety and react to that. I was writing something about raw editors interpretations and also that video with the same WB came out right... so the camera clearly was able to interpret WB correctly. But the raw editors have problems...

Nauticam says otherwise 🙈 It may be personal preference, by stretched corners I meant mostly fins/legs on you sample above or fins on this sample below

Do you have pictures with 30mm or 40mm extension so you can back up what you say? I said no speculations and theories to muddy up this thread please. It is a sample thread intended to help people make decisions without external confusions. Thank you.

... there was not much backlit on other two shots... and I think I know how to perform CWB 🙈 ... this thread is more about raw interpreters than anything else. If you would be interested in the other two raws I could provide them too... what was interesting to me was that LR was showing same WB yet interpreting raw files differently maybe the real question is where is getting LR WB info from and how is it interpreting... perhaps software developers might chip in...

It may be a name convention misuse from my side but I am trying to interpret what I see: - looking at unprocessed log footage on both camera and external monitor gives basically white screen (with zebras if you choose) - looking at log-to-709 conversion on the same monitors under same circumstances gives white areas (with zebras if you choose) - so you record the information but you don't see it - looking at log-to-HLG(or PQ) conversion on the HDR monitor gives the most information on what are you recording and what you can recover in post no matter which delivery format you choose So I am trying to give practical advice instead of discussing the conventions and I think what you see underwater matters the most. I think we can also agree on calling Shinobi an HDR monitor as it offers (at least some) interpretation of what you are recording into an HDR color space. And that's what matters me thinks. Not absolute nits. So Supe with all magnificent 3000nits of claimed brightness will give just that - a brightness but not possibility to see what are you recording. I hope I explained what I had in mind by HDR 🤷‍♂️. And I stand by that delivering in HDR is becoming a mainstream 🙂 Shinobi+Nauticam is $250+$2000=$2250 - I think since diving and photographing already requires so much $$$ and taking monitor underwater so much extra effort that extra $1000 is totally worth it but that's me Point taken...

I am inviting anyone to explore attached raw file shot with custom white balance in ambient light in about 30m depth. Any and all theories as to why colors are as such and the real ISO value are welcomed. Not even Sony's own editor was able to show blue water. My guess is the issue is with raw interpreters, the videos shot under the same white balance were showing fine. Lightroom this sample file shows as shot at 50000/150, the other files from other screenshot were both showing 33000/150 and one showed water blue and the other purple... have fun 🙂 20240318-085516.ARW

I started this topic to make it easier for users to search for answers. Please don't judge the images 🙈 they are here do showcase the lens optical performance in Nauticam's recommended setup. I used this lens on what supposed to be a check dive turned into a spectacular manta show in Addu atoll and the next boring dive next to a cleaning station. Except for one the images are uncropped - the entire frame. I would be anxious to see samples from this lens would provide on WACP-2 wide open to observe what - if any - benefits would water corrected optics bring. The real pictures would be awesome, not speculations and theories. Good luck anyone selecting their lenses 🤙

Thank you Jim 🤙 I am a (name) godfather to 5 mantas now! 😁. I am using 180mm glass and the camera is neutral with it and also with Shinobi monitor on it (no lights nothing just these two) 🤙

Guys, the drag with Nauticam will be actually less than Supe and other Chinese bricks. Their footprint is about the same and let's talk aerodynamics hydrodynamics there... plus that extra weight compensation must go somewhere and I tell you right away it takes more volume to compensate after the fact than if the object is already neutral ... and don't let me start on center of gravity 🙂 - even on neutral rigs try to make stable footage for example upwards 🙈 As for LUTs or at least some kind of log profile interpretation - in my experience they are necessary because otherwise you see like a white screen underwater with all that exposure compensation shooting log requires. Off course - I am talking Sony here and Canon for example treats HDMI monitors different - at least my R6 does - but then interpreting log to 709 doesn't give the best monitoring image either in case one wants to produce HDR video - which nowadays with iPhones and others is becoming mainstream. @Interceptor121 I don't know about yourself but I did use this kind of brick on about 40 dives. Granted it was WED7 but the physics apply universally - battery weight, material weight, dimensions, air volume available... so it may be proper to abstain from 'avoid commenting' especially from you as I am not the one theorizing on this forum - (e.g. 14mm lens and 20/25/30 port extensions...)

True for split shots one must choose the framing carefully though. I wasn’t quite happy with extremely stretched corners on a lot of shots so I think WWL WACP provide better wide angle experience. I was hoping to use this lens open for art of light only to realize that it is not meant to be. That’s why I would like to see results on WACP2 open.