SFEgr

The center image if the 5 photo medly on the manufacturers web page shows a funny little knob (focus?) protruding from the side barrel. I assume that is removable?

I don't have a Z6 or a Nauticam housing but I love this. Nice work. One step closer to the mythical universal housing!

What are these .heic files?

So true. And as lights are almost always 'overhead' and on cantilevered armatures - heavy lights can be a royal pain on your wrists keeping your kit level. Maybe on black water dives you can strap them under. The unfortunate side of this is that big high output LED's need to dump a lot of heat - the easiest way to do that is with a honking big lump of aluminium - at least that is the logic above water. Or maybe it is just a perceived value thing - heavier is better.

That photo of 'Aerial view of one of the Goraici islands' is awsome - I want to come back as a crab and live on that beach.

I will add my 2 cents here! I have 4 dive lights that loosely fit this conversation. My biggest concern apart from the basic dependability is flicker that can become evident in video footage. Faults in low grade switching electronics are not always visible to the naked eye but your camera will catch them. I have an Archon D34VR (8 years old or so and about 120 dives) 32650 battery. Good solid slider controls (wish one was Red and the other Green as the light gets flipped around and I sometimes get confused). The switching protocol is however obvious. Solid light with slight flicker below 30%. Reliable. Abused to the max and keeps on working. Would buy another. Then there is an Archon D37VP (5 Years old and about 80 dives) 18650 batteries x 4. Good Solid Sliders. Solid light but not appreciably brighter or longer lasting than the D34VR but way heavier and bulky - makes traveling with it a pain. But does have spotlight which is useful. Solid light with slightly more flicker below 40%. Would NOT buy again Third was a Kraken Hydra 1500 WSR. (2 Years 25 Dives) 21700 battery. This has become my go-to light as it is so compact and capable (auto off on strobe flash) but the single button switch is tedious to cycle through and can cause you to miss a shot. I have found some of Krakens gear just plain awful - Underwater Phone Case for starters - but I have no trouble with recommending this light. No discernible flicker to below 10%. Would buy another. (may be the same as NiKolousz Weefine Smart Focus 7000 above) My wife has a BigBlue Model ? (6 Years old and about 60 dives) 26650 battery. Best battery management compared to the above 3. but also uses the sub-optimal single button selector as the Kraken so my wife wouldn't buy another. Ordering batteries from Ali is a crap-shoot. Archon batteries are now commonly fake. the old stand-by TrustFire are often fake now as well - so that's another issue. The battery in the Kraken is great, has its own type c input for charging.

Wonderful, thanks for all the detail. Looking forward to the second installment!

@ Lewis88, Good point. And in all fairness, not an unreasonable investment... if I didn't change my cameras every 50 to 60 dives. my bad on that score. But at least you can keep the ports, so maybe I should dive in. @'121, mmm, back to school... thanks!

As valid as all the above comments are, I am still using the VPS-100 system. And until I have a better system, I replace the plug with due care - but bumps happen and do worry me. I have done 45 dives with the '100 so far so lucky. The pump is absolute crap, a silly joke compared to the cheap and available alternates out there so that is the first thing to change. Mine might be an exception but it takes 45 pumps to evacuate - I lose count using a dome. A SeaLife generic pump takes 5 or 6 pumps. And my battery died after 5 uses, so carry spares.

Thanks, I may go that route ... the two are both around the same price here in Toronto, between 200 to 300 CDN so once I understand the hardware, I can go get one. I understand the Sigma allows for firmware upgrades - for what, I have no clue, so maybe that would be a better bet.

Oh, OK then - I was under the assumption that when movement and focus is an issue you just set at infinity-1 and with a 7 or 8mm all will be in focus - but I have no experience yet - here to get up to speed. I was refereing to the Samyang the fits the small 4" domes in the 'frog housings so I figured Nauti would have an option.

I am kicking around the options for fisheyes and it is looking like I will be needing a Canon to Sony E adapter for my Sony a6400 (maybe upgrading to a6700 but unlikely to FF). I am fuddled with the various Metabones models. There is the Series 5(V) as well as the 'Ultra' as well as previous generations, but is there a difference or 'best choice' for underwater use? I will probably end up with a Tokina or Canon Wide FE zoom but I doubt I will be zooming much and would probably be happy with a Prime. I will be putting it a a Salted Line with 6" dome. Thanks for any help. Simon

The Tokina seems to be a legend in the price point, but there seem to be a number of fixed focals FE's at or around 10mm that might not require converters for Sony use. Why are these mostly never mentioned?

Encouraging idea. Here in Toronto we passed a ban on Shark Fin Soup - it was overturned for being culturally racist. 🙄

Great, thanks for sharing! quite liked the soft backgrounds in many of the sequences.

Wow, you sure got friendly with that octopus on that Cozumel 6-2019 dive! Great shots!

There seem to be a lot of comments, claims and criticisms regarding various strobe/snoot assemblies which are all good fun but don't always tally with my observations. I am wondering if there are any testing standards or best practices for reviewing these packages - that ideally one might be able to replicate to confirm some level of accuracy. I think I am reasonably aware of the myriad of variables that come up but it would help me understand the real 'illumination based' / lighting through-put advantages of one system compared to another - in actual numbers - leaving ergonomics and cost benefits to the talking heads. Has this been done or listed somewhere?, as I have looked about and have not found anything. This sort of data would be very persuasive (for me at least) to meaningfully consider my possible snoot futures. Simon

Hi there, my name is Simon, I was introduced to this site from WetPixel (polyroly) and signed up as I always like new viewpoints. I am from the snowy north but only (so far) dive in the sunny south - so no dry suit experience yet. We have just over 300 dives, recreational depth and mostly land based but also on a couple of liveaboards. I try to keep my kit small due to travel baggage limits and I am always trying to make my kit smaller - it gets bigger. I am using a Sony a6400 and a SaltedLine housing mostly using the 90 Macro, with a single Z330 and a self designed and printed Snoot that incorporates both Optical and Fiber interfaces. DIY is a sickness. Underwater, I love finding small worlds and so I love Macro - also why I love photographing mushrooms and lichens on our forest walks. I am drawn to the inconspicuous subjects. Microscopic dioramas cause me to smile.