Chris Ross

You have to remember that while some of these testing and review websites might be useful, and well tell you various things about noise measurements and which combination has the best noise characteristics. They are however run by people who measure photographs rather than make photographs in many cases. the differences are often only visible when viewing the image at 100% on Photoshop and even then you need to look at them sideways multiple times to pick the differences. If you look at the images as a whole image it can be hard to pick the difference between well exposed images taken on m43 and full frame unless you are talking about extremely large images or very high ISO, but even then m43 can produce some amazing images in low light. You have to go down to a compact like a TG-7 with a tiny sensor and not expose it that well to produce an image that is obviously not as nice. Back in the day when digital first started there were big differences, these days things are much closer and gains are very much incremental. It's not that FF doesn't have it lace but for me and many others the gains aren't enough to offset the downsides of ownership.

Digi Direct used to be a go to, these days they sometimes don't have stuff in stock and don't always tell you till after you order. They used to be cheapest but not always these days. Avoid grey market importers - you often won't get warranty service locally as the warranty is through the retailer not the official importer. Digital camera warehouse is another to checkout, they have been around a long time. Another is Camera Pro. I've bought from Camera pro, digital camera warehouse and digi direct, sometimes Ted's George's or diamond have the model you are after at a good price. Best bet is to go to google and type in the model you want, then "price australia" and a bunch of options will pop up. you can look at online reviews but looking recently they all seem similar. Best to physically call them to check for stock prior to ordering.

Poked around on their site and the 10mm fisheye link is still up in Chinese. Change the site to English and it vanishes but I did find this: https://en.7artisans.com/shop.aspx?nid=2&typeid=68 Looks like they are offering a 7.5mm f3.5 APS-C MF fisheye to influencers to review. Reported to have a 205° field of view.

On the question APS-C and FF I would say that m43 is very close in performance to APS-C and for most people it's enough. The lenses offered in m43 are comprehensive between what OM and Panasonic offer, 3 macro focal lengths, native fisheyes a wide range of rectilinears, 4 or 5 lenses that work with WWL optics plus they readily take adapted lenses via Metabones. The ability to use the Canon 8-15 means you have a fisheye and at least in field coverage a rectilinear 14-28 equivalent in one lens, looking another way it's a Fisheye plus about 2/3 of the focal range of a WWL. The 8-15 gets to 28mm equivalent in reach while a WWL gets to 30-35mm depending on the lens used with it. You can't do this with FF Canon or Nikon, with Sony you can combine a Sony 2x with the 8-15 but it takes a slight quality hit which many find acceptable. Canon you can do it but involves taking a file to an after market RF-EF adapter. Other than that you are looking at very heavy and pricey fisheye conversion port.

N100 ports would be big enough to solve that problem and Isotta have solved it as they use 102mm ports for m43. Seriously though the N85 is a little limiting - it would be nice to load the Canon 8-15 from the back but not worth changing systems over completely. It seems to me that Nauticam could consolidate their port offerings by scratching the n85 ports and just offer N100 and N120, for one thing they could have every port in native size and not need adapters. For example the 140mm port and 4.33" comes in N120 and N85 but not N100.

I'm wondering if it worked better because you were shooting through more water and closer to shooting through the same amount of water as you were filming the guests. slates and fins unless someone else is holding them are at a relatively close fixed distance.

Is this tested in air or in water? As I understand it the diopter power increases in air compared to water, so the focus point comes in closer. That combined with increased spacing may be enough that it focuses inside the lens. If you have not tried it in water perhaps do that first? If it is still an issue are there any alternative ports you could try? For example the 5502 port for 60mm macro in combination with a 1"extension. Looking online it seems FL ports are discontinued so you would be looking for second hand ports.

I also get the standard option for uploading an image both for a new post and as a reply like this - Win 11 with Firefox: You could always try downloading Firefox to see if a different browser helps. Did you try just clicking the page where you want to paste and just using Ctrl- V?

You probably don't want to do that unless the reduction ring is shaped correctly to concentrate the rays. Reduction rings tighten the beam, but if light is reflected off a white surface it tends to diffuse it a bit which spreads the beam. The reflector looks like it tightens the beam significantly and is relatively tall, the taller it is the tighter the beam. You might not want it that tight for wide angle work. I know I left my reduction rings on shooting grey nurse sharks with a fisheye and it seemed to help quite a bit with backscatter. Also you are trying to recover light from the edge of the beam, looking at some data for the retra strobe at 120°beam angle the light falloff in this region is 5 f stops. Doing some measurements on my Strobe it looks like the reduction rings restrict you to about a 90-100° beam angle. At 90 degrees the the light fall off is about 2 stops compared to the center and at 100° it 3 fstops. What does that mean there is not that much light in the outer portion of the beam to recover with a reflective inside surface to the reduction ring. - but that light is enough still to illuminate very closeby backscatter, which the reduction rings block so stop it being illuminated. so the short version of that is it seems to me there's not enough light in this part of the beam to be worth trying to recover at least on my Retras.

Agree, just because using the wrong lube gives you a problem doesn't mean that silicone is bad for o-rings. A great many housings use Silicone o-rings including Nauticam, Marelux, Sea and Sea, INON strobes - any coloured o-ring is going to be silicone. On the topic of dynamic seals, this is not insert and twist or piston style o-rings where you screw a cap on it refers to parts that are always in motion or regularly in motion, one example might be the shutter lever on Nauticam housing where the shaft rotates to activate, but even that is not really that dynamic, dynamic o-rings examples of dynamic o-rings where silicone might be a problem include hydraulic and pneumatic actuators, pump shaft seals and even scuba regulators that use a piston. On INON o-rings the secret is sufficient lube. Housings it's a mere breath of lube just to get it shiny. On INON o-rings where you are screwing on the lid, I'm a bit more generous, you can feedl the difference once you apply enough.

Wondering how you conclude Silicone o-rings are one of the worst? The only downside you might consider is the low tear strength which they mention, but that is only an issue for dynamic seals - this might include anything that has a rotating shaft on a housing, but if it's lubricated prperly this won't cause an issue. EPDM is probably a better choice than Buna-N as it is more resistant to sunlight. Both EPDM and silicone seem like reasonable choices for o-rings in UW photo gear to me.

I've never seen the need at least with macro, at night you can use max sysnc speed as you are not trying to include any ambient light. For wide angle, if there's some ambient light, a low powered light helps, you usually don't need a bright focus light, mine is 700 lumens and I've used a 350 lumen light quite successfully, that low it's quite unlikely to show up unless your ISO is very high or very long shutter speed.

The point of the MFO3 with 60mm for me is that if a larger subject comes by i can shoot it without backing way up. The 60mm works quite well for small stuff. The MFO3 gives about a 35-37mm macro, the 30mm is not a substitute as even though it is 1:1 this is achieved about 10mm from the port glass. I've used the Pany 30mm and while it's nice particularly with slightly larger subjects the practical limit IMO is about 0.5x as it gets hard to light if you get any closer. On my local dive site the size range is extreme, from the 400mm long weedy sea dragon down to 10mm nudis and tiny pygmy pipe horses. The pipe horses sway in the surge and for me anything shorter than the 60mm is too limiting on approach angles to shoot them with decent magnification. For me the 45mm is a similar argument, it gets 1:1 and working distance is a bit shorter but acceptable, but woerking distance gets too short with a diopter - but for me if I don't need one on the 60mm , I certainly don't on the 45mm. But you can add the MFO3 to the 45mm and get something like a 26mm close focus macro lens for even wider fields.

Thought it might possibly be a little long, the batteries though could probably be adapted as they are about 68mm long and the termination with pins could make attaching a cord to them somewhat easier than a battery pack?

Wondering if this item might be a good solution for extra power in a housing: https://www.rubbermonkey.com.au/SmallRig-3168B-NP-F-Battery-Adapter-Mount-Plate-Advanced-Edition It takes NP-F batteries widely used for video cameras and outputs up to 36W through the USB-C port. One of the smaller NP-F batteries like a 2000 - 3000 mAhr I think would fit in the bulge area above the hotshoe on many housings and would be a lot more future proof than any type of powerbank as the powerbanks appear and disappear regularly, while replacement NP-F batteries are widely available. This is an example of an NP-F battery: https://www.rubbermonkey.com.au/Jupio-NP-F550-Lithium-Ion-Battery-Pack-7-2V-2350mAh?fromCategoryId=271 It would be the ideal battery for a housing manufacturer to provide an extended battery life option I think.