Chris Ross

The Retra Pro Max II and the HF-1 are near equal in power ouptut as I recall and the power of the Max is 140 Ws vs 190 Ws for the Max II. 50 WS sounds like a lot more power but to be one full stop more power it would need to have an power rating of 240 Ws. One stop is double the light. So if looking only at brightness you would be get the same results on the MAx with the ISO raised by about 2/3 stop so ISO 160 instead of ISO100 for example. Recycle time of course is different, but it seems like a significant expense for not a huge mount more power to me.

Should is the operative word. The problem is that most of these strobe protocols are reverse engineered and the reverse engineering may not have identical timings etc so one strobe might work with their own trigger but not with another vendor's trigger and vice versa. Or it could be that the light from the trigger is too weak for the S&S strobe to work in HSS? Or perhaps the firmware in the EM-10 is not up to the task? The issue is that HSS sync should work with within RC mode but the trigger in the AOI housing doesn't communicate well enough with the S&S strobe to make it happen You could perhaps check with AOI if their new UIS-P1 strobe will provide this functionality with your trigger?

I recall you have an EM-10 mKIV in an AOI housing? As far as I know the YS-D3 duo is supposed to support RC mode with a compatible trigger and AOI claims their trigger works in RC mode. however based on this thread the YS-D3 duo is supposed to support HSS in RC mode but doesn't work with the AOI trigger for some reason. Maybe the signal is too weak? This means it might not be as simple as just getting new strobes - you need to confirm that whatever strobe you pick will work with the AOI trigger. The AOI trigger can either be a manual trigger or an RC mode trigger. It seems that whatever strobe you choose needs to be RC mode compatible and actually work with the built in AOI trigger. This is quite specific and maybe you could ask some retailers for options that would work. It might actually be cheaper to get a different housing if one could be found which allows you to add either a UWT type trigger or to use a Nauticam style manual trigger which will get you to 1/400 shutters peed without HSS. A second hand EM-1 MKII with a Nauticam housing might fit the bill.

The magnification achieved by a diopter is related to the focal length of the macro lens used. With the same diopter a longer focal length lens will have greater magnification. The Sony 100mm has a longer focal length - at infinity focus, however internal focus macro lenses lose focal length as they focus closer and to get the 1.4x magnification the 100mm macro focuses significantly closer at max magnification. Working distance for the new lens is calculated at 92mm while the old 90mm macro had 129mm working distance. This is quite a reduction in working distance and probably indicates a significantly shorter focal length compared to the old lens when operating at minimum focus distance, so the diopter gives less magnification. You will see the working distance for SMC-3 at max magnification has reduced from 22 to 17mm so there is no room to reduce working distance any further. Also see that the magnification for the MFO-1 has increased from1.2x to 1.5x on the new 100mm lens. I believe this data is from Nauticam doing tests on the lens with their recommended ports and diopters.

See what Image science in Melbourne recommend they have a big section on how to print, printing workflows etc. and will recommend the best calibrators etc. I bought my printer and calibrator there. I also usually get my paper and ink there and bought my Eizo monitors there. no affiliation, just a customer.

One thing I would caution is that salt water and some luggage zips don't mix. I used a carry on size samsonite case for my camera ona few trips and used it to carry onto the boats where despite precautions got some salt water on the zippers, they started seizing up constantly after that even after cleaning exercising and zipper wax. The pulls corroded on them. My dive gear specific bag was loaded up with wet dive gear quite a few times and the zip is still good on that. You won't always be able to dry your gear before packing it away.

Personally I would use the fact that the print supplier uses Adobe RGB as a deciding factor in choosing a vendor, it indicates they understand colour and are prepared to make the most of their printers to give the best possible prints. You might pay a little more, but to me it's worth it if you are going to display your work. I actually print my own with an Epson P800 and my printer has been profiled so I can soft proof the image before committing to print.

You'll need a couple of things, first a zoom gear - until it is on the port charts that means designing and printing one. Sometimes you'll be able to find a zoom gear from another model lens that will work, but usually a custom gear is required. Second you need to decide which port you want to use with it. basically with Nauticam it's either the 180mm or 230mm. Some of the newer 16 - xx mm zooms work fine with the 180mm, including the newest Sony zooms and some of the Tamron zooms. Others need the 230mm port for good corner performance. Hard to tell which is needed until someone tests it, Third you need to work out what extension is needed. getting this right is important for good performance behind a dome. This involve placing the entrance pupil at the centre of curvature of the dome. You need to work out where the entrance pupil is and do some geometry to work out where it is in relation to the dome. Not incredibly complex but you need to comfortable with geoemtry and the required calculations. The Caveat is that the calculation may be able to be done, but the lens might perform better with a little more or less extension when physically tested. The alternative it to take a stab and and try it with different extensions if you have them available, If you don't have access to a port and some extensions probably you need to wait for Nauticam or some other interested person with the right resources to test the lens. Maybe @Phil Rudin will test it sometime?

I think it depends on what they are printing with and the medium. Any service printing with an Epson or Canon large format printer using their pigment inks can accept Adobe RGB as these printers cover the 100% of the Adobe RGB colour space. For example in your area this service specifies you should use Adobe RGB : https://www.nwfineartprinting.com/file-preparation.html If the service has a file preparation page it's generally a good sign. It's even better if they have printer profiles you can download for soft proofing. It's really important to use a calibrated monitor and also to ensure monitor brightness is set to the correct value of around 100 cD/m2.

I have found the greater range of blues/greens in Adobe RGB gives me nicer looking water - this is quite obvious when converting to sRGB for web posting. I firmly believe there is a benefit of using Adobe RGB in UW images. This of course depends on the printing service and whether the printing method and your monitor can accommodate the Adobe RGB colour space. This needs to be confirmed as if you try to print colours that are out of gamut then the results can be unpredictable. sRGB is a safe but somewhat limiting option.

Printing is whole other universe, there's lots of options these days and the quality can be exceptional. I'll describe what is done for inkjet printing. In general terms you size the image to required dimensions at the native resolution of the printer being used. Printing with archival inks is what I would recommend, a good printer can match the gamut of Adobe RGB but not the brightness range of a quality monitor. I print my own prints on an Epson P880 printer which can do up to A2 size. The choices of printing medium is quite subjective and personal, I tend to favour archival fibre based papers with a lustre finish. If you want to display prints you need to consider reflections from the print - I tend to not like the ultra reflective media that much. You could have a whole chapter on the choice of media available. I generally print with Ilford gold fibre gloss these days. The ideal inkjet workflow outline is as follows: work on a calibrated monitor - the correct brightness is important, if the monitor is too bright the print will look dark. Obtain the profile for the paper of choice from whoever does your printing and soft proof it in photoshop to review any colour changes Generally work in Adobe RGB, it has a wider range of colours and modern inkjets can reproduce 90-100% of that colour space. Make any adjustments needed while viewing in soft proofing. Flatten file, re-size to the required size at the recommended dpi setting Re-size in PS or program you use to the linear dimensions (mm, cm, inches etc), generally I would leave a 10mm border around the image, some printers can do borderless but it is more of a problem to deal with. Sharpen file and preview it at around 50% For practical purposes find a quality printing firm that uses inkjets with archival inks and follow their recommendations for file preparation. Pay attention to requirements such as flattening and no alpha channels that may be specified, i generally work with tiff files. You could also buy a printer - but they have specific requirements, large format printers are big! they also need to be used regularly. Your choice of medium will be restricted to what they have on offer. Possibly get some A4 prints done to test out a vendor and to see how the colours look and the general look of the paper you are thinking about As for format I generally crop to suit the subject to whatever dimensions look pleasing.

Welcome aboard Hugh, hope you find the forums useful.

This likely indicates the problem if this doesn't show up then it is not communicating with the camera. By the description when in manual mode on the trigger the camera doesn't detect it as a flash and it is triggered by the centre contact of hotshoe and the earth of the hotshoe frame. To be recognized by the camera it communicates using the other smaller contacts of the hotshoe. I could be a fault with the hotshoe cable perhaps, you said you checked hotshoe did you try cleaning the contacts perhaps with a pencil eraser? This might be a good first step. Also try looking into the fibre optic connectors to see if you can see the LEDs illuminate, try it at position 0 so you can see how bright they are to be sure you can recognise the LED lighting up then try at position 7 If no light comes in position 7 this ocnfirms trigger is not talking to the camera. Again suggest you PM Pavel to ask advice, he may have additional things you can try.

Believe @Alex_Mustard uses the 0.8:1 unit and prefers it. see this video: I''m sure other Sony users will chime in.

I don't doubt that Nauticam seems prone to this, just sharing my experience. I notice now that my latest housing has a different finish to my previous housings, more of a satin or lustre finish rather than a smooth glossy finish, I would describe it, don't know if it will be an improvement or not, time will tell. There are varying grades of anodising and it is quite possible there are better coatings. If you have a cooler bag, sitting the housing in salt water till you can get it to fresh rinse tank is better than letting it dry out, it's just like more dive time. Don't know what you could do in the shore dive situation sounds like you have to live with it.

I've seen pics of worse Nauticam housings than that. With my housings, it's less dives than yours, but I generally have a damp towel available to cover the housings on dive boats. Presumably the RIB is taking you out from the mother ship, so you shouldn't be in it long?? I don't know. I shore dive a lot at home and have my own car, so the housing only walks from the exit to the car and gets covered with a damp towel. It appears the link you had that the guy has a process to clean up the housing? Perhaps he polishes it? Apparently if you send your housing to Nauticam it comes back like new. As for ceramcote, i'm sure it could work but you would need to strip all the buttons etc I think, remove the rear window, strobe trigger window etc and work out how to mask off all of the o-ring sealing surfaces, in the button holes , the housing back etc. i'm not sure I'd want to have an O-ring trying seal against the coating?? It would need proper research to prepare the surface properly, mask as required etc. and a good applicator to apply it. There would probably be procedures around the protective anodes as well to follow.

you just need to watch which domes you refer to, some of them the bayonet is machined into the metal part of the dome, others use a bolt on lug ring and extension rings typically use a machined bayonet. For example the Zen DP 170 N120 dome does not use a lug ring it appears, while many of the Nauticam domes do. This is the only way to change between S&S and Nauticam mounts without adding extension. For example this S&S dome does not seem to use an interchangeable lug ring so would not be readily adaptable: S&S dome Ebay This is the lug ring for converting Nauticam ports to S&S: lug ring Note it is discontinued but I think available through other vendors?? Also this small S&S dome port appears not to have removable lug ring: dome port 165 while this larger port does: Dome port 210 Regarding the Tokina - yes the adapter is expensive but you can use the one dome setup for all wide angle applications and it's all available to you during the dive, all you miss out on is the long end of the 14-42 behind the WWL.

There's lots of choices possible there, though I would venture the Canon 8-15 option is not lighter than a WWL setup. and the size is very close. Unless you go with a 4"dome most of the dome options will be lighter but a little larger than a WWL setup. Rectilinears need bigger domes, you might get away with a 5-6"dome with 12mm though if you are not fussy about corner sharpness. I'm not sure what your budget is however the 6"acrylic Nauticam dome is $690 new at Backscatter which seems somewhat reasonable for UW gear and you don't need the $350 Nauticam - S&S adapter. You can also use the Panasonic 7-14 in that dome if you want something wider and I expect the 12-45 lens would also fit, it's not on the port chart but given the size of the lens it would be close to the same positioning in the dome. The dome is a little small for lenses that wide but it will work OK, the corners might be a touch soft. It strikes me though that the Nauticam to S&S adapter might be a cheap path to adapting Canon-8-15 or Tokina 10-17 to a m43 camera, it appears to have 60mm of extension and is half the price of the no longer available it seems 34.7mm N85-N120 adapter. It doesn't have a knob but you could use the 3D printed gear I use to mate with the main knob on the housing. Only problem is you would need a 10mm extension ring to get the same extension as used with the Nauticam setup, but S&S doesn't make one. The DP-100ST for S&S might be a solution as it has extension built in. These are excellent solutions for m43 and cover the range from 180° diagonal fisheye through to 28mm FF equivalent in terms of field of view so replace an 8mm fisheye, a 7-14 wide (in terms of horizontal field of view) and will cover about 2/3 of the horizontal field coverage of a WWL.

I would PM Pavel, Have you checked to see if the LEDs on the trigger illuminate when you fire off a shot? Do you get the lightning bolt symbol on the camera screen as mentioned in the manual(on position 7) ? These would be good first steps to check the camera recognises the trigger and that the LEDs fire or not. I ask as this may point to the problem. Also just to confirm, you say the strobe does not fire - I assume you mean the strobe emits no light at all, not that the the strobe fires but the frame is dark?

I would suggest looking into what lenses are supported and how they are before deciding, for example ikelite only sell 6 or 8 inch domes for fisheyes, no 4"offered and only have one flat port for all the macro lenses offered, which reduces working distance on the shorter lenses. Also check how you would go about attaching a WWL if you were interested in that option.

My closeup vision has gone by the wayside, but I can still dive without any sort of closeup lens, but I certainly couldn't use a monitor for my shooting, for me it's a Nauticam 45° viewfinder all the way, the view through it with the diopter adjustment that I can use UW is perfect - easy to see sharpness, setting, no issues with sun or glare and I can use it with the housing sitting on the sea bed.

The adapter you mention has quite a bit of extension and is designed to use with a couple of specific lenses and the Zen S&S DP170. If you want to use a dome with your 12-50 then there are a number of options. First is to use the Zen 170mm dome, it's available in N85 in two versions, and no adapter needed. I expect you could use the 12-50 with the N85-DP-170II. It's about the same size as the WWL though, just lighter. The S&S dome would also work, but possibly a bit small for the 12mm end and you may have to add extension? Also it's acrylic versus the glass in the Zen dome. You could also try and work out if the Nauticam 6"dome port would work, its cheaper than the adapter plus S&S 150 dome. The advantage of using the adapter would be to use it with DP170SS for larger lenses like the 7-14 and 8-25mm lenses which require an N120 size dome as the front element lens won't fit through the N85 port opening. They are installed from the front - camera in housing, add the adapter, install the lens and zoom gear then fit the port. This future proofs you if you want to use those lenses in future. I would also suggest looking into the 12-40 or 12-45 lens, it will be sharper than the 12-50 and will give you more magnification as it focuses closer. You can get more magnification with the 12-50 but you need to be able to operate the macro switch and it won't be possible in the dome. Should be possible to use the same port with all of those lenses. I'm not sure the 12-50 would be that great for CFWA as it doesn't focus that closely unless you throw the macro switch - I think it's 50cm at the long end which is long enough that you would need to closely consider whether of not it would focus behind a dome. Might be OK at the short end though?

Backscatter seems to be the retailer selling the most of them but don't list it. The OM-5 II is listed as new on the AOI website. Maybe give Backscatter a call and see if they will be stocking it? I also see on Backscatter that the Isotta housing is less than $300 more than the AOI, might be worth considering?

I'm having trouble following. Is the issue only in HSS that the flash is not firing? Also to be clear are you saying the flash is not firing or is it not syncing? From what I can see the sequence is: Set the UWT dial to position 7 in camera menu set to Auto FP in the flash sync speed menu Set the retra strobe to the HSS setting. The manual doesn't mention using dial position zero in conjunction with HSS sync mode on the Retra. The Retra is in manual mode with when it receives HSS signals, there's no TTL with HSS. You can adjust flash intensity with the power knob on the strobe.

This post might be helpful, talks about how to make 3D printed parts waterproof: