Chris Ross

I'm thinking more along the lines of an emergency spare. I was doing a single day's diving ahead of a work trip one time and left my cables behind. Found a store selling toslink cables and was able to rig them up and they triggered my strobes fine. As for a supplier I found this listed on Alibaba, seems like a cheaper version of the MCQ-1000: www.alibaba.comAsahi Kasei Mcs-1000p Multi Core Fiber Optic Cable For Se...Asahi Kasei Mcs-1000p Multi Core Fiber Optic Cable For Sensor Field - Buy Mcs-500p-10 Mcs-1000p Mcs-1000p-13 Shmcsn-1000p-18-22pf(eb) asahi Kasei Sensors Mcs-500p-10 Mcs-1000p Mcs-1000p-13 Shmcsn-1000 The spec sheets I found for this and the MCQ-1000 are identical apart from The minimum bend radius, it's 1mm for the MCQ1000 and 2mm for this product 613 cores versus 217 cores. They report the same attenuation spec for LED light. Looks like you would need to buy a roll but the price is about equal to two finished cables.

I would also add on the topic of zooms, the 9-18 and Pany 7-14 are not that starp, the 12-40 and 12-45 and the 8-25 are really quite sharp, though you need a 170-180mm dome port. The Zen 170mm dome is quite good and I've used that a bit with the 12-40, the only issue is that 12mm (24mm equiv) is not that wide. The 12-45 and 12-40 work with an N85 dome, but the 8-15 needs an N120 dome and the lens is mounted to the camera through the front port opening an dthe extensions/dome are mounted over it.

The CMC is one way to do macro, but it is a bit limiting 0.6x max magnification at about 60-70mm working distance and it goes out to about 120-130 working distance. AS far as lightweight travel goes an EM-1 MkII plus a 4"zen dome and a macro port is pretty light, I've still got my old EM-1 MkII housing so I put that, the camera, macro port, 4"zen dome , 60mm macro, panasonic 8mm fisheye and two INON Z240s in my backpack I use and the total weight was 8kg. The AOI housing might be a bit lighter, but the wet lens would be heavier.. I took a photo of it here: You might need to add a few bits and pieces but it's basically ready to go as a wide/macro setup. You could add something like a Tokina 10-17 plus metabones speed booster later. That would need the Nauticam 4.33"dome (N120) and an N85-N120 adapter/extension tube to use. As far as fisheye goes, I really liked the 8mm Panasonic fisheye, this gallery on my website was shot with that: https://www.aus-natural.com/Underwater/Rowley%20Shoals/index.html and this: https://www.aus-natural.com/Underwater/Weda%20Resort%20Halmahera/index.html and this was using the Canon 8-15, a few more CFWA type images in this one: https://www.aus-natural.com/Underwater/Walindi%20Resort%20PNG/index.html

Thanks Tim, I have a couple of INON made fibre optic cables that I've been using for while, they have the INON screw mount at the strobe end and the INON made right angle attachment on the housing end. I can't say that I've ever needed to burp them, they get connected up before the dive and removed when I soak the camera post dive, I break the whole rig down to store it away till next dive. When on Liveaboards/dive resorts I do similar but without removing strobe arms. I do use the Olympus mini flash for my trigger which has plenty of light so may be able to get enough light through any bubbles that form? Most of my dives are shore dives in Sydney, rig strapped on and getting in and out over rocks with a bit of swell thrown in for good measure. My INON cables have stood up well so far, I don't attempt to attach them to the arms at all and they seem to survive just fine, the only time I broke one was when I handed my rig to someone else getting in. Occasionally one of the S&S connectors at the housing end pops out but mostly no problems apart from the strobes causing the arms to flop down while walking in/out from site. For cable you may be able to use TOSLink cables, I've found that the square plugs will fit into S&S connectors after shaving them a little on the corners of the square plug. They are commonly used in home entertainment systems so might well be a lot more available. Googling trying to find the MCQ-1000 fibre is frustrating, all the links are for armoured communications cables with lots individual fibres inside and only one or two pop-up for that product and they are in the US.

Not in the US, but I believe that SAGA do custom port adapters.

Hi Gio, welcome to the forum, I'm no video expert, however the the raw video you showed, to me has the classic look of a still with limited brightness range that often happens with an image taken without strobes in less than really clear water. The Histogram is bunched towards the centre. Easy enough to fix in a still, just pull in the black and white points to get a full histogram back and it instantly has better contrast. Video unfortunately doesn't have such a straight forward option for this, but your graded video does look nicer. I don't think it's just the settings that makes the Bali video look generally nicer, more the light as Ben says. If you look at the guy's Youtube page he has another video from Cornwall, though it's taken using lights as well it has quite the milky look to it, the colours are better but that seems to be down to the lights. As Ben says the Auto everything videos look good superficially but aren't quite there it seems. Perhaps you ask some more specific questions in the Video forum?

If you wanting improved AF, and spending to get it, I would think the AF in EM1-MkII/OM-1 would be better than the EM-10. I don't know how patient you are but you could probably pick up an EM-1 II or III Nauticam housing for around the price of the AOI housing secondhand. I'd certainly do that before getting an AOI housing as you get a proper viewfinder rather than the back screen. Buying new I think perhaps an OM-5/EM-5 III might be a better compromise as it has the AF from the OM-1. You could also look into Isotta and Aquatica housings as they are quite a bit cheaper than Nauticam these days. As others have said the 9-18 and Pany 7-14 are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. I have the 7-14 and rarely use it and the 12-40 and the fisheye get more use. Look into what port system you have and how well it accommodates these lenses, some of the bigger ones have to be fitted from the front. I now use the Canon 8-15 with a metabones on my system, not exactly cheap but amazing flexible as it covers a fisheye and a 7-14 lens in one package with excellent image quality all the way. Wet lenses on the other hand use kit lenses. By all reports the m43 14-42 lenses are quite good at the wide end with the WWL for example but the quality drops off at the long end. You mention the UWL-400 wet lens, the ad blurb for this is talking about using it on TG-6/7, the price of these tends to scale with sensor size as the task for the optics gets more demanding with bigger sensors. The difference in size from a TG7 to m43 sensor is significant so I expect the corners may be a bit wanting with m43. The Sony fisheye adapter has a pretty poor reputation for optics even on land - you say you are not much of a fisheye guy - why is that? Generally fisheyes are the lens of choice for reef scenics and CFWA and if you can use a fisheye zoom all the better. The Tokina 10-17 with metabones speed booster is also reported to be an excellent very flexible option to use on m43 and works well in a 4"dome so very compact. The choice of lens has a fair bit to do with what sort of subjects you are looking at CFWA for example needs to focus very close and rectilinear zooms are not up for that in general.

I understand that the SMC-3 does basically the same thing as the SMC-1, pretty much the same diopter power of around +15 or so. Someone did some tests measuring working distances with MFO1 SMC1 and SMC3 recently in this post: This is the post on the SMC3 :

Welcome Terry, hope you continue to enjoy the forum. You will be able to post your response on the monitor in the forum now, Thanks for posting your experience, though the original poster may not see what you have replied here and it would be great if you copied it there.

If you want something large like this the large Matty Smith domes can be purchased they are rated only for use down to 2m and a very specific for splits. The price is around $AU1770 or about $US1100 for a 12"dome - a 17"is also available,

Maybe trying to create a Leica vibe, make it expensive enough to become a status symbol. It's probably inevitable prices will go up if sales volumes are not there, outside of enthusiasts or perhaps hipsters who buy retro models most people just use their phones and are not interested in cameras. Couple that with sensor development topping out at least IMO, sensitivity, noise and dynamic range improvements are really only incremental today and its going into readout speed and computational photography.

I've ordered one, for me the attraction was having a 60mm and a 30mm macro on the same dive. In Sydney we have on the same dive Pygmy pipehorses which are about a 1/3- 1/2 life size+ subject for m43 and weedy sea dragons which are 300-400mm long so having a wider view with me seems worthwhile and there's quite a few other examples both small and large. That to me seems to be the so called "use-case" for m43 shooters. I actually have the Panasonic 30mm macro and use it a little, the AF I feel is better and snappier than the 60mm, but the limited working distance is a problem for the subjects I have so it only gets occasional use. I'll post some examples once it arrives, but with the advised delivery time and my schedule it'll be a few months before I get it UW. If you are shooting blackwater I would think that the 30mm lens should be good enough provided you have the working distance as 1:1 is is only a cm or two beyond the port glass and the practical limit is around 1/2 life size for me at any rate. On the MFO-1 I think it was not communicated very well, the image quality benefit was small and mainly seen on full frame systems and the AF benefit seems to be only on certain lens/camera combinations. Really it should be thought of as a high quality low power diopter.

Again I should mention read the fine print, insurance products differ in every market and exclusions and limitations will be different depending on your home country. If you read the fine print for DAN they specifically state it it is add on insurance which makes up the difference over what your travel insurance pays for. As I recall DAN membership provides evacuation insurance and the actual Insurance pays for DCI treatments if they are required. The price is quite reasonable.

DAN insurance for emergency evacuation cover plus cover for dive injuries. However read the fine print: you really need to have general travel insurance as well if you want cover for delays, missed connections, cover of your gear if you want cover for these items as well. Some dive operations I recall offer DAN on site as well. The fine print also says you need to stay within your qualifications for cover to apply - such as depth limits.

They appear to be exactly the same apart from the TTL support, they list 3 different models with the same general specs as well as black and white variations of each model on their website.