humu9679

@vkalia I love talking gear. I thought Olympus gear (E-M5, EM1m2) and Nauticam housings were sublime. Great ergonomics and lenses (fisheye, macro, mid-range 12-50, 12-40). It was the autofocus tracking ability of Sony cameras and a bit of sensor envy that got me to switch to my current A7c. If I had to do it over again, I think I'd stick with the Olympus as I primarily shoot stills, though I'd like to try my hand at video. By all reports, the Canon R7 is a good all-rounder, and shoots pretty good video. You may consider keeping your systems as they (Canon above water; Olympus under), especially if you shoot primarily stills underwater. If you are having a mid-life crisis and want to start over, then consider Sony, which I think is great for stills and reportedly pretty good for video. The newer A6700 has better video specs than earlier iterations. I do have an A6600 and I like it better than my housed A7c. Battery life is excellent on the A6700 (CIPA 570) and believe it or not, not as good as the A6600 (CIPA 810). You can make all the lenses you mention work on Nauticam systems. My take on adapted lenses, say EF to Sony E or Canon EF to RF, is that they may work okay, and sometimes you have no choice (Tokina 10-17), but adapted isn't the same as native, generally. Off the subject, but if you switched to Canon underwater, I would get the RF 100 macro, which can magnify 1.3x versus 1x for the EF version. Also as @JayceeB notes, smaller housings and cameras may not mean they are easier to travel and they can be bricks underwater. Enjoy the research. Let us know what you decide.

Lot of life there! Very cool.

That's super! Thank you for posting @jpiovano

Welcome John. Your gear list is more than solid. I can't speak to the quality of every high end manufacturer, but it is a bit of a leap to jump to Nauticam, and the price difference is steep, but I don't think you'll regret it unless you're suddenly unable to put bread on the table. Ikelite are good, and in the U.S. their service is excellent. I just never loved their strobes, though now you can fit other types though it's not as seamless as using their DS line. One interesting thing to consider is the reemergence of water contact optics, of which Nauticam is a major player. This may lessen the need to snap up all manner of lenses and ports when the humble kit lens may do almost everything you want when combined with these optics. Nauticam and even Kraken, to my knowledge, have even come up with a macro to wide optic that allows you to shoot that range underwater - but the results seem to be lukewarm, as evidenced by the seeming lack of enthusiasm from the cool kids on this forum. Great to have you here. There are a few of us who like to talk about gear, technique, the Euros, what have you.

Welcome Mark!

Welcome to Waterpixels!

@vkalia I used to think it was blasphemous to shoot video and grab a still frame, but I might just go there because, you're right, it's really hard to shoot both stills and video on the same dive.

Updates, price drops: Nauticam NA-A6000 housing with handle. Good shape, usual water marks, body marks, working moisture detector. Comes with body cap, o-ring. $250 $200 $175 plus shipping/insurance. -- SOLD -- Inon S2000 strobes. Nice strobes with a small footprint. Never flooded, work great. Comes with standard diffusers, and includes magnets for shooting manually. No YS or ball mount. Both $350 $300 plus shipping / insurance. -- SOLD -- Nauticam N120 port 41 #18704. Comes with o-ring, no caps or box. Usual water marks, some rubbing on bottom side of body. $125 $100 plus $15 shipping /insurance. Nauticam 01245-Z zoom gear for Olympus 12-45mm pro. Never used. $110 $100 plus $15 shipping /insurance. Nauticam 37174 SFE2070-z zoom gear for Sony FE 20-70mm f4. $150 $130 plus $15 shipping /insurance #SEL2070 Prefer PayPal, and I will cover fees. I will ship via USPS at your cost. Outside of the USA is extra. I will happily refund your purchase within 21 days if you're not satisfied. You pay return postage/insurance. You cover applicable VAT and taxes. #nauticam #a6000 #Inon #s2000 #oly1245

@vkalia I'm also a believer that "talent" is nurtured by one's interest, determination and circumstance. In the United States one hears of children who grow up believing "I'm not good at math," for instance. My suggestion is study and practice, and the same could be said of still photography, which I've studied for decades - and still learning - and videography, of which I am an absolute novice.

Updates, price drops: Nauticam NA-A6000 housing with handle. Good shape, usual water marks, body marks, working moisture detector. Comes with body cap, o-ring. $250 $200 $175 plus shipping/insurance. -- SOLD -- Inon S2000 strobes. Nice strobes with a small footprint. Never flooded, work great. Comes with standard diffusers, and includes magnets for shooting manually. No YS or ball mount. Both $350 $300 plus shipping / insurance. -- SOLD -- Nauticam N120 port 41 #18704. Comes with o-ring, no caps or box. Usual water marks, some rubbing on bottom side of body. $125 $100 plus $15 shipping /insurance. Nauticam 01245-Z zoom gear for Olympus 12-45mm pro. Never used. $110 $100 plus $15 shipping /insurance. Nauticam 37174 SFE2070-z zoom gear for Sony FE 20-70mm f4. $150 plus $15 shipping /insurance #SEL2070 Prefer PayPal, and I will cover fees. I will ship via USPS at your cost. Outside of the USA is extra. I will happily refund your purchase within 21 days if you're not satisfied. You pay return postage/insurance. You cover applicable VAT and taxes. #nauticam #a6000 #Inon #s2000 #oly1245

@vkalia Thanks for the nice piece! One of the more interesting things about shooting film v digital is that its easier to follow the progression of changes a photographer makes in creating what one hopes is the final image. You could actually see what the photographer was thinking - and of missed opportunities - or dumb luck. One of the things mentors would say is the a good photograph is "made" rather than taken.

I've had the Nauticam flash trigger, which in hindsight seems to be fine and easy to use. I've had the Turtle but recall that having a tiny charging port which was a bother. And now I use the UW Technics, which was a pain to install in the A7c housing, but a fairly low maintenance item with a long-lasting, easy-to-change battery with dodgy TTL (which was the reason I wanted to use it). I might go back to the Nauticam trigger, of which I have two.

Pretty chintzy of Nauticam not to include the push in plug mount. And I forget what they charged for theirs, but it pissed me off further.

@aeweems12 Welcome to Waterpixels! I wish all our gear was as small as the Olympus TG series!

@DreiFish Thanks for that. Strong work.

Welcome to Waterpixels!

I'm sad to see Adobe doing this. Their software is second to none. That said, some of these subscriptions are very difficult to escape.

Adding a strobe adds a fourth variable, and I'm not saying reducing flash "in proportion." The other variables being ISO, shutter speed and aperture. You're right about native ISO in today's cameras. I'm happy my A7c does get down to Kodachrome levels, less happy with x-sync of 1/160th. And it would be cool to have HSS.

@DreiFish Good stuff. Thanks!

If the whole point is to control ambient light in flash exposures, a photographer can also adjust ISO.

Thanks for that Phil. A great explanation on native vs HSS flash.

"Another consideration is if a newer flash trigger (such as the UW Techics or others) is used with strobes that are capable of HSS (High Speed Sync), the 1/250 vs 1/400 question becomes moot. More and more strobes are including this as a standard feature. Either body with the right trigger and strobes will go up 1/1000 and beyond. (Some have reported 1/2000 usage) Agreed. A game changer. I remember when 1/250th sync was revolutionary. Side note, speaking as a long-time Canon user, be prepared for the images to have a different color than you’re used to seeing and editing. The “Canon colors” are legendary, especially for their warmth. Sony is still fantastic, but it took me a while to get comfortable with color look of the Sony raws. Long time Canon guy here, too. They still have better ergos, but their auto-focusing wasn't keeping up.

Shutter speed is important in controlling background exposure in flash photography. The flash controls lighting of the subject. Think of them as separate variables. Without a flash, this is different. Shutter speed is clearly important in stopping action, movement, stability. This is why you can shoot flash at slower shutter speeds, say 1/4th of a second, and the subject will be sharp but may exhibit signs of movement depending on how much ambient light there is. If you shot the same subject in complete darkness, that 1/4th of a second won't show movement in a frame because the flash stops all the action. High shutter speed sync is related to the camera's mechanical capabilities. Going beyond the camera's sync speed on the high end will likely create a dark band that didn't get exposed. Hope this helps!

Works fine for me.

It's nice seeing the animal peering from its shell! An excellent example.