humu9679

Thanks for posting those photos @dhaas Good stuff, and I like the compact footprint. I'm waiting for a 1" sensor that focuses like a Sony, close up like an Olympus TG and has the battery life to dive all day.

Nicely done!

Thanks @DreiFish and @guavakal Well done!

From Phil: "I also use the 20-70 in the 180mm dome even though larger ports up to 250mm are recommended. This is overkill for me and I find the loss of sharpness in corners to be over hyped." I completely agree. If it's a technically perfect shitty photo, it's a shitty photo.

Welcome to Waterpixels. I think you will find that there is a learning curve to shooting underwater - all i good fun though.

Yes, there is a guy in California named Elie. See his Instagram page - Narcosis101. I've had a V serviced by him, and bought o rings and such. He can also pressure test your gear. I don't think he does RS gear though.

That's very frustrating and I feel your pain. I once had a lens get stuck on a flip holder after a dive, and I tried many of the suggestions above. I gave up and decided to make the lens/flip a dedicated unit. Then on the first dive back, I continued trying to loosen the lens - and voila! - it did. Maybe all those attempts with penetrating oil, strap wrenches, etc did the trick.

Nicely done!

My thoughts are said more expertly by @TimG , above. But the bottom line is know your audience and be ruthless in culling down to to the fewest images that tell your story. A portfolio, though, is an expression of what you consider your best work. A project or story is another thing. It's also good sometimes to involve other eyeballs to help shape your portfolio (for all the times your heart loves an image that means nothing to others).

Hi @StephanieW. I have both the Sony 90mm and the 50mm. The 50mm is pretty slow with early iterations of the A6xxx series, but I've used it with my current A7c and A6600, and it's pretty good once it locks on and tracks. Not great for quick grab shots, say a speedy fish swimming by or blackwater. It's a 75mm equivalent with the APS-c sensors. I use Nauticam N100 ports, the flat port 45 and a 30mm extension.

@ChrisH Wonderful images! Your model was spot on in every instance, and that one frame of the plane's lighted exhaust is fun!

Nice photo! And welcome to the forum.

It's nice to see a solution that isn't too expensive! Very good.

Hi Elvandar. Aloha from Hawaii and welcome to the forum.

Yes, that would be me. I’ll look for you.

Welcome aboard. Olympus is good stuff.

There’s too few of us to make a difference I suspect.

I would love to see a mass dive travel boycott to crush this rip off.

That whole trip sounds like an over-sold promotion. Very sad. You did make a couple of nice frames there, but I would be very unhappy riding around on a small boat all day without any promise of a time in the water with critters.

You might try finding used underwater gear here in the classifieds, or on ScubaBoard, and even on eBay. Facebook Marketplace may have some gear, depending on where you live.

I would trade my A7c system for the A6700 if I could. I have the WWL-1 and CMCs, so I'd be good to go. I would probably only regret it if I came into some money to buy a Nauticam Wide Angle Conversion Port or the new Fisheye C.P.

Re the Tamron 11-20, if a lens is not commonly used underwater, then it might be hard to find a zoom ring or you might have to 3D print one. The Sony 10-18 is more common, for example. I just follow the manufacturers like any good sheep. If you really get into underwater imaging, you'll be impressed by the machined aluminum housings made by a couple manufacturers. Very sexy stuff.

All good reasons to stay with Sony. I also have a 6600. Seafrogs is cost-effective for the short term, and a way to dip your toes in the water without going crazy. I wonder about servicing though - can it be done, who does it, etc. Don't neglect the 16-50mm kit lens and wide wet lenses like the Nauticam WWL-1 (which is front heavy without flotation).

Oh, I forgot to weigh in on the RX100. Great system if battery life was better. The Achilles heel of this system if there ever was one. I had the mark II and mark V. You would need add-on macro lenses and wide lenses.

Hi Mark, All great comments above. I've used iterations of all three systems you mention. I would hold on to the TG camera because it's really small and has incredible macro if you ever get into that. And, as Chris Ross said, scuba diving is quite different from snorkeling. Far less physical once you're in the water, generally, and you can hang out with the fish in a more meaningful way. I have found the TG system harder to get great exposures, and it doesn't follow focus. But again, really small and portable. I had the Olympus OM-1 mk2, and like an idiot, developed an acute case of Sensor Envy and sold my kit with 8mm fisheyes (both Olympus and Panasonic (get the Panasonic - smaller and just fine)); 60 macro, standard zooms. They have the best lens selection and unless you need giant file sizes, or you can't shoot tight enough and you're cropping a lot, the half-frame M43 is great. Especially size and portability. I had mine housed in a Nauticam. I do shoot with a compact Sony A7c in a Nauticam housing now. Pretty good, with a decent lens selection, but no full-frame fish-eye. Do consider Nauticam's water contact optics, as they work beautifully. Nauticam have a new fisheye conversion port now but too pricey for me at this time. I think Sony has the best focusing system (e.g., continuous tracking) and the look of Sony's stills, plus pretty good video, are selling points. I don't love the 1/160th sync speed, but I get around that dialing down my ISO. The A7c is about the same size as the a6700, but APS-c lenses are way smaller. Eons ago I shot Canon EF in an Ikelite housing. Ikelites have a great price point, work well and have great technical service, but back then you really had to use Ikelite's strobes, which I found huge and heavy, and my experience with cable connectors was not as good, in my opinion, as fiber optics for every other system I used. I had an R6 mark 1, thinking I might switch back to my old standbys, but the RF system wasn't well supported early on. I stuck with the Sony. I don't think you can really go wrong with any of the three systems above. It just takes getting to understand what each system does well, and if you can't make that work for you, you can do like many of us and continue searching for the "perfect" system.