humu9679

22 minutes ago, AlClarence said:

I'm just about to upgrade my camera and housing whilst keeping the same strobes.  I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on the best way to get the bouyancy of the rig to where I want it.  Is it better to get the strobes and arms to neutral and then also get the housing/camera to neutral as a seperate unit as such? I'm not sure that I'm articulating this very well but is it preferential to have the camera and housing neutral so that a change of arms/strobes/video lights is easier to balance or does everyone just control the bouyancy for the entire rig as one?

I think weighing the whole rig in with a luggage scale in a tub or pool is the way to go. My preference is to be slightly negative, and not tipping upwards or down. Then, I add buoyancy offsets, say with Stix floats (jumbo are +181g each; large are +96g), or buoyancy arms.

8 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Perhaps or the magnification is low enough that the increased magnification disappears in rounding to 1 decimal place.  For example 1.04x is 1.0x to 1 significant figure.  With short focal lengths you don't have so much working distance to eat into and diopters have less power at short focal lengths.

 

As I understand it the Zeiss 50mm doesn't get longer when focusing close -i.e.  internal focusing which decreases focal length to focus closer- the power of the diopter drops away with the decreasing focal length.

 

The Sony 50mm macro is on the port chart and the magnification with the CMC-1/CMC-2 is 1.4x/1.3x with much less working distance than the Zeiss.  The Sony lens extends to focus close so won't lose as much focal length.  

 

I would suggest don't assume the value is a typo, rather try and verify it with Nauticam before you buy.

Logical. I didn't think it through.

On 10/22/2024 at 6:18 AM, humu9679 said:

11/19/24: Updated to show lower price

10/22/24: Updated to show the Nauticam flash trigger has been sold.

 

Up for sale is a Nauticam housing for the Sony A7c in very good condition. Comes with UW Technics flash trigger and a Nauticam Sony flash trigger. It is vacuum ready. You just need the button and cap. It has fewer than 100 dives on her, and I would go far longer before I would consider servicing. $1750 $1700 $1600 plus $30 shipping. Add 3.49% if you require an invoice. 30 day money back guarantee from the date of delivery.

@bghazzal The minimum focusing distance for the following lenses: Sony FE 50mm f1.8: 45 cm. Sony FE 50mm f2.8 macro: 16 cm. Zeiss Touit 50mm f2.8 macro: 15 cm. Sony 90mm macro: 28 cm. Typically measured from the film/sensor plane.

14 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Thank Craig, this is food for thought.
 

I'm building the whole kit from the ground up, so it will be macro only at first (which is fine as this is what I’m focusing on at the moment anyway), expanding to cover wide angle as well at a later stage 🤞
 

I now think a Zeiss Touit 50mm -  combined with diopters on a flip holder as Davide was suggesting - is really the way to go for now.
I already have the CMC-1 and also have the Inon UCL-165 +6 or an AOI +12.5 as weaker to slightly weaker options - might go for CMC-2 later on, but the AOI UCL-09 is similar and a nice lens to work with.
 

The one thing I’m a little worried about is the range the 50mm on its own would give me on APS-C, especially for BW type scenarios, where it would also be nice to be able to shoot larger subjects like salps or squid, typically in the 10/20cm range.

But based on sensor calculation equivalents, unless I'm reading it all wrong,  I think it should be fine.

For such larger subjects I’m shooting removing diopters and shooting at a 36mm equivalent on a 1” sensor at f/11, which is equivalent to 98.2mm at f/30 on FF.
Which is, in turn, equivalent to 60.5mm on APS-C, so actually tighter than the native 50mm lens, if I'm not mistaken.
Meaning the 50mm should allow me to film larger subjects in the 10/20cm range while also having enough magnification work in the 1cm to 5mm range with diopters.

Ben - Just remember 50mm is a 75mm FF equivalent on Sony APS-c (1.6x on Canons) which is a bit looser than your 98.2mm on 1" sensor. For the way you are shooting then, it should be fine for 10-20 cm creatures, and okay for smaller creatures - as long as you can get within working distance and light the things. I have not had the Zeiss 50mm in hand, so its focusing speed and manual focusing feel are best guesses, though it's always nice to have a well-regarded opinion to read. It does seem to be the leading alternative to the Sony 90mm for APS-c. There are several manual focus lenses out there, but I really want an autofocus lens as I don't generally shoot only dedicated macro.

I do agree a flip diopter holder is very nice to use, and won't make your kit too front heavy, unlike the 90 macro, for which I use ring floats around the port. The CMC-2 is much more forgiving but provides less magnification than the 1. You can try stacking as you know. I have the Inon 165, which I've stacked but it doesn't render things as nicely as the CMC lenses.

Best,

Craig

3 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Looking at the port charts I see it suggests the CMC-1 will give you 1.3x and 17-75mm working distance which is a little tight on max magnification.  The CMC-2 it lists magnification as 1.0x and 30-130mm working distance - the working distance is more usable, but the magnification at 1.0x is the same as the bare lens, which seems a bit odd?

That CMC-2 magnification on the chart appears wrong. Agreed.

On 11/14/2024 at 10:12 PM, Elvandar said:

 

 

 

Here another slice 😁

As a fellow video novice, here are things I noticed on the nudibranch short: cool subject; solid lighting; okay music. Didn't like the movement of the camera. And vertical framing seems like forcing an object into an unnatural frame. We naturally take in the world horizontally, and verticals come from an inability to turn the camera horizontally 😉 

@bghazzal If you're doing exclusively macro, I think a dedicated macro is the way to go (maybe Zeiss Touit 50mm - 75mm FF equivalent), plus a CMC-2 (easier to work with) and CMC-1 (more magnification) - or equivalents. The 16-50mm would give more flexibility if you use a wet wide lens and close up lenses, but it's very pedestrian for close focusing on its own, unlike the FF 20-70mm or Olympus' 12-40/45 lenses. The 90 macro on APS-c is a 135mm FF equivalent - a bit unwieldy and tight with its narrow angle of view - probably not good for BW.

I have a FF A7c and a 90 macro. Had and sold the Sony 50 macro. Looking to try a Zeiss Touit 50 macro on an APS-c body in the future. Probably the A6700. I traveled with the FF Sony 50 macro, which worked okay with the A7c in terms of locking on and tracking for general photos. The combo did not work well for me with BW. I was autofocusing, locking and tracking - but the photographer - or the combo -  was too slow. Manual focusing with both the Sony and Zeiss may be a chore with their relatively long throws (turn, turn, turn). I've seen pretty good FF 90 macro BW, but I haven't tried BW with that combo. You'd think, living in Hawaii, I would have more opportunities to do BW, but my time in the water is limited by personal circumstances.

@Davide DB Any opinions on using the WWL for video? I think I saw a post where you mentioned wobbles at depth.

4 hours ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

I have the 6400 and am struggling with whether I shouldn't buy the 6700. The 6400 is already very good in terms of AF and tracking, but the 6700 should be a whole generation better.
If the tracking is even at the level of the A7 IV, then the tracking feels like a military target acquisition system and you can rely on it amazingly well. This should also make the 50mm Macro much faster (hopefully)

I'd go with the 10-20 with dome for wide angle and zeiss touit 50/2,8 for macro (consider also the 90mm Sony!)

I think Sony's autofocus is really something. Amazingly sticky tracking once it's locked on. The 10-20mm or older 10-18 may be good behind a dome. 90 is a bit long unless you're exclusively shooting creatures <20mm, so the Zeiss Touit 50 macro may be the winner.

12 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Out of curiosity, What's wrong of this native lens?

No stabilization, huge MFD?

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1277527-REG/sony_sel50m28_fe_50mm_f_2_8_macro.html

It has a reputation for slow focusing. On newer bodies, once it's locked on, it tracks pretty well.

Very nice. And rock steady!

On 11/10/2024 at 2:59 PM, Dave_Hicks said:

An article that I wrote for Dive Photo Guide was just published today!

 

Check it out!

 

Underwater Photography with a Rebreather

Nicely done @Dave_Hicks !

1 hour ago, RVBldr said:

It's taken a while to get this zoom gear right, but I finally got a good working version. I have a Sony 7AC with the Canon 8-15 fisheye, and MC-11 adapter. I really didn't like the gear mesh with the Nauticam 100-120 adapter as the lens and adapter gears are at 90-degrees, so movement is a bit chunky, and you had to disassemble half the unit to remove the camera from housing. This zoom gear is designed to place the teeth in the same location as the 28-60mm kit lens, and thus uses the zoom knob on the housing, which has a linear mesh instead of 90-deg (lens zoom is now very smooth). It also allows you to remove the camera without taking off the dome, then the lens, to remove the camera. I expect this would probably work for any of the A7C versions using the Canon 8-15/MC-11 setup.  

If any of the Sony A7C folks would like a copy of the .step file for your own printing, I'm happy to share. Just hit me with a PM. 

 

Jim

That's very cool. I wonder if it will work with the A7Cr or A7C II? Thanks!

@PEPhoto84 Welcome aboard!

We can live only so long without facts and the search for truth. Otherwise it's a head-long dive into the metaphorical abyss.

On 11/3/2024 at 4:53 PM, bghazzal said:

Yes, the copyrighting thing is a little weird. Not sure what the story/timeline is behind this - he's been experimenting with this type of diving for 20+ years, and not sure who actually first came up with the name blackwater diving.

From what I gathered BW first started with the tethered dives in Hawaii (perhaps you have more local background info?), not sure if there was a connection with Japan, spreading to Florida and then Mexico (Cozumel), where it is going strong.

Drifting blackwater diving mostly started with Mike Bartick's untethered tests in Anilao, first using attaching the bait light lines to the boat then finally to an indepentend floating line ("pumpkin" shown above), since the boat would drift faster than the divers.

From there, more recenty it spread to Indonesia (Lembeh, Tulamben for land based resorts, and on various liveaboards for more punctual/exploratory dives, eg. in Raja Ampat or Komodo), and also to Thailand (through WaP member Alex Tyrrell, first diving in Koh Tao then on Thailand's Andaman sea and up to Myanmar on Smiling Seahorse cruises) and elsewhere (Hong Kong with Simon Lorenz for instance.)
Some liveaboards (like the Siren in Palau) also offer regular BW dives on trips.

Bonfire-style diving itself is strongly linked to Ram Yoro's experimentation in the Philippines, and also regularly held in Lembeh, not sure about other places at the moment, but given how flexible the setup is it could spread.
There is a strong connection with Japanese planktonic diving, and maybe with Kona's bonfire-style light-baited manta dives?

That said, Japan is a bit of a mystery (as always 😉). Other than Ryo Minemizu, photographers like Kazushige Hiroguchi (who recently did a talk on the subject at Japan ADEX) have been exploring planktonic diving for quite a while now, and there's a lot of "light trap" diving going on across the archipelago (Toyama Bay, Okinawa, Kume Island, Hachijo Island, Izu and Osezaki or Ainan just to name a few hotspots I've seen popup recently).

Flyer for a Hori Night bonfire/BW dive organized by Kazushige Horiguchi in Ainan (Shikoku Island/Pref.)



And the actual term "Black Water Dive" is under Japanese copyright... 😅

Not really sure how Japan fits in on the BW/bonfire timeline, but my strong inkling is that Japanese photographers might actually have been pioneers of planktonic diving - even though the now almost standard Mike Bartick-style drifting downline used for deep blackwater doesn't seem to be the most common form (which seem to revolve around weaker lights, often in bonfire-type configurations).
 

 

***
Regarding the lights themselves, based on discussions with Ram Yoro, here Ryo Shinemizu is refering both to CRI and temp.

The general idea is that the closer the light spectrum is to the sun's, the better, meaning ideally you would want a CRI above 90, and a colour temperature equal or warmer than 5,600 K.
Reason for this is that such a light would attract more phytoplankton, thus recreating the food chain by attracting zooplankton feeding on the phytoplankton, and then critters feeding on the zooplankton itself.

Deep drifiting blackwater  focuses on the vertical migration of critters, whereas in bonfire type diving, the base of the buildup / attraction is actually phytoplankton, which actually doesn't take part in this vertical migration process, actually following the sun, which it needs for photosynthesis.

And as Ryo Shinemizu mentioned, critters phototaxis, relationship to the light, is quite complex, and many of the amazing larval forms seen in blackwater are also spotted on shallower bonfire-type dives because most of these will be returning to the shallows at some point in their life cycle...

Based on all this, we could add that one of the main differences between deep blackwater diving and shallow bonfire-style light-baited planktonic diving are as follows:

- plankton is generally defined by its inability to resist current - in deep blackwater you actually drift with the planktonic critters, whereas static bonfire diving (unless it is itself organized as a shallow drift) implies near currentless conditions, allowing for a buildup of the foodchain (slack high tide being ideal) and predation.

- deep blackwater diving focuses on attracting critters during some phase of their vertical migration of critters from the deep, whereas the basis of shallow bonfire diving is predation, building the phytoplanton/zooplankton/larval critter food chain. There is a similar idea in deep blackwater as well (the vertical migration also has a predatory aspect to it), but encounters will tend to be more random (and surprising)

- shallow bonfire-style light-baited diving has a baseline of critters , which Ram Yoro calls "coastal plankton". This is a good term to describe the "regulars" which almost always show up on bonfires, marine worms, various gastropods and pteropods, different types of larvae of crustaceans like mantis shrimps, eels and flounders and various types of fish - these larval forms also overlap with some of the critters seen in deep water, spotted at a different time-period in their evolutionary process.

cheers

ben

 

 

Thanks for that Ben. Always well researched and thoughtful. I did my first BW dive from the Smiling Seashorse in the Andaman Sea. This was in February, and I was a disaster. I had my Sony A7c and a Sony 50mm macro (a bit short and slow).

19 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Once upon a time, Vimeo.

For reasons officially unknown (I'll come back to this later) Vimeo stopped being, for us Europeans, a community of video storytellers. (As it still likes to call itself).

Basically, in certain regions of the world you can no longer use the video search function and at the same time you can no longer browse other users' videos. 
I can only see and search my own videos and eventually see a video of another user only if I have its link. Even if I know his name I cannot search for him. I can only see his profile if I know his exact url.
This post sums up what happened:

 

https://shortverse.beehiiv.com/p/vime-nooo

 

I am so angry. 

 

• Because I noticed it by accident and I also looked like an idiot because I as well as thousands of other users thought it was a bug. No communication at all. Out of the blue. The entire UE community lost.
• Because the membership fee is the same for everyone but I have most of the features disabled.

 

Those who read this thread and, for example, have an account in the U.S. or other countries not affected by this ban might think that this does not affect them.

But it absolutely does not!

I have several friends in the U.S. who use their Vimeo account for showreels, basically a videocentric Linked-in. In their profile they have written "available for hire." Here, you must know that their profile is no longer searchable from banned countries. And we don't even know which ones they are. I can only access a video of theirs via direct link but I can't go to their profile or search them by name via the search function.

 

This is my following people page:

 

 

I can see their names but I cannot click on their profile icons. Sounds like a joke. What is the point of these lists now?

 

Just imagine my frustration, I've been a member for 13 years and I've developed a whole network of relationships over all these years and now I can't even see the profiles of people I've collaborated with, anymore.

 

Think about it before you renew your subscription!

That's messed up.

2 hours ago, aquabluedreams said:

Life, Covid lead to a 7yr break from diving.  Now that we have retired it was time to see if our passion for diving, photography, and dealing with packing all that gear is what it once was.  We booked a trip to Cozumel to dust off the gear and skills.  After that first dive we both came up and said, "this needs to always be part of our life".  In process booking a Raja Ampat trip!  Took longer to dust off the photography skills than the dive skills.  But by day 3 started to come along.  Shooting Sony RX100 IV, Nauticam with the various wet lenses.  The better half shoots the Canon HF G50, Gates housing but need to pick her up some new lights.  Few pics from the trip.  Yes, I see the world in wide angle, lol.

Looks great!

On 11/1/2024 at 6:30 PM, bghazzal said:

For those of you with Facebook, here is a clip from an Al-Jazeera feature on...
🔥 bonfire diving in the Philippines 🔥 presented as a new dive-tourism opportunity (though I do have my doubts regarding its appeal for beginner divers, given the imaging focus and buoyancy control needed to enjoy diving with small critters, regardless of depth)

 

This is time-related, but in certain fruitful locales, people holding regular bonfire sessions have mentioned over 80% of species observed in deep blackwater have also been spotted in bonfire-style shallow light-baited dives  (which, on the other hand, have more predation focused outlook, so quite a different feel for baited open-ocean drift dives).
The chances of seeing pelagic, deep water species are naturally higher on a BW dive, but the relation to depth seems quite complex, and also linked to life cycle considerations and environmental factors.
 

On a related note, speaking of deep vs. shallow water, here are some pretty amazing planktonic photographs mostly shot while... snorkeling
https://www.instagram.com/gilkoplovitz/

all this makes one wonder, when it comes to planktonic diving, are shallows the new deep?

Lastly, Japanese photographer Ryo Minemizu copyrighted the term "Black Water Dive", but apparently in reference to an actual bonfire-style setup, described as follows:
 

Black Water Dive® is a kind of night diving. We are setting up underwater lights of high-color rendering on the sea bottom of night that while considering tides, times, places. The creature which appears is mainly juveniles and larvae. All is fascinating, and it's not to be seen at daytime or regular night diving. It will be your first experience.
 

"BWD" uses a lot of underwater lights, but its purpose is not to illuminate the underwater brightly without limit. The brightness of each light is limited to a maximum of 1500 lumen, which is about the same brightness as a commonly used underwater light.
Then why use lots of underwater lights? It's for create a space of suitable light. Creature's phototaxis has nothing to do with light intensity.
That is, even if it is not a strong light, Creature will gather sufficiently. Of course, if you are going to put together squid of pelagic, light needs to be strong. 
Creatures have finished floating stage period and are coming to the area to approaching to shore. We only need the minimum brightness to make it easy to find it. In fact, they are coming there even without that light. 

The important elements are thoroughly the tide, time, and place.

*"BWD" stands for Black Water Dive®.
*Black Water Dive® is a registered trademark of Ryo Minemizu.
 

Source: https://www.blackwaterdive.net/
 

Here is a clip presenting his current setup:
 

 

Here is additional information on bonfire history, light power and setup, and also environmental concerns from Ryo Minemizu's site - pretty fascinating stuff!

 

History

It was around 1990 that I was interested in these unknown creatures. Christopher Newbert's photo book "Within a Rainbowed Sea", which I purchased for the first time as an underwater photograph photo book, it was introduced a lot of beautiful coral reef landscapes and creatures, but the most interested thing among them the golden shining octopus and Blenniidae with red pectoral fin.

All, most of the body is skeleton creatures. Since all were black backgrounds, I understood what was filmed in the sea at night. I was doing diving guide at the Izu peninsula in Japan at the time, so when I dive in the ocean of the night, I tried to see skeleton creatures like that in the photo book. In those days, when speaking of underwater lights it was a time when there were only Toshiba halogen lights that to put four D batterys. 
 

A lot of elongated larvae of the mantis shrimp was crowded before the lights when I was trying several times only a Toshiba-light put upward from the bottom of ocean. In those days it was still film camera era and I was not able to take larvae of the unpredictable moving the mantis shrimp as a decent photographs, but I was very excited about the creature I saw for the first time.
I tried secretly on several times, and I could also find Tholichthys stage of the Butterflyfish and juveniles of the Pearlfishe (at the time, I was thinking the larva is Congridae's). Yes, even Toshiba-light, which isn't bright, there was enough fish-gathering effect. T

he an era has changed, gradually a new type of underwater light come out.
The groundbreaking was Apollo Sports made a lead battery type underwater light (still halogen). It was much brighter than Toshiba-light, and the battery was large capacity, so I could keep a long lighting time. And underwater lights using the HID bulb appeared, I purchased the CANNON 100 light made by Underwater Kinetics and tried it.
This was a light of 12.5 watt HID bulb / 450 lumens, it was a well bright epoch-making at that time, and from now on I thought that the age of HID will come even to the world of underwater lights. With HID light, the amount of plankton gathered increased, but the ignition lighting was unstable and it was a weak point of HID. After that some new HID lights were released, but none of them was satisfactory.

Soon the age of LED underwater lights came. It's much smaller than HID light, and stable lighting, but the brightness is no way inferior. Immediately I bought FIX LED 1000 DX which FISHEYE released, after that changed to FIX LED 1500 DX later, I bought the FIX AQUAVOLT 7000 too.

Because I was thinking to take effect that brighter is better. The AQUAVOLT 7000 boasted the largest brightness of 7000 lumen at that time, and stable lighting for more than 2 hours was possible at 4900 lumen when reduced the brightness to 70%.
Of course there were big effects. I saw the first time Abralia andamanica and school of Todarodes pacificus, various Crustacea larvae, I continued new encounters keep every dive. But after that I come across RGBlue lights I am using now.

Phototaxis and favorite color
 

One day, I got the opportunity to try RGBlue LED light. RGBlue is an underwater LED light made by specialty to high color rendering to faithfully reproduce the original color of the object. Initially I was thinking of using it as a light for video shooting.

But before that, I decided to compare three lights evenly put on the sea bottom. Lit each light of FIX AQUAVOLT 7000 (6,500 - 8,000 K) and RGBlue System 02 (5000 K / Ra 80) and RGBlue System 02 Premium Color (4200 K / Ra 95) on in the sea of night. FIX AQUAVOLT 7000 lighted at 70% 4900 lumen. RGBlue System 02 lighted at 1000 lumen of the second brightest from the bottom.
RGBlue System 02 Premium Color lighted at 900 lumen of the second brightest from the bottom.

Two types of RGBlue are much darker than AQUAVOLT 7000. However, the difference appeared relatively quickly.
What! Clearly the RGBlue light that should be darker than AQUAVOLT 7000 had more creatures gathered. And the creatures that came to AQUAVOLT 7000 was immediately to attract toward the RGBlue light.
As a result, we reveal that the belief that "the brighter the light is, the more creatures gather" was wrong. It was same result any time when changed the day and try it many times.
Even among RGBlue, there was a subtle difference in the tendency of creatures to gather, which obvious related to was configured color. As a result the creatures like gathering to more natural light than artificial light.
Even in that sense, RGBlue is an excellent light for creatures.
 

Environmental considerations
 

In Black Water Dive ®, I'm trying to keep mind the brightness of the light to 1500 lumen or less at the maximum and to use the high color rendering lights. Apart from that, we have established rules in our own that not to doing in the same place in daily.

Specifically, for example, when doing four days of consecutive Black Water Dive ®, it is necessary to prepare four dive points. This is essential to avoid doing it consecutive in the same place. Also, if you do it in the same place as before, you can go only after at least one week.

Also, if you went to the same place for two consecutive weeks like this, you can do it in the same place in the next eight weeks later. In other words, if the last was May, the next is July after eight weeks.
In addition, we are deciding that it will be a total of seven days with do in the same place all year round. This is a consideration for avoiding "fixation of predator fish" that can occur by placing the light in the same place. All of these are own rules set based on experiences and examples of the past 20 years.

SOURCE: https://www.ryo-minemizu.com/Blackwaterdive

 

 

"High color rendering lights" -- which current brands fit this picture? Also, I'm a bit annoyed that Minemizu-san copyrighted the term Black Water Dive.

On 10/31/2024 at 12:35 AM, ChipBPhoto said:

Interesting that the new a1 will use the a9III body.  I do like the a7rV flippy screen design will be included for landscape usage.  

 

The new 28-70 looks very interesting for portrait work, especially the lighter weight. 

 

Will either of these specifically help in uw work?  Possibly the new focus capabilities on the a1 II could be a win, but at a high cost.  This new body + a Nauticam housing comes in at around $12,500, plus tax. 

 $12,500! I didn't get that for my left kidney.

Updated 11/1/2024:

Up for sale are the following:

Nauticam 37401 N100 extension ring 30. $225

Nauticam 37202 N100 Nikonos adapter. $325

Nauticam 37303 N100 to N120 35.5mm adapter. $350

Nauticam 37174 SFE2070-z zoom gear (Sony 20-70mm). $140

Nauticam 36069 01245-z zoom gear (Olympus 12-45mm). $100

All the above are in clean working condition. Focus knob on 35.5mm adapter has been removed, but is included.

Nikonos V orange with 35mm f2.5. Clean working body, including meter. Comes with storage and diving o-rings. Overhauled, pressure tested. $180 SOLD

UW Nikkor 15mm f2.8 and finder. Clean glass, good condition both and recently underwater. $150 SOLD

Add 3.49% if you require an invoice. Buyer pays shipping via USPS Ground Advantage. 14 day money back guarantee from the date of receipt, and buyer pays return shipping and insurance.

17 hours ago, RomiK said:

Stick to the dome stick to the dome stick to the dome... corners are unimportant - bubbles are... Just came back from Galapagos banging my head for bringing WWL and not the dome... so much action happening during first seconds of the drop and I can imagine a lot of Orca and whales actions are going to happen from zodiac at snorkel... I found WWL-1 to be important for captures such as fish bowl, wrecks, corrals perhaps but for anything frame centric - not really.

 

Having said that this whale shark photo is at 28mm - widest - WWL view - and its eyes are - ehm - less sharp than I`d wish but it was cloudy at Darwin combined with 20m depth - not much room for better than F5.6... but I still have had more or less controlled condition if you could call paddling with your foot like mad fearing for life to keep up with the shark 🙈 and I am sensing the Orcas and whales encounters will be more dynamic. 

 

So I'd bring the dome and also 20-70 F4 for days you want to do close ups.

That's a nice frame. Yup, what @RomiK said

Up for sale are the following:

Nauticam 37401 N100 extension ring 30. $225

Nauticam 37202 N100 Nikonos adapter. $325

Nauticam 37303 N100 to N120 35.5mm adapter. $350

Nauticam 37174 SFE2070-z zoom gear (Sony 20-70mm). $140

Nauticam 36069 01245-z zoom gear (Olympus 12-45mm). $100

All the above are in clean working condition. Focus knob on 35.5mm adapter has been removed, but is included.

Nikonos V orange with 35mm f2.5. Clean working body, including meter. Comes with storage and diving o-rings. Overhauled, pressure tested. $180

UW Nikkor 15mm f2.8 and finder. Clean glass, good condition both and recently underwater. $150

Add 3.49% if you require an invoice. Buyer pays shipping via USPS Ground Advantage. 14 day money back guarantee from the date of receipt, and buyer pays return shipping and insurance.