vkalia

I am off to Banda this weekend - will mostly be shooting on my Marelux rig, but i recently got a DiveVolk case for my iPhone and am getting a couple of Marelux video lights for it this weekend, and i plan to use it on some dives. For those of you who are using a DiveVolk with lights - how much flotation are you using? I know this is going to vary from setup to setup - i just want to get a ballpark idea of what you are using with your lights: Will extrapolate from that to a starting point for my setup, and tweak on location. TIA.

Cheers, thank you. Sorted!

Awesome - thank you very much!

If so, can I request a copy of the image (4000 pix across, landscape format) for a video I am doing? Can send you details over messenger. (I am away and wont be back home for a few days, and need to get this video done asap) TIA!

True. Papex, for examples, is something like 2900 euros a week at retail for an on-water bungalow (we saw a walking shark hunting while sitting on our deck!), great food and 4 dives a day for 6 days. Their liveaboard, Coralia, is a LOT more. I like liveaboards for hard to get to places (like Manuk) - but after doing 2 Raja-Ambon crossings, i am off next month for 20 days and will be staying in Banda Niera: I suspect i will get much better dives in, and better photos as well.

My favourite place in Raja is Papua Explorers. Lovely rooms, good food, great guides - I actually prefer diving R4 from there, as opposed to a liveaboard (6:2 guide ratio and can go back to sites I like, spend more time taking photos, etc).

I am curious to see if Nauticam releases a housing for the OM3 - if not, that’s a sign that they too think MFT is dying.

It works modestly well enough for sharks and other moving fish, atleast on the R7.

Ah yes, it does have PDAF - but i think OM Systems may have removed some of the subject tracking algorithms from this model. Atleast, their own website doesnt push this so highly for the 5 series. Now that i have gotten a taste of subject recognition/tracking and eye focus, i have to say that the whole “lock focus/recompose” dance is something i can happily do without. :).

It’s almost hypocritical of me to say this b/c i jumped ship from M4/3 to Canon (APS-C, though) - but i really do hope OM Systems gets its act together and keeps things going. There is very much a market for a camera system, that is smaller/lighter/easier to travel with than APS/FF but more functional than a compact system. Sadly, underwater photographers are likely not a large enough market to keep the OM line afloat - and given that no housing has been released for the OM3, it is a little worrying what the future holds for MFT.

Oh, while I knew the OM1 and 3 shared the same AF, i didn’t realize the OM5 II did too - are you sure about this? Because i havent come across that in the various reviews i have read. Based purely on what i have read online, the OM3 would be a good body as it also gives me 4k60 video, but no one seems to make a housing for it yet (Backscatter has a Nauticam housing listed as “coming soon” for it).

I have been using mirrorless (Oly MFT/Nauticam) since 2018 but been focusing the same way as I used to focus DSLRs - last year, I picked up an R7 and 200-800 for my wife to use on an Africa wildlife trip, and have been blown away by how good eye/face recognition and subject tracking has become. Enough to get an R7 and Marelux system for myself. Anyone have any experiences with how the AF systems of the various OM Systems bodies stacks up? Especially the OM5 II vs the OM3? Thinking i may as well upgrade my MFT system while i am at it.

I came on to recommend the 30MM lens as well. Back when i was shooting Canon, the 50mm - along with a close-up flip lens - became my general all-purpose lens: excellent for a wide range of subjects, except the very large or the very small. In other words, a great option for general reef photography. The Oly 30MM is pretty much the same thing.

Folks who are using the current gen OM Systems bodies - how reliable is the eye or subject detection underwater? The OM5 doesnt have animal subject detection but does have eye detection. The 1 and 3 bodies do have animal subject detection. Any first hand experiences on how well these work with moving subjects where lock/recompose isnt always an option? TIA!

Lovely video!