vkalia

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!

Yeah, that's the same conclusion I am reaching. Would have been nice to have a current-gen camera on offer, but it isn't the end of the world. And worst case, spend a little more and just get the OM3 housing, whenever Nauticam releases it.

I love my fisheye - i have rarely used a rectilinear wide angle since switching to fisheyes in 2008 or 2009. No, they aren’t as versatile - so if your goal is to get a lot of good shots per trip, a different lens might be better. My goal is to get a few great images per trip, so I am willing to sacrifice some versatility for that. Strobe placement will change a lot when you change the dome, especially if you are habituated to the old dome. I switched to Supe DPro after nearly 2 decades of Inon and I still get the strobe placement wrong at times, as muscle memory takes over and I forget to account for the much wider beam. Worth pushing through it, I feel.

Thanks, John. Would you happen to know if they have a B102 to N85 converter as well? I have written to them, but havent gotten a reply yet. Should have asked them at ADEX but was a bit crunched with some other stuff….

Oooh, thanks. I'll ping them and see what, if anything, they can do.

Ah, I should have clarified - I meant the N85 ports that go with the Nauticam MFT housings. If I can find a way to use them with third party housings, that would be really nice. Can get a couple of cheaper housings and have full setups ready for divers to take on dives. Worst case, I'll just pick up a Nauticam housing for the OM3 whenever it comes out, and keep the OM10 housing as well (not as if I'm getting a lot for it if I sell it anyway). I've written to Isotta to see if their MFT housings can take N85 ports - to be honest, there wont be much of a price savings, if any, if I go that route but might as well try a different brand if I can.

Out of curiosity - does anyone make adapters that will allow for use of Nauticam ports on other brands of housings (eg, AOI or Seafrogs or whatever)? I have switched to Marelux and have a whole lot of ports etc lying around, and thought it might be worth putting together an inexpensive secondary system with a newer OM Systems body - and since I can get AOI or Seafrogs for a very nice trade rate, that might be worth giving a go. This also becomes something I can rent out to anyone wanting to do a photography class with me or something.

I remember that - and flipping mimic octopii into the air so divers could get a shot of them in blue water used to be a thing, as well. 20 years of running a dive center and I can confidently say that photographers are disproportionately (and by a huge margin) likely to ignore responsible diving practices in the interest of getting a shot and the subsequent social media egowank. Terrestrial wildlife photographers arent any better - probably worse, actually.

What I am planning to do is wrap the housing in bubble wrap and put into an ultralight, very small shoulder bag as a personal item. Everything else is gonna go into a fairly compact Lowepro shoulder bag - or possibly an ultralight 30-35L hiking pack with camera inserts. Add a Scottevest or a photographer vest (depending on how cool/dorky you want to look) and this should work. But then, I dont travel with laptops, etc on diving holidays - have no particular urge to process my photos daily (leave that for my return). A Kindle and at most, an iPad mini.

Macro lens on Flasher Beach??? (Ok, I'll let myself out now)

I wonder whether under-invoicing will start to become common now for the US, atleast for personal shipments - and whether US CBP is going to care enough about that to investigate more thoroughly.

Jumping in a bit late, but there often can be justifiable reasons to increase prices everywhere. A few of them: - a projected decline in total sales volume may require higher prices as the fixed costs are getting amortized over a smaller number of items - some of the consequential costs incurred by tariffs (warehousing, supply chain changes, etc) are a corporate level and cannot be allocated just to the units going to the US - a desire to maintain consistent pricing - or some semblance thereof - across the board globally That is not to say “we will use this as an excuse to jack prices” doesnt happen.

Thanks for that, guys. I dont really shoot that much macro to build up a big array of accessories that will get used maybe 1x a year. But still, something to think about - this or a close-up lens.

Bumping this up. Now that this has been out for a while, any first hand experiences with it? And specifically, any thoughts on whether it is worth trying this out on an APS-C body with a 90mm macro? Non-Nauticam system, for what it is worth (which shouldn't matter, as far as I can tell).

I was there earlier this month as well - surprising how the sharks are now staying shallow all day at Kimud, vs coming up only in the early hours at Monad. Makes for really nice encounters. Thanks for sharing the video.

The housing underwent a full service in 2023, so it shouldn't be general degradation (although that's no guarantee of something going wrong). But yeah, as of now, I am leaning towards the water in the case and the blue/red being separate issues. Gonna take it into a deep pool next week and see how it holds up to all the buttons being mashed there. As for no vacuum - I flooded my old Aquatica system 3 times in the 12 years I had it. User error each time (and also why I have not gotten a CCR, despite being seriously tempted). Now I just like the peace of mind of the vacuum alarm as a safety need against my own carelessness. @jlaity yeah, good advice. I admit to get a bit lazy and leaving my O-rings in place. Time to remove it and give it a proper cleaning. Thank you for that timely reminder.

So for me, it never flashes red/blue when I turn it on: only solid blue. Then when I pump it, it slowly turns yellow and then green. At the end of the dive, when I re-pressurize it, it flashes to yellow and then red. This is the table that Nauticam has and it matches my sensor: https://www.nauticam.com/blogs/news/learn-vacuum-valves As for the water drops - initially, that was my assumption too: that some water droplets had fallen in when I had opened the housing, and caused the first problem I had with the sensor (in Egypt). After that, I have taken pains to open the housing in a way that water doesn't go in and the location of the drops (way inside) also feels too far in - but yes, it is possible. I am going to try the napkin trick on the next dive to see if that makes a difference.