OneYellowTang

I think you're looking at this a bit backwards. For those moving to the Sony A7 series, you move to FF. It's not that you "need" FF. And... there are many (many) u/w amateur photographers using a Nikon D850. I still contend one of the best pairings for blackwater dives is a D850 and the Nikon 60mm lens. This is not a "pro" (only) set up, just a very solid set up to get good images while diving blackwater.

@tailwind_marseille First - you are headed down a path many (many) of us have followed. Virtually all of your thinking to this point is well thought-out. Just a couple of things to consider: - you mentioned you were snorkeling with a TG-6... that may be part of the issue to consider. Getting crisp images when snorkeling is often even harder to do than while scuba diving. Much of the time you could be bobbing around on the surface, that motion impacts your images. In addition, most snorkelers shoot down, whereas most divers are shooting either even with a subject, or slightly up at a subject, which helps tremendously with ambient light (and perspective). Don't underestimate this, many of the best free-diving images taken are shot from this perspective. The TG-6 is a very reasonable u/w camera, especially shooting macro (small subjects), but the camera is subject to movement (leading to softer images). There are a number of reasons to advance beyond a TG-6, however understanding your use case(s) is important in understanding what kind of u/w camera system is going to work for you. - The other thing which you seem to already be considering is adding strobes. These will help you "freeze" your subject in the image to help get the sharpest image possible. That will come down to the interaction between the focusing ability of your camera & lens choices, shutter speed, and your strobe(s) ability to add light on the subject. If your primary use is going to be snorkeling, then I would be looking at a system that has both fast autofocus and the ability to adjust aperture & shutter speed easily - as you'll want to control the ambient light in every shot. If you are going to be using the rig mostly for scuba diving, then fast autofocus is a nice to have (critical in a few situations), but depending on the subject, you may be able to get away with slightly slower focus speed (as @Alex_Mustard mentions in the latest Underwater Photography Show podcast, some lenses, like the Sony 50mm macro lens, can provide great images, but are very slooooow to focus). To your specific question on camera - both my kids started shooting underwater with Olympus housed systems - it was a great learning platform. One has now moved up to Sony FF system, the other to a Nikon FF system, however both did well in u/w photography competitions shooting with that Oly (that then got handed down to a cousin who also learned using that system). It was excellent for macro (some could argue comparable to a FF Sony A7III with the 90mm lens), but was never a great w/a solution. Others here have had great success with the A6400 camera, so that could be a solid choice. If you are still considering the A7C this is a quick read (Sony A7C II Underwater Camera Review - GEAR TESTS | EVENT COVERAGE 2025 | BONAIRE - The Digital Shootout - A renowned annual event for underwater photography and videography enthusiasts.).

Maybe the shark was offended the diver was only shooting with an action cam?

For Belize, we went to Turneffe Island Resort. The dolphins were around several of the dive sites, so we saw them (and swam with them) on both surface intervals, and twice, on safety stops. They do offer snorkel tours (twice a day), however those are mostly for viewing fish and coral, not dolphins. They do have several snorkeling siteds where turtles are found.

@mcgowman I've been to French Polynesia quite a few times, but not since just before the pandemic. I'm assuming you are talking about the small airport in Bora Bora, not in Papeete. It is true that the airport in Bora Bora is on a motu across the lagoon from the main island. There is a free shuttle boat to the main town (Vaitape) that you will be able to take from the airport. You will need to collect your bags, etc. and then make your way to the ferry (usually easily seen as you walk towards the water). Once in Vaitape you will be able to catch a taxi or proceed to the rental car offices right across from the pier. Given the size of your group you likely will need to split up across several taxis and/or rental cars. If your Airbnb is on another motu then you may need to rent a private water taxi to get there.

There were a couple of u/w photographers with this clipped to their rigs the last time I was in Anilao (in October). It was somewhat obnoxious on the boat (often covers up your rig strap on the boat - boathandler tempted to pick up the rig by this). Underwater it seemed to be out of the way when shooting, but does obstruct visibility over the top of our rig a bit (for those that hunt for subjects while holding a rig in front of them).

As someone who works in the AI space, and has some deep, recent experience in this area, we are moving quickly towards a world where AI models will be able to generate both the perfect subject replicas in realistic looking images or videos (with the right prompting and training data) and even the imperfect ones if prompted to do so. There is still "original art" that will remain human for the foreseeable future - where I see AI will have the greatest impact (for still photography) is in the ID type shots (side on, etc). The artful ones will be harder to prompt or generate. Video is a bit different (play with Nano Banana if you want to experience some of this). There is so much video training data available for models now that any animal motion or any subject proportions are going to improve very quickly, as will light management (modeling sunrays, etc.). It's going to get very hard to tell the difference between what's real and what's generated. The actual delta may come down to nature being much more creative and chaotic than most humans can perceive. If we can't imagine it happening, then we can't prompt a model to generate it. There may be a time when models can start "imagining" things, but that likely implies we're living in more of dystopian Bladerunner type reality at that point. The irony in this is that those most experienced in viewing underwater subjects will likely be the most knowledgable in understanding what can be generated realistically.

@Aliens From The Deep I was shooting using my Nikon Z8 in Anilao on blackwater dives ~4 weeks ago, 3-4 shots at a burst at times., with Retra strobes. After shooting blackwater on the Z8, I'm not sure I would ever shoot at f29 (at 1/200). I'm usually at 1/125 (at the fastest) and often even slower (1/80 if it's not fast moving, etc.) unless I'm shooting HSS. And for shooting anything that's partly translucent I'm usually down around at f10 or f11. Only shooting very reflective subjects (like silvery fish) would I be at a smaller aperture.

To be fair, I didn't misquote you - I never suggested you said "ALL small subjects", however you clearly misquoted what I wrote. The point is still the some - the 50mm lens is a dog, it struggles to focus on small subjects in situations that other lens do not. I have the opportunity to dive with an A7RV, a D850, a Z8, as well as an Oly on a regular basis in our family. The 50mm lens on a Sony is the poorest of any of the typical macro lenses used across any of these. This isn't just opinion, this is from experience. The 100mm looks to be a much better macro lens for Sony shooters. Alex suggested this is true, other shooters who have access to the lens are saying the same. Feel free to stay in the past, that's completely your choice. What could possibly be your motivation for suggesting somebody else follow you down this path?

@JohnD As @Whiskeyjack mentions, there no other real w/a worthwhile in the Dauin area, other than Apo Island (unless you're planning on taking the long (day) trip to Oslob for whale sharks). At Apo you will likely see a number of sea turtles, potentially a few giant frogfish, very healthy coral, and they did have a whale shark swim by a few weeks ago. Given this is your first trip to the Dauin area - our next trip will be our 5th - it's a very productive u/w macro region... having said this, we took the trip to Apo twice on our first trip, and have not been back on any of the last 3 trips. Dauin is so productive for macro, you can find really good reef dives in other areas. When you go to Apo you feel you might be missing something on the macro dives you don't do because you took the morning to go over to Apo.

Actually, it is absolutely a dog, and most people who have dived with it agree (even in this thread). The original post asked about the 50mm macro, the feedback was that the lens is not worth the $. My suggestion was to get the new 100mm, it seems to be much better than the 90mm (which is better than the 50mm). The fact that you like the 50mm means just that, you are one of very few that like the 50mm for macro (and it's unlikely you've ever tried to shoot it for blackwater). Why would you shoot with a macro lens that struggles with AF for small subjects? And...first camera was a Nikonos III, new.

It is.... and I've likely been shooting a little longer than you have u/w ;) You are using it with a dome - that makes this much less of an issue. The 50 is also notoriously bad on blackwater dives (esp. with translucent subjects). I've dived it, I've tried it... there are (now) much better options. The 60mm on a D850 is better, the 60mm on a Z8 is better. A 105 on either a D850 or the Z8 is better. You even stated "AF is reasonable, with some mis-focusing on small targets.." <- that's what a macro lens should be able to do, right? That's why this lens is a dog.

The 50mm lens is a dog, on several newer generations of Sony FF cameras. There are lots of folks that have found a work around to the various issues, even with the 90mm (which is better on an A7RV than it was on any previous A7 cameras, but still relatively slow AF and will occasionally hunt more than expected). These are all about making a poor experince tolerable, not making it great. The new 100mm lens seems to solve much of this, but we'll have to hear more from the field. I believe @Alex_Mustard is in Lembeh with the lens at the moment - should be a good test. My next trip will be at the end of Jan - my daughter will have the lens (& port) for her Sony A7RV, so I'll get some first hand experience then as well.

@Castillo You've already received input on the camera, I'll leave that alone. Re; macro lens...if you are shooting Sony, the 50mm lens is going to leave you disappointed. My daughter has been shooting with the 90mm for years (A7III, A7RIV, A7RV) - the AF is just slow, and it's faster than the 50mm. The 100mm is waaaaayyyy better. Several posts have already confirmed this in the field (including @Alex_Mustard who mentioned it might be the best macro lens currently on the market). The 50mm is smaller, but that's it. Not worth it...

The field review of using the MFO-3 was interesting. The fact you got a (really good) shot of a Weedy Rhinopia out in the open at Lembeh... priceless. Do you recall which site you found this at? I've been to Lembeh 4x (headed back next May), no joy on rhinopia... hairy everything, but no rhinopia.

@Nikolausz We spent 10 days at Sorido Bay (Cape Kri is a 5 min boat ride away...) It's more expensive than most of the dive resorts in the region, but it was really (really) good (food, service, diving...) The house reef is right off the dock. There were a number of turtles, a few black tip reef sharks, and several (large) cuttlefish that seem to fairly used to seeing divers (did not flee - just backed up and watched us).

I've been a long-time user of Eneloop Pro's in Retra strobes (orig, Pro, Pro X). I recently tried PowerOwl Goldtop batteries... These are Chinese... definitely more variable in what you get, although they advertise both higher capacity (2800mAh for AA) and more recharge cycles (1200) - neither of which I put a lot of faith in. They are also about half the price of Eneloop Pros. I've yet to have any real issues with them, although I'm expecting I will at some point. I usually travel with 32+ batteries (2 sets of 16 plus a few spairs)... Got the idea to try these out by watching one of Alex Mustard's YT videos (he's been using PowerOwl brand AA's for at least some of his recent shooting). Here's the thinking: All AA's will fail eventually. I'm okay getting fewer consistent cycles from the PowerOwls because the overall cost is more aceptable for replacement. I don't like the idea of being frustrated with something like a AA battery (when diving and shooting). I'd rather replace it and move on.

@bghazzal Excellent question... I wasn't brave enough to take my camera rig on this dive for a number of years. I learned from a local photographer much more experienced than me that almost all the u/w phototographers exit on the south end of the beach (takes dive planning, etc.). On most days it's significantly easier (or on the rare occasion you'll see boat divers off the beach...) Howver the most interesting approach I've seen (but I can't get my wife to agree with this yet) is to have someone on "beach support" so that when you just start emerging from the surf your "support" runs into the water, grabs your camera, runs back out before the next wave breaks... I've seen this done a few times - the coordination and timing is pretty impressive (the "support" person is committing to getting pretty wet in cold water, usually without the thermal protection). I've seen camera rigs make it up to dry sand without any issues, meanwhile the diver usually gets pummeled in the surf zone.

Being a long time northern California diver I thought a call out for one of our local favorites was in order. North Monastery Beach (aka Carmel River Beach). When you learn to dive in NorCal, they usually teach you the "crawl out" method for exiting the surf (down on all fours, crawl out of the water). When you practice this at "Breakwater" (San carlos Beach in Monterey) during OW certification dives you feel a bit foolish, because lots of other divers are watching you, and you kmow many are commenting ("newbie divers, look at them crawl out of that 6 inch surf...") Your instructor most likely will mention you are learning this skill not for sites like Breakwater, but rather sites like North Monastery (but as a newbie diver, no one believes there are sites you may really need this skill...). North Monastery (or as some local divers refer to it, "Monstery" or even "Mortuary Beach") is a unique dive. The kelp forest is in good shape, the schools of fish have increased in numbers over the last ~20 years, and for some reason, you seem to be able to find larger individual fish at this site than elsewhere in Monterey. It also has the benefit of having access to the Monterey trench in the deeper areas. All up, it's a really nice Monterey dive - right up until you need to get out of the water. First - unless you get one of the very rare days when there is little wave action, you are going to be exiting on a beach, through real surf. The beach isn't very steep, however the beach does drop off quite rapidly right in the surf zone, so the waves break where you'll be exiting the water. These waves are absolute "dumpers." Second - almost everyone who has experience here will tell you that if you are sitting at the surface, at the end of your dive, watching the wave action from behind the surf zone and you notice any real swell, swim to the southern end of the beach and exit there (who knew you actually needed a dive plan before entering the water?). The kelp is closer to the shoreline on the southern end, which helps keep the wave action down a bit. It's a bit of a swim, but worth it if you are concerned about the surf. My college roommate learned first hand that not only do you need to master crawling out of the surf zone (quickly), but why, if you get caught in the surf zone with a wave about to break on top of you, make like a starfish. In short, he got caught exiting the surf, a wave broke on his back when he was still up on his hands and knees. He creacked two ribs when his tank flattened him up against the hard, wet, sand. This isn't even that uncommon at this site... what divers really need to watch out for is the wave action pulling you back out again as well.

Likely not going to help much, but I'll be headed to Lembeh (Lembeh Resort) next May. I'm assuming you're going to want the gear sooner that that... Question: I've been to Lembeh several times - what are you shooting with the 8-15 there, or is this for diving somewhere else?

Just finished up 5 days of diving in Anilao with the family at Crystal Blue. Overall, very good (during the day as well as decent Blackwater dives at night). Who knew @bvanant would be right about when the weather turns... we had a few waves breaking over the sea wall at Crystal Blue for the first day or so... meant we had to be driven to the boat a couple of bays over. By the morning of the third day the weather calmed down and things were back to normal. Highlight of the trip: 1 day old flambuoyant cuttlefish sitting on his still unhatched siblings (we know it was a day old because we checked the eggs for several days in a row). After a short stopover in Siingapore, now off to shoot some w/a in the Maldives.

Anilao is basically synonomous with stairs. Most of the resorts are built on the hillside (or just down from the hill) so they use stairs to connect their variious levels. A few of the resorts have enough room (back from the water's edge) for most of the resort to be built closer to the shore level, so possibly easier to get around. Our favorite (by far) is Crystal Blue Dive Resort (quite a few stairs)- it's not the largest, and not the most picturesque, however they likely have some of the best (if not the best) dive crews in the region, and Mike Bartick (photo pro & mgr of the resort) is the pioneer of black water diving in the area.

I've been a couple of times... the above water scenery is out of this world (amazing). The limestone cliffs are even more dramatic (in places) compared to what you find in Thailand. The diving is good, but as @Troporobo mentions, I wouldn't pick it over other destinations in PH, and certainly not over many of the more famous spots in Indonesia. The diving ranges from good to very good (during the off-season, otherwise you will have crowds). Tubbataha is world class... although several folks have dived the area in the last year and not seen any mantas or whalesharks (although the other sharks seem to still be present).

If this was posted elsewhere, apologies (a quck search didn't show a related story...) Thailand Bans Underwater Cameras on Deep Dives for Most Divers | PetaPixel (somewhat sensationalisitic title, also somewhat incorrect) Could be good for the coral, but this a bit of a slippery slope (& AOW or 40 dives is a pretty low bar to set)