Adventurer

If people are on a limited budget or have limited luggage the INON S-220 is the goto strobe ! If you can crank up the ISO of your camera a little you can compensate, not bringing a large gun such as the HF-1 or Apollo III 2.0.

The new x-sync speed is a real treat and makes me consider it as another camera body next to R6II. The additional megapixel count raises the attractiveness even more.

I did quite a while ago in this forum. It is very funny how similar it looks to the new Seacam solution. However it‘s noteworthy that I can use mine without a 2nd component on the lens: Thread name: Ivanoff Style underwater corrector port on a Canon Marelux MX-R6II

What an irony 🫢🤣 I am diving my Ivanoff Optic now for 6 month at a fraction of the costs and with more corner sharpness I observe in the sample images on the Seacam page and in the teaser. But I am sure Seacam users will buy this anyway. Glad to see some general progress and competition in the underwater optics field again.

Found it 🤦‍♂️ https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/2417-list-of-underwater-monitors/?&do=getNewComment

Thanks Davide, for the amazing compilation! Do you mind adding a column to show the monitors resolution. The nits values are nice but an important information might also, if they do 720HD, 1080HD or even 4K.

Somebody tried to make a recent underwater monitor market comparision table, but I do seem to find it anymore in the forums? 🤔

I have the impression, this is just a slight perspective shift resulting from two different photos taken. Putting myself in Canon's product management shoes, I would try to utilise the same body tooling + parts when the design change and upgrades are all internal. So I conclude the camera body is very likely to fit in all existing R6 II underwater housings in the market. Let's wait and see for the confirmation.

The today freshly announced Canon R6 Mark III might fit in R6 II underwater housings and natevily offers now X-Sync speed of 1/320 putting it close to this charming Sony A1 feature 🤩 https://m.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-r6-iii-initial-review Flash sync speed 1/320 sec

I think the above image by @Dave_Hicks already answers your question.

Though I am very happy with the HF-1 in that particular point I do agree with you, Dave. To what manual power setting do you reduce the HF-1 to archive 30fps? When I set my Backscatter HF1 to 1/4 power setting it will hardly do 8 - 10 fps with many blackout frames or dark frame variance. In that discipline 1st price goes to Apollo III 2.0 which is slightly stronger in full MTL mode and will have zero blackout frames and no variance in light output.

The HF-1 is the most powerful of the named strobes. Also it will shrink your battery handling substantially down. I refer to just two batteries per strobe and having to change/recharge these every 2 - 1.5 diving days. As you may guess from the above, I am a happy HF-1 user and owner. If recycle time is an issue consider the Marelux Apollo III, the latest version is about as bright as HF-1 in Full mode (not +1 or +2) and will deliver more fps without variance or blackout frames. As a Sony owner you might clearly lean into HF-1.

Hi, just became recently aware of MARELUX's 1st new real water contact optic which seems to compete against the Nauticam WWL-1 line-up. I think it's very interesting, as it seems a little more lightweight + smaller ( and more affordable? ). The name says 100, assuming 100° degrees but their specs says it has even 110° diagonal viewing angle with a 28mm lens. The very interesting part is that it was really engineered and developed for full frame cameras. Also it lists some freaky lens combinations: https://www.marelux.co/pages/aquista-100-port-chart ..some lenses + cams were not mentioned to be compatible with exitisting Nauticam Water Contact Optics. So some fresh wind here in the industry to have a closer look at :) I know that @Phil Rudin has already done some pics with the prototype on Sony. But anyone else already using it on Canon or Nikon Systems? Will be interesting.

After the above cinecam bummer, a more realistic powerzoom seems to be on the horizon for full frame: Canon RF 20-50mm F4 PZ source: canonrumors.com Let‘s wait and see, if it will outperform the existing RF 24-50mm in line resolution and other optical performance factors.

It‘s called M-HSS for a reason 😉 But you will find leaving the HSS power dial on full for most of your shots, I suppose.

Hi everybody, while well served at the super wide end with the Canon EF 8-15mm fisheye + Teleconverters (FCP at a more compact size and reasonable price) and having the currently best full frame Macro in the industry with the Canon RF100 USM; I was looking into a mid-range flex lens in the middle for that little kick of flexibility. I was even looking into buying an old SIGMA 17-70mm for EF mount, which had this amazing close focus an Macro ability in the DSLR era and was used by many shooters behind a dome. While researching options I stumbled across Canon‘s very own RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM that was launched + bundled together with the RF mount R6 cameras a while ago. Compared to it‘s much more expensive sister the RF 24-105mm USM which is not really attractive for underwater use it features dent sharpness and much less travel weight on land. So I bought myself one and also tested it heavily against the widely for UW shooters recommended RF 24-50mm STM shard by Canon. The winner is certainly the RF 24-105 STM which offers very decent close focusing distance and even some macro capability. You can use this behind very large 9 and 8 inch domes, but also it is a very interesting candidate for water contact optics. Behind my Ivanov Optic I can use it from 24-75mm or 32-85mm depending how I set up the extension rings. This might not be useful information for others,… as this underwater lens is simply not available for sale anymore,… but,… I think it has high potential for Canon RF underwater contact optics use, when you are willing to ditch the 24-27 zoom range and start using it at the 28mm focal length. With water contact optics, I am referring to the Nauticam lineup and the shortly available Marelux Aquista 100 and Marlux Aquista 120. The sharpness Sweet spot of that lens in land tests is at F8. I wonder why this baby has not made it into many manufacturers port charts. Hopefully we can bring this up on the radar of gear makers. PS: zoom gear of the RF15-30 STM fits also this lens 🫶✅ But to avoid people using the 24-27mm range or extruding the lens too far out, housing makers might want to produce a gear with Zoom-limiter to perfectly match their water contact optics best results.

The camera will have a full frame sensor it seems, but it's unclear if the 11-55mm will be a CN-E cinema lens or not.

I must admit that I used MARELUX Apollo III strobes with the UWT Retra dip switch position successfully in TTL and HSS before a converter appeared that had a dedicated Apollo protocol. You may want to get your hands on an Apollo S or Apollo III for that reason, maybe?

There is a rumor about a Canon RF 11-55mmgetting announced on 15th Sept 2025 for full frame cameras. This could be the flexible dream focal length range the EOS R shooters have been waiting for 🤩 Very exited to see the final product coming up and get the important specs such as MFD etc. Source: https://www.canonrumors.com/two-new-lenses-including-an-rf-85mm-f-1-4l-vcm-coming-september-9/

Hey you two. If you are looking into the optics made by SGC then I would not recommend the heavy weighted WFL01. Two friends of mine sold it again and went for the WFL-09s instead. It‘s less heavy underwater and delivers better optical quality then the WFL/KRL1.

Here is an update,… I ruled out the Canon RF16 Samyang RF 14mm and organized myself an Canon RF 24-50mm STM Canon RF 28mm STM Canon RF 24-105mm STM The 24-105 is the hot item here. Mainly due to it‘s minimum focusing distance on the 24mm end. Depending on the extension rings used, I can decide if I want to use it in a range of 32-85mm zoom range 24-72mm zoom range I have to take it out to the water and give it a walk in the field for real live shooting. Furthermore the 28MM prime ditches flexibility but seems to be dent sharp at F4 mixed with the water contact optic.

Is anybody out there using the Canon RF 28 MM F2.8 STM ? Especially with water contact optics it‘s supposed to give decent results. It‘s an ultra lightweight, affordable lens with superior sharpness. However it‘s not found in various manufacturer‘s port charts. I suppose it could be well-paired with WWL-1 or WWL-1B on full frame mirrorless similar to some sony FF prime combinations.

As far as I know, Marelux has Subal type4 adapters in their standard part lineup. I know, as I considered getting an old Subal dome at a very good price for my MX housing.

I'd like to counter the "we're only gonna die" trend-chart that that @shokwaav posted above with recent CIPA trends. Make sure not to confuse DSLM (which is state of the art) with DSLR (which is just a 2nd hand market today) sales numbers. The chart shows Interchangeable Lens DSC. So the influencing factor is more likely to be inflation, tariffs and increased labour + parts costs. Which basically accounts to all products sold and build.

Nice writeup Wolfgang, thanks for the report.