Adventurer

My apologies, but you are testing and viewing the world through an Nauticam only housing perspective, and maybe you could note more often that there are also other brands where things work (different) and which you have not tested yet. On INON housings and domes that lens works excellent and also with a Marelux housing + my custom dome you even need an very slim extension ring to make it work in optimum. It might also work excellent on Ikelite systems, which I have not seen in action. However I highly appreciate all the well documented and intensive testing, Dreifish, that you share here in the forums on various gear brands. Thank you for all the hard work on gear testing and being so resourceful.

I would revise this statement into: the selection is " more mainstream compatible " for the expensive topside lenses and kit lenses on SONY. Looking back at my latest CANON experience with several non-L and simple STM lenses in place among five R-mount shooters, I must report back that the cheap RF 15-30 STM out-stomps the highly expensive Canon L versions (topside optimized lenses) in that range. So if you have not bought them yet, don't go for the RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM or the RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS USM. You can save money and go for the: RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM ! Also a total surprise and MUST BUY + USE lens is the cheap Canon RF 16 STM. That lens is ULTRA SHARP (even) behind (small) domes. One diver used it the whole trip and it turned out to be surpirisingly flexible. The fact that you can focus on small dome ports allows you to shoot fish portraits with it. It was really amazingly adaptive for a prime lens. There is this kind of semi-macro mode available on that lens, if you get really close. I am going to get one myself; even though I already own the overlapping Canon RF 15-30 STM. The no-brainer in the Canon RF System is still to get the 8-15mm fisheye zoom with EF converter and a 2.0x or 1.4x Teleconverter from Kenko. That will safe you a lot of travel weight and size and get you supreme image quality where other systems have to invest in optically corrected underwater glas. The Canon EF 8-15mm F4 alone is a must have lens in your underwater portfolio. If you do not need strong dual IS (lens+camera) the 2.0x TC will safe you from having to buy a wide angle zoom.

So in my particular case UWT did not have a Marelux profile available yet. So my UWT trigger just offers the RETRA profile. I will need to send it in for an update. Having said that, even such a provisionally solution did pretty well. Also I would like to add that TRT turtle does not do Canon Triggers for Mirrorless Cameras. They have ruled out Canon because of the high R&D effort. Maybe they change their mind someday. So all you can head to is UWtechnics and INON as Canon MILC owner, if you intend to explore fibre optic TTL triggers. Thank you for your extensive reply and thoughts on my report Phil. I am very much looking forward to the improved Manuals of MARELUX. I think their products are very capable but potential customers also need to learn about the full potential to unleash it.

Thanks @Phil Rudin for the clarification. I have rolled up and down the limited manual of Apollo III 2.0 and unfortunately does say much about M-HSS. This is all you will find: https://www.marelux.co/u_file/2407/file/01/ae0c5179f9.pdf Unfortunately it does not tell you anything about the requirements. 1.) So if you can shoot with a manual LED strobe trigger or not, OR if @Pavel Kolpakov UW-Technics converter is a requirement ? 2.) Also it does not refer to the settings required in the cameras strobe control menu. 3.) The manual does not tell you, if the camera may work this in Mechanical/Half-Electronic/Electronic Shutter However full electronic shutter is ruled out, by Canon R6 Mark II camera as it will not flash sync at all. Funny sidenote: If you connect a Canon SpeedLite HSS is a subset of eTTL (automatic intensity control). However even if you buy the UWtechnics TTL Trigger + Marelux Apollo III 2.0 you will be in a MANUAL HSS mode and direct the strobe intensity on the level switch of the Apollo Strobe. A lot of expert camera know-how and trial and error experimenting is required by the customer. In my case the following was used: 1.) Marelux R6 Mark II Housing 2.) UWtechnics TTL LED Trigger, dip-switch set to RETRA UWT profile 3.) 2 pc. Marelux Apollo III 2.0 strobes 4.) 2 pc. high-quality multi-core fibre optic cables * Lumilink 2.0 was owned but not used, to make this complicated system less prone to fails. Also there are said to be shutter speed limitations by Lumilink 2.0 and 1.0 which renders the M-HSS mode useless. I had occasional fails/blackouts on the system resulting in not-firing strobes and a black image. Sometimes this may have been wrong settings (strobe menu or still being in non-mechanical shutter mode) but they also might be due to the fact that the TTL-trigger-profile was still not for Apollo and had to utilize the RETRA profile.

Well,.. my two strobes begin with an "A.." in the serial number but MARELUX has double confirmed them to be 2.0 Versions of the Apollo.

Just wanted to let you know that I have been out in the field with Apollo III 2.0 and shot M-HSS at full power successfully in speeds up to /1250s and maybe more.. ( will need to sort out the images, to see if I ever went higher than 1/1250 ). Strong HSS power is the main beneficial reason for me to carry around these heavy suns. I did not find real MTL applications, even though I was more exited about that feature prior to practical application.

Glad to see my suggested test setup reproduced and utilized. useful to get your optimized extension for your lens

Do frequent and a little longer vacuum tests with that dome on your housing to get peace of mind and to be sure. problem solved

Well 0.4kg underwater weight are a bug not a feature. If you do not like a nose up system during your dive you can fix this affordable with less than $10 of car wheel trim weights. This is more easy and less expensive than having to put money in specialized and bulky float arms or bouyancy collars. I see nose up systems beneficial to your photography and video underwater. Your framing will include the water column and result in more please imagery. Especially with 45 deg Viewfinders this help 😉

130 FOV is not as magic and easy to handle. 10mm FF lenses get you there. If you enjoy the more practical FOV 114-63 existing 14-35mm give you a better real world experience underwater.

Well I might get stoned for this critical comment, but… looking at the (in my opinion) superior results of classic fisheye lenses: Will the FCP be Nauticam’s personal revival of the Nikonos RS disaster? Weight, size, price and dismal performance increase definitely point into that historic direction.

Exactly my impression after 4 weeks in the water with two S220 in Indonesia. I think I previously wrote almost the same as Dhaas somewhere here in the forum a few days/weeks ago. It’s the most underrated, attractively priced and underestimated underwater strobe in 2024 ! Cursed by the look a like S-2000’s legacy because many noobs will mistake the purpose of the previous Modell with the potential of the new S-220. Also the often mentioned wait for a Z330 successor is totally pointless. Just my personal opinion.

Don’t underestimate the DOF issues this optical category produces, once you move the concept to a full frame sensor. If you compare land based 28-60mm DOF to a 10mm lens, the latter will give you 130 FOV and more DOF sharpness. This water contact optic category that throws the image into the distance enjoys an excellent reputation for compact cameras, microfourthirds and previously camcorders, because they crop in on the center part of the optic.

I can get access to a D-Pro and wonder if that one is also in the fast or slow strobe category. I think you can derive some insights from the D-Max, so I am curious about your readings on that one. Also interested in the Kraken KRS160, if anybody has values for that one.

Here is one of your practical applications @Phil Rudin as asked above. Also as previously mentioned faster light gives you crisper (sharper) subjects in photography. I must thank @DreiFish for putting so much work in his answer. He illustrated it very well with his example pictures and I could not have it explained better. Especially point 6. and 5. in his initial answer are very worthwhile reading. I hope 🙏 less people skip over that too fast 😎😉 To me strobe speed ( and I do not mean recycle time with that ) is just as important as strobe power (GN, Ws etc).

Sorry - I must apologize for reading to quick. That part is valid and DreiFish is right. He correctly explains the difference. However the readout speed of your camera sensor must be able to keep up with the strobe, if it’s really fast.

no you cannot. what you described is a test for x-sync speed, not flash duration. you are all mistaking the effect of shutter speed for flash duration. please try to get your head around this another time. I know it’s counter intuitive and may be difficult to sort out. If you have a fast moving subject you can freeze it in your frame with a very fast and strong strobe, even if you expose for 3sec or bulb. There is no need to discuss x-sync speed or new fancy global shutter or HSS for this, it is not the application and irrelevant.

You could have lowered that ISO and would have received nicer blues 😎

I do not agree Wolfgang. Keep in mind the following. When you try to photo water droplets you will find that your shutter must be set to bulb to archive this. The flash will freeze your foreground. The sharpness of your underwater imaging subject is largely also accounted to bringing fast light to the table. You will observe a pleasing “crispness” if successfully mastered with the right gear. More than 10 years ago I had a lot of issues with Subtronic and Ikelite strobes which had round flash tubes. These were very slow as @Chris Ross pointed out correctly. Occasionally this resulted in an unpleasant movement halo in front of fast moving subjects (a lot of pelagic animals and fast movers such as dolphins and sharks). When I switched to system strobes or other uw strobes that used xenon flash modules (in German: Stabblitzröhren) the problems disappeared. Also my macro shots got crisper.

Hello Sergio, as far as I understood you are talking about the ambient light. The part in the picture your strobes cannot reach, correct? It would be good to know, if you also changed settings upon ascent. ISO and/or shutter speed need to be re-evaluated whenever the ambient light changes. Different water depth is such a change. You should be able to archive nice blues at any water depth. The color temp of your strobes and auto-wb has a minor influence, too. But I recommend not to focus on that part too much.

Dear forum members, in another thread here we gently touched the question of having fast light. While everybody is currently still talking about guide numbers and color temp, I would like to raise awareness about flash duration and flash peak values and energy. This is a very old video about a Canon 580 EX II where you see the setup and measurement curves that can be done. As all of you want to know what the most powerful and best underwater strobe in the market is, this is an interesting approach. Years ago I have been involved in such a test. Maybe a member has the equipment to go for such a setup and can publish the results. Here is the video on youtube: How to measure Flash Duration

Today my Marelux 30mm Extension Ring finally arrived, thanks to hydronalin Germany. So I re-did the test and also optimized the chessboard straightness with a leveling tool. To me this F11 picture just looks great and I think that I almost nailed the right position with 30mm extension ring. 35mm was the computed optimum when leaving the BK7 glass out of the equation. That missing computation should allow you to go shorter up to 10-15mm on large domes. So averaging in data collection errors and some other mistakes it’s worthwhile to finalize all with a practical test setup in the garden. As I had slight vignetting with 35mm in the corners (see above) the 5mm less just seem right and I am glad. As we often talk about “curved virtual images” behind domes I thought it’s interesting to observe this practically. I was able to sneak my phone camera perspective in from the top, which shows you very well the curved chessboard on the dome below the waterline. I hope this helps others here to optimize their dome setups and get maximum IQ out of them.

Wowzer! That shot is fantastic and exactly the style I like. I was thinking about getting away with just one Apollo for shooting comfort but this makes consider me two apollos.

my condolences - another great one gone

The sharpest lens in APS-C Sony is the Sigma 16mm. It can be utilized behind a dome. The maximum f-stop is F16 but that's not a big issue. In fact not raping your aperture will improve IQ substantially. In your country Hydronalin has published extensive videos on A6000 A6300 A6500 A6400 with Fantasea Housings. Most stuff from the videos can be applied to Seafrogs and Nauticam housings as well. You will find the videos on their facebook page, not on youtube. The videos can be found and watched without having a facebook account.