Mark H

My wife and I have been using LiitoKala Lii-600 battery chargers for over a year now and have been really happy with them for both 18700, 21700, 26650, AAA and AA batteries. I really like ours and have recommended them to other diving friends.

Great photos. I've not been there for a while and mostly dived the Liberty - seems I missed out 😞

What great shots Dave. I can see what you are setting out to and achieving with your lighting combination. Love the nudi shot. I think initially I'll go for just the snoot as everyone says it is a big learning curve. I hope I can get it work the way everyone else does.🤞

Thank you so much Tim, that is very helpful. I've ordered my snoot - I went with the Marelux in the end. I'd sort of guessed that as the diameter of the beam reduced more power would be required. It was why I was less sure about the MF2 as a solution. Another question, clearly there is the need to get the snoot the correct distance from the object to get sharp edges to the light, do people play with the idea of the edge lighting being more diffuse or is it imperative to get crisp edges for the best shots?

Hi Johno Yay another Brit! I'm no expert so I'm not going to be able to give a huge amount of advice. I recently started using wet lenses though and found this video to be really useful. In the end I bought a couple of lenses from Backscatter (+5 and +10), which I'm using with my 60mm and 105mm macro lenses. I've been getting results that I'm happy with, I found it really easy to switch to super macro using my old D500. I run on a budget so I don't have the latest kit in the world or the top of the range. I've built my rig up over the years very slowly. I have a Sea & Sea housing that I guess is middle of the road in terms of cost, I've not found anything it can't do, it is my third Sea & Sea housing (I had a D80 and then D7000 before my current camera), I've not had any problem with any of them. My thoughts were that you buy into a system and then you have all the ports etc if and when you change camera. I'm sure all the housing are great - I've never heard of anyone complaining about any housing to be honest. I mostly dive in and around the UK so robust kit is important to me, as mostly I have to just jump/roll in with my kit, none of the lovely being handed your camera once you are in the water like on the exotic trips 😀. Cheers Mark

Thanks for the input, it is good to hear someone else is using the SOFT snoot. Sounds like I'm in for another learning curve. That is good to know as it means my expectation won't be very high to start with. I've got a week of diving in Southern Ireland and then two weeks in Scilly. I should get plenty of time to take it and spend time learning. How long did it take you to get results that regularly started to please you? 5 dives doesn't seem that many to be honest.

Amazing photos Mike. Way beyond my level, they are lovely. Inspirational his how I'm looking at all the amazing photos you super photographers achieve. I'm just a joe blogs snapper really, who maybe has ideas above his ability. The Wolf setup looks robust! However, I'll be initially trying with just the standard arms as Tim mentioned. I'll try that but if I'm not getting the stability needed then I can always try the Wolf configuration, we all carry spare arms etc don't we 😀. Great suggestion.

That is a good point. I'm hoping that good maintenance will help!?!?! I really like the idea of the SOFT snoot, so I think I'm going to go with it. Thanks for the input though - I'd not heard anything and it will be good to keep an eye on it from the start.

Thanks Tim. Yes, while I'm not the poorest person in the world, I do limit my spending on UW photography. It is a hobby and not a way of life for me🤪. I try and do photography on most of my diving but I also have to keep in mind that my wife or other buddies just aren't as interested and I'm not a solo diver. Still it is sound advice. I think my first two options in my post aren't viable options. The D1s just don't have good enough focusing lights. I could replace my strobes but as I don't need to, I really can't justify the cost of £1500 - £2000. At the moment I'm tending towards the Marelux SOFT lite as a solution. I'm waiting to hear back from the manufacture as there is some concern with single linear tube flashes as used in my strobes. There is an alternative variant SOFT lite XW that is supposed to be better for my strobes but then it loses a feature or two of the standard model. What the standard model does have is both a white and red focusing light. This sounds of little use for nudibranchs but other things like small fish shouldn't be as spooked by it as they might by a bright white focus light. Do you or anyone else think that this is really worth having or just a gimmick? Do creature get spooked by bright focusing lights?

Thanks for the suggestion Sarthur1. These look very good as an alternative to the Retra LSD but I think they will suffer from the same issue - I'll have to use the D1's pathetic focusing light. I think my solutions are either: Marelux SOFT lite Backscatter MF2 These seem to be about the same price point for me at the moment. I'm tending towards the SOFT lite as I then don't need to much about with changing strobes etc as much, and the D1s with the SOFT lite should be brighter than the MF2. The thing is it is a gamble though. The MF2 is a proven solutions and I'm just going on reviews that the SOFT lite is a valid approach. I do prefer the idea of a truly adjustable beam width like the Scubalamp OSD and Marelux SOFT lite appear to give.

Thanks for all the input everyone, I really appreciate the help and advice. More research suggested the Marelux SOFT lite. I'm seriously considering this option as my first choice now. The focusing light is bright and through the snoot, it has an adjustable iris to dynamically change the size of the light and it has what looks like a very good attachment system. The few reviews (3 pro reviews) I have found have all been very positive. I totally get the only shoot snoot on a given dive 😀. As you have all said, I can imagine it is a mind set. At the moment I do dives where I'm only looking for macro so I can imagine that a dive just focusing on snoot photography will be the best approach. I did wonder about do I just take one strobe on such dives, then I wondered about playing with other back lighting or even low fill in light with focus on a specific subject etc etc. I think that is all well beyond me at the moment so I think I'll be just a single snoot/single strobe for a group of dives. I've a trip to the Isles of Scilly coming up and jewel anemones, sunset coral and nudis are relatively abundant, which all sound like ideal candidates 🤩. As I said in my intro to Waterpixels, I'm a happy novice who pootles about on dives. I'd like to play more with my lighting, though, as I think a number of my pictures, eg attached nudi, could have been even better with snoot lighting.

Amazing photos Giancarlo - I'd love to produce something like those 😄

Hi All I'm a big fan of nudibranchs and macro photography and have been thinking about adding a snoot to my old rig. I've got a D500 in a Sea & Sea housing with two YS-D1 strobes. I'm not looking to spend a huge amount, ie I don't want to go out and buy a full new strobe set up like Retras. My possible solutions so far are: 1) A 10bar snoot with laser aiming 2)Retra LSD for D1/D2 3)Backscatter MF2 with snoot With 1) I'm worried that I'll have difficulty aiming the snoot and there is little if any control of the size of the beam, 2) will rely on the focusing light of the D1 for aiming and beam size selection and I've never been that impressed with the D1 focus light, 3) is the most expensive but probably the best solution in terms of aiming and beam control visualisation but would mean carrying a third strobe on a dive, which just makes for more clutter and complication. I mostly dive in the UK from relatively small boats and RHIBs. Equipment has to be relatively robust and there is no chance of someone nicely handing me my rig when in the water, it jump in with it or don't take it 😀. Is there anyone out there who could pass on some experience or recommendations? Cheers Mark

Hi All I've dabbled in UW photography for getting on for 20+ years but really I'm a beginner. Mostly my photographs have been ID like shots at best. I'm a big nudibranch fan and recently bought a wet lens for my Sea & Sea D500 set up. Mostly I'm happy to just snap away as I pootle along on a dive. I've been a member over on Wetpixel for a number of years and recently saw a forum post suggesting Waterpixels, so I thought I'd come over and give it a try. I'm hoping that this site survives as for me WP has been dead since the disaster a couple of years ago. Hope you are all enjoying a great year of photography. Mark