Mark H

Not a million miles away then! We should meet up 🙂

So Feb and March have the best visibility?

Cool. I'm based in Salisbury so if you ever fancy getting together etc. I dive all around the UK and also try and get a holiday or two in abroad. Sadly my d500 housing flooded in August and I've just got the insurance money so have bought a Z8 and now considering my housing options - although Nauticam looks the favourite. End of my diving season so no real rush but can't wait to get the camera so I can become familiar with it topside before taking it into the water.

Are the temps the same in March as Feb? At 24-26 is my 3mm to 5mm cross over point🤪. Thank you for the really useful info so far. I has been really helpful.

It's funny isn't it. Some people run warm and some cold. In the uk I dive a neoprene drysuit and undersuit thermals from 4°C to 18/19°C (that we get in the hottest parts of the summer), my wife has two different weights of undersuit and a thermal battery powered heater vest for anything below 12°C. In warmer water I still need a 5mm in the 20-25°C range and can get away with a 3mm for 24°C and above. Some of my friends get away with just rash vests and suits at +24°C but my wife is in 7mm in 20°C and 5mm up to at least 27/28°C😂. Always be comfortable, as what business is it of anyone else😂.

Great to see another Brit come out of the woodwork 🤩. Are you a UK diver or do you mostly dive abroad?

Again, more useful information, thanks. I've never done blackwater diving. While we have travelled a fair bit it has typically been on liveaboards or UK diving. I'm hoping that retirement means I can get approval to do more obscure types of diving rather than making the best compromise decisions for a week or two week holiday.

That sounds amazing but our holidays mean that it is going to be sometime after January but before mid March. In 2026 I'm hoping to retire in May so I think I'll have to be working in April and the beginning of May. Thank you so much for the kind offer 💗 as it would have been great to meet up with other waterpixelers. I think we are thinking about Raja Ampt in late 2026 if anyone is doing anything then. Then in 2027 we should both me retired and our plan is 3 months a year in Asia diving at our ease as much as we can afford 🤪. Should be able to meet up with others and chance for me to actually learn to take half decent pictures 😂.

Again, another thank you all - especially @Troporobo for a very detailed set of suggestions. I'm so glad I asked. I knew people would have useful information but was nervous about asking such a noob question. The help is really appreciated. I'm more than ever fixed on going to the Philippines. Great pictures from @jlaity and @Luko. Totally envious guys. I think my attempts won't come close to your lovely photos. My wife is now fixated on a "house reef" with ideally a chance to see Mandarin fish at some stage. I'm more take of leave on that - they are pretty but they aren't my first criteria. How difficult is that going to be to achieve? I could be she just want to see Mandarin fish but any house reef will do as long as we get a decent chance to see these colour fish😂.

This sounds a great idea!

No - I didn't even know this was a thing. We typically do liveaboards or stay in given locations. I'll look into it - sounds interesting.

Thanks guys really useful I totally agree that getting the correct ports is the way to go. I'm just thinking at the moment that I don't want to spend more thousands on getting every port and every lens along with my new camera and housing. I've no experience of Isotta either and they seem to use the same port bayonet fitting as Sea&Sea. I don't mind the red colour housing but the curvy grips look hard to use. If only one could try out a load of housing and see what they are like before spending ~£10k on a new system! But life isn't that simple. Thanks again for all the ideas and suggestions. The group is really friendly - I love it!💗

@Luko Thank you for your suggestions and what an amazing set of photos. Hmm time to do more of my own research. Is it ok to contact you to check a few things when I've looked into it more?

I'm not sure that I'm going to go back to a D500 - second hand cameras just always concern me! The insurance money would take me towards low pain transfer into mirrorless. I can sell my lenses and top side photo gear and move over with out having to worry about the cost of the new housing or camera as I have enough money to do that from what I've been paid out.

That was my thoughts. The zoom/focus knob broke off as the failure but this appeared to damage the whole of that rod. It seems that the rod (not the knob) is unique to each housing and Sea&Sea don't have spares of them?? I guess the D500 housing is quite old! Anyway I've been told it is unrepairable! I also had to send the housing off to the insurance company to prove it was damaged etc. They have paid out the full new price but I'd have to buy it back at £1500 if I wanted to mend it. This is just a risk - I'm told it can't be fixed and then I've spent £1500 that could go to a new housing on something that is useless. That is a good idea and one I intended to follow - I just thought that with all the expertise here I'd maybe find out some of the silly things before contacting Alex. I've obviously done my own research and found out that the standard strobe control is manual but in review didn't work well up to the 1/200s max sync. So I wondered if others had seen things like that. Personally I shoot in manual all the time so TTL I thought was a waste but if I need to get that to see higher sync speeds then maybe it is worth it. I also thought people would know what ports are used and if it was still possible to use my dome port at least - buying a load of ports and especially an new glass dome seems a waste. I'm looking at at Z8 as I'm not keen on the performance of the Z6 and it would only be a few hundred pounds to go from Z6 prices to Z8 given the money I've got from the insurance. Thanks for the suggestion all. Any more knowledge and support is appreciated!