insomniac

If you go back to my post from Aug 21; that shows my 3 battery 18350 solution for the Canon V1.

Yeah, the charging circuit on this battery is not safe at all... My custom solution earlier in this thread is exponentially safer. Can't say I'm surprised #china. So let this be a warning of what not to do or you could start a fire. AKA: Only buy batteries from reputable sources; and if it's hard to find something there's likely a good reason for that. These batteries are immediately getting disposed of. But the "silver lining" is these things did start "rebooting" on their own when max temp was achieved.

Not sure if I love this solution so far, the battery is getting pretty hot during the charging process. It would probably be ideal to run two batteries at 7.2V for this solution; but that requires "work." I'll keep an eye on the max temp of the battery with a thermal camera and report back.

USB-C delivers 5V, I believe it just ups the V and drops the amperage using a micro boost converter. Update: Just confirmed (see below) **I'll keep this thread updated in case my camera starts on fire; you never really know with some of this stuff....

The last photo shows the 1x 18650 battery in the housing (green thing on left) with it plugged into camera and the camera charging. This battery has a built in bi-directional USB-C port (most batteries this size only have support for charging the battery, not charging a device - but this one does). As you can see in the upper right screen shot, it's charging my battery via USB-C. If you have 5cm that is enough; you could fit in an 18500 battery (the 500 part representing 50.0mm or 5cm). Scroll back to see my custom 18500 battery pack for that solution.

I'm super happy; while building the custom battery for my wives housing I starting thinking if I could do something similar in my Nauticam Sony A1 housing. My solution is exponentially easier, and anyone with a similar housing can do this with no electronic knowledge required! A bit of background, I noticed you can buy 21700 batteries with bi-directional USB-C circuit charging built into the battery itself; I was wondering if something might exist for 18650's as well; and it took some digging but I found some (and I was order #1001 AKA#1) so I don't think anyone else knows about them: LBF BatteryButton Top Protected 18650 3500mAh Flashlight Battery Typ...【Battery Specification】Battery type: 18650 Button Top PCB Proctected, Capacity: 3500mAh, Wh Rating: 12.95Wh, Voltage: 3.7V, Size: 18.5*70.5mm(0.72*2.77 inches), Feature: Type-C Input/Output, Quantity: That combined with this from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F8HW858S And it fits perfect in the housing. Just put a little electrical tape over the positive/negative ends for safety; plug it in and you are good to go. If my math is right this should add about 70% capacity to an existing Sony battery (aka 1-2 more dives). Here it is installed:

It can also do 4k 60p unlike the old model.

We really should move this thread to a new forum regarding custom battery solutions, but oh well here we are... This might work (as the 16mm isn't discontinued yet). And actually they still might be able to make the M14 one as the description says they are manufactured on demand. It would be "clunkly-ish" but you could maybe do this: NauticamM16 to M14 Step-Down Adapter ~for Electrical BulkheadAllows for the use of M14 electrical bulkheads in M16 housing sockets.and this NauticamM16 Offset Connector with Dual Activation Vacuum Valve ~C...This dual-activation offset vacuum valve supports creating a vacuum with either the hand pump or via a low pressure inflator. The offset allows the bulkhead to be used for another purpose such as an e

If you want to take the risk and forgo the vacuum (scary), you could for sure do it. I would recommend keeping your battery; and just charging it through the USB port. The RX100 can charge and be powered on at the same time. Some camera's only charge when off (but still, just turn off the camera between dives and it will charge up). The Canon actually runs off my custom battery pack (when turned on, and my pack has juice); and when the camera is off it charges the camera battery. You really don't want to use a dummy battery unless you have no other choice; as you are giving up additional capacity and redundancy.

I also just confirmed I can build a 2x 18500 battery pack to likely fit in most full frame camera housings (I have a Sony A1). It would add 4800mAh of battery life (enough to get you through a full day considering the full frame batteries (for Sony, and likely others) are already pretty descent). That said, I use a flash trigger in my housing, so they are too big to fit with that. But I am now curious to see if I can come up with a solution that will work with my camera (down the rabbit hole I go).

I just finished up the 18500 battery pack, it fits amazingly well and has an insane 9600mAh of power (enough to last 8+ hours)... I made this one with a slightly fancier board, that shows how much battery is left (and when charging how full the battery is).

For the Sony, I bought a GoPro 3 housing many many years ago that had an external battery holder for 1x 18650 battery (at the time it was like over $500, and it came with a custom aluminum gopro case that I didn't even need). Anyways, I cut the wire on the battery holder and then soldered a USB cable to the other side. Before connecting the wires I ran it through a Nauticam Socket Extension and then I just made sure my wires were split up pretty good and fully inside the socket extension and epoxied it inside. This worked amazing for about 6 years, and then I started getting an insanely small vacuum leak (only on land, stayed sealed when testing with some toilet paper in the housing and the housing in a 5 gallon bucket of water). I never got a drop of water on the toilet paper, but I ended up just using a Dremel to remove about 2cm of epoxy and re-epoxied it and hasn't been a problem since. It's a super simple cable that could have any tip (Micro USB, USB-C, etc), and because it's magnetic it makes it super easy to install in the housing (there's a million on Amazon, here's an example), mine has a little light that comes on so you know it's connected. The battery has an on / off switch which can be annoying but it's been so nice. You get an entire day without having to open the housing and swap batteries. Here's some pics of that...

I went ahead and ordered this camera and housing for my wife (who currently shoots an RX100 VII). If all goes well; expect to see that in the classifieds section soon. One big "deal breaker" for us is having to swap batteries every dive. These compact camera's never have that great of battery capacity. On the RX100 VII; Nauticam has an extra entrance port (meant for HDMI); but I use that to run a custom 18650 battery enclosure I have on the outside of the housing; that allows her to shoot at least 3-4 dives without needing to open the housing / swap batteries. Because the NA-CV1 doesn't have an HDMI port; the only option was to forgo the vacuum valve (deal breaker); or utilize the space where the flash trigger adapter + Nauticam flash trigger (since she is video only, this was a viable option). I am happy to report back that you can easily fit 4x 18350 batteries in that spot, and I even managed to get 4x 18500 batteries to fit. All that to say, it does take some specialty skills to build a custom lithium battery pack; but in today's day and age that's not too hard to obtain. I built a couple packs with BMS, USB-C Bidirectional Power Delivery/Charging, and even a thermal sensor on the pack to shut it down if it exceeds a certain temp (highly unlikely, but nice for safety). Just for reference; I did a test video shoot with the smaller 4x 18350 batteries and it recorded for 6 hours straight and then I ran out of memory card space (vs. battery). And I love the fact that this fits inside the housing vs externally as it's much more streamlined. I'll bet you that you could even fit a flash trigger in the space along with 2x batteries if you used something like the UWTechnics flash trigger (vs. the bulky Nauticam one). Anyways, I'll share feedback and more pictures when I have the time. For now here's the progress shots of one of the first battery packs I made with 18350 batteries.

Too funny, I have the same exact strap wrench. In this case, I wasn't able to get it to grip well with the small surface area. The Irwin clamp happened to work easily and didn't damage the surface. Just wanted to give people a heads up of another potential tool to use. After breaking my last lens with the combination use of a vice clamp and induction stovetop; I figured I'de share something that worked this time around. But I agree, those strap wrenches are great!

A strap wrench would have been virtually impossible to use on this filter holder, they can work on the actual lenses themselves though...

I had a stuck flip filter holder. Overnight soak in highly concentrated Salt Away, combined with a bucket of ice water and hot water still wasn't seemingly helping. Finally found this Irwin clamp in a drawer and that did the trick (I am guessing it was a combo of all three), but got it removed safely!

I know this isn't the answer you are looking for... But I'll sell you mine if you are interested. I've owned it since 2018 but I've only used it a few times underwater. I've actually used it more on land (in a pinch), but never really got into video and I can hand hold my photo's. I spent close to a grand on it, it has the medium carbon fiber legs + hub + 3-way pan head. The fully articulating pan head is what sets it apart from everything else on the market. That said I know it can handle large systems just fine underwater as mine is about as big as they get. The disadvantage underwater is it's going to take a bit of setup time (but I have a quick connect plate as well to makes this easier). The advantage is huge with the pan head; it's exponentially easier than trying to adjust all three legs to get it perfect.

Yeah, that's likely, Nauticam has a small dome port adapter for the RX100 VII housing so I would hope they would be able to build something similar if they choose to make a housing for this camera. They could also make a flat port that just requires you to zoom to 24mm first, and then that could be compatible with some of their water contact optics.

This new "vlogging" camera looks like it may have some real potential for underwater use. 1.4" sensor - 4k 30p downsampled from 5.7k (image stabilization), 16-50mm full frame equivalent lens, big battery. I'm excited for a new compact camera to potentially replace my wife's aging RX100 VII camera. https://petapixel.com/2025/02/19/the-compact-powershot-v1-is-canons-answer-to-the-sony-zv-1-mark-ii/ Note: Not initially planned for US market (but that's why there's Japan)

Well, it looks like they realized how stupid / expensive this idea was and abandoned the project. I pre-ordered 2 batteries as I hate having to travel with + charge 16 batteries twice a day during long dive trips. I was thinking this "upgrade" would be a better option than buying new strobes after I invested so much into these already. But I guess I will cut my losses and most likely sell my Retra Pro Max's in favor for something else... They held onto my money for 4 months, and processed the cancellation / refund today and sent this email:

I would recommend UWT over TRT. TRT has some known QC issues that their support usually resolves; but semi-permanent install of the UWT is superior.

Some stickers with your email / phone number on them!

such a good deal (sarcasm). The recommended HF-1's batteries come in at less than half this per wh ($4.15) and don't lock you into a proprietary battery pack. I'm so annoyed I am giving them more of my money. #regrets

Whoops; sorry if I didn't make it clear (I wasn't attempting to blame Retra for that). There's too many variables, and I assumed it was most likely Turtle's issue. I can add to my story, that they sent me a new trigger free of charge after my complaints (I just sadly haven't been underwater to test it yet). If anyone has a Turtle TTL + Sony + Retra combo working well; please let me know. Or if you can recommend a different trigger; that would be appreciated (PS: I don't need or typically use use the TTL feature of a trigger; I shoot manual 99% of the time).

Since Backscatter's customer service was brought up on this topic as well; I too would like to contribute my two cents / experiences. I also owned/own an MF-1 and backscatter replaced the unit once for me with no hassle (even shipped two day air for it to arrive prior to my trip). Unfortunately, I had another problem with it which was out of warranty and they asked me to send it in regardless. They determined it could be repaired for a fee of $134; I rejected this and decided to buy a MF-2 instead (they offered a 5% discount on that purchase). So overall not a great but an overall satisfactory experience (especially as it was made all made in China so wasn't a huge investment or loss). Fast forward to my Retra Pro Max buying experience. Fully kitted out it cost me over 4k; but I figured "buy once, cry once." This was far from the case. I had a horrible time trying to use the strobe in Lembeh; I had major issues with flash sync and even though I had two Turtle TTL converters, I had trouble finding one to reliably work (even after contacting both supports and trying various firmware settings). And then to add insult to injury I was the first to discover a firmware bug when using the 8AA battery backpack; and I fried my focus lights early on in the trip (not a huge deal; but I was looking forward to that helping on some shots). I also despise some of the "UX" decisions they made with these strobes. You can't just "turn them on" you have to first go to the "battery / test" function and wait for many seconds to get a result and then you can finish turning them on. That is insanely annoying and stupid to me. I gave them this feedback and they told me, "it is normal for the strobe to be turned on first in the Batt/Test mode. This mode allows the flash to perform essential system checks, ensuring there is no water inside and verifying that the correct batteries are inserted. Please turn the switch to Batt/Test for a few seconds until the Retra logo appears, and then you can switch to the mode you wish to select." Also, if you forget to turn the strobes off after the dive (even if not using them) they will relatively quickly drain the battery down to 0%. So there were a few night dives where I had 0% battery left, and had to quickly come up with and replace 16AA batteries... After my trip was over I sent in the strobes overseas for warranty service and it was completed relatively quickly. As an aside; on my trip to Lembeh I also lost a $65 diffusor on the trip (user error); and I asked them to replace it for free (for all the hassle I had and the $$$ I spent). They refused to do that; but did offer a one time 15% discount on the overpriced $65 diffusor. I really like they lock in place firmly; so firmly that I didn't put a backup tether on them; but I must have forgot to "lock" them one dive and lost them (unlike the Z330's diffusors which have to be tethered as they fall off almost every dive). Anyways, I quickly discovered they were not going to budge and offer me a free replacement as a good will gesture for all the troubles I had after spending over 4k for their products. All this to say. Nothing is perfect. Cheap and expensive stuff underwater often fails or is lost / stolen. It sucks (have backups if possible). There's no such thing as buy once / cry once in scuba. There's always buying and crying regardless of what option you end up with. As much as I hated to do it; I ordered these expensive add on battery packs. It seems like less of an inconvenience than selling my whole setup at this time; at least the strobes will be neutral or slightly positive. Hopefully the giant battery packs sticking out the end doesn't bother me too much. It's funny that they advertise how much lower profile the 8AA batteries fit in the Pro Max than the prior models, and then they create this monstrosity. If I could do it all over again; I would have never bought these strobes; but at this point I made my bed and now I am going to lie in it.