jlaity

Well then you have a 50% chance of correct information in my experience. :P

Bill has a Powerpoint slide on this. Despite the higher power, Eneloop 2000 lasts longer in a flash than Eneloop Pro because of the way the power tapers off. I'll leave to him to explain why, I'm a musician. ;)

Eneloops are best for strobes, better than Pro. I believe Pro is designed for digital equipment, so it stays above 5V longer then falls off more quickly. Eneloop has a more linear (but longer) taper better suited for strobes. @bvanant can explain the chemistry, I just buy what he tells me. :)

I load everything from a dive into Lightroom, hit P for Pick the best ones, then cull from there. Out of the 6 photos of the subject I pick the best one, maybe two if it's a different angle or something. Then I cull from there, either unflagging the worst or rating the best. Finally I select unrated photos only, hit X to reject, then Delete Rejected Photos > Delete From Disk. I know others who are more ruthless, "how many photos of a Garabaldi do I need? I keep the 5 best ones." I do a local dive day ~once a month and 1-2 week-long trips a year, and I tend to have ~500 photos a year that I keep. I have tons of storage and backup so I don't sweat the size, and sometimes it's nice to look back at previous years to see how I've improved. Every year I make a calendar for family, so I can look at my 13 best photos of the year going back around 20 years. And I save all the RAW files so that I can go back to old photos with Lightroom 2035 and get the great white shark in focus :)

To me, 24 (the MFO-1 shot) has a small amount of increased sharpness on the left side, compared to the other two without. But it’s so so slight, it isn’t worth the cost or weight IMO. I plan to go back to my SMC-1 on a flip adapter and possibly sell the MFO-1, if I can. I’m disappointed with this purchase.

Scaled to 1600 px wide

A few more MFO-1 A/B tests. Nothing special, just tried to find a subject where you can see center to corner sharpness. 24, 26, and 28.jpg in full resolution from a Canon R5 mk1, Canon RF 100mm macro, Nauticam housing/port. Let me know if you can tell which have the filter on or off. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ttmq2ki1uv07p6lttdgz0/20250628_pv_0024.jpg?rlkey=wqk2ndpe901w2r1pzvynztbvy&st=o6ih8ko0&dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7jug2ftd2hp8oukirgj1s/20250628_pv_0026.jpg?rlkey=xwaywsaboern5h48gneq85u4z&st=o55cybn6&dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/holfbdj9jej0raifpfgho/20250628_pv_0028.jpg?rlkey=hzhg54nq8j7nikff7j8egwhv1&st=ndk47qwz&dl=0

UW photography is the opposite of land in many ways, the object is the get as close as possible to the subject to avoid the light falloff and particles in seawater. As others have said the 230 allows you to use fisheye or wide zoom (with an extension.) The 130 only works with fisheye, and is optically not as good as the 230 unless stopped down to f13 or higher. Alex Mustard’s UW Photography Masterclass is a must read IMO.

I don’t use TTL, but I’d like a trigger that emulated Canon speedflash so my R5 camera will let me set rear-curtain.

Interesting writeup, thanks. Helping with my WWL FOMO. :)

Most shooters I know use viewfinders, except a few sometimes use the rear display for wide angle. I think Alex Mustard recently mentioned that can help you frame a shot by holding the camera above your head or something.

It's been a dry spring for me but I hope to try an A/B test later this month. I was impressed with the MFO sharpness but it was also a new lens (Canon 100mm RF) and port. So next time I'll shoot some without, for science. 🔬

“I’m not buying more underwater photo gear, it’s an investment!” ;)

I have a lightweight soft (nylon) bag for carrying on my housing. I cut up a Yoga mat for padding. I can fit the Nauticam Housing, macro port, and a strobe in that bag without being overweight. I just keep adding and subtracting with a scale until I nail it, "housing+port+strobe+batts+spotter light = 12.3." Then I have a camera bag (Cinebags 'Lens Smuggler') with the camera body, lenses, laptop/iPad, and usually another strobe or two. I put batteries in both bags, so if someone wants to check it I can say "it has camera gear and Lithium Ion batteries" (which are illegal to check.) Between the two bags I can at least get some photos if the rest gets misplaced.

I prefer #2 of the yellow sea cucumber and #1 of the second subject.Specifically I like the rounder bokeh on the yellow dude. Is MFO-1 optimized for full-frame lenses like the SMC-series? Maybe it's "correcting" in a bad way on micro 4/3 systems. (Although they are supported on the compatibility chart.)