jlaity

I like a camera-mounted light with a variable power setting. If I'm in the tropics with a lot of krill in the water, I'll often cover the light, switch to red, or turn it off and let my eyes adjust to everyone else's lights. I like an additional spotter light in addition to the camera's focus light. For California day diving, I often use my focus light on 7% brightness just to see colors and spot things more easily. I like my Fix 2000DX because it has such a big range from candlelight to LUMENS! so of course they don't make it anymore. (Maybe L&M has something to replace it?) For black water I have the same arrangement but the focus light is usually much brighter to assist focusing, also because krill is not as common away from the reef. But still with the spotter light looking for critters in the distance.

Adobe's color profiles look awful for Canon, IMO. Canon used to make their own nice profiles for the 5D4, but the ones for the R5 aren't great. But these are: https://www.colorfidelity.com/ Here's a review video that shows the difference. $25 well spent IMO. Also check out this video on adjusting color balance using the color range tools. He has several videos about color and other photo editing that are applicable for underwater: The Match CMYK game he built for this video is fun and good practice.

I'm sure it's coming, I think these are custom-printed. Reach out on his contact form, he wrote back to me in an hour.

I watched the UW Photography Show video an hour after it was posted, and it was in my cart before the video ended. Rechargeable manual flash trigger that uses lasers to fire the strobes. 200k flashes per battery charge over USB-C and it costs 120 UKP. He also makes beam restrictors and a bunch of other toys. I think Alex said something about gel fiber optic cables? The only downside is I only saw this a week before leaving for Anilao so it will have to wait for the next trip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDO6saYuXU https://underwaterlightandmagic.co.uk/

SOLD

Threaded underwater close-up lens for threading onto a macro port. Billed as “your lens, only better.” Magnification is slight, it mainly corrects for water-contact physics by sharpening details, especially in corners. Includes a spacer for threading directly onto your macro port, or you can connect to a flip-adapter. Rubber protective covers and neoprene bag also included. Like new, in box. This lens was taken diving only twice and is in near-mint condition. Reach out with any questions. $425 including shipping in USA only

I have a Western Digital GRAID 2 Thunderbolt with a Synology RAID and Backblaze for backup. It works fine for me, although friends have had problems with WD drives.

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.)

Backscatter sent an email to customers about tariffs last night. Looks like an additional 30% increase may be coming for Nauticam: TARIFFS HIT HOME IN THE US Unfortunately for our US customers underwater photography equipment has been impacted by tariffs. Equipment originating in China has been hit with the largest tariffs ranging from 145% to 170%. We've been working with our international suppliers, but significant price increases are coming soon. Save Now Before New Inventory Arrives With Higher Tariffs We have limited inventory at original price levels, and if nothing changes, prices will increase significantly within the next 30 days as we bring in replacement inventory. Here's examples of US prices now and our educated guess on the near future. Backscatter Hybrid Flash - NOW $999 - PREDICTED $1499 Backscatter Octo Housing - NOW $999 - PREDICTED $1499 Backscatter Optical Snoot OS-1 - NOW $199 - PREDICTED $289 Backscatter M52 Wide Angle Lens - NOW $479 - PREDICTED $799 Backscatter M52 Air Lens - NOW $199 - PREDICTED $399 Nauticam Housings - PREDICTED 30% Increase Isotta Housings - PREDICTED 10% Increase Seacam Housings - PREDICTED 10% Increase International Customers - Contact Us For Special Pricing! Backscatter ships international orders from our overseas warehouses, saving you the added US tariff costs on MOST BRANDS. Contact us for special pricing and shipping arrangements.

Bill, have you tried it on black water dives yet? (Pics with and without, for science. Actually, please don’t take it off during a black water dive.)

I'll swim back tomorrow and try to find it again. ;)