jlaity

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. ;)

I did my first dive with one this week and got one shot I liked. Rhinophores so sharp they could cut you! I’ve done a lot of diving with the SMC1, with and without snoot, around California and elsewhere in the Pacific. This Felimare californiensis is an unusually large nudibranch, so a nice in-between size that was perfect with the MFO and Canon RF 100mm. I think the combo of the RF 100 (which focuses closer than my old 100) and the MFO will be a nice macro and blackwater setup. (Sidenote: I used Backscatter Xterminator on this pic and wanted to remove all the yellow spots from the Nudibranch!)

I use Lightroom 90% of the time and only bounce an image into Photoshop either for this tool or for major surgery. Lightroom is very fast and efficient once you learn to use it, but this plug-in is really great at what it does. There’s a clone tool that can get rid of backscatter in Lightroom, but the tools in Photoshop are much better, more flexible, and easy to undo, not even counting the plug-in. There’s a nice tutorial from Erin that shows concepts like Layer Masks if you’re not experienced with Photoshop.

Nauticam is in Florida I think but yeah I expected worse.

Nauticam prices went up last week. I was ready to buy an MFO-1 for $474 but it was $550 when I bought it this morning (~14% up.) And supplies might be limited as factories move outside of China, if they can. I wouldn't delay if you're thinking about buying something in the US.

Yes, when using strobes for light I suppose it doesn't matter. Unless I'm opening the shutter for more blue, but that's usually going to be a longer exposure than IS can handle.

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that your motion in the water was different than motion in the air, so IS was compensating in the wrong way? Also, I need to figure out how to only turn IS on when my finger is on the shutter. With the R5 EVF, it’s moving constantly. I’m used to IS on my 70-200 telephoto on the 5D4, it would only switch on when you needed it.

I think this has been discussed before but I couldn’t find it, maybe it was on the other site. I just got a Canon RF 100mm macro, and I couldn’t remember if image stabilization was recommended for underwater macro stills?

I've been to resorts that insist on a "check out dive" without a camera to make sure you aren't a complete disaster in the water, at least the first time we visited. And other resorts that banned gloves and touching. I believe this law is mainly aimed at brand new divers who need to take their selfie stick on their first dive for their TikTok or whatever. But it's subject to interpretation by the resort and divemasters who may bend it to fit their own agenda.

On my Nauticam systems, I've only ever seen red/blue when I first turn it on for low battery. Loss of vacuum is flashing yellow and then flashing red, which I see every time I open my camera after a dive. I used to think this was a bad design, but realized it's pretty cool that I test the system every time I finish using it. I'd still like an alarm reset button near the inside of the port so I don't need to open the back of the housing to reset the warning. Although now that I think about it, I suppose that's another point of failure. If there's a leak near the port, maybe that reset button would short and turn off the alarm.

I was in the middle of posted a question about the battery when you replied. Red/blue flashing is low battery in my experience on Nauticam. Drops of water in the housing usually means time to thoroughly clean my O-rings. Take them out, run them through a damp paper towel to clean the sand and grit. Then carefully relube and reinstall.

I’ve thought about these as a backup or primary. Has anyone found a miniflash that emulates Canon for rear curtain tricks? The Nauticam TTL is like $350 for something that looks a lot like a $5 Tmall flash.