Hello - I have followed this forum for a few years, and became a member about a year ago but had never posted an intro. I appreciate all the posts from all of the community as it has been a wonderful resource as I learn about underwater photography. I am a novice underwater photographer. I live in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA and am relatively land locked. I work as a plastic surgeon and scientific researcher. I do most of my underwater photography on family dive trips and on liveaboards I try and do 1-2x per year and practice in a pool in St Louis. My current gear includes Sony A1 camera/Nauticam housing/Sea and Sea YSD-3ii strobes, kraken 8000 lights, both the s-Turtle and UW technics flash triggers, a kraken 5.5" and an atomos ninja v monitor (with nautcam housing). Lenses are the sony 90 mm, adapted canon 8-15 fisheye, and more recently the sony 28-60 mm for which I have the WWLB1 wet lens setup but recently ordered (but not used) the nauticam WACP1. I shoot mostly pelagic large animal things (sharks, rays, sardine run, reef scenes) and have dipped a tiny amount into blackwater photography (Kona, Hawaii). I use GoPros as well. As supermoderators have stated - its not the camera/equipment thats makes a great shot but rather the artistry, knowledge, settings, experience, preparation and practice - well aware and working on it all the time! I came back to water pixels.net today and decided to post because i was checking back on the kraken 5.5" monitor experience thread and wanted to weigh in but couldnt in absence of previous introductory post. I have used this personally for about a year now and agree that its very clear even with lots of ambient light and easier to use. I found it to be easier to use than the Atomos Ninja in housing (the Atomos does record - Kraken doesn't, and the atomos in housing is far less negatively buoyant in water whilst the Kraken required I add buoyancy). I find some of the functionailty of the Ninja to be challenging in the housing though and some not available when in housing. By contrast the controllers on the Kraken are easier for me to use underwater and for my needs, the functionality of the kraken monitor outweighed the travel weight, buoyancy challenge, and lack of recording. I fully agree with the others who commented on the ribbon HDMi controller. Its very frail and caused flickering, required that I downregulate the quality of the HDMI output from my camera and sometimes just didnt transmit signal at all. I switched to this : Duttek 8K Right Angle HDMI Extension Cable 1FT, Ultra Thin Coaxial 90 Degree HDMI Male to Female Cable (48Gbps, 8K@60Hz, 4K@240Hz) Support Dynamic HDR, eARC, for GH5S, PS5, PC I purchased on AMAZON. There are right and left right angle versions - I can get both to work with Sony A1 in Nauticam NA-A1. I did require Kraken to provide me with a modified bulkhead so I could use this cable. Prior to my using that Kraken sent me a right angle HDMI cable for inside the housing with the modified bulkhead to the external HDMI cable and Nauticam has an option. But these are ore expensive, more bulky, less flexible. For me this was a game changer and I went from being very frustrated to enjoying the monitor. Also, looking at Amazon it appears that there are other versions of this cable that I purchased over a year ago that may have replaced it or are alternatives. Regarding the HDMI output, on my camera at least, if switched to "AUTO" it worked just fine (it needed to be at 1080p when I was using the annoying ribbon cable). Hope this helps. Anyways, pleasure to meet you all and thanks. Terry (Terence) Myckatyn
Hello - I have followed this forum for a few years, and became a member about a year ago but had never posted an intro. I appreciate all the posts from all of the community as it has been a wonderful resource as I learn about underwater photography. I am a novice underwater photographer. I live in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA and am relatively land locked. I work as a plastic surgeon and scientific researcher. I do most of my underwater photography on family dive trips and on liveaboards I try and do 1-2x per year and practice in a pool in St Louis. My current gear includes Sony A1 camera/Nauticam housing/Sea and Sea YSD-3ii strobes, kraken 8000 lights, both the s-Turtle and UW technics flash triggers, a kraken 5.5" and an atomos ninja v monitor (with nautcam housing). Lenses are the sony 90 mm, adapted canon 8-15 fisheye, and more recently the sony 28-60 mm for which I have the WWLB1 wet lens setup but recently ordered (but not used) the nauticam WACP1. I shoot mostly pelagic large animal things (sharks, rays, sardine run, reef scenes) and have dipped a tiny amount into blackwater photography (Kona, Hawaii). I use GoPros as well. As supermoderators have stated - its not the camera/equipment thats makes a great shot but rather the artistry, knowledge, settings, experience, preparation and practice - well aware and working on it all the time! I came back to water pixels.net today and decided to post because i was checking back on the kraken 5.5" monitor experience thread and wanted to weigh in but couldnt in absence of previous introductory post. I have used this personally for about a year now and agree that its very clear even with lots of ambient light and easier to use. I found it to be easier to use than the Atomos Ninja in housing (the Atomos does record - Kraken doesn't, and the atomos in housing is far less negatively buoyant in water whilst the Kraken required I add buoyancy). I find some of the functionailty of the Ninja to be challenging in the housing though and some not available when in housing. By contrast the controllers on the Kraken are easier for me to use underwater and for my needs, the functionality of the kraken monitor outweighed the travel weight, buoyancy challenge, and lack of recording. I fully agree with the others who commented on the ribbon HDMi controller. Its very frail and caused flickering, required that I downregulate the quality of the HDMI output from my camera and sometimes just didnt transmit signal at all. I switched to this : Duttek 8K Right Angle HDMI Extension Cable 1FT, Ultra Thin Coaxial 90 Degree HDMI Male to Female Cable (48Gbps, 8K@60Hz, 4K@240Hz) Support Dynamic HDR, eARC, for GH5S, PS5, PC I purchased on AMAZON. There are right and left right angle versions - I can get both to work with Sony A1 in Nauticam NA-A1. I did require Kraken to provide me with a modified bulkhead so I could use this cable. Prior to my using that Kraken sent me a right angle HDMI cable for inside the housing with the modified bulkhead to the external HDMI cable and Nauticam has an option. But these are ore expensive, more bulky, less flexible. For me this was a game changer and I went from being very frustrated to enjoying the monitor. Also, looking at Amazon it appears that there are other versions of this cable that I purchased over a year ago that may have replaced it or are alternatives. Regarding the HDMI output, on my camera at least, if switched to "AUTO" it worked just fine (it needed to be at 1080p when I was using the annoying ribbon cable). Hope this helps. Anyways, pleasure to meet you all and thanks. Terry (Terence) Myckatyn