Rich W

Yup it an R7 and that might be the best compromise option i suspect even if doing it every shot may get very annoying rapidly. I like glancing at the screen to see or change all my settings without looking through an EVF and just using it to frame the shot. The Canon setup appears to just be "big screen, small screen" with no difference in what each displays when the face detect sensor is triggered. (on land i can configure both to show different things). First dives in 2 days time and i know its a much overdue and substantial update but also know its going to be a frustrating nightmare getting buttons, workarounds and changes into my head vs years of DSLR muscle memory.

Thanks for that. I hadnt considered putting the rope on the strobe arms to stop it flopping. Not sure if i tries it not to just pull the clamps off though (?). Changing O-rings is needed if i can source them (arms are different brands) and i suspect my 15 year old clamps arent great. I have to tighten to the point i need a large screwdriver to lever them open and it still flops. Any suggestions as to which are length combo to use for WA/10mm fisheye on APS-C (180 FOV or so)? Both long arms? Long and short each side ? Overriding factor is the massive, heavy (and for me, underpowered) Ikelites need to be supported. Video lights are fairly lightweight.

As above, transitioning from 2 decades of DSLR to Mirrorless underwater (have used Mirrorless on land for 6 or so years so comfortable). Generally on my DSLR setup underwater and on land mirrorless i use the screen to shot the settings and menus but then look through the OVF/EVF to compose and take the image. This isnt going to work now underwater as the face detection means i have the choice of screen OR EVF but not both or a different function on each. What are people generally using? EVF for everything or screen? Im aware i can map a button to toggle between but that sounds fiddly for each shot.

I'm in the middle of upgrading housing (first dives this week) and next task will be strobes and arms. BUT im currently stuck with my old setup. I find it VERY bulky and messy, especially "folded" (it doesn't - it flops). Its huge, its bulky, its negative. They're DS161s from Ikelite. I currently have: 2 x 8" Float arms 2 x 7" normal arms 2 x 4"ish normal arms I use 2 x SUPE video lights on a 3 way elbow mid arm. This is my WA setup for a Tokina 10-17 on APS-C to give FOV ideas. Its bulky, messy and due to 10 year old clamps, floppy. For my wide angle, am i better off keeping this setup OR make it neater by replacing the 7" normal size arms with my 5" arms i found in a cupboard (so 1 x 8 and 1 x 5 per side). Are there any real trade-offs for WA here vs improved in neatness? Now I've gone mirrorless the abomination of strobe wiring and arms is even more obvious. Pictures are the 8" and 4" on the WA setup. Can see its not neat at all, especially when "stowed" and holding the camera by the rope it just flops forward off balance. No easy way to carry. I find it ridiculously ungainly and so do boat crew trying to handle it. So sugestions: (i) best compromise WA arm length combo (ii) Best order of arms and clamps to make it usable U/W but also neater to stow/fold.

They're so far behind the competition now time wise this has to work or the company is finished.

Ive work on liveaboards so from that point of view, generic advice, deck space is limited. You might get away with 1 person with a personal tank but if more than that have the same idea there really isnt space. Theres also the issue fresh water is a finite resource so constantly refilling/emptying personal rinse tanks isnt great for that. Depends on the boat of course. Decent boats will have a rinse tank thats clean, fresh and hopefully policed so people arent putting mask soap or god knows what in it (all boats im on camera buckets are separate from the rest of dive gear buckets...and dive gear is only rinsed at the end of the trip). As a photographer, ive had a camera setup destroyed in a rinse tank. Left it there while i legged it to help untie the mooring line. Came back and a "helpful" entitled teenager with parents had put their dslr setup in the tank on top of mine (a Canon 70D in ikeite housing, 8" dome and 2 DS161 strobes in a black bin isnt hard to see), found resistance to their housing so rammed it as hard as they could. This crushed my at the time ikelite, snapped the dome port off and flooded/destroyed the whole setup. Rinse tanks are for rinsing not leaving. Swill it, remove it, take it away. If it needs further washing use the shower (if fresh water) when you wash or whatever. If you bring anything at all, make it a cooler bag type thing and nothing rigid. And be mindful of fresh water usage etc.

Im in Japan and buy a load of stuff there. Just ordered a Nauticam. Websites are indeed awful. Not sure about Retra but Mic21 (big dive shop chain) are the nauticam main dealer and they do answer in English to emails. They have some English speaking staff in shops at certain times too. Fisheye are the distributor/importer and they organised my housing, in English via Mic21. If theres something specific there you want its worth contacting Fisheye https://store.fisheye-jp.com/ (distributor) or Mic21 ( https://www.mic21.com/foreign/english.php ) via the emails. Replies are quick. You'll get 10% tax free. Unsure about Retra though - maybe contact Retra themselves and see if there are dealers? If its general electronics, Bic Camera (10% tax free plus 7% for no clear reason if foreign), Yodobashi (tax free) etc. Websites are woeful but good enough to find stock in which shop. Shops themselves you can get by with English and translation apps. FWIW tax free currently you dont pay it at all. Its deducted at purchase. From October its changing to claim back at airport.

Not sure that will matter as i can just set that after the event in LR as its Raw anyway.

I should have included that really. My display is a correctly calibrated DCI-P3 (95%) on both laptop and when home, the external screen. Output is going to always be sRGB as output is for screen use and rarely if ever printing. Its LR/PS so is using higher than 8 bit colour. I dont see banding or things falling apart, its the default "look" causing me issues. Viewing software is ICC aware as well. Camera matching.... Historically ive never found any of those actually come close to matching the camera (either in camera or applying the same in Canon DPP). Camera landscape comes closest to making the water blue but at the expense of messing up saturation on this or other colours. Ive tried with my own preset but no amount of fiddling with calibration or the HSL gets something really useful, certain now an import preset "starting point" level. The DS161s are basically half stops from max down to i think -6 stop adjustments. Generally if i have diffusers on then anything less than -0.5 stop (ie one click down) is too little. Without diffusers i can get to maybe -1.5, Shooting at 10mm (APS-C Tokina fisheye) and subject distance is typically closer than forearm length ish for turtle/reef shots. In the above examples max distance is about 1m. most are 20-30cms. Macro i can go down to -3 or -5 but for wide angle i just cant throw enough light onto them to get loser than iso400/f8 most of the time. Might be positioning related, no idea. I dont think tubes lose output with age that much (they're about 15 years old). Ive never been able to get satisfying water colour starting point from any of the 4 (i think) Canon DSLRs ive used underwater over the year and not found a useful picture profile (or preset) yet as a starting point. For obvious reasons i dont like/want the one click "adaptive colour" to do "things" on every image as a starting point.

This has been annoying me for the best part of a decade so now im revisiting just thought id ask. Going back to basics after doing very limited UW photo for a few years and awaiting new housing. How are people getting nice blue water column shots? For reference im using Canon (RAW) and DS161 strobes (4800K colour temperature) and processing in Lightroom Classic. Whatever default picture profile i use produces different blues but none "nice" They all tend towards green or on darker/bluer ones the saturation looks hugely excessive and the whole image has a cartoony look (im not adding any extra). Typically shooting 1/160 to 1/250 and ISO 400 ish (any lower i cant seem to get enough strobe output. On 400 theyre 1 stop off full without diffuser. ish. subject dependent).. Well aware of shutter speed controlling the background water brightness but this is specifically the hue and saturation i can never get correct. WB is auto or daylight (but RAW so doesn't matter - i adjust after the event). I can get the foreground colours correct but not the ugly background. A few examples. These are raws just spat out as jpgs with no editing hence messy look, deliberately to show what i mean. First example the odd, saturated, fake look of the water behind. This in about 10m in indonesia. f/8 , 1/160th, iso400. Picture style "Adobe Colour" Here the light/green hue and so on. f/8, 1/160th, iso400 @ 10mm. Nusa Penida...So its blue in reality. Background just looks odd. Again saturation. f/8, 1/200th, iso400. Nusa Penida in about 15m Similans somewhere. Greeny, light blue. Not pleasing. 1/100th, f8 ISO200. Gili Air, Indonesia in 6m Plenty of other examples. Shots deliberately not edited to show the default issues. What are peoples workflows for a starting point "nice" blue? Ive tried standard, faithful, landscape (helps foreground, oversaturates background) with ideally Canon? What can i do to get the images less cartoony? Reduce foreground light too? "Camera Landscape" shifts towards blue but seems to over saturate at the same time. FWIW the new "adaptive profile" run gets the water to a nice blue on most of them but its a black box. I have no idea what or how its doing it so dont like it instinctively. Added bonus tips, less "vivid" or cartoony looking images. Which maybe lighting related.

Would have to bite my tongue over some of those things after quite a few seasons working there. Ive got a "hall of shame" list of divers grabbing/sitting/kicking coral and the like. Certain liveaboards are common offenders, as are certain groups. Rangers, yup park fees and sometimes work permits of the guides along with checking the number match. They also transfer the illicit alcohol bribes from the boat captains/dive centres to the shore that way. The worst offenders i see with cameras (and worse, selfie sticks) are guides. Again certain groups, certain boats. Want to take a group photo sat on a table coral at Tachai? Your guide will help with that. Strong current at Ko Bon? No issue - the guide will line you up nicely on the ridge all holding live coral so you can enjoy the show. You get the idea. Not all guides/boats - there are some very good ones there But certain ones and certain boats you can pretty much guarantee what you'll see underwater. The camera ban thing wont be enforced at all and is generally targeting the wrong group. I did consider putting the hall of shame into an article or photos online but realised i might want to go back there and dive one day so havent done so. The poor quality there starts with the guides and drops downhill from there to the people they supervise.

FWIW Resolve does have an Auto on the primaries (top left). A word of caution though, i generally find it terrible.

My ikelites are electrical fired so not sure if they applies or not. (That said, i do mostly wide angle so seldom above 1/120th anyway even in the tropics).

Last update, thanks for all the help and advice for options i hadnt even considered. R7 housing ordered as well now and should have it in 2 weeks. Very useful advice and completely changed my original line of thought.

Ive tried both. I find Resolve Studios NR, even the new "AI" to be less good and a lot slower to render. Neat Video i find excellent. HOWEVER, i think only Resolve Studio has OFX plugin support so you couldnt install NV inside it to use anyway without buying Studio.