Compact / Travel Options for Flourescence Photography

I am trying to replace my TG6 + PT-059 with a compact setup I can use on quick trips in lieu of my long trip Nauticam / Nikon SLR setup.  My TG6 is fantastic, but fails miserably in flourescence photography due to its lack of manual controls.  From reviews, it seems like the Sony Ax100 vii or the Panasonic lx100 ii might suffice, but it is hard to tell since the reviews I have found don't really focus on manual mode and are geared more for ease of use shooters.  It is also difficult to look at these because housing choices for these compacts are more limited (mostly just Nauticam), and I cannot  get a feel for the size of these housings or information on the camera functions accessible via the housing.  Any advice appreciated.

I would prefer to keep this backup / quick travel system inexpensive, but the priority here is something I can throw into a carry-on with my two strobes, fluorescence filters, batteries, and a couple of days worth of clothes, my BC, mask and regs, and still be within the carry on size limit!  So choice of the housing is very important also.   

It might be the case that some of the smaller mirrorless cameras that have some compact housing choices might work better than the lx100 or ax100, but I just don't have a good u/w shop near me to explore and look and see sizewise, so hoping the community can help out with some good options.I know the Nauticam Oly M1/M5/M10 housings are all too big so it has to be smaller than those (which i already have).  My Olympus TG6, PT-059 housing, flextray, and strobes all fit in my bag with a little room to spare so I could go a little larger, but not the full mirrorless NA-EM1 size which is too large.   

Any advice on camera and/or housing for this purpose much appreciated.

Must have:

- Full manual control over shutter and aperture accessible from the housing via dials (not a complex embedded menu structure) 

- Excellent low light ISO sensitivity - lower the better

- RAW files

Like to have:

- Manual exposure control via buttons or dial accessible from housing

- Manual flash control

- Fastest possible flash sync

- 

Have you considered the Olympus EPL10 and AOI housing from Backscatter?  The basic unit is nearly the same size as the TG6 but then you can also use other lenses and ports as you see fit. You could also use any wet lenses that you have for your TG6 on the EPL10.

Sony RX100 cameras have a single rear dial, but you can map the lens ring to work as the second dial, with shutter speed on one and aperture on the other. Zoom is still controllable via a rocker lever on top. However, be careful with the housing selection, as some housings (notably, Sony's own-brand offering) don't have the rear dial control on the outside.

There is no manual flash control on RX100; the pop-up flash always fires in TTL mode, so if you want to shoot manual flash (as is pretty much necessary for fluorescence), you need strobes with manual control and pre-flash cancellation.

Flash sync goes to 1/4000s, but be aware that past 1/500s or so, you'll be cutting out flash power as well as ambient light. If you're using circular tube strobes rather than straight tube ones (Ikelite DS-160/161, Retra Prime/Pro, Sea & Sea YS-250, etc) then you need a longer exposure, to the tune of 1/200s or slower, in order to get the strobe's full power output onto the sensor.

Unless you want to shoot serious macro, you don't really need RX100 VII's long lens - it just introduces housing complications; an RX100VA will work just as well for wide-angle and moderate macro.

A separate case is ZV-1 - it replaces the pop-up viewfinder and flash with a hot shoe and a microphone, so it can trigger external strobes in manual mode and without being tied to the tiny pop-up flashes recycle time, but the only housing that supports this model is Ikelite.

Great suggestions and info.  I think I am going to try the pl9 first since I already have a full set of fisheye and macro lenses for my oly m1.  I like the super small case backscatter has, really nice.

19 hours ago, jsnorman said:

Great suggestions and info.  I think I am going to try the pl9 first since I already have a full set of fisheye and macro lenses for my oly m1.  I like the super small case backscatter has, really nice.

I started out with the Sony RX100Va and then moved up to the Olympus EPL10. I really like ease of use for the EPL10 over the RX100Va. I think you will be really happy with the EPL9/10.  

If you have any questions about the EPL9/10 please feel free to ask and I can try to answer them for you.