Looking for input on an additional smaller/lighter camera rig

I must say I am impressed by the photo''s and the versatility of the camera. 

As you said earlier 24mm isn't wide enough for many, but that doesn't seem to bother you. In that sense you 'don't give up anything lens wise'. Apart from that I can imagine you love your set.

4 hours ago, dhaas said:

3) A few more advantages compacts (at least my Canon choice) is my Canon G7X II will  synchronize with flash at any shutter speed up to 1/2000 !!!    Want black backgrounds in daylight shooting?   Set ISO 125 and shutter speed of 1/500 or more. This works in MANUAL flash or S-TTL......

Shooting all ambient my little camera rattles off 10 frames per second high speed frame rate. I've got as many as 1100 pictures and the battery was still going strong on some  ambient shooting dives.

To summarize, you don't give up many things from an interchangeable lens camera 

David Haas

 

There's no doubt that the little 1" sensor compacts can take nice photos in a small package.  I should mention though that there is no free lunch in that most strobes have a full power flash duration of around 1/250 or slower.    What this means is it will sync just fine but if the shutter speed is lower than around 1/250 you won't get the full output from the strobe in a full power dump.

Luckily the G7X works just nicely with f5.6 as an aperture so needs less strobe power than bigger rigs.  But at 1/2000 you can only fit in a 1/8 power dump or thereabouts depending on which particular strobe you are using. 

Chris is correct that the higher you go on shutter speed even if the flash will synchronize it will be an apparent lower power

That said, being able to shoot at 1/500 or a little higher with this little camera was one thing that jumped out in the specs.

DH

You get what you pay for….

the comparison between the great 1“ solutions an good FF combos is like comparing the cheap Chinese fast&good with 1* Michelin restaurants. 
 

in about half of the cases you eat better and cheaper at the Chinaman. 
But: if if it’s a good day, the restaurant is on its way to earn the second star and they and you are prepared, then you will get more out of your money at the Michelin graded restaurant.

Thank you all for your input.  I will continue to ponder this.  Maybe I just need to skip taking camera on some dive trips or get a case for my cell phone for underwater snapshots.  @dhaas makes a strong argument for the GX7 and it serves him well. 

The EM10 / EM5 idea is intriguing, especially since I still have several lenses and ports for that system.  Using a handstrap and the cold shoe to mount strobes as suggested by Alex would make a pretty small camera.  Battery life is not great, but can be dealt with.

Maybe I should limit myself to more photography-suitable dive trips, but that means less diving and I do like diving.  It also would limit my ability to try new places and new dive operations.

Another thought that has occurred to me is that on the less “interesting” trips, I could just take the D500 with a macro port, the 60mm  and a couple s2000 strobes.  Cutting out the Retras and extra lenses, extension rings and ports might be a good intermediate step and I could do macro and some fish portraits.

Or, maybe I should just suck it up and continue to deal with the size and weight.

Again, thank you for the input.