Reefwreck

Nice shots!

hehe, you've just convinced me to go up for a few!

Was the Tiger shrimp off the front of Seraya still?

Thanks!

Yes to the TS.

Cheers.
Michael.

At the risk of getting flamed (only joking Craig...) I disagree - it's true the AF on the 70-180 is not the fastest in the world, particularly on the earlier DSLR's like the D100, but it's not bad on the later ones like the D200 & D2x. When the light is low it needs a focus light for sure, but I don't think thats a big deal anyway and the sheer versatility and sharpness of the lens is fantastic.

It's my standard macro lens and I would not part with it!

Don

I agree with Don.  I shoot this lens exclusively with my D200 housed in a NEXUS housing and find the AF bearable.  I've only used it in Indonesian waters and rarely even bother to mount the focus light.  Here's an AF example with a tough dancing subject taken last weekend in Tulamben.

Jeff, Well done!  Beautiful cover shot!
Cheers.
Michael.

The first one is a Quadrella species, maybe coronata or boopsis. They look alike and I can't tell the difference from photographs. What's odd is that this genus, like all trapeziid crabs, is commensal on hard & soft corals but your specimen is sitting on a crinoid. Was it moved?

Marli's close but this is different from the image she mentioned. The colors are roughly the same but the patterns are quite different. The one in CRA has much more purple on the legs & alternating purple & orange lines on the carapace; it's always found on the same pinkish sponge judging by the pictures I've seen of it. Yours only has purple on the legs, big claws, and anterior margin of the carapace while the orange on the carapace is in spots. I haven't been able to find a picture or name of this one, sorry. Maybe Art will wander by and recognize it.

Thanks for your efforts, Marli and Leslie. Much appreciated.

To answer your question Leslie, these were photographed where found. Why anyone would move one of these to a crinoid is beyond me. I can't recall whether or not the crinoid had possibly attached itself to some coral. If it did, is it possible the crab climbed in to investigate?

Any other ID input would be much appreciated.
Michael.

After the totally Nikon winners circle in last year's Wetpixel Int Comp, it is good to see a couple of Canon 1DS Mk2 shots in there and an Olympus in the DSLRs! You can have a scroll through the winners gallery here:
http://www.underwate...jose-2-bos.html

Canon cameras did dominate the compact competition, though.

Alex

While it's interesting that you pick up on the cameras used, what really jumped out at me in terms of the DEEP Indonesia contest results, was that WA dominated and Macro stuff didn't seem to be well represented among the winners. There were a couple of obvious WA categories such as "Reefscapes" and "Divers", (not even a macro category it seems) but even in more general categories such as "animal portraits" and the presumably wide-open "Indonesia" category, WA dominated. Is macro dead?
Cheers.
Michael.