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Attention Members of the Wetpixel Forum Community! Given the current situation with the Wetpixel forum, a dedicated and trusted group of community members has taken the initiative to establish a contingency plan. We recognize the significance of preserving our community connections and continuing our discussions, even in the event of website downtime. This plan serves as a backup or alternative option that will enable us to stay in touch. Our intention is not to encroach upon Wetpixel.com in any manner, but rather to ensure that if the site becomes inaccessible, we can provide a means to maintain the camaraderie, knowledge-sharing, and passion for underwater photography & videography that have made Wetpixel such a special place for all of us. To join our newsletter mailing list, please CLICK HERE or use this link: https://form.jotform.com/232575186496166 Stay connected, stay informed, and let's continue capturing the marvels of the underwater world together! Best regards

As part of a broader freshwater project we happened to dive in the small lake of San Giorgio a Liri. the idea of editing this two-minute video comes from the fact that there are dozens of videos of this spring but none returns the magical atmosphere that surrounds you by putting your head underwater. And so one feels like searching for the Naiads, beautiful and immortal freshwater nymphs that disturb the spirit of those who catch a glimpse of them emerging from the waters. Beliefs that embody the ambiguous feeling of fear and attraction to the waters. So far no Naiads and Nereids but only many sticklebacks! P.S. Getting usable images was a nightmare because of gas bubbles sticking on the port!!!

Giving them a lot of money

It does make me feel better to be sure that information about Adam's fraud does not just drift to the bottom of the threads or get watered down, resulting in someone else getting ripped off. I sense that some people don't really care about this, since they were not victims, and some people care more about the "survival" of the website than they do the behavior of Adam and the victimization of Wetpixel members. I want to be sure this information gets seen as widely as possible and also that what happened does not just fall off into the realm of "some people claim that he failed to pay some bills" or whatever. Keeping this topic alive will not result in any of the people who were ripped off by Adam to get their money back, and perhaps nothing will, but keeping this in the public eye is the closest I can come at the moment to try and help other potential victims and perhaps cause some pressure or inconvenience for Adam. It is pretty clear that Adam believes he can get away with this and continue in the dive and photo industry with no repercussion, and perhaps that is correct. I don't live in the UK, so my access to more formal means of seeking some sort of "justice" is very limited. Yeah, it isn't too hard to find Adam, but lots of people here have no idea what happened or have the impression that he has disappeared or may be laid-up in a hospital somewhere, etc. I am sure that those who don't want to see this can set an ignore function and not be bothered.

Some recent pics from mid 2023. Good number from the FL Keys, some from Curacao, some from my home of New England. Most shot on Sony A7R IV with Ikelite housing and Canon 8-15mm Fisheye, some with old Panasonic Lumix G7 with Ikelite housing and Olympus 8mm Fisheye Pro. Let me know what you think!

Great idea, I signed up. If something goes wrong, we have a way to stay in touch and maybe organise elsewhere.

after a few decades of reading wetpixel I am a bit stressed about what will happen to it - hoping for a happy ending Tim Hochgrebe - Director at Underwater Australasia - https://underwater.com.au/

I just came across this article: https://divernet.com/scuba-news/wetpixels-hanlon-denies-sitting-on-divers-cash/ It seems to reference, and include some responses to, an article in Undercurrent which I've not read.

I dismissed it with a joke but the question is by no means stupid. I think there are two factors at play. The first one you already mentioned in the initial post and that is the correlation average age of the diver with his or her ability to spend. On average you can afford a (highly equipment-dependent) sport like this when you have a stable and fairly high income. So typically in adulthood and maybe with more free time for yourself. I was talking about this some time ago with a large diving owner who invests a lot in online advertising, social etc. He was telling me that the most important Social Network for diving advertising is Facebook because the average age of his customers is high and FB is the social typically for adult people Second: when you wrote about youger divers with GoPros, for underwater photography in particular, there is a generational aspect to take into account. I had written about it 3 years ago here on WP. I was quoting a couple of essays on the good-enough society and low-resolution. I copy and paste: TL;DR We are the guys discussing of gold cables for our wi-fi's while our sons are listening YouTube on a 10$ 2" Bluetooth speaker

Zi Costante is one of the most beautiful and coveted dives on the Argentario (https://goo.gl/maps/rZuHz9DwjYbo7VD86). The shoal is located close to the integral protection area of Giannutri Island and due to strong currents can only be visited with perfect weather conditions. Among technical divers and biologists the dive is mainly known for hosting one of the three forests of black coral (Antipathella subpinnata) in Argentario, but in reality several species of sponges and alcyonarians, which are very rare on the rest of the island, abound there. The Mediterranean is one of the fastest warming seas in the world. We took these shots between September and October last year, after a summer in which there was a record for surface temperatures in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, despite its depth, the shoal cap was completely enveloped by mucilaginous algae. Will the two phenomena be related? Having done it so many times, we are familiar with its magnificence, and looking at the footage, a debate ensued about the dual nature of our work. On the one hand the hard-core videomaker with a desire to publish only perfect footage and situations. On the other the documentary spirit that films the observed reality, interprets it and explains it. The latter prevailed. Fortunately, winter and strong currents have already restored the shoal to its glory. Just in time for a new dive!

Dear Robert, This is very well written and true, but I fear that our posts in several social media just serve the purpose of group therapy for ourselves... I decided now to go the legal route. Yesterday I filed a complaint at the local public prosecutors office here in Austria. It will take time, but they are obliged to make investigations.. Today I filed another complaint at this official U.K. site here: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime => Everybody from any country of the world can file a complaint at this fraud department in U.K. and I think every victim should do so. If we are lucky they make a substantial case out of all the complaints and then I would not wish to be in Adam's skin... The mills of justice grind slowly, but steadily... I do not expect to get money back by these actions, but I also do not want that Adam gets away with it and in a couple of months he resumes normal activity as usual... Wolfgang

I used it for 2 days without charging (4 dives everyday), on the last 2 night dives I used it as a torch also, all on a single charge. The flash was on power 2 or 3 most of the time, I had about 400 or 500 pictures in total on that charge

(I searched the forums and couldn't find an answer to this, so....) I've only used the Retra strobes on one dive trip (love them!), and for that trip I dutifully bought Eneloop Pro batteries (2,550 wAh, about $5 ea) as they only recommend Eneloops. But are those the ONLY batteries that'll work? What about EBL 2800mAh ($1.70ea) or 3000mAh ($4.12 ea)? I've had really good luck with EBL batteries over the years (in Inons and for other applications). I don't want to be pennywise and pound foolish if other brands might damage the strobes(?), but if there's no practical difference, I'd rather have more mAh per dollar (about 3X). TIA, Bruce

Done, thanks - Always good to have a backup plan!

Done, thanks

Done!

This is a great idea from @Moodog If something goes wrong, we have a way to stay in touch and maybe organise elsewhere.

Ikea Ladda batteries (2450) could be a good alternative. They seems to be manufactured in the same japanese factory and are fraction of price. You can find many comparison tests like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ygoravFPY I use both Ladda and Eneloops in my ProX (and before in YSD1) without noticeable difference in duration and recycle time.

The one I have folds better than this new one. But in general.... this is what it look like. I also need to buy a another inner bag that helps it to not leak. Sent from my SM-F946B using Tapatalk

This weeks trip to the Florida Springs with the new Sony A7R V, Sony FE 28-60mm zoom and Nauticam WACP-C, a trifecta of optical performance. Little Devil Silhouette and dive buddy Courtland in the bowl at Devil's Eye looking into the cavern.

Hi Everyone just putting out a line of Underwater photography apparel T-shirts and mugs made my own designs with my photographs in photoshop and some AI vectors, selling through Etsy,free shipping in the USA. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Iconic2022?ref=related&listing_id=1324311848#items Cheers enjoy

I see some fair points in here about the everchanging landscape of media and consumption. However, painting younger people as ultimately shallow in the way they enjoy their experiences and create content may be indicative of a generation gap, and I don't feel that's fair. I'm saying this from someone who's probably in between "the older" and "the younger" generations I totally understand the arguments that "good enough" is deemed from things like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Tiktok, but seemingly that's on the short clip side. On the photography side, instagram and facebook are probably the bigger outlets, because they're easy to consume. I associate myself a lot more with Facebook than any of the other outlets. Sites like Flickr and 500px have the ability to present much higher quality images, but they are not as easy to consume. And unfortunately that's where we are, social media has dictated how we consume media these days, and it favours mass consumption and convenience over all. Facebook hosts so much data, that any saving they can do in filesizes, while retaining "good enough quality" will save them an absolute tonne of cash. Social media sites have now been specifically tailored to you as a user, as opposed to "the community", which is why I enjoy posting here on Wetpixel sometimes. I'm not sure where I'm going with this but gatekeeping underwater photography certainly isn't a good way forward, the community will definitely devolve quickly with that. I agree with @dhaas in that if we don't keep up with technology, you'll fade. All you probably need to do to determine that is to figure out how many gopros and smartphone housings get sold, compared to DSLR/Mirrorless housings - I'm almost certain it'll favour the former by a huge margin. There will always be a space for high end photography, but I agree with other posters that the way in which this is "required" has drastically diminished. You no longer need a high end system to get "very good quality" photos, that's been proven for quite some time with M43 cameras for example. Maybe we can encourage more users to join, without gatekeeping it to high end equipment? I have 100% been guilty of gatekeeping this before, stating that GoPros are not for high quality photography, only "proper cameras are". I've in recent times realised how wrong I was, because it's not about having the best gear and producing the best quality images for everyone, it's about participation, budgets and purpose. My purpose is to enter and try to win competitions, someone elses purpose can be to post a few holiday snaps. No one use case should really be more valid than the other, but I appreciate Wetpixel is generally for higher end equipment and discussion. In our Discord server, I'm sure many would happily shoot with an A1 setup if they had one, but many shoot with TG6s, GoPros and smartphone housings. Surely if many have a smartphone and/or an action cam, we should look at encouraging best practices using these systems, to get more of the newer generation in to it? How cool would it be to have a resurgence in underwater photography, because you showed that getting an amazing split shot with some strong video lights and denoising sofware was possible with a GoPro? Some random ramblings here, but those are at least my thoughts

I agree with much of what has been posted but will add my 2 cents....... Please read it all and realize I don't intend my comments to be doom and gloom. I'm just sharing my thoughts so don't blame the messenger !!!! Yes, scuba and especially travel is expensive even to close locations. I'm in the midwest USA so the Caribbean is where most budget travelers go. Some spread their wings eventually diving the Pacific, Asia and Indian Ocean but being more expensive they limit new and even long time divers. Diving and traveling for 55 years I've seen a lot of changes in scuba instruction, dive and underwater photography equipment plus new and exciting dive locations. The reality of cost and time has evolved into a smaller and smaller group who participate regularly. Funding higher education, buying a home or raising a family usually takes priority. After those are taken care of it's time to go play and enjoy your own diving and photography if you can. As also mentioned high end photo people a "age out" and even frequent dive travelers don't make as many prints or coffee table books of their trips choosing mainly to share their adventures online. The last few years much of Wetpixel has debated edge sharpness of lenses, domes, extensions, lines of millimeter resolution at 300% pixel peeping, etc. Meanwhile the world moved on to smart phones. Look up the gigantic drop in ILC (Interchangeable Lens Cameras) comparing how many were sold from 2010 to now. Yes, new mirrorless models have brought a slight resurgence but only appeal to the remaining high end shooters (which continues to shrink.) I and people on my hosted trips bring less equipment but still enjoy diving and capturing pictures including HD video easily. It's simple to instantly share content too......10 years ago I'd have 50-70% bringing some housed SLR and one or two strobes, multiple ports, etc. Today barely 5% bring such systems. I don't host dedicated UW photo trips but the majority of dive locations and resorts have customers mostly coming to dive. Even gear rental at resorts is up as people don't want to bring their own BCD, regulator, etc. They throw in a wetsuit, mask, fins, snorkel and likely their own dive computer. Add a compact housing (if that) and smart phone housing and they're happy as clams UW image making software for quick color correction right on your phone is already here along with incredible Apps to create astounding pictures easier than ever. No one is shooting documentary or science photos so worrying about the exact color or whatever isn't even considered important like it or not. Earlier in 2023 I took a 2 day Kelby One series of presentations costing $149.00 including a 1 year video review of all presentations. It was mind blowing!!!! I believe I posted elsewhere on the forums and response was: Crickets.........Even when I mentioned an iPhone photographer printed a 72" (6 feet) tall image that looked fantastic not a peep....... I also fault camera manufacturers for not developing more AI and easy sharing features into new models. They saw it coming and similar to the film to digital transition stuck their heads in the sand After decades of hauling large systems around the world I sold it all in 2016. These days I only take my small Fantasea Canon G7X II housing, a pop on wide "Air lens" (my camera does great macro by itself) and one Inon strobe. Add my iPhone DiveVolk housing and a couple flashlights I'm diving with anyway and I'm set to enjoy myself. Another thing Wetpixel never developed, encouraged or promoted was shooting with compacts and now iPhone / Smartphones. People dropping in would read "no one can take a decent well lit in focus photo with anything less than $10,000 or more in investment". So they'd leave and go over to Scubaboard (which still has too much inaccurate, conflicting and simply bad information) and as several have said go buy a GoPro and now iPhone housing. The continual promotion to "upgrade" was also a failing plan in my opinion. Maybe encouraging and sharing insights to a wider variety of UW gear would have grown participation and overall numbers. Or maybe not........ I'm lucky to continue to dive as long as I have plus hopefully a decade longer turning 70 in November and in good health Along with what happens to all the archived information I do hope Wetpixel in some form survives. Perhaps some of my observations will be considered and even embraced encouraging people to get into scuba diving and underwater image making David Haas Old Long Time Diver

From direct experience I can say that any new solution that does not provide its own server and disk space for content is not recommended. The "value" of WP lies precisely in the fact that the content is its own. This is indeed the problem with Social Networks and other third-party platforms. The data is no longer yours, and you are left with only the ephemeral visibility of a while when your channel/group/page is well known. But if the platform closes, changes the rules, you dislike them, you violate some new rule, you're done and you can't even take back what you consider "yours." People don't understand this at all, and we live in an age where everyone thinks they are at the center of the world and important. Everyone has their own page, their own broadcast center. A digital selfishness. Andy Warhol's famous phrase in digital sauce. It's why forums are disappearing. On the importance of preserving the value of a community through data ownership I will give you a simple simple example: long ago the cost of storage was high and forum owners (even this one) had the problem of the space taken up by photos uploaded by users. Many found themselves forced to limit uploads quite a bit and push (if not force) users to host photos on external sharing sites. Photobucket used to be very popular. Too bad then Photobucket changed the sharing rules and a great deal of content became inaccessible. or the user simply deleted the prop. It will have happened to everyone to read some very interesting old posts and the attached photos are gone. There are forums that are totally unusable and useless because of this small problem. This is just a small example of the side effects of relying on external services. However... I may be naive and an idealist but I am sure that Adam will not let this community die like this and a solution will be found.

I just returned from 10 days at Papua Explorers Resort on the Dampier Strait. Fly into Sorong via Batik or Garuda, then its a 2 hour boat ride to the resort. My son and I had a great experience at the resort. I took an underwater photography course and my son got is PADI Advanced and Nitrox certifications. All aspects of resort operations were well-managed. The lodging was great, the food was delicious, and the diving was well-organized. They even have a room on the dock dedicated to underwater photographers. The resort owners are very conservation-oriented and really take care to limit their impact. They work closely with the local village and employ lots of the villagers. A special treat was an optional excursion to see the Red Bird of Paradise, which was a life bird for both of us. I'd go back to Papua Explorers in a heartbeat. In August, the liveaboards are all tied up for the season but the resorts offer a nice alternative. Weather was very cooperative for our diving. We're going back next spring for a liveaboard trip; either is a great option. Attached are just a few of the images I collected on the trip, taken with my old Nikon D800E in a Nauticam NA-D800 housing (before I acquired my Nikon Z8):

Thanks everyone. I went ahead and ordered the Marelux crossbar and a couple of long clamps. I usually have two lights on my housing on night dives, and I'm planning to pick up the newest GoPro when it's announced in a couple of weeks. I want to be able to mount these on the crossbar and not in triple clamps. Once I get it all set up, I'll post some pics.

We all have to have something . If it keeps you thinking. it is good. Lucky you have good access to great diving.

Today we launch Underwater Italy, a new video channel dedicated to deep diving in the Mediterranean sea. The YouTube channel is a container through which me and my buddy Claudio Valerio narrate about our dives in the twilight zone, a depth interval, where coral forests, sponge gardens and millennia-old animals form ecosystems that have not yet been directly altered by humans. This is the so-called mesophotic zone, the bathymetric range between fifty and one hundred and twenty meters, which in recent years is proving to be crucial in investigating the impact of climate and anthropogenic changes on our seas. With our footage we want to unveil the secrets of little-known seabeds where scientific research and exploration confront the beauty of nature. Seabeds that are actually very close to the most common dive sites where hundreds of divers dive every weekend. And it is precisely in these spots, served daily by diving centers, that technical diving has redrawn and in some cases overturned the map of possible dives. It has given us the ability to combine two or more dive spots in a single trip or find new ones. This information quickly became the heritage of local diving communities, but transmitted mostly in oral form it is inevitably destined for word of mouth distortion if not oblivion. Hence an additional reason for preserving the memory of these environments and perhaps setting a baseline for future observations. Out there, a few hundred meters from the diving moorings, close to walls, shoals and wrecks is an unknown world waiting to be (re)discovered. In the coming weeks we will publish the first video. for now a small trailer only music and images. If you like it, please subscribe

Have not tested, but box states up to 40 meters underwater IP68. I purchased a small one. Will test as soon as I can and report back. The kelvin range is 1800-10K. Not much throw , but could be useful with UWA close ups.

As a follow-up to this great thread, I've started doing some basic mixed-light experimentation, but in a rather specific setting. I've been shooting footage of mimic octopuses in the shallows (7 to 17 metres), between 10am and 12pm, which seems to be an active time for these little guys in these parts... Alas, having only two 800 lumen lights to work with, I didn't have enough artificial light to overcome tropical midday light, and fully illuminate a medium-sized critter like a mimic. However, while the lights were certainly too weak to cover the octopus, I was often shooting close-enough for the lights to highlight some details. But then, I was not happy with ambient light WB results without a filter when shooting wider scenes. So after some trials, I reverted back to using a filter all the time, which worked - however because of the topography and often murky water, full ambient wasn't great for closeups shots, and i couldn't use the lights because of the red cast created with the filter. In this specific situation, being able to combine lights for closeups, with a filter-based, ambient white balance seemed like best of both worlds. Frustrated by WB issues, I started experimenting with the Rosco Cyan 60 filter gels I had bought while still in Palau. Interestingly enough, despite the lights being weak, if their positioning was right (about 30cm in front of the camera, close to the subject), I could get workeable results with the filter on the camera (allowing me to shoot wider in ambient light), but also having the details pop a little more than in ambient light only for closeups. This is what you can see in the beginning of the clip, which are shot with a UR-Pro filter, manual ambient white balance, but with some details highlights offered by the two lights filtered by rosco 60s. This is far from perfect, but I found the results interesting, and in post it was quite different from working with full ambient light only. One other thing I've noticed is that the filtered lights seem to be less of a bother to the animals than non-filtered lights, which is probably linked to dampening and having a somewhat less aggressive spectrum. I now also have a 4000 lumen light, to add to the 2x 800 lumen lights, and will experiment with further with this, with a little more juice. I'd used the UR-Pro filter because I hadn't found a way to work with Keldan -1.5 spectrum filter gel sheets I normally use for wide-angle, but I'm not a great fan of the UR-Pro, a bit too warm and orangy. I normally stick the Keldan sheet on the compact camera lens, but here I.wanted to be able to remove them for proper small-sized macro and snooting, which is another highlight in the area - this issue has potentially been solved since, with the help of 3 step up / down rings holding the keldan gel sheet, and first experiment with the Keldan spectrum has been positive. cheers ben

Here is another clip shot on the LX10, in Amed, East Bali, home to a healthy colony of mimic octopuses and many other interesting cephalopods. As a technical aside, this was more challenging shooting, and also turned out to be my first venture into mixed lighting - the footage is shot either in mixed light (with a UR-Pro Cyan filter, two Archon D11V 800 lumen lights with custom cyan ambient light filters) or in full ambient light. Conditions are often murky in the local mimic hotspot, and I just don't have enough artificial light to overcome tropical midday light in the shallows, and fully illuminate a medium-sized critter like a mimic. So after some trials, including shooting ambient without a filter (not great) I reverted back to using a filter and shooting in ambient light WB. However because of topography and often murky water, full ambient wasn't great for closeup, and while the two 800 lumen lights were certainly too weak to fully illuminate such a medium-sized scene, I also noticed that I was shooting close-enough for the lights to highlight some details. In this specific situation, being able to combine lights for closeups, with a filter-based, ambient white balance seems like the way forward. Frustrated by WB issues, I started experimenting with the Rosco Cyan 60 filter gels I had bought while still in Palau, based on experiments detailed in this thread: https://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?/topic/69260-solving-the-mixed-light-problem/ Interestingly enough, despite the lights being weak, if positioning was right (about 30cm in front of the camera, close to the subject), I could get workeable results with the filter on the camera (allowing me to shoot wider in ambient light), but also having the details pop a little more than in ambient light only. This is what you can see in the beginning of the clip, which are shot with a UR-Pro filter, manual ambient white balance, but with some details highlights offered by the two filtered lights. Of course this is highly unorthodox, and most will find using filters on weak 800 lumen lights for medium-range subject borderline heretical, but I find the imperfect results interesting, and interestingly, filtered lights seem to be less of a bother to the animals than non-filtered lights, which is probably linked to them having a somewhat less aggressive spectrum. I plan on looking into this further with the Keldan Spectrum i normally use. cheers ben

I have been using a pre-release Marelux Macroview MX-15 closeup lens which has the 67mm threads. The lenses are now shipping so should be in stock soon. This is an un-cropped image with the Sony A7R V, Sony 90mm macro lens, Marelux housing using two Scubalamp SUPE D-Pro strobes with the macro diffuser caps. Lens at 1:1 with the MV-15, shot at F/22, ISO-100, 1/250th sec. Seaweed Blenny taken at the Blue Heron Bridge in south east Florida.

Done. Thanks!

This is making the rounds, an AOI GoPro housing with an integrated screen, battery and lens port, looks like a little step up from the ol' Hugyfot housings. "As a leader in underwater imaging, is partnering with renowned underwater videographer Kay Burn Lim to create the first "Signature Series," a cutting-edge underwater housing for GoPro cameras. This collaboration combines AOI's expertise in designing top-quality underwater camera products with Kay Burn Lim's experience in underwater filmmaking, aiming to set new industry standards for underwater photography and videography. The "Signature Series" features unrivaled durability, advanced optical clarity, ergonomic design, compatibility with various GoPro models, and an exclusive edition bearing Kay Burn Lim's signature. The housing is compatible with GoPro 9, 10, 11, and the recently launched GoPro 12. This collaboration promises to redefine underwater content creation and elevate the capabilities of adventurers and content creators in this field. The housing is currently undergoing testing, so watch this space as we provide more updates including availability and pricing." Source: AOI Facebook post

There are some news via Kay Burn Lim FB page who helped to develop the housing. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02sRDLzNNRZTPsaLdeMMV3wvEnDrhz58xN9h4NCyfdGQFKoiFAu6eVxvWpm3mjTUUdl&id=582259232&sfnsn=scwspwa Among the several comments:

Like i said originally, i could be wrong. And most likely i am. Reading through the A key to the dwarfgoby species (Teleostei: Gobiidae: Eviota) described between 1871 and 2016. and Addendum to the 2016 key to the dwarfgobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae: Eviota) there are quite few other possibilities as well (like E. prasina). For exact match, we would need the whole body shot with fins.

Done, thank you!

we have everything in place and ready. if the time comes it is needed, we will release the information via the list and other means.

Came across this bag at Academy Sports in US, their Magellan brand. It is a 24 can beer soft bag. My Nauticam rig with WWL-C and the dome fits nicely. Can be used as a dip bag and a beer chest. Different color options. Cost $ 79.00, not bad considering alternatives.

Hi Massimo, We returned just tonight from our trip to Egypt... You are completely right, I was wrong. A misunderstanding from my side - it does not matter, how the on-housing flash is triggered. This flash triggers the Anglerfish, no matter which camera trigger is used, but the Anglerfish is not able to trigger the remote Sea&Sea YS-D2 in my hands.. For remote triggering, I will use a remote Z330 in the future and work with one Z330 on the housing (maybe the Sea&Sea as second on-housing flash, but on-housing flash is not the important flash, when working with remote flash...). Wolfgang

Thanks for this.. Sent from my SM-F946B using Tapatalk

Your little fish in question is a Blackbelly Blenny Stathmonotus hemphilii. Nice rare find!!

It's somewhat paradoxical to feel a decline in UW photography in a context where - quality aside - it's actually exploding, since waterproof equipment has never been as cheap or readily available. The decline is probably that of "traditional" specialist photography (and its culture), with big expensive camera rigs - linked to a specific, aging demographic able to not only afford the equipment but also have the time and funds to go use them somewhere - on the other hand, non-specialist UW imaging is probably on the rise worldwide. Taking underwater images is less of a frontier than what it used to be. Same goes for aerial photography, now that drones are cheap and affordable. But what of the quality? To a certain point, more accessible tools are indeed now competing with specialist equipment as mentioned - less so in some aspects such as control of shutter speed, depth of field, , which still require a little more control - but this might change with iphones and the like, AI and processing. Same goes for UW lighting, where beyond ambient light, results offered by strobes and video lights are still hard to beat - but this might also change with advances in LED technology. The technical requirements of UW macro photography are still some sort of frontier though. The Olympus TG series is the odd man out, as it was really the first to offer cheap, low-maintenance access to macro imaging, through the series' microscope mode digital zoom, and it still is a lone contender in this area. despite gopro / backscatter / inon / AOI forays into macro lenses for action cams But then again, gorgeous supermacro nudibranch pics are also less engaging than a manta selfie or snorkeling clips, immersive experience-based content, and speak mostly to people already in the game, so not sure this will be what drives UW forward on a broad scale. One other thing to consider is that tourism as we knew it is also evolving, and fast. It's difficult to imagine the impacts the onfolding climate crisis will have on our oceans, but also more broadly on global economies and lifestyles, including travel and leisure activities. The technology will certainly be there to shoot amazing content, but are we really so sure (a large demographic of...) people will still be traveling regularly to dive and snorkel, take UW footage and share these "very best life" holiday snippets online in 30 years?

Brilliant discussion - love the low-resolution texts - and great insights I also think in a way it's always been like this - in the time of film cameras and slides, you also had Polaroids and Hanimex compacts, (then those throw-away cameras), in the golden age of Hi-Fi audiophilia, you also had cassette tapes and boomboxes, Laserdisc home cinemas coexisted with the ol' family TV sets and cheap VCRs... This was certainly due to necessities and constraints but also like to functionnal aspects and purpose. But the major difference lies in the new forms of social consumption of material. When it comes to photography, back in the old days, you might invite friends to look at your newly developed snaps or holiday slides, join a photo-club to share with like-minded nerds enthusiasts, hang prints on your wall, and you might get a few prints displayed in some random, or not so random expo space, or even in a magazine or book. But not much else. This has changed radically. Digital photography is one of the main pillars of social media, ever since it moved away from text-only bulletin boards and usenet-like formats. Facebook, Instagram were/are photo-sharing based apps in essence. In a way, we could go as far as saying that modern internet networking began when we moved away from text only to broader digital content, which started with digital photos. I remember my first steps online, this empty space where major companies had these showroom-like websites with nothing much....but hey, they had photos (which would take a while to load). Of course there was already the idea that things could be updated in real time (or almost), the speed of email contact, and the interactivity of the first chat rooms then of the first chat apps, but still, photos was what it was all about. After photos came animated GIFs, and then the first clunky embedded players for low-fi audio / video clips appeared, a mini-revolution in itself - when they worked, which wasn't often.... When people first hopped on mainstream social media, it was very much about sharing photos, which was new, and probably why things really took of when phones had cameras, and especially more so when these phones became "smart", and pictures could be shared smoothly. Social media has given people the opportunity to market themselves and their own life-style brand, non-stop, in a context where commodification of the self is becoming the norm. And technical tools have naturally adapted to such self-marketing ("sharing") requirements. This self-marketing, streaming angle has indeed generated a new type of content, indeed more focused on experience sharing as mentioned above, content which co-exists with somewhat more traditional forms - and both are now feeding into each other. Another interesting trend is that the video format, which was / is often presented as the future of photography, poised to take over still pictures on social media, has never really done so. However, video content is now mostly reformated to more shareable format which is actually closer to photos, bite-size shareable clips that can be viewed quickly and silently, fueled by media platforms favouring such a format, clips, reels etc... Whereas the legacy video network, youtube, has become a place filled with talking heads (and uber-expressive faces in the thumbnails...) video podcasts and live streams, with content that is actually more often audio-based than truly video-based. In terms of engagement and self-marketing, photos are still where it's at. Generation Z / Alpha drone shots or short GoPro clips with a manta might get some views, but more often than not it's peanuts compared to the reach photos still have.

I have the Subsee +5, Saga Dive +10, Nauticam CMC-1 and Inon UCL-165M67. Over the years, all of them except the Nauticam have developed water spots or other crap on the glass that I couldn't clean off. This may be a function of user laziness and not properly drying the glass after rinse. But I think I treated them all about the same. Maybe Nauticam uses better coatings.

The Marelux crossbar is 25cm to 33.6 cm along the center two slots and a bit shorter on the outside slots. it is about 2cm from the top to bottom slots which would likely work with D-850. Marelux also make a double ball mount that may be helpful.

My tripod arrived as well. here's an image of my current setup it's nice but too heavy underwater - need to use bigger floats. LX10 + WWLC + CMC1 + x2 bigblue 10K + 2 old Inon flashes (but they do the job).

I will preface this by saying that I have never tried this technique but may I give my opinion? In my lack of knowledge I would hazard a much simpler guess: the lights you are using are too much too weak. Hence the difference in WB between wide and close-up shots. You do the WB at a "certain" distance where the lights can barely intervene. Then you do a close shot and everything comes out red because now the light from the lamps is predominant. I mean, filter or not, the light from the lamps has to be powerful enough to be taken into account of the WB of the camera.

And local guidelines too. The last two times I was in the Red Sea with low cost airlines i had no problem getting there but on the return, at the Marsa Alam airport there were guys walking around in airport uniforms (in some countries it is difficult to distinguish between roles) armed with scales and receipt booklets. In short time they carefully scanned all the rows of people who were checking in by weighing the carry-on bags one by one and applying the extra weight fees with a pickiness never seen before. There were so many protests and even the police intervened, who naturally agreed with the port operators. After half an hour they had collected a bunch of bills. A real planned operation to the detriment of tourists that was impossible to escape.