John E

Loved it. Thanks for sharing. The tiger sharks are amazing but my favourite is probably the sailfish. Are the schooling sharks grey reef sharks ? They have a more prominent white mark on their dorsal fin than I am used to. And was that a silvertip, awesome. Love the atmospheric colours. John

I wonder if anyone has suggestions of how to get the best video colour from an Olympus OMD EM 1 ii? I'm thinking specifically of shallow tropical water followed by grading in DaVinci Resolve. Is the preset underwater white balance worth using? Is it better to get a flat profile? Thanks for any advice to someone without much experience. John

Now sold. Thanks for your consideration.

Mass coral spawning occurs on the Great Barrier Reef over a few nights after full moon in November. This little clip was taken on an Olympus TG-6 with its very handy macro capability. PB120777_Trim.mp4

AOI semi-dome port and Olympus 9-18mm has been sold.

Olympus EPL10 camera with Zuiko Digital EZ 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 AOI EPL10 housing including flat port (all accessories including but no original box) All in excellent condition. Camera has 2425 shutter actuations. Housing used about 10 times. AU$1200 for camera and hosing together Also selling AOI semi-dome port and Olympus 9-18mm = AU$617 together Selling as I also have a Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with an Isotta housing. Located in Port Douglas, Australia

Hi Chris, my fault - the original file sizes are over 5MB but wouldn't upload. Those are less than 200KB each. The main point was to illustrate the field of view and limited ability to take split shots. The split shot with the wet lens is the only one I have and it was a wide aperture. This picture is 3MB with the UWL-400A wet lens

I have both the TG-6 with Olympus housing and UWL-400A wide angle wet lens and the Ikelite with dome and FCON-T02. They are both good for snorkelling, taking wide pictures with zoom capability . The wet lens option is a bit negatively buoyant and the Ikelite a bit positive, but not too much, and both are compact. The buttons on the Olympus housing are slightly easier to use whilst the Ikelite is more robust. The first two pictures are with the FCON-T02 in Ikelite housing with dome and the second two are from the UWL-400A and Olympus housing. With patience it is possible to get some sort of split shot with the wet lens. This was with the bayonet attachment which drains water quickly - without it and using some way to tape up the join between the wet lens and housing would probably work better.

Does it also do it outside the housing? The record and function buttons can be assigned custom functions including AEL/AFL. Just a guess but maybe this is selected and the housing is sometimes touching one of these buttons?? Maybe do a reset and see if the problem is solved?

I have a spare day with some friends during a conference in Key Largo in September and hope to get a dive in (three experienced divers). The Duane wreck looks good. Any advice? Photography is not a priority, just having a good day!

You can also give the free Olympus Workspace a try.

Hi Grasshopper, Good choice! I'm on the Great Barrier Reef, so similar conditions to French Polynesia. I also have a daughter that likes freediving and taking pictures. An easy-to-use camera is perfect so they can concentrate on the marine life and also take quick photos whilst breath holding. As you are snorkelling, you would likely have the most fun with minimum drag when swimming (especially free-diving) and probably not need the light. (Nice to some night snorkelling though!) I have the 81 degree wet lens, the 120 degree wet lens with the Olympus PT-059 housing, and also the Ikelite housing with the 6 inch dome and the Olympus fisheye adapter. The set-up you have bought is my favourite. I don't have the magnifier but thinking of getting one - but also worth thinking of an optical mask if you are getting slightly short-sighted. The JPEGS and underwater white balance settings on the the TG-6 work very well. Also, with the wet lens it is easy to get very close to subjects and scratch the polycarbonate front element. It has a hard coating, but that doesn't seem very tough and is very difficult to fix. Not sure about software but with books - Reef creature identification, Tropical Pacific by Humann/Deloach published by New World Publications is good, as is the companion volume on fish

The semi-dome port for the Olympus 9-18mm also fits the 60mm macro as an alternative to the flat macro port, at least with the Olympus or AOI housings. I wonder if this makes it a better port to use?

You know how the dentist reminds you to floss your teeth but then you never do? This is a reminder about operating buttons when freshwater rinsing, rather than just dunking or spraying your housing. I have several Olympus TG5 and TG6 housings. I also have older Fantasea housings and a newer AOI housing. I recon the quality of these housings is good and they have lasted well with heavy commercial use. A potential source of leaks I've experienced on the housings is the shutter button. If saltwater is left sitting in the shutter button mechanism this can cause slight corrosion after a time on the stainless steel part where it seats in the o ring so the seal is lost and water drips in at this pint. It can be possible to fix but - like teeth - best to look after.

The white sticky compound is likely an anti-galvanic corrosion zinc jointing paste such as Tefgel rather than straightforward grease. A similar zinc jointing paste that is yellow is Duralac. These are very commonly used in saltwater environments, for example on aluminium boats, outboard engines or yacht masts where stainless steel fasteners go into aluminium. It's still important to undo the fastening now and again and redo to avoid any aluminium oxide build-up causing seizing.