diverareyouok

Good luck on the sale. I’m not in the market, but I couldn’t help but notice your custom floats. How did you build those and what are they made of? I’m currently playing around with my configuration and would love to have something new to try. I’m usually in the Philippines for three months that each year diving, so maybe we can shoot together if we’re in the same area in the future.

Congrats on the sale. Can I ask a question? What are those little cables inside of the housing for? It looks like they are electronics or something, and they have a Settings button with different colors next to it… I’m using a tg6 and the housing only has physical buttons without any internal cables, and I’m brand new to the more expensive side of the hobby.

You could get little arms like these, 5 inch ones… That should be fine for using your camera. You can also find a single arm tray. Here’s what I plan to use with the backscatter mf2 (macro only)… a single arm tray that I picked up on AliExpress for $20 or so. That’s where I got the arms and clamps as well, for around 5 bucks a pop plus shipping. I don’t think you’re going to have anywhere near as much trouble with arms and joints than you think. It’s super intuitive and easy to change their position during a diet, especially if you’re using something relatively light weight like the macro wide like they have.

Hey, since you’ve been using the mf2 for 2ish months, I was wondering if you’ve had any issues thus far with it? I just ordered one last week and I’m waiting for it to arrive, and this entire thread has me a little apprehensive. I’m hoping they fixed whatever issues they had with the first generation for the mf2, but since you seem to have an incredibly long string of bad luck with this flash, I was hoping perhaps to hear that things have taken a turn for the better with the 2.

Hey, now that it’s been a few months, could you let me know how the mf2 is holding up? Have you had any issues like you and everyone else in this thread had been having before? I‘m waiting for my mf2 purchase from last week to arrive - originally I was going to get the mf1 new on eBay, but it seems like a lot of people have been complaining about issues with it… Not just on here, but on scuba Facebook groups and Reddit. I’m hoping that they fixed whatever the problems are, so since you’ve already had a chance to use it for a while, I was hoping you might be able to fill me in a little bit on your experience. I’m going to be going to the Philippines in November for a quarter of a year of diving.

Do you have any advice for tips or tricks that you have learned? My use-case is identical to yours - shooting macro in the Philippines. My Nikon aw130 died in January so I purchased a tg6 and last week ordered the mf2 and shoot after a LOT of research spanning weeks. I’ve never used a non-integrated flash underwater before, and I’ve never used a shoot, period. I’m a little apprehensive about this. Any additional feedback you can give me would be greatly appreciated. My next trip isn’t until November (I go there each year exclusively to dive), and since I live in Louisiana, my options for practicing with it in advance are very limited. I was planning on using it in the bathtub and perhaps using the flash/snoot above water with the video light off, being careful to not allow it to overheat… that way I could gain some familiarity with the tg6 and lighting. No clue if that’s a good idea or not, but it’s kind of the best I can do at this point. so yeah, I’m looking forward to it, but it seems like a pretty big step that maybe I’m making more complicated in my mind than it really is. you’re looking up different resources for snooting ever since I decided to pull the trigger on the gear acquisition.

yep, after looking at it again, I now understand why you couldn’t.. because I had a totally incorrect idea about what RC flash was. For some reason I thought it had to do with the flash directly connected to the camera. Not a remote, off-camera flash. Apparently the mf2 can control multiple flash units through a 90° “light tube”.. so it can wirelessly send setting changed and updates without having to manually touch the flash. I guess the problem was that I didn’t understand how that worked. I’ve only ever used slaved flashes that require manual power control… So I had a fundamental misunderstanding of what this meant and did. It wasn’t until I actually started looking into it harder than I realized. I think I was confusing automatic TTL with RC. No clue why… oops? I went ahead and purchased the mf2 and snoot; they should be arriving in the next couple of days and I’m looking forward to playing around with them. As to whether or not I end up getting a second unit, and it’s still up in the air… is it depends on how much I like this one and what my needs are after I practice with it for a while.

My old camera (a compact Nikon aw130) died after 5 years of hard use, so I upgraded slightly to a tg6 and backscatter wet lens. I’m also planning on getting the MF-2 flash and the snoot. The thing is, I’ve never used an external flash or a snoot underwater. I’ve used studio lights plenty of times in my former life as an event photographer during college, but it was only in the last couple of years that I really ignited a passion for macro photography. I’ve been taking three months off each year since 2016 (except during the pandemic) to go diving in the Philippines, and share the photos mainly on social media. I mainly do macro - I do have a pair of old MaxPower UXDS-1 strobes (and a really old Nikon 1 which I don’t use anymore now that I have the tg6 and m52 air lens) for wide, but that only accounts for maybe 5% of my shots. The thing is, during the nine months I’m at home, I’m working an incredible number of hours (remote work as an attorney) and can’t really take the time to drive out to Florida (I live in Louisiana, where there’s no clear water anywhere remotely close… unless you count a nearby swimming pool). I was planning on getting the flash and snoot and just practicing at my house with stuff that’s approximately the same size as nudis up to small fish. That way I wouldn’t be going into my next trip later this year totally unprepared. It’s not ideal, but it seems practical. Is there anything I should know about in advance? Or about snooting in general? The only thing I can think of is to be very careful to not overheat my flash, since it won’t be water cooled. Are there any ”must read” articles (or even books) on the subject of UW macro photography with a beginner/intermediate system like the tg6/mf2/snoot? Or just books on UW snooting in general? I’ve googled and found enough to make me think this is something I want to advance to. I guess I just feel insecure, because what I’ve read makes it sound fairly challenging to become even ‘adequate’ with. I’m really excited to take this next small step up from what I have been using, but I don’t know where to put my foot so that I would be in the best position possible for when I go back to Asia in November/December. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and hopefully respond.

thank you for this advice! You may have just saved me a few hundred bucks - I was thinking of getting dual backscatter MF-2 units for macro, but worried i would be getting in over my head going from onboard flash only to 2 at once.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to do, and this would be much more simple. I’m glad I posted, because otherwise I’d have done it the hard way. Thank you!!

I just got the Olympus housing for the TG-6 (macro photography) and realized it only has one single female receptacle for the FO cable. Which will be a problem when I need to use 2 strobes. I’ve seen a 1-to-2 cable that would plug into that single hole, then split into two separate cables, but I hate to pay $40-90 when I have the cables themselves handy and to spare. i’m wondering if any of you have modified two cables so they both fit into the same single hole? I measured the diameter of the naked FO cable and it’s just under 1mm. I measured the diameter of the coated FO cable and it’s just over 2mm. And theory, I should be able to stick two naked lengths of naked cable into the same male plug, right? Would it matter that there will be a centimeter or so of “naked” cable on each one? I’m assuming it won’t, and that light leakage will be minimal as long as the cable gets coated before it goes on too far… but I’m not totally sure. Perhaps there’s something else that I don’t even know about (but should be aware of) that would make this unfeasible, so I thought I’d ask around in here before committing 2 cables to the project. … and yeah, I know it would be easier to just buy one, but now that I have the idea in my head, it’s hard for me to justify not at least giving it a shot before throwing in the towel.

My compact Nikon AW130 died last month after 5 years of very hard use. Which I have mixed feelings about. It was a great little camera, easy to tote around, but by the end I really felt like I was outgrowing it and the photos I envisioned rarely matched what it was capable of. For the most part, I focus on nudibranches and other macro stuff. I decided that the TG-6 would be a good “step up”. I’m not expecting to get superb shots with it, but I think they’ll be considerably better than with my AW130… and since my main reason for taking the photos is to share on social media and look at later, that’s fine with me. I went ahead and got a TG-6 housing, a backscatter M52 air lens, and the camera itself, but now I’m stuck looking for flash units that are portable and not overly expensive. I have a pair of old flash units from a different setup years and years ago (UltraMax UltraPower UXDS-1) that are just too big and bulky to use with the Olympus. Plus, traveling with them would be a real headache. I’ll probably sell them to recoup some of the money I spent on the new setup. I’ve been looking at the Backscatter Mini Flash 2 (MF-2), which apparently is a big step up from the original version, and can use the TG-6’s RC Flash setting. Which is appealing, since for the most part, I think I’m probably going to be letting the camera decide the flash settings (at least at this stage). The product video on the backscatter website and on reviews all tout how “big of a deal” RC flash capability is. I noticed that some other flash units fit my parameters, but they ‘only’ offer TTL support. For example, the Backscatter MF-1, the Sea & Sea YS-03 (although since I may eventually want the ability to use manual, this isn’t high on my list) or the Inon S-2000. I guess my question boils down to this: will the difference in photo/lighting quality using the rc setting with the Mf-2 be enough to justify the extra money it costs compared to the others? Or would I likely not ever even notice the difference? Thanks for taking the time to read through this and share your opinions.

Still available?

Honestly, I think you should try both and see what feels most comfortable. I don’t have any problem using a jacket, mainly because I like having the extra pockets. Then again, my set up is very small and compact, so I can just clip it off and forget about it… Well, I used to. I had a Nikon aw130 that died this month and now I’m waiting on a tg6 to arrive. I guess I will have to take my own advice and try it with one of my bp/w rigs as well as my jacket to see what feels normal. I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to do it, only what is comfortable and works for you.

Thanks for the heads up, I have been diving for about 20 years and never once heard about needing a permit to shoot photos underwater. A permit to access certain areas, sure, but never to actually photograph. I spent three months each year in the Philippines diving, so I guess I need to look into this if I go to a new area… or just ask the dive shop when I visit a new spot. On second thought, that would probably be a lot easier.