bvanant

The ball end of the Howshot is the same size as most other gear (ULCS, Inon etc.) Most of their stuff is fine, but I don't think there is a US distributor. You should take a look at the Kraken stuff as well, Jack at Optical Ocean sells them and they are pretty inexpensive. Bill

If they are more than 5 years old they are single core fibers. As for ends, if you buy the Divervision ones, you can put any o-ring on them you want, the ones they come with are too tight for me. Bill

or you can make your own multi-core cables as well. Avoid the real cheap AliExpress version ($16). They claim 613 core but my microscope thinks otherwise. Bill

In general, yes, BUT acrylic is way more easier to fix if you scratch it. The optical quality is typically much better with glass than acrylic but only you know if that difference is worth the $. Bill

pm sent

For Sale is a brand new, never been wet, Aditech Mangrove Housing for the Sony AX700 with the camera. The camera is amazing but the system is just a bit too large for what my wife wants to do with it. Our loss is your gain. New the system is $2300 for the housing and $1900 for the camera. Yours for a significant discount. Bill

It works fine IF you have the right fiber optic cable. You need one of the multi-core versions Bill

We just returned from 10 days of diving with Spice Island Divers. The resort is the previous Maluku Divers and is pretty much the same as before with some staff remaining (the chef had pictures of us from 5 years ago on his phone). The bungalows are quite nice, aircon worked fine and hot water was plentiful. The dive shop hasn't changed but there is a new compressor. Overall we thought Ronny and Benny did a good job with the diving crew (a few guides remain, notably Alan and Semuel) and we will be returning there. Overall I would give them two thumbs up. Bill

Had the same issue on our recent Villa Markisa trip, next dive I taped the flash with some electrical tape. No issues since, BUT I did have 3 or 4 times during the trip an issue where the camera froze up showing a scene in the EVF that wouldn't change and stayed on even after turning the camera off. Only solution was to take the battery out an replace it. Any ideas. BVA

I have always thought he was a Hasselblad guy, as for film I suspect he shot all of the BW films, from Tri-x to exacta Bill

Just to clarify a point. The YSD1 (at least mine) were made in Japan not in China and sourced using mostly Japanese components. As for comparing strobes to cameras, I suspect that there is at least an order of magnitude (probably a factor of 50) in terms of cameras made and strobes made. It is not clear to me that the D1s have major issues. Mine are at least 5 years old, and while there was a firmware upgrade for battery issues, mine are still going strong after more than 600 dives (probably 50k flashes). As for Ikelite, maybe I am an outlier but I do in fact know their service facility quite well. Bill

"Minor correction here, but that wouldn't be anywhere near 300DPI. It would be around half that. The 16MP sensor will do prints that size, but it will start to break down on the quality a bit. I've got the same sized sensor in my E-M5mkII and have printed large, but it definitely doesn't have the same detail as an 11x14 would. " There are a slew of good up-rezzing programs (Topaz for example) that can take your 16MP file and make it into 20x24 x 360 DPI with good results (a lot depends on the photo of course). Bill

Chris: Can you compare the Panasonic 30 macro to the Olympus? Bill

I have all three lenses (the 45 mm Zuiko 1.8 is not a macro lens, max magnification is only 0.11) and I think the IQ of the leica is the best but lately have been putting a lot of mileage on the 30 macro. Fast focus and nice Bokeh. I use the 60 if I am shooting small stuff where the diopter is most useful. Bill