Drew

A sad sad day for us @ Wetpixel, where David was a fellow friend and fellow enthusiast to so many of us here on Wetpixel.

Thanks TaxiDriver. The distortion is pretty bad for video with any vertical movement of the camera. Good to know.

Well, if someone is shooting for a doco or film, they won’t be releasing the clips online. I know of 1 shoot but never saw anything from it. Like it was suggested, check with Gates and see if they know of anyone. But youtube destroys 4k anyways, so it’s probably better to catch it on a reference monitor.

I saw the prototype at ADEX and reported on it on the front page. They looked very nice!

The Elite is very comfy for a 6’2”, 190lbs guy. My buddy flew Elite and now swears by it. And he’s very picky!

The general rule is the viz isn’t as good as the fall/winter months (it is the Southern hemisphere), but I’ve had some good days during Jan/Feb too. As mentioned, the sediment and the upwellings create some bad viz. However, that doesn’t stop you from doing macro around tulamben, and the night dives at the wreck too. you’ll be fine. Just check with the dive ops just when you arrive so you have a choice. If the viz is bad at the wreck, think of doing the macro trifecta of Tulamben and the north coast sites like PJ/Pemuteran and secret bay. If you must do wide angle, check on Menjangan area. Search the archives for Bali tips as well. Good luck.

So now they’ve just straight out offered you a permit for a price? So much for permit application vs just paying to get that privilege. But yes, if you get lucky and have cetaceans which are playful, it can be awesome. Depends on your luck. I’ve had blown out days, bad days and unhappy animals that just run from anything human!

One not so often mentioned use of the ND filter is to reduce softness caused by diffraction. The AX100 has a 1” sensor, so diffraction will cause a softer pic by around f5.6, if not before. So when you want to maximize resolution, shoot about 1 or 2 stops down aperturewise, around f4-5 wide open. That and using the correct shutter speed means using the ND filter to control light.

It's very interesting that the Norwegians never received the same international ire and animosity as the Japanese. Even the Faroese pilot whale kills doesn't face the same anger as the Taijin dolphin kills, and the Japanese take much fewer cetaceans! Is it any wonder why this report came out 10 days ago and hasn’t gone viral? Go figure! http://time.com/4370478/norway-whaling-report/

RIP Bob!

When you say budget, how much are you talking about? The most convenient would be Bali. Accommodations can go for even $40 a day (if you’re not too fussy) and depending on where you go, dives are in the $20-40 per dive range, depending on packages etc. Obviously Tulamben is the place to be with a good variety of dive sites. Then there’re the northern areas like Seririt, Pemuteran etc. Bali is good for budget diving and a 2-3 dive day with accommodation will come in less than $150 even. Besides those well-trodden places mentioned above. there are some interesting off beaten path places which have good variety of diving. Around Alor, you have nice walls and coral (although I’m no sure how the bleaching is this year.) as well as some very good macro. I can’t tell you which resort to stay or which ops though, since I go there mostly with liveaboards but I do know there are a few resorts and temp trips which go out there during your time frame. Pricewise, I’d put it in the $200+ per day range. Most of them have some sort of unlimited house reef dives scheme. Way off the beaten path, there are a few places in Southern Sulawesi that hit the Wakatobi National Park (not the resort). For a real off the beaten path, a favorite of liveaboards going in/out of Maumere, Flores is Wodong Bay. I have seen the beach cottages in the Wodong village itself, but never stayed there. Saw divers from the ops everytime we go there. Nice macro and even a decent Japanese wreck. There are backpacker places as well. I just know the dive sites only and not the place that well. Good luck!

If you are using a 5k monitor, GPU acceleration is more noticeable. I don’t use LR but CC2015 PS, PP, AE and they all work much better with GPU acceleration, especially CUDA. I don’t know if CUDA vs OPENCL is faster though for OSX. If you use LR more often, then going with a CUDA Nvidia card would probably be faster, cos it is with my MP5.1 using PS. But since you are using FCPX and I assume OSX.11/10, then you go also with the AMD R9 which are ROM flashed to work with macs. CUDA isn’t great with the newer OSXes. Check out macvidcards for the R9. Hope this helps.

If they are just low browing (organizations who can pay but will try not to!), I just send them the price list, and they sometimes will buy. If they are really nice and new at it (students), I'm nice back. If they are giving me BS like credit is best etc, I ignore.

It's that time of the year again so Asia Dive Expo visitors, don't forget to join Wetpixel/Scubacam for the afterparty at Saint Ma at Suntec at 930pm, after the Speaker's party! The party starts there! Look for the imager's corner!

It's excellent, Mark. If you have an old Nikonos 15 lying around, as I do, then it's worth getting the adapter. However, the A7SII drinks batteries like alcoholic in an open bar! The WB does have a bit of issue with deeper depths though and MWB though.