Yellowmon

Well said, Johnny. Bob is one of a kind, one of the good guys, always up to the task at hand, and always with a sense of humor and an admirable professionalism. His work alone and his collaborations with Howard Hall and Peter Kragh brought some of the most stunning imagery and most beautiful moments of sea life and sea phenomenon into the living rooms and movie screens for millions of people and the world and our appreciation of the natural world is a better place for all his fine work. He will sorely be missed by all who knew him and by the people whose lives he bettered with his amazing body of work. Rest in peace, dear Bob.

Thank you!

Yes, crossed fingers on all counts, Dr. M. One of our colleagues in Hawaii had his 28mm RS lens adapted for digital but I barely used that lens back in the film days so not so interested to resurrect it now. I do have the Rene Aumann 18mm, which is I think a true Nikon 18 inside his own dome. But I think the cost of converting that would exceed the cost of a used 18mm in the marketplace...

Alex, all good points. However, I do not think that a 27 - 47 lens is all that bad a tool in the toolbox. I have enjoyed using the 24 - 70 for many images in the past but it is extremely heavy to travel with and requires a lot of extension and bigger dome than this re-design, so Harald's compact solution does seem a bit tidier. I have been following your progress with an external optical port with great interest and have high hopes that a manufacturer will partner with you to make this corrector available to a wider audience. Until that time, and in the interest of nostalgia and frugality, the notion of adapting the existing 20 year old "20-35 Zoom" is tempting. I was simply hoping one of the Wetpixel audience has actual digital images from a conversion to share with those of us curious but sitting on the fence before making a substantial investment in having the lens adapted by Seacam.

Hi Alex Here are the missing posts -- not certain why it wasn't posted. ianmarsh Yellowmon [MOD EDIT: reformatted by AM]

Yes, the the Nikonos RS 13mm works brilliantly on Seacam for Nikon D800 and D810. I had the Nikonos RS 13mm conversion done by Seacam USA last year and have been using the lens extensively the past several shoots. As a matter of fact, this double page spread in the current issue of DAN Alert Diver was made using this lens. But to my knowledge, Nautical does not have a conversion for the Nikonos RS 13mm lens.. The port adapter you mention is for use with the Nikonos 15mm lens, which is a very different lens. It is extremely sharp but will be ALL manual focus, ALL manual aperture and it is used on the SONY A7 full frame cameras or NEX cropped sensor cameras. I also have this lens and housing in my arsenal and it works quite well. I plan to use it in the coming months for "smaller" wide angle subjects, such as sea lions and small sharks.

Has anyone seen results of the Nikonos RS 20-35mm Zoom lens converted to use for the Nikon D800/D810 digital cameras? Seacam offers a conversion which could make this 22 year old lens useful once again and I am wondering if anyone has seen results. I had the 13mm converted earlier this year and have been blown away by the performance of the lens, even with wide apertures and low light. Anyone? Thank you!

One sad event I feel I must report is an incident that occurred the last dive at Blue Magic. Another live aboard, the WAOW, was anchored nearby and Simon, our cruise director and the dive guides went over to politely attempt to coordinate diving schedules so both boats and their passengers could enjoy the same dive site on their last day. Simon and the dive guides returned from the WAOW and told us we would wait another half hour to go in; the WAOW's people were doing their briefing and would go in first, then we would follow thirty minutes later as their group ascended to the shallower water. We waited and waited in our wetsuits and finally, thirty minutes later, the WAOW's boat still had not loaded or departed for the dive site, so we made the decision to go now. Time and tide can wait for only so long. The Damai's first tender took our divers and dropped them as the second tender, which I was in, arrived next to drop. We had just stopped when one of the WAOW's tenders roared up to us and their dive director, who I have discovered is named Jerome (Jay) Monney, began screaming at all of us and using tremendous but not very creative profanity. I said "why does it take you forty minutes to get your people diving?" He screamed "We were here first" and continued on swearing at Damai's dive guides and presumably Simon, who was escorting the first group already underwater. The WAOW's people and our people dropped in and went our own ways on the reef looking for the oceanic mantas the site is known for. At one point, our group was hunkered down in the shadow of some coral heads and this terrible dive guide Jay (identifiable by his large pony bottle strapped to his tank and his boardshorts) comes by and intentionally gets between our divers and the mantas and violently exhales to spook the mantas. He also made several rude gestures to some of our guests. I am personally appalled that someone in the industry exhibits such poor manners and is rude to the guests of another boat. This behavior reflects badly on everyone in the dive industry and for the Indonesian boat crews and guides, it shows the uglier side of Western behavior that has no place in Raja Ampat.

Oh, and just so no thinks there was any slacking off, the lead story in the new issue of DIVE, about dugongs in general and a certain dugong named Dyson, in particular, was crafted aboard Damai Dua during the first trip segment and can now be read online for one and all. It was a very tight deadline and the telecommunications in Ambon made transmission of the text a nerve-wracking (at least for the publisher and staff) 48 hours... Your free subscription to DIVE, it is available here and downloadable via the Apple App store: http://free.divemagazine.co.uk (Apologies for the shameless plug, and none of your whinge-ing, Bantin....)

But really, even more important than photo opportunities, are real life experiences in the ever-fascinating, often unpredictable natural world. I would rather have a close personal encounter with a marine animal or the sight of a healthy coral reef than a photographic image any day. Fortunately, on a Wetpixel Ultimate Expedition, sometimes you can even have both. Where else can you have a Manta Hat on a pleasure dive?

And a few more....

Here are a few of the wonderful subjects we encountered as we traveled from Triton Bay to Northern Raja Ampat...

I dont know where the photo went. Eaten in cyberspace by pygmies, I suppose...

The second leg of Wetpixel Ultimate Indonesia 2012 went swimmingly well. We have an absolutely marvelous group of divers and conversationalists and the trip flew by so quickly with so many fantastic dives that no one wanted to get off the ultra luxurious Damai Dua. On the last day, we did a group photo: what a damn good looking group of satisfied, relaxed divers. This is what dive trips are supposed to be about! From left to right: Sharon Wada, Cruise Director Par Excellence Simon Marsh, Jenny Chadwick (would-be stowaway), Dr. Mike Buckmaster, Carol "Current Cruiser" Battershell, Greg "Bubba" Holmes, Fearless Trip Leader Douglas Seifert, his wife Emily (who celebrated her 1000th dive on the last day) and Lupo Dion. These posts are unfortunately short as the internet here in Sorong reminds me of dial up and 24 baud and besides, the world is supposed to end tomorrow and I dont want to miss anything by being online when it happens. Submitted faithfully, by Douglas Seifert, Wetpixel Trip Leader and World Editor of DIVE Magazine, from inertial Sorong.

Glass port scratches are as problematic as they are inevitable. Fortunately, it is possible to remove scratches in glass ports if the scratches are not too deep. Stephen Frink suggested to me I use "jewellers rouge" which I found on Amazon. I used a Dremel which has a power cord (when I tried with battery packs, ran out of juice before finishing) and a whole bunch of felt polishing wheels (catalog #414). It took a long, long, long time. Perhaps an hour but the minor scratches did disappear. I went through a number of felt wheels. It is a long and boring process but gives one time to reflect on the dangers of rocks attacking poor defenseless dome ports and to be more protective in the future. I write this now as I am preparing to attend to another session of polishing, which I hate as much, if not more, than cleaning the camera's sensor (also necessary this weekend). While you are out diving and having fun, think of a tiny wheel spinning round and round and be thankful if you have acrylic domes how much easier they are to repair. I can't guarantee this process will work for everybody but so far it has done well for minor, hairline scratches and little dings. I hope this advice cuts into the sale of replacement Seacam domes, Harald is doing far too well these days. Good luck!