MarkHerm

Hi there, I am into underwater cave photography and I use 2-3 remote strobes that I place on a tripod or that I give to dive buddies for them to held by hand. For me upcoming trip I want to mount one or two strobes directly on the twinset so that the diver doesn't need to hold the flash by hand. So far I am unsure on how to achieve that. Does someone around here has any experience on how to attach a Z240 to a set of doubles? Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks Mark

Very nice! How many strobes and what kind of strobes did you use for the cave shots?

Hi! I am not going to comment on the questions as others may be more knowledgable to answer. Still one suggestion from my perspective: If you are not even certified yet, it's IMO a good idea NOT to bring a heavy, expensive camera setup for your fist dives but to concentrate on developing the knowledge and skills required to savely enjoy the new enviroment without harming yourself or the enviroment. I often see newly certified divers with big cameras, who can barley hold position in the water column (which is perfectly normal for beginners), who constantly crash into the corals in pursuit of the one great shot. It's aweful! Of course, it is you who decides on this...

awesome story and pics. Thanks for sharing!

I could get my Nauticam housing wet during last week while squeezing in some dives in Egypt (only land based house reef diving). It was kind of rough as I'd only used a P&S camera in full auto mode underwater before (no strobe(s)) and went to full manual with my OM-D setup with a (single) S-2000 as external strobe in manual mode too. To make things worse for me, the fisheye lens as well as the 60 macro had not been delivered before my trip so I had to use my 12mm prime lens behind the 4.3" dome exclusively for the six dives I did while being there. A macro lens would have been awesome for fish portraits down there but, oh well, next time... Still, given my lack of experience with full manual mode and external strobes as well as being stuck with the Olympus 12/2 prime for all six dives, I am really pleased with the setup. I can definately see the potential that this setup can deliver. I am very happy with my purchase (all attached pictures are only marginally cropped, if at all)

I thought the same thing. 12 tiny screws for assembly, lots of pressure required, very slow, difficult / time consuming assembly, power zoom only etc does sound a bit odd. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that this lens provides a real challenge for port manufacturers but still... I am still on the fence about this port but I don't know. I think I need to take a look at one of them in person or try to rent one for a couple of days.

New price! Now 440 Euros for the complete setup!

Hi! As I bought an Olympus OM-D setup, I am selling my used Panasonic LX3 with its 10Bar housing. It was only used at around 50-60 dives in total. The LX3 camera offers good optical qualities (Leica 24-60mm f2-f2.8), the RAW file format, macro mode, and HD video capabilities. The camera works perfectly and is in good shape optically (e.g. no scratches on the lens; some minor scratches on the display which I never noticed while using it). The 10Bar housing is made of aluminium and offers full control to every function of the camera. A flash can be attached via fiber optical cable. Additionally there is flash bulk port for direct wiring, if you prefer. The housing accpets interchangable ports (e.g. a fisheye dome (not included)) and a thread for wet lenses on the standard flat port. It always has worked flawlessly (no floods, no issues) for me. The silver finish of the housing is somewhat peeling of on some spots though which looks a little odd but surely does not affect the functioning of the housing (interestingly, the new 10bar housing are black right from the factory so the manufacturer might have noticed that the silver coating is somewhat lacking in quality). Besides the offer included the original 10bar transport bag and the optional accessory of an internal strobe diffusor so you can use the internal strobe for close up macro if you don't want to bring an external one. I paid around 1.100 Euro for this package. I am asking for 470 Euro plus shipping for the entire package. I can provide more close-up pics if you are interested. I am located in Germany and would prefer to send it to somewhere within Europe (but I can send it to anywhere in the world if the buyer accepts the s/h costs). This is a private, non-commercial sell. Please feel free to contact me for any question you might have.

Thanks! I am really looking forward to taking this setup underwater. I finally decided on the first set of lenses. I'll start of with not buying the expensive port for the 12-50 but get the dome for the Panasonic 8mm fisheye first. The dome will not only accept the fisheye, which I'll get anyways, but also the very good 12/2 prime which will give me some moderate wide angle as well. Besides, I am going to buy the almost-released 60 macro and the corresponding flat port. With that setup I'll start and see where it takes me and what I may need in the future as an addition. Thanks for all the input, very much appreciated!

Thanks for the hint. I got the Kindle version and use it on my iPad as well. Works great and I like the portability. Now I got a lot of stuff to read though

I finally got the camera and played with it on land. Seems to be really nice. Anyways, for those of you who are alreading using it underwater: Did you try the video mode underwater yet? What setting are you using, especially with respect to AF? Were you satisfied with the results? I plan to use it mostly for stills but a good video once in a while would be very nicht too. I tried the video mode above water and saw some very noticeable focus hunting. Therefore some recommendations for settings would be awesome. Thanks!

Really nice pics. Can't wait to get my Nauticam housing. BTW, how do you place the strobes? Do you have them pulled in (right next to the dome) and angled outwards? This is what I've read as a recommendation for fisheye pics.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll start with Martin's book then. I thought about an ebook edition but so far I only saw the Kindle edition. While I use a Kindle reader, I don't assume the pictures and all would translate well to the Kindle monochrome display. @Erin: what ebook edition are you using and on which platform? Thanks!

Hi! I am think about getting a little more serious with underwater photography. So far I used a Panasonic LX3 compact as point and shoot camera (no flash, no manual mode etc.) but I'll buy a Nauticam housing for my OM-D very soon. Hence I am looking for a book that gets me started with what I need to know to take some nice pictures. I am a relatively advanced on land photographer as I am using DSLRs (Canon 5d) for years in various settings including studio photography with various strobes etc. So I know what ISO, exposure time, and aperture is and how the relate for getting good exposure and I know the general rules on how to compose potentially interesting images - at least on land. Is there any good book that build on some above water photography knowledge and explains the specifics for underwater? I am thinking about stuff like strobe positioning, rules of thumbs for exposure for different specific uw scenes/subjects and so on. I read that Martin Edge's book gets a lot of praise. Would you recommend this one for me? Thanks, Mark

That is good to know! Is this flip diopter holder already available? If so, do you have a part number / official name as I cannot find it at the moment? Besides, are there any good third party flip diopter holders for 77 threads and 67 wet lenses? I am not Derway but I did read somewhere (probably Scubaboard) a while ago that the Nauticam port for the 12/50 would only support the power zoom not the manual zoom. I don't know if this is true though.

Thanks. Great pics by the way! Have you received your 12-50 port yet? I heard somewhere that it has 77mm thread so common wet lenses cannot be attached directly. Can you attach a flip on Subsee to it? Regarding macro, I think I'll wait until there is a price announcement for the 60mm. But I assume that the port will be quite expensive as I've read the lens is going to have a lot of manual switches. Let me ask you some additional questions How often did you use the 14-45 zoomed to large end (e.g. 45) when not taking macro with it? I am still trying to assess wheather I should go for the 12-50 or 9-18 for I-don't-know-what-i'm-going-to-see dives. With my Lumix LX3 I barely zoomed and almost always used as wide angeled as I could (24mm behind a flat port). The question is for me, do I really need the 12-50 with its macro ability if I get a dedicated macro lens anyways? It would be only worth it if the mid zoom range of the 12-50 gives a benefit over the moderate wide angle of the 9-18. It would be awesome if I could rent all the equipment so I could give it a shot but there is no way around here... I'd like to avoid buying stuff now that end up being pretty useless just because I don't have any experience with underwater lense setups.

Hi! After debating with myself about the pro's and con's of various setups, I think I need some input from you guys. I decided to get a OM-D in a Nauticam housing and strobe(s). So far I shot above water with a Canon 5D Mark I but I never wanted to house it because of weight, seize and cost. My underwater camera for snapshots has been a Panasonic LX 3 in 10bar housing with no external strobe. With this setup I took 70% of all underwater pictures at 24mm FF-equivalent (widest setting) behind a standard flat port. I am after 2 or max. 3 lenses (and ports) as I want to keep the setup small, light weighted and travel friendly. I loved the 15mm Fisheye on my 5D even above water so it seems to me a no brainer to get the 8mm Panasonic Fisheye anyways and put it under the dedicated nauticam dome. I am fully aware that this lens is special and probably cannot serve as my always-on lens. So what to get next?! At first, I thought about housing the 12/50 lens. It has a dedicated macro mode and covers a mid range focal length behind the offered flat port. The downside is the cost of the port (around 800 Euro / $ 1,000) so I am a little hesistant to buy it as I don't know how useful it's going to be. It's probably not as good as a dedicated macro and it's not as wide as WA lense. So how useful is the range of 24-100 FF equivalent underwater with a macro function behind a flat port? I also could get the Olympus 9-18 with the 4" dome. This would be a moderate WA lens. Does this make sense in addition to the 8mm fisheye? Can the 9/18 behind a dome be useful as an always-on lens when you don't know what to expect to see during a dive? Additionally, Nauticam offers a flip-on wet lens holder for 9/18 dome. Would it make sense to add a subsee macro diopter for this lens? The focal length is rather limited, so would this work for some macro work? Of course, I could get the 45mm or upcoming 60mm macro besides the 8mm fisheye. But I am wondering if this two-lenses combination might be a little too extreme, especially on regular dives when you simply don't know what to expect. I don't do any special subjects underwater so I shoot everything and anywhere I get to dive, from the quarry to Komodo. Should I consider other lenses that I don't have in my radar yet? As you can see, I am a little at loss here. any input is greatly appreciated! Cheers!

I finally decided to upgrade from my Panasonic LX3 in a 10bar housing to an OM-D with the Nauticam. Anyways, I pretty much decided on the 8mm fisheye lens with the dome port but I don't really know what to get in addition to that. I could buy the Panasonic 45mm Macro with a flat port or I could order the port and gear for the 12-50 that I already got with the camera. Given the relatively high price of the 12-50 port, both alternatives are about the same price. To compliment the 8mm fisheye lense, would you prefer a dedicated macro lense or would you choose the more versatile 12-50 that has macro mode as well (and could take an addtional diopter as well)?

I am from Germany and got the housing from a german vendor... because of the very weak dollar at the moment, I don't believe that importing it from Europe is a very good option for you, though. Regarding the size comparison, take a look at this website (10bar homepage). There is a photo of the housing next to the camera. The housing is very compact. In fact, it fits the camera so tightly that it takes very precise postioning to put the camera into the housing. I belive a smaller housing would be impossible to design... I could try the camera in a nearby lake at the weekend and I am very happy with it. Next week, I am going to Malta to test it more extensively.

new batch? I just received my 10bar housing for the LX3 and it looks a little different from the pictures I have seen here and in the internet. The most noticeable difference is the existence of a dedicated shutter release button, so there is no integrated zoom and shutter button anymore (which I believe is good thing). Here some pictures: