Walt Stearns

TimG, that is one of the several varieties of juvenile flying fish we see here on blackwater dives.

Between the onset of the Covid 19 storm and all the related lockdowns in the US, my travel plans for 2020 went to zip. Fortunately, I live in South Florida with the Palm Beach County coastline as my back yard, with allowed me to still undertake some really good diving in from Goliath groupers, sharks and blackwater. Here’s two from 2020.

Outside of maybe video work, I have not seen anything that would move me from Nikon’s D850 to a mirrorless camera from Nikon, Canon or even Sony.

Most of the underwater photography I do is wide angle, with macro (primarily blackwater) as a secondary. The last model Sea & Sea strobes I worked with were the YS-250s. Yes, they were heavy, but great powerhouses. When I retired them, I went briefly with the original Retra’s before jumping to the new Inon Z-330’s. The Z-330’s are decent strobes but have a bit of lack luster when it comes wide angle lighting. When Retra finely released their new Prime and Pro model strobes, I jumped on the Prime models as their specs indicated that they had all that I actually required for wide angle work. You can read about my findings with the Retra Primes here - https://underwaterjournal.com/2020/11/16/retra-prime-underwater-strobe/ My only complaint with them is battery life for getting past a two-tank dive. Some boat trips I do off Palm Beach Florida involve a three-tank excursion. I have since then augmented them with the power packs, which up the AA battery count from 4 to 8 ensuring I have enough power for the whole day.

Until I see some real specs on Nikon’s new Z9, everything about it is purely speculative.

Shearwater is my recommendation. Does everything you need and then some, plus it features the most intuitive, user friendly menu system for setup I have ever found in a dive computer. Furthermore, it’s the most trusted dive computer in the technical diving community.

As mentioned earlier, I had received notice form Retra back on Feb 2nd that my first two prime strobes were on their way, which arrived a few days later. In addition to purchasing two directly from Retra, I had also preordered two more through Backscatter around the same time. Happy to say they too are on their way to me now with the arrival this Friday the 28th., so Retra is getting them cranked out.

I received notification from Retra Tuesday (2/11/2020) that my first two Retra Primes have been shipped complete with the DHL tracking number. DHL notified me that there was a $58.25 import duty tax on them, which I was able to pay online. As of now, they are in Miami, FL, with an expected delivery around the end of the day Thursday.

Here is a link on Nautilus Fleet’s website regarding this topic: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3g70ez3yz733d3/2019-Customs-Cameras.pdf?dl=0

Thanks for the heads up Herb. I am still waiting on notification for the two Primes strobes I purchased to come in.

Since seeing Oskar’s post this morning, I have reached out to Retra to get a few more specifics. According to Kristina at Retra UWT, “We are shipping Retra Flash PRO at the moment and the Retra Flash Prime will start shipping by the end of next week.”

Still waiting on mine since November 2018.

Congrats! Thus, begins your trip down the rabbit hole Alice.

I have always liked the shooting experience with Nikons for underwater work, and I have had plenty of experience shooting with both Nikons and Canons. The primary attraction with the D850 is the dynamic range and resolution (in that order) with the raw files. The autofocus is pretty awesome as well, although I feel the Nikon D500 is a little quicker. O.K. Adam, do I get my cookie now? Oh yes, I will be at DEMA the first three days representing a new magazine called Destinations published by the same group that Scuba Diver in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

Well, I would start with a Nikon D850 with a few choice lens for macro and wide angle, including a modified Nikonos RS R-UW 13mm that could be used with it in Nauticam housing and..... Wait a second! I already have that.