casts_by_fly

What do you want to take pictures of? No sense someone recommending an ultra wide (weitwinkel) if you dive where there is no visibility. Rick

I guess it comes down to definition of big Pelagics. We see mantas in the Maldives every year. Last year we had 9 with us most of a dive. We had a couple dives with 100+ sharks. We saw mobular rays, tuna, and other cruisers. All of those are typical pelagic species. But, if I were going on a trip to focus on those types, the Maldives probably wouldnt be my first choice. The mantas are seasonal and location dependent, plus the manta diving or more cleaning sites. The sharks are 3-4m grey reef sharks which while cool are not big ocean going sharks like I think of for pelagics. You might see a handful of tuna in a two week trip, almost always in singles. No doubt the Maldives is very fishy. Reef fish schools (snappers, jacks, others) in the thousands in plenty of places. Smaller colourful reef fish uncountable. It just isnt the place I think of when someone says pelagics. Thanks, Rick

I wouldn’t call the Maldives the place for big Pelagics. That time of year the Red Sea wouldn’t be a bad choice. That isn’t the time for the sardine run at aliwal shoal(June/July). 11-14 hours from the UK will get you to the pacific and it won’t be that far for your friend. Rick

We do two morning dives and then come back to the island. Occasionally I will do an afternoon dive or snorkel but not most days. So the iPads and phone/kindle can charge during the morning when we are diving and the camera kit in the afternoon and night. So 8 batteries for the strobes and 6 for the torch works. 3 batteries plus iPads charge while we dive, 8 plus camera while we beach. Alternate that set of 3 on the torch. Heck, if I only take one battery aa charger and it takes under 3 hours to charge I can swap before dinner and have them all when I get back. That will save another charger space in my backpack . I’m liking the options here. Thanks Rick

How long did it take to charge up the batteries with those chargers? You have me intrigued since I am off to the Maldives in 3 weeks. My strobes and torches are all AA batteries (video light is still big) but we use 11 in a day of diving (2 strobes with 2 batteries each, changed between dives just in case, 3 in my wife’s torch). I have used a 4 bay intellicharger plus a 4 bay Duracell charger and changed things out after dinner and before bed. I also swap out my olympus batteries between dives so two of them a day to charge. Both the olympus and intellicharger take figure 8 plugs and I have short cords but the are still cords. We also don’t travel with laptops but have 4 Apple devices to charge so USB is my default anyway. It would be great to consolidate. Thanks Rick

Have you priced out dslr housings and ports vs mirrorless ones? Last I checked, the price difference would account for you already owning the camera. I did it looking at my d90 a couple years ago and ended up going to olympus mirrorless. If you are only talking em1 mk2 then maybe not, but worth pricing out a full setup before you decide. Rick

Dome and adapter now sold. Lens is going back to Olympus for fixing and will be sold later. Thanks Rick

As neutral as possible and balanced front to back if possible. Sometimes I just let go of the camera for a second and it stays where it is. I also take it snorkelling so neutral suits me best. Rick

I could be interested in the 8mm. When you are back lets talk. Where in the UK will you be? Thanks Rick

Hi Trevor, I have the zen wa-100 dome/port which is perfect for the 9-18 and the ep13 housing natively. I also have the adapter for the omd housings so it will work with the em5 mk1 and em1 housings should you change later. I’m also in the south so easy to meet up. PM me if you are interested. Thanks Rick

Still available and open to offers. Im heading to the US for Christmas which would make US shipping easier. Thanks Rick

Dome and adapter still available

Do you have to have the 12-40? The rest is a small set and needs a tiny dome set. I shot/shoot the 9-18 and 60 macro behind the zen 100mm and it is a small travel set up. The 8mm Panasonic needs another dome, but it is small. Rick

I’m only in surrey, so an easy meet to check it all out if you want. Send me a pm if you are interested and we can work something out. Rick

Camera capability for me. I started on a g9 canon in canon housing as it was small to carry and I didn’t know how much I would stick to it. It was good to start but I grew out of the autofocus capability quickly. It was great for macro but anything moving was a challenge. I didn’t have a light or strobe either. Then an epl1 came up used with everything- strobe, dome, wide angle lens, etc which was a great upgrade. Photo quality improved a ton. Wide angle was a big improvement with the lens and dome. Autofocus wasn’t good enough. About that time the em5 mk2 was just out so the mk1 were being cleared and I picked one up. Another big improvement. It does everything I want, though I want to go a bit wider and upgraded the lenses so I need to do some other upgrades for the dome.