Helge Suess

Hi Marli, thanks a lot. Helge ;-)=)

Hi all, I think, the slug might be kind of Cadlinella. No idea where to start looking to identify the shrimp. Both pictures were taken at Lembeh Strait in November 2012. Who can provide more details? TIA, Helge ;-)=)

Hi! I've been to Silverbanks in April 2011. Aquatic Adventures provides great service. The hyve two comfortable tender boats to follow the whales. Staff is very helpful, friendly and knows a lot about the whales. Due to rough weather conditions it wasn't possible to get proper uw-shots. The top 3 meters of water were turbid bubbles only. We saw nice surface action, more than a year before, when the water was calm. Helge ;-)=)

Hi together! Since I've been to Icenland two times already (the last time diving for 10 days) I'd like to go for the hard and serious stuff this year. Dive.IS is offering a unique trip, a 10 days expedition to yet untouched dive spots. Currently, there's nobody except me signed in for the trip. It needs at least 3, maximum 7 participants to make this unique trip happen. There's nothing in for me except that the trip happens at all. That's worth the hassle, anyway. If you're interested in the expedition, you should plan for another day or two to dive Silfra (the dive between the continents), which is definitely a must, if you're on Iceland. Pictures of my last years trip to Iceland Dive.IS: westfjord expedition details Greetings, Helge ;-)=)

Hi! UK-GERMANY offers an adapter for Olympus, Inon and Athena ports. The distance of the port is the same as the original. This is important if you want to use it for the same lenses it is recommended by the manufacturer. If you want to use it with other lenses you may need step rings anyway. Helge ;-)=)

Hi! First of all, it should be easy to get a second hand housing since the 40D is a quite popular camera. This might save you some troubles. Building your DIY housing will cost you plenty of time and some money. I know this since I finished my own housing project in October last year. I did it together with UK-GERMANY to be able to use all the standard parts they build into their housings (like buttons, wheels, zoom gear etc.). I also use their port system so I can attach a wide variety of already available ports. I could write a book on building your own housing. I wouldn't do it for a camera where several commercial housings are alredy available. Especially when you haven't got lots of experience in UW-hosung desing and UW-photography. There are lots of traps. Try to design simple. As simple as possible. Bad positioned pushbuttons only affect the handling but a badly positioned port spoils image quality. Regarding ports, I'd use Athena ports with a thread mount (like the ones they provide for Olympus Housings). The ports are of good quality and the thread mount is easy to manufacture. So, if you want to do it the hard way I can't keep you. All the warnings didn't work on me either and my housing is abolutely great. Be prepared to learn a lot. If it wasn't cheaper, at least it was instructive :-) Good luck! Helge ;-)=)

Hi! You mail email them at UK-GERMANY but use simple wording. If they don't understand something, I'll get the email for translation ;-) Helge ;-)=)

Hi! Olympus hasn't published a certain date but there should be a first model available in Q1 or Q2 2009. The policy of Olympus is to block all information until the press release date. There have been people sacked for a powerpoint slide leaking info about the E-3. I don't know if Olympus is able to provide the same AF as used in the E-3. The AF used in DSLRs needs an AF sensor that uses information split of the image. Usually this is done with a semi-transparent mirror. In the new design there is not much space left for such a mirror since the main goal was to cut down mirrors. The contrast AF in the E-520 is quite good, the E-30 is said to have an improved version. I think that mFT will continue to have contrast AF but (hopefully) much better than we know of today. At least that's what I heard when talking to Olympus representatives recently. Helge ;-)=)

Hi! Yes, it could be done. The tricky part is the glass for the dome. There are jst a couple of molds around. Nearly all of the European anufacturers use the same glass from the same distributor for their domes. A mold may cost up to 6000 USD or more. You need quite a batch to get a reasonable priced dome in the end. I am working on a proper dome for the 8mm FE for quite some time. I talked to lots of people to find somebody who has an appropriate mold on stock from another project. Then it's only a few 100 bucks for a prototype. One of hte manufacturers said that they can do it just with the mold, no expensive post-processing. I'll have a try later on this year. If it works thos will result in a compact but optimized FE-Port. What Nikon did with the UW 15mm WA was taking a topside design and fitting it an optimized front lense and dome all-in-one. That's why it is that amazingly good (and why you can't use it top-side). The term "Digital Nikonos" came to my mind several times. With this technology it could be possible. Helge ;-)=)

Hi! It's a bit more complicated. A WA dome is a lens. The water(-glass)-air border has a refracting effect. The result is a spherical virtual image of the world outside. Depending on the dome diameter (the diameter of the glass sphere, not the vertical measurement of the dome) infinity is projected into another distance. The larger the diameter the further away will be infinity. Average domes show UW-infinity around 300mm. It depends on the close focus ability of the lens if you need a diopter to be able to focus properly. The image is spherical, that means bent inward towards the corners. A WA lens is built to produce a flat image of a flat surface. This leads to problems (corner sharpness) if the DOF can't cover for the bending. A larger dome gives a less bent image. All this may be degraded further by a wrongly positioned lens. The conclusion is: The larger the dome, the better the chance for good image quality. An FE lens, in contrast, produces a flat image of a spheric surface. To an FE lens, the virtual image caused by a dome is "natural". It therefore causes far less problems. The wider DOF and usual close focus ability helps too. You may use a smaller dome without risking image quality. Helge ;-)=)

Hi! I tested the lens topside. It's a lot value for money.Let us know how it performs UW. Helge ;-)=)

HI! The original Olympus port seems a bit strange to me. It allows an angle of about 100° maximum. This would be ok for the 11-22mm lens for which they provide a flat port. It is too narrow for the 7-14mm that isn't positioned properly when using the Olympus extension ring. Nevertheless it works quite well with the 8mm FE lens. The outer diameter is < 7" as far as I remember. Haven't got one here to take an exact measure. Panasonic announced an mFT version of the 7-14mm f4 so we'll be able to compare directly. I hope there'll be an 8mm FE too. This lens is my personal favourite when shooting UW wides. Helge ;-)=)

Hi Bruce! I'm following the mFT system with great interest. I haven't had time to test the camera topside yet. There is more to come from Olympus. I'm looking forward to provide a housing for one of those. Helge ;-)=)

Yes, that was one of the design goals. The controller may be used remotely with an optical extension. There are plans to adapt it to the Nikon D300 and D700. Other cameras may follow (also Canon models). The system works in theory with any camera that has contacts for a power grip. The camera-side part of the controller mimics the wheels and buttons of such a grip. That's true. UK GERMANY is a small company. They focus on buildiung housings rather than websites :-) I will tell them to update the website and to provide basic information and pricing. It is also planned to sell controllers as OEM version for pole cameras or other remote-controller projects. Currently the controller handle is re-designed to make it much cheaper (the current design needs free-form milling which can't be called cheap but results in a great handling). The housing and controller will be sold at 3300 Euro. This includes a galileo finder and a standard flat port (for the 14-54mm or similar). I'll check for detailled pricing, also for the Olympus port adapter. Helge ;-)=)

Hi! Good news to all Uwatec Galileo users: The next release of TravelTrakCE (Windows mobile based version) is on the way. It will be available in early January and support all Galileo models. I use my Galileo since February 2007 under various (even extreme) conditions. I love it because it is absolutely great for photographers. Especially when you switch to the large display mode. Just the really important information but in large, friendly letters. Helge ;-)=)