ColinMunro

Thanks Blaisedouros Can't disagree with anything you say.

Hi Cerianthus. yeah, I understand that. I'm trying to see if anyone knows any advantages. Plus a detailed decsription of the disadvantages to see whether it concurs with my own views.

Ok, I like to think I already know the answers to this, but I'd like the opinion of others with experience here: what are the advantages or disadvantages of taking stills (aiming for highest quality images) from video (1080 or 720) as opposed to taking stills directly with a DSLR or compact.

I'm selling my Gates housing for the Sony Z1 (Z1E, Z1U), complete with a Fathom super-wide dome port, gates standard dome port, gates standard external monitor and flotation tubes for fathon port, pelican case for the housing and dedicated aluminium flight case for the fathon port. Anyone familiar with these housing will know that they are the professional cameraman's choice. The fathom super wide dome port is an extra-ordinary peice of optical engineering (when it was available the fathon ports alone were selling for over £2000 new) and allows a quantum leap in image quality. This set up, of gates housing, Sony Z1 and fathon dome port has been used in many blue chip natural history documentaries, such as Blue Planet. These items have been well used, but equally well cared for. I am selling because I have decided to concentrate on stills for the moment and so need to move on for a future stills camera purchase. The kit is located in Devon, UK. It can be shipped elsewhere, at cost. Any questions please contact me. I would prefer local pick up, cash on collection. If you would like it couriered, please contact me for costs. Currently on Ebay. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160678797615?ssP...984.m1558.l2649

Still for sale. If interested contact me for a price

Hi Walt How does using the teleconverter alter the image with the Tonika? (do you have any example images?). Colin

Decided to sell my Gates Z1 (or FX1) housing. This is a little used and well cared for system. Comes complete in own Pelican case. The system can be viewed at Link to site page Images of the housing and Peli case Comes with Gates set-up guide. Housing is located in Devon, UK. If interested please email me. Colin Munro colin@colinmunrophotography.com

Now also on Ebay Ebay link

With considerable reluctance I've decide I to sell my Aquatica F4 and Nikon F4. I bought this housing new a few years ago. Its have very light used - probably less than 50 dives. I'm selling it complete with an 8" dome port. The dome port is in good condition with only minor scratches on the outside. There is also a dome shade, however it snapped into a couple of pieces whilst being transported seperately. It could easily be repaired with a little epoxy glue if wanted. The housing has one 5 pin Nikonos type port. It will provide TTL flash with all Nikonos SB TTL flashes and similar. As the older guys amongst you will know the F4 was Nikons flagship for many years with many pros considering it the best film camera Nikon ever made. Coupled with the DA-20 action finder it is a terrific piece of equipment. The F4 DA-20 action finder is becoming a pretty rare find nowaday. There is still no DSLR that produces a viewfinder that compares with it. A quick look on ebay found three (Worldwide) ranging from £225 - £408 ($333 - $604). For macro photography the huge and extremely bright image is simply marvellous. I am selling this with both standard and DA-20 actionfinder. I also have a few gears I will also throw in (20mm, 55mm macro) I wasn't going to sell this but have decided I really need to reduce the number of housings and cameras I have. If interested make me an offer. I will upload pics on to my website shortly and post links. Colin http://www.colinmunrophotography.com/Image...-900pix-4CR.jpg

Hi John I agree with a lot you have said. I started scanning my slides about 10 years ago with a Kodak slide scanner. Looking back the quality was awful, but at least I still have the slides. I currently use a Minolta Dimage 5400, which I am very happy with - except that since then were bought out there are no new drivers for Vista - so I scan on an old XP machine and transfer. This is no big hassle as there are lots of programmes that don't work with Vista, this is just another to add to the list. One factor I see is that I have good images on slide from over a 20 year period. I am never going to get all those shots again. So if I can, slowly, scan them in and produce acceptable images alongside those of my current DSLR, then why not. As Pete said earlier grain can be a problem. This can be reduced significantly in PS but bear in mind that most images are reproduced at less than 1000 pixels across. If you are seeing grain artifacts in your images at this resolution either the originaL images were shot on pretty high ISO film or there is a problem with your workflow. It is true that many image libraries are no longer accepting 35mm scans (at max resolution you can always tell the diference) but it is also true that most publishers really don't care as long as the image is good enough at the required resolution. Colin

Hi Alex Pretty sure it has. I managed to get in a couple of days later and this time find a few cuttles that were perfoming. High water was that much later and this vis was about half of what it had been on the day you were there even though there was only a touch of easterly (SSE) in the wind. The link has a pic (top) from the first day when the vis was good but the cuttles just didn't want to hang around, next one down was two days later. Better behaviour but crap vis. Pic of the week If you are still in the area then Brixham breakwater is sheltered from the northerlies blowing now. Used to be good for cuttles, and fishermen are still setting traps there. The seagrass has disappeared in recent years and the amount of Sargassum has also declined so not so much for them to attach their eggs to any more but I'm sure there's probably a few around. Colin

Hi Paul Please send me a link when its up. Certainly something I'd be very interested in. Always had a interest in less less well known faces behind the development of uw photography, like De Wouters and Rebikoff. Cheers Colin

Hi Alex Its tricky as the dorsal processes are not very clear (I appreciate it was small). Possibly Okenia aspersa. Might be worth forwarding pic to Bernard Picton. Cheers Colin

Re-advertising. The housing is still for sale. Best offer over $400 (or £260) secures. Postage at buyers' cost. As stated above the S2 is very similar to the D100. It has three key advantages however. 1. in-built image interpolation produces 12 megapixel images 2. Works with conventional TTL - so all your old Nikonos flashes (or similar) will provide TTL flash - no need for new expensive DX or iTTL compatible flashes if you wish to use TTL flash metering 3. ISO 100 sensitivity - unlike the D100 which has 200 as its lowest ISO. happy to accept PayPal for overseas sales. Please email me with questions. Cheers Colin

I'm currently selling a pair of Sea & Sea AF Micro Nikkor 105mm F2.8D Focus and AF/MF gears 9also work as Nikkor ED17-35mm F2.8D Focus and AF/MF gears. Currently up on Ebay (uk) AF-MF gear Focus gear Cheers Colin

Hi Markus do you have a price in Euros?

Housing is now up on Ebay Ebay link

Hi all. I am selling a subal housing for a Fuji S2 Pro. This housing for reviewed in wetpixel a couple of years back http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/subal-fs2-h...or-fuji-s2-pro/ The housing is in good condition, relatively light use. i'll take some pics and upload soon. Selling as now surplus to requirements. Its a good cheap entry into DSLR as second hand Fuji S2s can be picked up on ebay very cheaply. For those not familiar with the S2 its very similar in spec to the Nikon D100. This is housing only - no ports. The housing is in the UK (Devon). I'm open to offers. contact me on colin@colinmunrophotography.com if you're interested.

Hi fergus I am, and aware that AIMS have being doing a lot in this area, but of course things have moved on a lot in the past five years, with equipment changing from analogue>SD>HD. So its good to get links to recent studies. Cheers Colin

Thanks Tom I will

Hi all I'm currently in the process of updating a chapter on scientific diving techniiques for an academic book on marine survey methods. It was last written 4-5 years ago so i'm aware there will be new developments in that time, many of which will have escaped me. Nowhere will that be more true than in the world of underwater imaging. Now I know that the wetpixel community contains a great diversity of expertise and experience, so I'm hoping to draw on some of that knowledge. I'm specifically looking for links or info about new survey techniques being used, new technology and equipment being adopted for scientific work (rebreathers, HUDs, communications, new diver-operated sampling devices etc), new uses of underwater imaging, especially HD systems. Links to published papers are especially useful. Thanks in advance Colin

I've just added this pic to by blog 'The worst whale pic you'll ever see', so I thought I'd add it to this growing collection also, as the grain is very obvious. from most points of view its a terrible picture. I hadn't left shore intending to shoot anything larger than a nudibranch so was totally unprepared. I found some old b&w 400 ASA in the bottom of my bag (I had planned on shooting with velvia 50). It was shot with an old Nik III, no lightmeter, and an old plastic Subawider supplementary lens for those of you old enough to remember them. The negs were then developed and duplicated on to slide film through filters to give a bluey green tint. The end product was then scanned. So massively over-processed from a very dodgy original. But two decades on I still like it. Its not going to win any awards but I like the grainy look. Far as I know the ones I shot then are still the only photographs of a humpback underwater in British coastal waters (unless anyone knows different?) I've put a bit more detail in my blog and will be uploading a few more from this series soon. For those intersted you can get there from here . If anyone knows of other whale pics from UK waters I would be interested to hear about it. Colin

Hi Are you prepared to split. I might be interested in the dome port, 105 manual focus port and extension rings Cheers Colin

You are right. Bottlenose Dolphins killing harbour porpoises has been known about for some time. It was first recorded in the Moray Firth in Scotland by Ben Wilson and Harry Ross back in 1996. Comptetion was food was considered the likley explanation at that time also. link: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/lighthouse/documents...Wilson_1996.pdf Colin

As someone who works in marine conservation - particularly collecting data to help determine appropriate boundaries for protected areas and monitor their effectiveness - I have to say that buffoons like Mr Watson do immense damage to conservation efforts. You cannot effectively police large areas of sea, let alone entire oceans. You have to built concenus and win arguments - get the fishermen on board and supportive. If you can't get that then all your grandstanding is pretty pointless. Fishermen are not stupid, and generally they know an awful lot more about the marine environment that the celebrity 'environmentalist' looking for the next photo-opportunity. You need to be able to convince them with hard facts - not self-indulgent stunts. A single act of stupidity to gain media air-time can put back negotions by years and destroy hard-won trust.