horvendile

My first thought as well. Sure it's not super wide but still has the potential to be incredibly allround, for dives where you don't know what you will encounter - such as the famous reefs in the Red Sea. I've had fantasies about something like a 16-50 or even 14-50 f/5,6. This is close enough. Hope it will come to Nikon eventually! Also, some kind of replacement for the never released Nikon 18-50 mm 1" compact.

Thanks @Alex_Mustard and @ChrisRoss. I'm not in a financial position right now to get the Z8 underwater, but I may be in some future. Easiest for me would of course be if Sea&Sea get a housing together, but I'd probably at least investigate transitioning to Nauticam. Not sure it would be worth it but if ports can be carried over with some modification, that would be an important factor. And why not Isotta? Partly because Nauticam is easier to buy, and probably also easier to own, in Sweden.

Hi! Maybe this should be a new topic, but I'll try here. I've bought a Z8 for topside use. So far I'm not planning on taking it underwater, but I'd like the option. However, I'm in the Sea&Sea ecosystem. Say... what's happening with Sea&Sea? They got bought by someone, didn't they? I'm noticing they don't have a Z9 housing which makes the Z8 outlook bleak. On a more general Z8 note, you may have seen it already, but here is a great review of the Z9 underwater. Performance (not necessarily ergonomics) should be identical for Z8. https://theunderwaterclub.com/review-the-nikon-z9-and-nauticam-na-z9-housing/ Edit: not to anyone's great surprise I now see the review above has been posted before.

Again, thanks all. I've now got a quotation with one 160 mm arm and one 200 mm arm. I guess that's at least not very wrong.

Thanks again. Would even longer, say 2 x 200, be better or worse? I think I found a package with that. My local dealer does carry ULCS arms but not clamps. There's also Nauticam and something called Scubalamp. Do we know anything about Scubalamp?

...so, what would be a reasonable start, two 125 mm arms? Too short? I'll probably go with Nauticam arms & clamps, if there are no strong reasons to do otherwise. Edit: I plan to fasten them on the top of my Sea&Sea MDX-Z7 housing, for use with 105 mm macro.

That's probably what I meant, yeah. Ok, thanks. Again, good intel.

Haha, thanks! It seems the Backscatter MF would be a good combo for me. I'll just have to decide if I can afford that AND the SMC-1, which, according to knowledgeable people I've asked, really does seem to be suitable at Dauin. Not a must, but suitable. Edit: Question - would I want one of those flexible arms for mounting the Backscatter MF snoot combo?

Thanks @Barmaglot! Good intel. So, I understand the Backscatter MF you linked to is a standalone kit, not needing any separate strobe. Maybe a stupid question - do you usually use one or two snoots? I would have guessed two, as that's standard for strobes, but I've never used a snoot before. But with two snoots mounting on the camera housing requires some thinking, at least if I want to bring strobes also. (Also requires a respectable amount of money but one thing at a time.)

Hello again! Hijacking my own topic I continue about snoots. @hyp above suggested the Backscatter MF-. I'm not sure which one that is. But I did find this device at Backscatter (which appears to ship to Sweden): https://www.backscatter.com/10Bar-Snoot-for-YS-D1YS-D2 It has a light guide for the LED in the strobe. And it's not super expensive. Do we know anything about it? For example, whether it works in practice. I mean if it doesn't, I could almost as well take the top of a plastic bottle, paint it white and duct tape it to the strobe.

@ChrisRoss and @TimG - thanks. I'll think it over. Indeed, skipping on the super macro would save me a large chunk of money. Tell you what - this is a trip with Klas Malmberg, don't know if you know about him but he's world famous in Sweden, well, in nudibranch Sweden. I'll try and ask him, see what he says. I have been thinking about snoots too. Never used one but... how hard could it be? Thing is, I use YS-D1 and I can't seem to find many snoots for those. I may be looking in the wrong places.

Hi! I dive with Nikon Z6/Z7 in a Sea&Sea housing. I have a 105 macro (AF-S on FTZ currently, may swap for Z version of 105 macro) in a port with, I believe, 67 mm threading. My general diving skill is decent. UW photography skills: wouldn't say beginner, but far from professional. This autumn I may be heading to Dauin in the Philippines to photographs nudies and other small critters. I've already found that the 1:1 magnification of my current macro setup doesn't always cut it. I'm given to understand that quality-wise a Nauticam SMC-1 on a flip adapter would be a good idea. Questions: 1 - This should work on my Sea&Sea port, right? What worries me most is that the lens may not be at exactly the same distance from the SMC-1 as in a Nauticam port and I don't know how much this matters. 2 - Vague question, but how difficult is this setup to use? More difficult than with just the macro lens, sure. But is it an insane learning curve?

Thanks. Yeah, it turns out these are not the J version. They are also apparently unused, which is not necessarily a good thing, given all the problems I've read about. That means noone knows if this pair is good or not.

Hi! For my Nikon Z6/Z7 in Sea&Sea housing I shoot with two YS-D1 strobes. I may have the opportunity to upgrade them to YS-D2 while selling my YS-D1 for a reasonable price. I've read this article https://www.uwphotographyguide.com/sea-sea-ys-d2-ys-d1-strobe-comparison and it seems performance is identical or nearly so, and that it should be considered a user interface upgrade. I don't yet know if it's the YS-D2 or the YS-D2J. Is that easily visible on the strobes? Apart from that I'm looking for subjective opinions from people who have used both YS-D1 and YS-D2. Is it a "meh" upgrade or more significant?

Thanks, very good point about screen clarity! I think the Sea&Sea model is pretty old, at least from 2010. For macro today I think using the rear screen can have some advantages, at least for me. Namely when I find it difficult to get close myself but I can get the camera close. This may simply be a case of more training needed.