Mamel

According Nauticam chart, the 6" dome port only fit for Panny 7-14mm. I check the dimension of Panny 7-14mm is 2.76 x 3.27" almost similar (slightly larger) than Olympus 8mm fisheye (2.44 x 3.15").​ has anybody tried this configuration?

EM-5 in Nauticam housing, Pany 7-14mm with 6"dome port, Olele village 2 by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

another 12-40 shots, Nauticam EM-1 with 6" dome port Lembeh soft coral 2 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Lembeh soft coral 5 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr

Oct. 28 . - Nov. 1. 2013 , Ambon , Ambon Dive Into , 10x dives Accommodation : Hotel **** , most luxurious hotel in Ambon . Food : Mediocre, not a **** hotel. . Services : Excellent for the dive resort; not bad for the hotel - the staff trying to serve the best possible although not always successful .: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157637430165355/ 17 to 21 December , 2013, Tulamben , LDR , 11x dives Accommodation : Spacious room with A/C, 2 swimming pools and beautiful garden . Food : Breakfast is included . Lunch and dinner had to order in restaurant . Services : Excelent. my best in Tulamben http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157639269503633/ 23 to 27 December , 2013, Lembeh , Froggies Diver , dives 12x Accommodation : The rooms are large , air conditioned, equipped dispensers (for hill villas ) , fully air-conditioned , has a very beautiful garden . Food : Breakfast, lunch , dinner is included, snacks are always available after diving into 3 . The food is very tasty , varied and plentiful enough . Services : Excellent , the best value resort in Lembeh . http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157641387064445/

The 2013 was not too bad, 7 dive trips, 81 dives all to Indonesia. here, the summary : 2-5 January 2013 , Lembeh , Bastianos Dive Resort , 8x dives Accommodations : quite good facilities, room air conditioners and fans , 24 hour electricity , has an outdoor pool and well-groomed park . Food : All inclusive (breakfast, lunch and dinner, tea/coffee) are included , not bad , but not special.. Services : Just okay http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157632719656018/ March 22 to 27 , 2013, Bangka , Nomad Dive Resort , 14x dives Accommodation : Basic accomodation, 3 wooden houses , fan, power was available for about 6 hours per day. Food : All inclusive. Simple food, tasty. Services : Good , the owner ( a young couple from England ) trying so hard to make us happy http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157633134926650/ August 11 to 16 , 2013, Komodo , Mangguana LOB , 16x dives Accommodation : SMY LOB Mangguana , parking and moving in National Park. Cap. 8 divers, with 2 guides , air conditioned room , warm water, spacious living / dining room. Food : All inclusive, delicious , lot of variety and plentiful. Service : Excellent , the whole staff is very helpful . http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157636238838515/ August 16 to 19 , 2013, Amed , Hotel Uyah , 10x dives Accommodation : Pretty good , swimming pool , spacious A/C ooms , beautiful gardens , and the house reef (muck diving) 50m from our room . Food : Breakfast is included , fresh homemade bread. Lunch and dinner had to order in restaurant Service: Very good http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157636017574166/

Hi Kaj, Thanks, Yes, we'll come again next year, hopefully, "full team " and spend more on the south(east) ambon - probably saparua as well. cheers

This time we tried a new dive center which was less than 2 weeks in operation when we arrived- Dive Into Ambon( DIA ), managed by Kaj and Barb - 2 familiar names, former manager of KBR ( Kungkungan Bay Resort ) in Lembeh Strait. With the operation of DIA, at least 4 commercial DC currently operates in Ambon. The other 3 are Maluku Diver (MD), Blue Rose Diver ( BRD ) and Blue Motion; all based in Ambon Bay; while DIA is located on different side of ambon island, ie. at Bagoala bay, southeast ambon. DIA is sitting on the west wing of the hotel Aston Natsepa, 4-star hotel (? ) with white sand beach and amazing sunset. The hotel facilities is generally good, typical of big four-star hotel; beautiful, well manicured gardens, swimming pools , a playground and large meeting room. Aston Natsepa Hotel by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Unfortunately, they still struggling to satisfy the appetite of international traveller. Typically, the food is a limited selection of local dishes ( chicken and fish ) and vegetables mostly overcooked, very hot and spicy. Nothing wrong with local and spicy foods but I will expect more variety and better quality. This problem is fully understood by DIA. They provide separate or additional menu for the divers or we can order selection of a la carte menu with a price of about Rp. 100,000 . We tried the a la carte menu. Oxtail soup and black pepper beef is okay but a bit tough. The Chicken Cordon Bleu was slighly overcooked and only comes with 11 pieces of thin french fries. The hotel staff is generaly very friendly and try the best to accomodate gues request; though not always succesfull due to lack of competency. Kaj told us, Aston group will not longer manage the hotel at the end of November; Instead, new GM from from Swiss will be managing the hotel. He believe, the new management will bring significant improvement. DIA is a first class operation dive center with its new spacious building facing to the bay. The camera room is excelent, all UW photographer will love it. The compressor room is very clean and well designed including for Nitrox. I will put the DC on the same league as KBR and other top class DC in Indonesia. Nothing better than sitting in the DC with cold bintang or hot coffee; fish books and beautiful Bagoala bay DIA 2 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Diving The location of DC at Bagola bay provide direct access to Haruku strait between the island of Ambon and Haruku, known as dive sites with high visibility, healthy coral reef and pelagic fish - great for WA though still lot of opportunity for macro. And what about access to the bay of Ambon ? No doubt, the ambon bay with the twillight zone is still the main attraction for the divers to visit Ambon . Do not worry, DIA built a jetty at Ambon bay side, which can be reached 15 minute drive from the hotel. Their day boat is spacious, adequate for 10 people plus 3 diver dive guide ; equipped with a toilet and a canopy. Apparently, it is similar boats used by Tasik Ria Diver in Manado . At Bagoala bay, they allocate two boats, one large boat similar side as the boat for ambon bay ( capacity 8-10 diver ) parked right in front of the dive center and another smaller parking on the right side of dive center . Usually they set a schedule 1 day ( 3 dives ) Muck diving in Ambon bay and the next day in the southeast or east . However, this schedule may be changed if desired by the guests. When we were there, the famous macro underwaterphotographer, the guru of compact camera - Brian Mayes and his lovely wife Jill were also there. They prefer the east side of the island of Ambon where much cleaner than the Ambon bay. Amost every day, they were diving there with the smaller boat . With only 3 days of diving, we had the opportunity 2 days diving in Ambon bay and 1 day on east side ; this was to my initial expectations, though I will be happy to reverse as well. Muck diving in Ambon bay, especially in the twilight zone ( Laha ) is not for everyone . Do not expect to see a healthy coral reef. You'll find sandy seabed, rubbles and brown silt (could be due to the floods that hit Ambon some time ago ) and the rubbish strewn everywhere. Howvere, these are the real treasure laid for. The rubbish and sediment sediment provides optimal cover for exotic wildlife. The rubbles and rock crevices are the comfy condo for the amazing crittres. Little crab by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Harlequin shrimp 1 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Goshpipefish 4 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Coleman shrimp by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Unfortunately, the superstar - Ambon frogfish ( Histiophryne psychedelica ) still not interested to welcome us. For more than 3 years do not show up . Hopefully this extraordinary fish was not extinct ; rather just hide somewhere or sabbatical to then appear again when we visit there on another occasion . Anyway, we were not disappointed at all. There were many other critters we encountered in two productive days (7 dives), including this purple Rhinopeas . Rhinopea 3 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr Getting bored with muck diving? Or sick with these Deco Tuna by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr You could easily choose to dive in a very healthy coral reefs, both hard corals and soft corals, crystal clear water, bigger fish and pelagics. Pity, we only had one day ( 3x diving ) in the eastern part of the island of Ambon, at dive sites Batu Lompa / loncat (literaly mean jumping rock). Ambon seascape 6 by Wisnu Purwanto Family, on Flickr At this location we could see the group bumphead parrot fish in large numbers as well as a shark swimming in the distance . Unfortunately, the fish are still very shy so they move away when we approached. What is also very interesting, in this location there is a underwater volcano. The small crevice on the sandy seabed at a depth of 24 meters discharge very hot water . We placed a dozen eggs and covered with hot sand. About 5 minutes, the egg was well cooked and ready to eat ... so good , much better than boiled in the usual way. Basically, it is a pressure cooker. I proposed to DIA to try with tuna or prawn, marinated without salt and wrapped in aluminum foil. I imagine the delicious tuna for our lunch while enjoying the beauty of the Batu Lompa scenery. Perfect. Unfortunately, the next day we had to go back to Jakarta . A good reason to visit again. More pictures of our October Ambon trip can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisnupurwanto/sets/72157637430165355/

you can use 1 port - the 4" semi dome port for 3 lenses, ie: 12-50mm, 60mm and 9-18mm. For 12-50m, add the flip diopter and wet lens, so you can use for macro at 50mm and reasonably wide at 12mm.

dove lembeh early January and end of April 2013 - no rhino

Thomas, I think if you more on macro, the 12-50mm macro port will give you more advantage. I can't say how convenient for you, but I have no problem to rely on the Fn button. Most of the time at 50mm + wet lens and if needed you can switch to 12mm easily and flip the wet lens. However, if I really want into macro - such as in Lembeh - I will use my 60mm. If you have the OMD with 12-50mm and diopter at your hand, just assign Fn button and imagine you are diving in your fav. site and try to shoot any macro object at various sizes you expect you will see at the site. You will get the felling.

You need to assign/set the Fn1 or Fn2 as UW macro/WA toggle through the custom menu-Button/dial-button function. You may not like the preset setting on this mode. I normally set to M, turn to other mode and return to M.

If you want to stick to one port only, then go with 4" dome port + flip diopter where you can use for 12-50mm, 60mm and 9-18mm. for 12-50mm, you don't really need zoom gear - just assign Fn to switch to UW macro mode (50mm, and you need diopter) or WA mode (12mm). Set or return to M mode for more control. Indeed, the dome port will return/reduce the magnification 25%, but still not very difficult to shoot pigmy sea horse with this arrangement. These 3 lens will give you more flexibility with one port. If you don't know what you will see at site, use 12-50mm, then if you wish you can repeat with the more suitable lens - 60mm or 9-18mm.

Raja Ampat, Komodo

I'm in the same think. The 12-50mm dimesion dia. 57 x 83mm and the 60mm is 56 x 82mm. So, why nauticam does not make a simple port for both lens, no need zoom gear but M67mm thread. With the capability to select 12mm and 50mm within the camera; no need zoom gear. but M67 thread is crucial for macro I don't understand what the difficulity to build this port? It should be similar as macro port 56 but slighlylonger,

I have the XZ-1 + PT-050 with Inon D2000, my daughter use it, no problem for (s)TTL even M mode; but she always use manual for much better control. I also have YS-01, ufortunately the (S)TTL is not compatible with XZ-01, but work fine in manual - so, if you're in budget, get the YS-02; same power as YS-01 but no (S)TTL and no focus lamp.