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Hi all, Just a short report before it gets too old to show and before going back on dive holidays to the PIs. Maybe interesting for current or future R7 users, I haven't read many of them, although the Canon R7 camera is clearly a success worldwide (it was out of stock in France end in the last months of 2022) Xmas 2022 and 10 days diving in Bali, 2 days in Padang Bai, 2 days in Amed 6 days in Tulamben trying my brand new rig : Canon R7 in a Nauticam NAR7 housing using the Tok10-17 for wide angle shots and a recently purchased RF100mm macro (which proved to be the ultimate weapon for supermacro) replacing an old EF100 USM lens. First impressions : - I am used to the SLR so I had to adapt to the MIL logics especially for the use of the EVF which needed some brain activity for each image in the first dives. I had customized some buttons on the housing (EVF/screen switch, AFON, eye focus, etc.) before the trip and hardly used my camera landside except for a short citybreak in Tallin and Helsinki. - The AF of the R7 is a big step for the mankind (at least for me), it's incredible, especially the AI eye focus feature which works splendidly with fish and even bright eyed crustacea like crabs or some shrimps (doesn't for nudibranch though). - probably not new for the MIL users but I think the contarsty EVF viewing brings much more comfort to macro shooters than checking the results on the screen for almost every image. I love the contrasty EVF for macro and supermacro, much easier to view than optical viewfinder. - that said, I lost the TTL functionnality that I was using with my dSLR triggerred from the builtin camera flash since no external trigger supplier can synch Canon TTL with the original Retra flashes -because of proprietary TTL-... I even had difficulties to synch them on manual mode, solved with the remote of help Nauticam USA which I would like to thank here. First 2 days in Padang Bai... nuthin' fancy, more divers than mantas at Manta Point low viz around Nusa Penida, lots of errors, skipped the 2nd day where I got cold from Aircon. Transfer to Amed diving with 2Fish, excellent customer oriented operation from Manado: I wanted to dive the Japanese wreck I hadn't dived the past 8 years, this is a less frequently proposed spot since it lies further from Amed and needs a 25 minutes car ride. Also most of the operations don't know to completely dive it (the wreck itself is not the main interest, there are lots of alternative bommies away from it. That was the spot to use the Tok10-17. Amed macro spots were clearly a step below Tulamben's, anyway I didn't expect much as I was meeting my good friend and ace dive guide Ajiex the days after. Tulamben was awakening from the tourist loss of the pandemia, most restaurants had closed, we were only few guests at Tauch Terminal and we met very few divers on Tulamben beaches, nothing to complain about ... Unfortunately the weather started to get quite grey, not so much wind or big waves though, but a kind of dull and cold rainfall that was creeping over our enthusiasm. Couldn't say that was our best dive campaign ever, I still enjoyed the 70-80minutes dives 3 times a day during which I dealt with the novel features of my R7 and witnessed the RF100 addition was absolutely great. I can say it's the best and sharpest macro lens I have ever used.

Tulamben, Bali, at 35 feet

Thought I would post a trip report for our recent trip to Bali Indonesia. With my wife doing photos and myself doing video, we have certain expectations when booking with an operator. With Mike Veitch being both, we figured that booking with his company, Www.underwatertribe.com would be a good idea. After researching others experiences, we felt comfortable with moving forward with them. And we couldn't have been more pleased. Our group was a mix of people with varying levels of dive experience/interest, as well as non divers as well. Everyone also didn't arrive or leave at the same time, so needless to say, the booking for our group was challenging. Mike,Miho, and Luca handled everything great, and the trip went off without hitch. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending their operation to anyone, and I don't give those kind of compliments very often...lol. They handled all of the transports from each location, the diving, tanks, guides, gear cleaning, hotels, boats, etc...Everything went like clockwork, even if some things were changed by our group at the last minute. Their main guide Derek is excellent, and mike isn't too shabby a spotter either. Although they did miss a few things on the list, like a mimic octopus, mating blue ring octopus, and orcas. Although, I am willing to forgive them for the last 2. ;-). A lot of the diving is shore diving, so the diving isn't easy. Between getting to the sites, setting up gear, and lifting everything, rinsing it, and also helping you into the water, with breaking water, and rocks that my feet aren't used to stepping on, they were extremely helpful in every way, and made the diving as easy as it could possibly get. For those that haven't been to Bali before, a lot of the dives in the tulamben area, and Pemeturan area are shore dives and you have to deal with the sand in your gear. It makes getting geared up less than ideal, but have the right mindset and you will be fine. Also, I don't know if my feet are extremely sensitive, but the rock to walk on hurt pretty bad at times. I had soft sole booties, but highly recommend thick soles, if you have feet that are less than tough.. Though Derek, and Mike would help with cameras and fins for those entries we were less than sure of. Whether it be unstable rocks, or the surf, they were always willing to help. My only complaint regarding the diving would be the tank fills we generally around 2700-2800 psi. Although this isn't the fault of the operator as there is company that delivers the tanks to all the operators, so this would be the same for everyone. Mike, noticed my air consumption was subpar, so he ordered a larger tank for me. Which helped quite a bit. We had 11 days of diving, and started in the Pemeturan area, staying at adi assri, which was a nice hotel, with nice rooms. We startied diving with menjangan island. It has some nice coral dives, with some moderate walls. Some nice fans for photography. But for video, it was just reef stuff, nothing overly exciting. 1 day was enough for us there. We then dove secret bay, which had the best viz, that mike had ever seen there, so I think we lucked out a bit there. It was 10 degrees colder than in menjangan. Still worth a visit although if viz is low, probably not. We then dove puri jati on the way to tulamben. In Tulamben, we really got in a grove with 6 days there. The liberty wreck dive is the most popular, which we didn't prefer, as it had too many people for us. We liked the liberty slope more, and it had great critters. We dive site, which I can't recall, it wasn't a popular site...but we drove in, saw a cow that was in labor, did the dive, saw 5 mantis shrimps with eggs, probably a dozen ornate ghost pipefish, a clown frogfish, and a warty frogfish, in which I got video of it eating an anenome fish, and some nudis....got done with the dive, and the baby calf was standing next to its mom...will never forget that dive. It was amazing. Did a bunch of night dives in tulamben, have to admit it, it wasn't as good as I had hoped. But still was productive. Didn't help that we went on full moon, and the current was pretty strong. As we ended our time in Tulamben, we journeyed to Sanur, to dive with the mantas, and molas. But on the way to Sanur we dove in Padang bai. We really liked it. And wished we had another few dives there. The water was again 8 degrees cooler than tulamben, but in 2 dives, we saw a rhinopia, nudis, zebra crab, 5 frogfish. Nice diving and good viz. We chose to dive Nusa penida for the last two days. The first day, the surge was poor and we couldn't get to the manta site or mola site, so we dove the reefs there. They are nice healthy reefs, but we were bummed about not being at the other sites. The next day we were able to get to manta point, and chose not to try for the mola, as the chances of seeing one, and taking photos without anyone in them was remote, we chose to shoot mantas, and for the last two dives of the day we could shoot with nobody in the shots..the last dive we were the only ones in the water. Had trains of up to 8 mantas, and in one video frame I counted 13....not bad. We then spent a couple days off gassing in ubud, which is a must do....although two of our group members had to visit the first aid, after getting bitten by the monkeys in monkey forest. Dont take water bottles in there if you don't want a monkey to bite you..trust me..lol. Make sure you take time away from diving to experience the culture and sites, we didn't do too much of that as we had been there before for just land sightseeing a couple years ago, didn't do diving that trip. Also. Beware that if you try to take a drone in there they might cause you problems. They claimed a new law was passed an you needed a permit for one....they wanted me to leave a $3k drone at the airport....I had to promise not to fly it...;-). My overall impressions of Bali as a dive destination are good. It doesn't has as much critter density as Lembeh or anilao, but still very strong. Mike mentioned he thought it was strange that we didn't see more nudis on our trip..the muck diving is still one of the tops in the world, and the combine with nice reefs and manta diving, it really is superb. On top of that, it excels at the topside beauty and the richness of the culture that no other destination can compete with. Everyone should dive Bali at least once In their lives. I'm sure this won't be our last time, and when we come back we will be using Underwater Tribe. Dustin

Hi all, Just joined wetpixel forum. Been interested in underwater videos since last year. This is the latest video taken from my latest trip to Padang Bai & Tulamben, Bali - Indonesia. Taken with Sony RX100 MkII in Nauticam NA-RX100II housing, subsee +10 diopter, FIT UWL07, UR/PRO CY filter and a couple of video lights. Posted the video in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2MEn2KC8Uk Comments and critics are very welcome. Thanks, Hafidz

My husband and I just returned from a dive trip to Bali and Wakatobi. It was our second time to that part of the world. We are North Americans and have quite a lot of dives in the Caribbean and the Great Lakes. We chose the Underwater Tribe to do our diving with and I can not recommend them enough!!! If you are a photographer or not they are the best. 5 star treatment of their customers. Everything is customer based!!!! We rarely find that in any kind of business in North America! They met us at the airport and helped with customs and immigration. Whisked us off to the hotel. Were on time or early for everything and one price included EVERYTHING they said it would. We felt very special and a little spoiled by the time our trip was over. We also toured our way to the diving area which is a fairly long drive from the airport. Did I mention that they are great for photographers? If you are not familiar with the creatures that live in that part of the world than The Underwater Tribe is a must for seeing and shooting these amazing animals. The muck diving has outstanding visibility, blue water and not much for silt, and the corals are wonderful too. We dove Amed, Tulamben, the Liberty Wreck and Seraya. If you are traveling to that part of the world please consider The Underwater Tribe, you won't regret it! Debbie Chase

My Wife and I booked a trip to Wakatobi for last month and it turns out you have to have an over night in Bali, so why not stay a few more. This was our 2nd trip to Wakatobi, our last trip we spent a few days in Ubud taking in the sights and falling in love with the Balinese people. But I always wondered about the diving, there must be some good diving here some where. I knew from the Martin Edge books I have about the Liberty wreck so I thought that may be a place to start. Well last winter I saw a trip review on Wetpixel for the Underwater Tribe. From the trip report and Underwater Tribe's website we determined Underwater Tribe was the way to go. We ended up staying in Amed and diving at Amed, Tulamben and Seraya. We had three days to dive three dives a day with some limited touring to and from. I have to say the way the Underwater Tribe handles everything makes everything worry free. First contact was with Miho at the airport. She then handed us off to our driver (Gede) and dive guide(Gede) who pretty much handled EVERYTHING from there on until dropping us off at the motel the night before our flight to Wakatobi. If you would like to dive here but are intimidated by whatever, these are the people for you. One of the things that made this short holiday so worry free and I am not sure I realized it until I was home is how everything is handled. The price quoted for trip included everything. breakfast and lunch everyday, rooms every night, tips for sherpas, boat and driver, tanks weights. There were no hidden cost, none. The diving. It was awesome and varied. Day 1 we dove a sloping reef at Amed out of a small boat for a day. It was a good day, we hadn't been in the water in a few months and I had to remember what all the buttons do on my camera. Day 2 we dove the Tulamben area. Two dives on the Liberty wreck and a wall dive all shore dives. Gede recommended I bring my macro but I insisted on wide angle, well I should have listened. Day 3 we dove the Seraya area, Black sand gravel beach dives. Blue water muck dives all three. Some current but manageable. Kind of amazing all the creatures that live here. My camera skills need some improvement I am afraid and will have to come back here if they improve. Frog fish, Nudibranch, Gobies, Ghost pipe fish and list goes on and on. Slide Show below, critics welcome.

I'm chilling in Changi on my way back to England. I'll eventually process my pictures, but I wanted to thank Shannon Conway and Graham Abbot (diving4images) for a great workshop in Tulamben. I have never seen so many ghost pipefishes... ... or Nauticam housings! Graham is a hard act to follow, but Megumi Kaneko was up to the task at Mimpi Menjangan. I think that I'm coming to grips with the D800: This is more than can be said for my frustrations at the (by all accounts continuous) Denpasar gridlock that left me in fear of missing my flight this afternoon!

You may have seen my 54-minute Bali DVD on the net before at 480p, but I have breathed new life into it by improving the colour correction and upscaling from 576i to 720p (by a fancy AviSynth method) for YouTube. At the size embedded size in the forum it really needs to be seen at 720p, which you need to turn on with the cog symbol at the bottom right. You can view the common and scientific names of all the marine life by turning on the captions under the CC button. [youtubehd]uCRBxtQ55_Y[/youtubehd]