Category Archives: UNDERWATER VIDEO

Travel, Underwater Photography, UNDERWATER VIDEO

Diving Malpelo Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna

July 30, 2023 interceptor121 10 Comments

It is a long time I do not write post that are a real blog but the trip to Malpelo deserved it.

I decided to take two cameras with me so that I could shoot topside without the pressure of taking the camera outside the housing.

Things to know about Malpelo

Malpelo island is a small rocky island off the coast of Colombia and is not inhabited if we exclude the thousands of birds that live on it and the few soldiers that manage the outpost.

It is situated around 500 km away from mainland and is 1.5 km long for 640 meters wide at the best. The island is volcanic in nature and despite being a Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna has no vegetation on it.

During our stay we had several thunderstorm that resulted in small waterfall from the cracks on the rocks.

There is no mobile phone coverage as you sail off the coast and the only way to get signal is to use a satellite phone.

Malpelo has two weather seasons and dive conditions change considerably:

January to April – Dry season
May to December – Wet season

The main difference in addition to the fact that it rains is the water temperature and the depth of the thermocline.

Most people go to Malpelo to see hammerheads and as the weather gets warmer the thermocline goes deeper and so do the hammerheads.

On the other hand visibility improves during the wet season so if you are into video or photo you can get 20+ meters visibility compared to 10-15 in the dry season.

I went in June and this meant schooling hammerheads in the blue and thermocline at depth. I knew about it but other guests didn’t so they were either disappointed or pushing the dive guide out into the blue to see them which frankly was not ideal.

There are only two boats that visit Malpelo regularly the MV Ferox which is what I used and the Sea Wolf. The Ferox caters to more international travellers is entirely made of steel being a former Swedish minesweeper. The Sea Wolf hull is made of aluminum it is more comfortable in terms of living area but suffers the sea conditions much more. The clientele is more local or South American. The two boats have a set number of permits and at one time there is only one boat except on arrival and departure day when you may cross the other one.

The trip starts from the Intercontinental hotel in Cali and you get to Buenaventura after a 3+ hours coach ride in extremely bendy roads with many tunnels. You embark the MV Ferox ribs directly from the touristic port of Buenaventura. Due to the level of crime in this location you stay there the absolute minimum amount of time. The destination was not flagged as safe by my travel insurance as of June 2023.

I shot a little clip of the process of getting on the boat that should give a good idea.

Getting Aboard the MV Ferox

As you can see from the clip the boat is not exactly luxurious. I was in a full size cabin so I could set up my camera inside. All other cabins except the doubles were smaller. There is no dive deck as you dive from the RIBs and the upper deck was absolutely super slippery the moment you had some rain.

Transit to Malpelo

The Ferox leaves after dinner on day 1 and then travels non stop until arrival. Conditions were pretty calm during my crossing and the boat arrived in Malpelo at night.

MV Ferox Transit to Malpelo Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna

Once arrived the boat stayed on a mooring point on the north east of the island in front of la cara del fantasma dive site and close to the military outpost.

If you are prone to sea sickness please note that the boat is only attached to a single mooring point and therefore will move with the wind and the waves. In addition the generator providing light is quite noisy and goes on non stop. My earplugs were not good enough for a quiet night, I recommend you invest in heavy duty ones for shooting.

Dive Operation

The dive operation is absolutely superb in terms of logistics and organisation.

The two RIBS travel on the deck of the boat during the crossing and are dropped in using cranes upon arrival. The scuba gear that was set up during the crossing is loaded on the RIB by the crew and stays there for the duration of the trip until unloaded and then the RIB are lifted back on board.

Tanks are filled directly on the RIB, this set up is fantastic as you only have to make it to the boat while your camera gets passed to you. Due to the surface conditions anything different is not advised.

MV Ferox Dive Operation Set up

The Diving

I was expecting absolutely barren rocks with no coral after reading several sources however this proved to be wrong. There are hard and soft corals, not as you would expect in Egypt, but plenty to have macro life which of course was not the main objective of anyone on the trip.

Fish Schools

One of the most attractive features of Malpelo in the wet season are the huge aggregations of fish. When I say huge I mean that the lens I brought for that which is what I use in Egypt for the local school was simply not wide enough.

D’Artagnan Dive Site – Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna of Malpelo Island

The three mosqueteros, pinnacles to the north of the island were the best for schools.

For the great joy of photographers and videographers.

The school of trevallies there is no doubt the biggest school I have ever seen to date and lends itself to all sorts of wall to wall shots.

My absolute favourite were the snappers though due to the coloration.

In a dive site I even saw two schools of different species in a sort of alliance.

The Giant Moray – Queen of Malpelo

Although people go to Malpelo for sharks a special mention goes to the amount of (free swimming) giant morays. The population is huge and this fish is really a pleasure to watch and capture with your camera.

El Arrecife – the check dive

There are of course other reef fish and some of the least shy hawkfish I have ever seen.

What about Sharks?

And here comes the elephant in the room. Did we see hammerheads? Yes however the largest school was circa 12 and far away in the blue.

Guides discourage using strobes or video lights when those point to the blue (why would you do that anyway?) but it is ok to beam the sharks with light when you shoot against the reef.

La Nevera is probably the best site for hammeheads due to the strategically placed cleaning stations.

La Nevera

However there are other sharks in Malpelo with warmer water.

Firstly Galapagos shars some specimen really large as well and they do come close.

Sharks tend to turn back as they hear your shutter or your strobes makes a ready sound hence the reason some of those look like turning back. I had a Canon 8-15mm with 1.4 TC for those shots so the shark are closer than they look.

Other subjects that are easier to capture are eagle rays saw up to six together. By no means a large aggregation but quite easy to track.

White tip sharks were quite common as well.

We also saw tiger sharks which is one of the reason we did not see many silky sharks (they can eat them) on the same sites. Humpback whale were seen in the distance and a whale shark came under our rib after a dive at El Monstruo.

Whale shark at Baio del Monstruo

Crew

Special mention to the dive guides of the Ferox, I was with a spanish speaking group with Richi Valens who did an awesome job. The other guide Sten is also very well known and long time guide in Malpelo having worked with previous operator departing from Panama.

The whole boat crew were very helpful and the food was light for once: not the usual fatty foods that you experience on some other liveaboards. Beers were $2 per can but a whole bucket was served free after the last dive.

The skippers of the two RIBS are just incredible for the mix of agility, seamanship, strength pulling up BCD with one hand from the tank neck.

Conservation Efforts

While there we met Camilo Abella a park ranger with a degree un biology and excellent English more info on the efforts of the rangers here

A catamaran from Biodiversity Colombia patrols the island at all times to stop ilegal fishing oh sharks. They stay on the boats in 3 months shifts to keep things as they are.

I left a donation when I was there and I hope you will do the same after reading this blog.

Few Other Considerations

I guess many people will be thinking is Malpelo for me or not? And the answer does change a lot depending on your preferences and priorities.

If you need a luxury liveaboard and mind rough surface conditions Malpelo is generally not for you. I would also add that for photographers wanting to take pictures of hammerhead sharks there are places where this is considerably easier. Cocos Island where you can sit on the bottom waiting for sharks is definitely a safer option than Malpelo where contact with the bottom is broadly not allowed, unless with a few fingers if there is ripping current. Even Galapagos despite the reputation has considerably easier diving conditions. To understand how tough it is in Malpelo you need to look at the entry and exit on the tenders. In Galapagos you will still get in and out the tender with your gear in Malpelo that is very risky business. Many dive require short crossings from one pinnacle to another with strong currents and most people are forced to dive with 15 liters tank. If your air consumption is too bad and you are on 12 liters your are told you need to change by the guides to avoid cutting it short for the group. You are also asked to go higher and dive with the bubble of the group if you are running low but this is not a great idea.

In terms of safety you need a surface marker buoy, a flashlight; a beacon to find you in case you are lost is provided. I also carried a knife and a reel which I had to use in one occasion. During the trip I realised that smaller domes are really to be preferred I had a difference of 20 bars air consumption when switching from WWL-1 with its 5.5″ dome to a larger 180mm wide angle port. In addition I got strain on my left arm for carrying my 7 kg video rig in and out the rib and in and out the cabin depite getting help. Super heavy rigs are not ideal for the rollback negative entries required on each site. Going in and waiting for the skipper to pass the camera is not a good idea either as the group could have drifted.

Would I go back? Immediately and next time in the dry season.

Full Frame, Sony A1, Underwater Photography, UNDERWATER VIDEO, Wet lenses, wide angle

Nauticam WWL-1 on Sony Full Frame what to expect

March 11, 2023 interceptor121 1 Comment

It has been almost 9 years since my first review of the Nauticam WWL-1 and five years ago I revisited this lens on micro four thirds.

Since the very first release I was told by Nauticam that the WWL-1 had been tested on Sony full frame with the 28mm f/2 lens and since then more lenses have been added to the compatibility list and the WWL-1 itself has had a redesign called WWL-1B, this lens has an integrated float collar and I do not know if there is any difference in the optics but I assume there is none.

Nauticam has since released a number of other water contact optics with dry mount and today you have a choice of at least 3 flavours for your Sony full frame camera that provide the 130 degrees diagonal field of view.

Model	Price (€)	Weight (kg)	Diameter (mm)	Depth (mm)	Max Filter size (mm)
WWL-1	1424	1.35	156	97	52
WACP-C	2930	2.24	170	145.5	72
WACP-1	4604	3.90	194	176	82

Summary Table Nauticam 0.36x Water Contact Optics

The three lenses provide the same field of view but they are different in size and mount. A useful way to see is that as the lens physical size grows you require a larger underwater optic.

The Sony E-Mount is still the only full frame format compatible with the WWL-1 in virtue of some really small and compact lenses. As you can see from the table above the WWL-1 rear element is large enough for 28mm lenses that have a maximum filter size of 52mm.

Two E-mount full frame lenses the 28/2mm prime and the 28-60mm zoom are compatible with the WWL-1.

As you move towards the WACP-C you can also use the 28-70mm lens which is one of the worst kit lenses on the market but will give you a longer tele end and finally the WACP-1 gives access to the Tamron 28-75mm and Sigma 24-70mm two lenses that have much higher quality than the smaller Sony lenses but have some restriction in terms of zoom range.

Underwater Performance Context

There are quite long discussions about which water contact optic to get for your Sony full frame once you have the 28-60mm zoom and some comparison in terms of sharpness.

In simple terms you can think of the following equation:

Underwater Performance = Land performance X Port Factor

Port Factor is always less than 1 which means a lens will never do in water as well than it does on land. Looking at my analysis of the 28-60mm corroborated by other test you know before buying any water contact lens that the lens has its own limitations and no matter how good is the port performance will only go down. However this may still be a better option compared to a standard dome port.

I do not have access (yet) to the other two water contact optics however I have a good idea of how the WWL-1 perform and how the Sony 28-60mm performs topside. If you want a refresh look at this article.

To understand how a water contact optic works you can go back all the way to the Inon UWL-100.

The idea of this lens designed for compact cameras is to demagnify the camera master lens to enlarge the field of view. You could then get an optional dome that will enable the lens to expand the underwater field of view from 100 to 131 degrees.

Back in 2015 I compared the Inon UWL-H100 with dome with the WWL-1 and concluded that the WWL-1 was giving better results when used on the same camera. It is now time to see if the WWL-1 can be used also on a full frame system.

Sony A1 WWL-1 Rig

The WWL-1 requires the flat port 45 to be used on a Sony full frame underwater housing. The lens will be attached using the same bayonet adapter that has been available for several years now.

I have removed the focus knob from the port as I found it inconvenient. The focus knob may be useful with the flat port but for the WWL-1 that is afocal is definitely not required.

Once you add the flat port the overall length is very much the same of the WACP-C but this will require an extension ring resulting in overall 30mm additional length.

Overall the rig is very similar in weight to the Canon 8-15mm with the Acrylic Dome Port 5.5″.

Pool Tests

With the rig assembled I went for a pool session with the objective of finding out what was the overall performance of the system.

What follows are a series of test shots of divers.

In general I found the lens to be sharper in the centre at f/8 but closing down to f/11 was required if there was something in the corners.

Edge Sharpness

I was intrigued by a number of discussions on edge sharpness and after several exchanges with Shane Smith he was clear that the lens needs to be stopped down to f/11 for best results.

After the session in the pool I would agree with Shane however I was curious if this was an issue of the WWL-1 or the 28-60mm lens itself.

This image quite simple has something at the edges and has focus in the centre at f/8.

You will notice that the part of the frame closer to the camera is fairly blurry.

So I did another experiment placing the slate on the edge.

The edges were quite fuzzy. I wanted to exclude this was an issue of depth of field so I focussed right on the corner.

This is the resulting image and is still soft on the edge.

I then took the same shot at f/11 with focus on centre.

The image at the edges is better. Then moved the slate to the edge.

The image improved overall regardless of the focus point indicating this is not a depth of field issue but some other defect of the lens, most likely as the lens meridional and sagittal resolution are different we have an example of astigmatism.

The sharpness improves closing down the lens regardless of where the lens is focussing consistent to the MTF charts.

Looking back at land test shots we can see something very similar.

In conclusion it is not about the WWL-1 but about the lens itself.

Comparison to Rectilinear lenses

While the WWL-1 can offer a diagonal feld of view of 130 degrees the image is distorted and the lens can only offer 107 degrees horizontally and 70 vertically. Is like saying that the horizontal field of view is similar to a 13mm rectilinear lens while the vertical is is more like 17mm. A fair comparison is probably a 14mm rectilinear lens but as the WWL-1 is a fisheye like optic a direct comparison is not entirely possible. In my opinion as the image is distorted is more appropriate to compare the WWL-1 with a fisheye with teleconverter and when I look at what the canon 8-15mm with kenko 1.4 tc can produce for me the results are very similar, I would say the Canon has in fact an edge however the field of view are not comparable except when the WWL-1 is at the widest and the canon with the tc at the maximum zoom. I would go as far as to say that the canon + TC at f/8 is as good as the WWL-1 at f/11.

Conclusion

If you have the WWL-1 from your previous rig it makes absolutely sense to get the Sony 28-60mm and flat port. This combination will give you decent (but not sensational) shots and work very well for 4K video at reduced resolution. I do not believe that this lens can resolve the full 50 or 60 megapixels of the A1 or A7R4 or A7R5 even topside.

If you are starting from scratch I would recommend to think careful at your intended use case. If you want angles wider than 130 degrees and already have the Canon 8-15mm you may want to check the kenko telecovenverter before you buy a new port as all you need is a 20mm extension ring and a zoom gear.

If you really like the field of view range of 69-130 degrees you need to consider which water contact optic you need.

I am still looking for a test WACP-C but until then my general guidance would be to consider simply if you prefer a dry or wet mount.

A dry mount has the benefit of being ready to go as you hit the water, without the need to remove bubbles between the wet lens and the port. As photographer a dry mount may be the best way forward.

If you intend to use your camera for video and insert filters between the lens and the flat port or you require the lens to be removed in water then go for the WWL-1.

Rigorous comparisons between WACP-C and WWL-1 are not yet available but the first indications are that the difference in image quality is very small therefore I would not loose my sleep there and look more at overall ergonomics.

The final consideration is should you get the WACP-1 instead? Based on my assessment of the Sony 28-60mm I would think this is not particularly wise even if this choice is very popular. Personally I always believe that the master lens needs to be good enough to justify the cost of the water optic so I would like to see how the Tamron 28-75mm performs however no test images are available so I am not in a position to conclude.

In my case having seen what the Sony 28-60mm lens can do I am not planning to invest in a WACP-C but I would be very interested in testing one.

The WWL-1 gets my approval also on full frame but it is not going to give me the same resolution than the Canon 8-15mm or the Sony 90mm macro will give. I look forward to testing some rectilinear lenses to see how those compare and this will happen in a week from now so stay tuned.

Costs to get one for your Sony full frame excluding lens:

WWL-1B €1,424
Bayonet adapter €102
N100 45 flat port €494

Total €2,020 vs WACP-C + N100 Extension Ring 30 €3,333

ambient light, Full frame, Nikkor, Sony A1, UNDERWATER VIDEO, wide angle

Nikkor UW15 on Sony Mirrorless for photography – Worth it?

February 19, 2023 interceptor121 Leave a comment

Nauticam makes some really interesting adapters and ports for Sony cameras, one of them allows you to use vintage Nikkor lenses on full frame mirrorless cameras.

I decided to source the UW15 as I am planning to use it for video after seeing the results on the movie Avatar.

The challenge of the Nikkor lenses is that they are entirely manual with aperture and focus knobs. This is generally not an issue for videography which is my intended use but I wanted to check how does this lens work for photography as many people still rave about it.

Lenses compatible with the adapter are UW 15, UW 20 and UW 85 full manual. Later autofocus lenses are not supported.

The Rig

My rig is a classic derivation from wide angle with 8″ and 12″ arm segments and my trusty (!) Sea and Sea YS-D2.

The Nikkor weights around 600 grams and gives almost zero lift so this rig was over 300 grams negative in fresh water.

Before using it you need to assemble the lens on the adapter.

You have two parts that can be removed to allow the lens to mount depending on your preference. I set the lens with the display upright so I could try and see it while shooting.

The controls are located on the left side side and bottom which is where I normally have my levers.

On the right you will see the display scales.

I have to say I was a bit nervous setting this on my A1 considering that this is a lens that is 25 years old at least but the vacuum test was fine so ready to go to the pool with the friends at Rec2Tec Bletchley.

The UW 15 Construction

The Nikkor lenses were generally rectilinear. The 15mm has a field of view equivalent to 20mm so only 94 degrees on the diagonal.

The approach was to correct the water distortion until such point when the image becomes rectilinear and eliminate other aberrations.

I have to say that the amount of chromatic aberrations is practically non existant.

Rectilinear lenses have gone out of fashion since dome ports with fisheye distortion being the preferred look for wide angle in modern underwater photography. For video though straight lines have a value.

Pool Session

Using this lens on the Sony A1 proved challenging for photography. Nailing the focus using peaking did not feel particularly precise.

Some shots may have been sharp enough on film resolution but with the 50 megapixels of the A1 even the slightest misfocus shows.

My productivity was quite low at the beginning as I was trying to get a hand of the lens.

The lens itself is by all means extremely sharp even for my camera.

I worked out that I could not do what I normally do which is to frame first and focus after as by the time I had nailed the focus things would have moved so I decided to set the focus and move forward or back until I thought I had my target in focus.

The situation started to improve.

I felt I had worked out how to use the lens so started looking for some subjects. During those sessions you see all sort of stuff as people practice their skills.

Considerations on the controls

I believe that the average underwater photographer shooting digital will find it very hard to use this lens and will end up shooting at f/8 or smaller apertures so that focussing becomes easier. The lens is especially challenging as it is not particularly wide so you do need strobe power.

I found really hard the lack of display of aperture and focus position. The lens is designed for much smaller Nikonos housing, with my A1 housing being more bulky you need to actually turn and look at the lens to check your settings so many times I did not have the right aperture of focus and it all was pretty laborious. In a video situation for wide angle this lens will work just fine with set and forget at 4K but to nail focus on a high megapixel camera is a hard task.

When you do get the focus though the image is outstanding.

I tried a selfie to check the focus scale and it worked well.

Consider that the most shots were at f/5.6 or f/8.

As you have no exif data it is impossible to remember what you shot unless you write it down on a slate.

Is it worth it?

The answer depends on your use case and if you already had the lens.

The following use cases fit the Nikkor UW 15 pretty well:

Videos of sharks or pelagic that do not come too close where ambient light is low
Photos at mid range with fairly static scenes where you want straight lines for example fashion models

The lens is definitely not easy to use for dynamic shots, situations where you need to get very close (as it does not focus very close) and where you need to continuosly adjust focus.

In terms of costs in GBP you are looking at:

£474 Nauticam Nikonos Adapter 37202

£300-500 Second hand Nikkor UW15

Obviously if you already have the lens and you are in one of the above use cases I would recommend you get an adapter and give it a go perhaps looking on the second hand market.

If instead you do not have the lens I would say not to bother unless money is no object, you are in the two use cases above and you have sufficent dexterity to control this lens.

Undewater photography has moved forward a great deal thanks to autofocus and although the Nikkor UW 15 is really sharp getting critical focus right is not easy. When it comes to video where you do not normally use autofocus for wide angle this lens is really interesting.

You can shoot at f/5.6 even f/4 subjects in the distance in ambient light with extremely clear and sharp detail at a fraction of the cost of other water contact optics. If you do not own any of the WACP or WWL I would say the UW 15 deserves some considerations but only if your command of depth of field and focus is very good otherwise it is better to pass.

Sony A1, Underwater Photography, UNDERWATER VIDEO

Moving to Full Frame without increasing bulk or at least not excessively!

February 4, 2023 interceptor121 Leave a comment

Many things have changed since Helen housed her Canon Ixus65 in a polycarbonate housing.

Compact cameras are practically extinct and those left have either a port system as the lens is too long or a shorter 24-70mm equivalent lens which is not useful.

Nauticam developed the N85 port system for Sony APSC (also small form factor) and Micro Four Thirds and since mid 2010s those are the prevaling systems for interchangeable lens system underwater.

APSC in the mirrorless Sony format and today Fuji has lacked native fisheye lenses and been plagued by slow flash sync speed and challenges of battery life.

When it comes to DSLR there is no significant size difference between APSC and full frame when you look at the body but moving into lenses there is a substantial difference with the Tokina 10-17mm being the lens of choice for a compact set up for both Nikon and Canon shooters.

Moving to full frame DSLR has meant historically larger ports bigger lenses and a lot more weight especially if you consider larger domes or the newer water contact optics all in excess of 2Kg and frequently more.

When you look at mirrorless the newer Nikon and Canon systems all use the N120 port system so there is no size difference between DSLR and Mirrorless.

In addition if you are already using N120 dome ports like I am you will soon find out that depending on your housing the weight benefit is not entirely there even for Sony camera whose housing are lighter and use the N100 port system. However housing are in general lighter up to 800 grams less.

Today if you want to have a portable ILC camera for photography you are really only looking at the Olympus/ OM Systems range.

If you have made the choice to get larger N120 ports or you have a Panasonic GH series your housing is already pretty big and moving to full frame will impact only when it comes to certain ports.

Let’s dive into this topic.

Here a first perspective of the A1 housing vs the GH5 housing.

Rear side view

Rear view note how the Sony has joystick controls

And finally top view

You can see that the A1 housing is a bit thicker a bit wider but not a great deal and the GH5 is taller.

Dimensions

340mm

× 169mm (H) × 125mm (D)

A1 Dimensions

Dimensions

331mm

× 184mm (H) × 110mm (D)

GH5 Dimensions

Looking at the weight on the scale

Difference is 320 grams the weigtht are higher than reported as there is a vacuum valve installed.

This means that as the GH5 system was already heavy due to the clam shell housing the difference in weight will come from the lenses and ports.

As I use the N120 system for wide angle already the difference in that use case would come from larger adapter weight or larger ports.

For flat ports on the N85 system there will be instead a weight disadvantage due to the different diameter but this is less than the delta between N85 and N120.

In my future posts I will show my port system for the Sony A1 that has the objective of:

Reducing bulk without totally compromising image quality
Use as much as possible ports I already had
Reduce the overall number of parts and adapters
Offer complete focal range coverage for wide angle

As you will see my macro choices will not go into a direction of reducing weight or bulk but there is a reason for that. You could argue that by using the GH5 and the N120 system I had already killed portability and that is true however unless you want to shoot native lenses on Olympus system there are no real better options to keep image quality and still be relatively light.

~~Stay tuned for the next articles that will introduce my choices for:~~

Index of articles with my choice of lenses and ports (continuosly updated):

Sony A1, Underwater Photography, UNDERWATER VIDEO

Sony FE 28-60mm f/4-f/5.6 Close up tests

January 24, 2023 interceptor121 4 Comments

The Sony 28/60mm f/4-f/5.6 is a small lens that was initially provided a kit lens for the Sony A7C a 24 megapixel low end camera.

There have been several discussion on underwater forum about the performance of water contact optics adapters to see what is best etc etc.

However I could not find any proper resolution test for this lens so I thought of giving it a go myself.

Dpreview has a decent sample gallery.

Official Test Data from Sony

You can find the lens specifications on Sony website https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/camera-lenses/sel2860/specifications

The lens is nothin special mostly plastic but it is weather sealed. It has only 7 aperture blades so this is a lens for snapping around happily topside but not exactly a top of the range device.

The construction comprises 8 elements in 7 groups. Sony publishes the MFT resolution chart for this lens on their website.

Sony has some strange nomenclature however for reference images [3] is at 28mm f/4 and [4] 28mm at f/8.

[5] and [6] are at 60mm less interesting for underwater purposes.

The red lines indicate a resolution of 10 lp/mm which is a really low value (the A1 sensor resolves up to 120 lp/mm). The blue lines indicate 30 lp/mm, The [10] indicates Sagittal and [11] meridional lines.

Read this excellent article from Nikon on MTF to understand how to read the graph.

What graphic [3] is telling us is that as we move away from the centre of the frame both sagittal and meridional lines drop in contrast.

Graph [4] shows that at f/8 the deterioration as we move towards the edge of the frame is more contained neverthless meriodional lines drop considerably.

While we cannot conclude how this lens will compare to other lenses what we see from the MFT is that the 28-60mm as tested performs better at f/8 than it does at f/4 when used at 28mm. In fairness it seems to be the same situation at 60mm but the gap between f/4 and f/8 is much less.

I found a good test here aligned to what you will read here to a good extent.

Practical Home Made Test

I sourced a cushion with a complex embroided decoration.

With the camera on a tripod a remote release and one off camera strobe I took shots at f/4 f/5.6 f/8 and f/11. I run tests with the camera poiting at the centre with field of curvature and off centre with the centre of the cushion at the edges.

Here are my findings.

Centre Performance

As anticipated the lens is not sharper in the center when wide open.

At f/5.6 the difference with f/8 is minimal

Stopping down to f/11 gives a mild deterioration.

Looking at centre I would say f/5.6 to f/8 is the way to go.

Edge Performance

Let’s see the situation at the edges.

f/4 was not better in the centre and is pretty bad at the edge.

Stopping down to f/8 sees an improvement the situation is not great though.

At f/11 the edges are ok.

So looking at edge performance I would use this lens between f/8 and f/11.

Full resolution examples here

Consideration for use underwater

Looking at the lens in isolation I would think the starting point is f/8 with one stop up or down depending on the situation. This lens is not good wide open and beyond f/11 resolution starts to drop.

Alex Mustard has taken some comparison shots between the WACP-1 and the WWL-1 and his conclusion is that the performance of the WACP-1 at f/4 is similar to the WWL-1 at f/6.3. Based on my tests I would frankly not bother shooting this lens at f/4 the quality is just not there. The starting point would be f/8 and f/11 does not deteriorate edge performance that much but of course needs more light. Wider aperture like f/5.6 may be good for blue water shots.

My opinion is that this lens will not offer amazing sharpness no matter which adapter you use and is likely to stop at 26-28 megapixel in reality if not less depending on conditions, assuming your starting point is a camera with more than 40 megapixels.

it would be interesting to compare the water contact options at the aperture of f/8 and f/11 but we can safely conclude that the 28-60mm is not going to be a champion for ambient light shots in low light because the performance wide open is not great.

If I had to invest into the best image quality I would be looking at a different master lens and a larger water contact optic such as the WACP-1.

Additional Information

I have created some stir on the fact that this lens is quite weak but it actually is.

I took the same shots with my 24-70mm GMII and I can say that there are 3 stops difference at the edges between those lenses

The 24-70 at 28mm at f/4 is the same of the 28-60mm at f/11

This is a 200% crop of the edges

Left 24-70 GM at 28mm f/4 Right 28-60mm at 28mm f/11

4K, HDR, UNDERWATER VIDEO

Few videos from the Red Sea Image Makers Trip

September 6, 2022 interceptor121 1 Comment

I only did 4 video dives during the trip and one of them was not really good. This is a short video of the other 3 plus the dolphin experience

Valeri did a much better job with his Sony camcorder in Gates housing and produced this outstanding HDR video

I think it was beneficial for him to be on the boat together as I saw his craft getting better and better during the trip.

The inside of the Thistlegorm are one of the highest quality video examples I have ever seen so well done Val!

I have been thinking if I should do this trip again in the future or switch to something different for example macro in the Philippine I am interested in hearing your views!

Uncategorized, Underwater Photography, UNDERWATER VIDEO

Environmental Conditions joy and despair of the photographer

June 25, 2022 interceptor121 Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I went diving in Swanage with BSOUP the British Society of Underwater Photographers that I have recently joined.

I was looking forward to some local diving so when I found out that they were organising a trip I managed to get on.

I drove there the night before and I was number two on the pier the next day.

It was a deceiving clear morning with perfect conditions on land.

I had two cameras one in the housing and one for land use so I took a few snaps.

Once parked on the pier I was informed by two friends that dive locally all the time that it was better to wait when the water level was a bit higher.

At that point it did look like a great day however there was a bit of wind.

I had my GH5M2 with the Panasonic 45mm macro that I acquired last year and has become my favourite macro lens.

I jumped in the water one of the first to find out the visibility was well maybe 1 meter? I could not see the LCD screen of the camera due to the suspended particles and had to use the viewfinder

One of the first things I say was this corkwing wrasse with a massive parasite near its eye.

Unfortunately I did not have a snoot or strobes suited for the challenge so I spend the first dive training myself on how to get the least amount of back scatter. Mind you when there are particles you will have backscatter not matter what you do.

Static subjects are ideal for testing so I had a go at some really simple stuff.

And again some anemone the object was to get the cleanest possible shot.

When I was reasonably happy I moved to some more interesting subject I gave up on blennies as I knew everyone would have shot some and besides my strobes were not the best for the situation and I found a cooperating cuttlefish.

I can tell you that to get this clean shot it took me quite a while but on reflection despite being very low I could not even see a hint of the surface so bad the conditions so I decided to get really close.

I wanted to emulate a profile of a person or perhaps an elephant not sure but I took a number of shots waiting for the tentacles to be in the right position and this is my best shot for the day.

I would say it is quite creepy but after all I had something decent and when I presented the shot in the club review at the sailing club it got some good feedback.

Now with that in mind let’s have a look at some shots taken in clearer water this is from Sorrento Peninsula.

You can see that clearer water improves contrast and sharpness as you would expect however as the UK shot was very close the gap is not as big.

And this is a shot from last time I was in the red sea

This is super macro so again suspended particles are not as important.

However if we look at a mid-range shot similar to the whole cuttelfish the situation is very different.

Here we are in Italy.

And finally here in the red sea.

For as much as we may love our local dive site there is a degree of adaptation but also a restriction on the variety of shots we can take.

When I was working as resident dive instructor I remember the guidelines we were passed one was really funny and said:

“if the visibility is crap you don’t say that to the guests what you say is today we are going to focus on macro” then you make sure you choose a site where there is some.

I am looking forward to my boat in the Red Sea end of July remember if you follow me on instragram there may be some voucher codes to be used for discount.

If like me you have been trying to make the most of your local dive site you deserve to get yourself in clear water where you can actually see further away than your arm. Of course we do have some good days in England sometimes 5 even 8 meters but I tale Egypt and their 25+ meters any day of the week!

A closing thought on conditions and land photography, in fact even if visibility is not an issue most times unless you have fog, overcast days, excessively clear days do not make great land pictures either so we can say we are always on a quest chasing light and conditions.

Monitoring, Panasonic GH6, Uncategorized, UNDERWATER VIDEO, videography

Panasonic GH5M2 and GH6 HDMI Lag Optimisation

March 10, 2022 interceptor121 2 Comments

Key Facts

The camera live view is one frame behind due to the image processing pipeline, faster refresh rates reduce delays
HDMI latency does not depend on cable length
Most monitors have low latency
HDMI can carry audio and video and those need to be synchronised: if one of them is slower than the other a delay is introduced to match up
Resolution plays a role but not as important as others

GH5M2 and GH6 Lag between LCD and HDMI

The camera LCD has a resolution of 960×640 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 fps that can be reduced to 30 fps
When recording the camera shows the live view on the LCD with a delay of c 1 frame from real life
If you go into the menu HDMI Recording Output and set Sound Output OFF you can see the real lag between the LCD and the HDMI
This lag is typically 2 frames from the LCD
As frame rate drops the lag increases
When the Sound is disabled the lag of the GH6 is generally better than the GH5M2

Video Tutorial with my recommended settings

Items shown in this video

1. Atomos Shinobi: https://amzn.to/35DmFhD

2. Manfrotto 290 Xtra: https://amzn.to/3sSYggF

3. Manfrotto Light video head: https://amzn.to/3vTCHPc

4. Smallrig Monitor Mount: https://amzn.to/367f22z

5. Smallrig HDMI cable: https://amzn.to/3sVwNe9

6. Panasonic GH6: https://amzn.to/3HTUZlv

7. Panasonic 10-25mm 1.7: https://amzn.to/3KtxAcn

8. Atomos Ninja V: https://amzn.to/3MEKia0

HDMI Optimisation Wrap Up

Monitoring has acceptable delays from live time 50-150ms
Audio recording introduces a delay of 65ms on the GH5M2 and 35mm on the GH6
The GH5M2 lag of 190ms in 24p is too high and should be reduced to 160ms
There is a bug in the 30p mode on the GH6 as the lag is higher than 24p this needs to be corrected

Panasonic GH6, Uncategorized, UNDERWATER VIDEO, videography

Panasonic GH6 Power Solutions

March 4, 2022 interceptor121 Leave a comment

The GH6 has the same USB power capabilities introduced in the GH5M2.

In this video I show you what I use with my cameras.

Initially with the GH5 I could only use a dummy battery kit and this will continue to work however it may have challenges with mechanical shutter or very high bitrate codecs of the GH6.

Therefore the recommended solution is a PD Power Bank

Pay attention to the checks you need to do as your power bank needs to deliver 9V 3A which usually means at least 45W better 65W

1. Dummy battery kit: https://amzn.to/3sFarxp

2. 65W PD Power Bank: https://amzn.to/35Kh6gW

3. Cheap USB Power Bank: https://amzn.to/3IVhM1u

4. USB C Cable: https://amzn.to/3tnsreQ

1. Dummy battery kit: Currently Not Available

2. 65W PD Power Bank: https://amzn.to/3KgGfih

3. Cheap USB Power Bank: https://amzn.to/3HBGDGk

4. USB C Cable: https://amzn.to/3sGBmcj

Panasonic GH6, Uncategorized, UNDERWATER VIDEO, videography

Panasonic GH6 my preliminary key observations for Underwater use

March 2, 2022 interceptor121 6 Comments

I was able to have a 1 hour hands on session with Lumix yesterday and try some of the GH6 features.

Key points

Beautifully engineered machine
1 stop dynamic range increase appears to be true
LCD design with tilt will make easier to see underwater
Records ProRes 422 HQ to CFExpress Card
Support HDMI 2.1 (playback only)
Battery same as the S5 and newer GH5M2
Battery consumption 25 to 35% higher in MP4
Significant HDMI lag if you use a recorder (1/4 of a second)
Will record to USB with a future firmware update
Will record prores raw externally with a future firmware update
No battery grip

I am going to do a longer write up once I have tested the camera for land wildife use however I have the following concerns

What is the real battery life when you record ProRes to card instead of the low quality MP4, will it last at least one dive?
~~HDMI lag is horrible just received confirmation that HDMI recording is capped at 4K resolution~~ This proved to be a red herring as the lag is decreased from the GH5 series see here https://interceptor121.com/2022/03/10/panasonic-gh5m2-and-gh6-hdmi-lag-optimisation/
The lag of the HDMI can be reduced if you use only a monitor with a few tricks and it only needs HDMI 1.4
The USB recording will be powered by the camera and the battery is already small

My recommendations for a professional grade housing would be:

Recording to card either 4K@60 or 5.7@30 depending on your use case
Optional monitor to run in 1080p to reduce lag HDMI 1.4 is sufficient
PD Power bank inside the housing so you are sure you will not run out for an entire day of shooting

For photography a classic housing would work but then who is going to get this just for photos?

Stay tuned for more information. If there is something you want to know about the camera use the comment feature here.

Things to know about Malpelo

Transit to Malpelo

Dive Operation

The Diving

Fish Schools

The Giant Moray – Queen of Malpelo

What about Sharks?

Crew

Conservation Efforts

Few Other Considerations

Underwater Performance Context

Sony A1 WWL-1 Rig

Pool Tests

Edge Sharpness

Comparison to Rectilinear lenses

Conclusion

The Rig

The UW 15 Construction

Pool Session

Considerations on the controls

Is it worth it?

Official Test Data from Sony

Practical Home Made Test

Centre Performance

Edge Performance

Consideration for use underwater

Additional Information

Key Facts

GH5M2 and GH6 Lag between LCD and HDMI

Video Tutorial with my recommended settings

HDMI Optimisation Wrap Up

Wildlife photography made easy