Thanks for the advise & very cool pics!
Hopefully not too much of a thread pirating act - if I may:
I am still struggling with making up my mind about the travelability of such a system and how that degrades as the camera gets bigger, better and costlier... and the desire for sensor size. Still teetering between selecting 1" or APSC (don't think I want to afford full frame)
You dive-travel a good amount and probably have seen a lot of camera systems ... and how well they travel...
... Ignoring sensor size, low light capability differences... pureley on packability, weight and size of the whole system ... how much does camera size and with it housing size play into the "can still carry on the whole system (if even possible) vs. definitely another full luggage piece" divide. I mean they all need tray, arms, flashes, so that's there ... how to think of the difference camera size makes to travelability / packability of the system as a whole?
If you had to do your setup over from scratch today, would you do it again based on a Sony RX100? If yes, IV, V or VA ? Why (your reasons) Or might you, if you had to start over anyway go with another camera with larger sensor? If so, why?
Wet lenses and wet filters.
So on a camera with one lens and one lens only, like i.e. your Rx 100,IV, how does that work in practise for you?
Is the red filter wet so you can take it off if you are close enough for the flashes to fully take over ... or is a red filter sort of put of the picture ... or?
Do you use a wet close up lens (diopter)?
Are you using a dome? wet?
If yes, what does it do with the Rx 100IV?
Wider angle? How much? useable for full zoom or part of? Reasons to ever take it off UW and take pics w/o (or with a wet close up lens) ... or is that sort of UW wet lens / filter changing (and storing...) really, as I suspect, entirely unpractical (especially dome) and a land based thought to best get out of my head for UW?
Hello!
I travel with a Think Tank International 3.0 rolling carry on. I travel to a lot of places that have limits for carry on, more often than not it is 7 kg or about 15.5 lbs. With my current set up and all the accessories (batteries, chargers, tools, lube, o-rings, arms, clamps, video lights and on and on), I'm at 18kgs or 39 pounds, not to mention my backpack or tote bag I also have separately for my personal items....lol. I've never had problems carrying it on. I've been asked to weigh it and I warn them it is very heavy, open it to show them what it is, and they always let me through. I think it helps to have everything in a photo specific bag - it looks serious and more fragile that way.
Know that the bag itself is probably a solid 4 to 4.5kg or 10 pounds. My limit is if I can carry it on and keep it in 1 bag. I am not comfortable checking the bag though I have friends that do such as housing and lights, etc., in a Pelican or Pelican Air case. It does get extra attention at some airports, partially because of the case it is in and is often subject to extra inspection. By and large, the place where you will notice a sizeable difference in how much space it will take is the housing. As you get a larger camera, you will be surprised how large the housing gets. Arms, clamps, strobes, etc., those are somewhat fixed.
If I were to do it again, I would still purchase the RX100 and I would still get the IV. I do like the better battery life of the IV vs the V, especially when underwater and you're SOL when the battery goes. I do like the idea of the faster focusing in theory, but have not found the IV's focusing speed to be a hindrance under water. I think it is an excellent balance between quality of photos and size as well as price. Not to mention, housings get more expensive as you go into a larger camera and when you throw interchangeable lenses into the mix, the domes and ports that you need.
As for the lenses....I have a UWL-H100 with a dome port and also have a Nauticam CMC on a flip. I know people that have lens mounts so they will actually change lenses in the middle of the dive but I am way too clumsy for that and can't be bothered. The idea of dropping something and either breaking it or losing it freaks me out. There haven't been many instances where I wanted to shoot wide and macro on the same dive anyway. You do have the option of changing mid-dive and with DSLRs or those with interchangeable lenses or non-wet lenses, you don't have that flexibility. As mentioned by another poster, there is vignetting at the wide end so I do have to zoom in a little to get rid of it, but there have been some instances where I kind of liked the vignetting from an artistic point of view. I always shoot with either the wide or the macro and not usually without any wet lens. The exception is if I am on a macro dive and I see an octopus or a cuttlefish - obviously, the CMC is too much for that so I flip it out of the way (don't need to unscrew!), take the shot, then flip the macro lens back on.
I find that the wide angle lens makes a huge difference. It allows you to get super close to the subject, especially a wide angle scene, and minimize the distance and backscatter while also being able to capture the entire scene without cutting anything off as you would without a wide angle lens. That also allows you to maximize the reach of the strobes/lighting since color falls off sooner than you realize.
I don't use a red filter or any filter when I shoot. I have 2 strobes which for the most part allows you to get away with auto white balance. When I do wide angle shots, I tend to still do manual white balance as I find the results much better.
Hopefully, that helps!