From Full Frame DSLR to a Compact and being happy. My Digital De-Evolution

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Isn't the 24-70mm range less than ideal for working with wet lenses? I thought that was an issure with rx100iii for stills.

That's what I've read a few times.
 
One of the advantages of a compact system is lens flexibility during the dive, compact and travel friendly and simple optical coupling to strobes. If any of those components are missing then the PLUS column is severely diminished. The SLR is a dodo bird.

N
 
What an incredible write-up. Thank you so much for sharing this. I've been on a shooting hiatus ever since I sold my Canon T1i rig in December. Right now I don't know WTF to do or get, but what you said in your article made me think: what am I really doing with my photos?! You're awesome and so are your photos. :wink:
 
I'll admit that I'm relatively inexperienced with UW photography. I have gone from a Canon G15 with a Sea&Sea flash to a Canon 5D Mark III with two strobes. I'm not able to spend as much time with the new setup, but I'm hoping that once I do, I am able to get those "missed shots" that I couldn't get with my G15.

I have read that the Canon 5DS fits in the same housing as the 5DM3, so it is tempting. Still waiting for the price to drop however.
 
I have been using the RX100 since it was released and I have written a lot on my blog
Sony rx100 | Search Results | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog
Sony rx100 | Search Results | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog

And recently compared two Red Sea trips one with the RX100 and the other with a micro four third

Underwater Photography and Video: 1″ Sensor Compacts vs Micro Four Thirds | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog
Underwater Photography and Video: 1″ Sensor Compacts vs Micro Four Thirds | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog

In general with the appropriate wet lenses (I covered this extensively in a specific post in essence the only way forward are inon UWL-H100 and UWL-28AD with dome) for wide angle there is not much difference other than sharpness with a micro four third or an average SLR

The issue is more for close up, the RX100 mark I and II have a minimum focus distance at full zoom that is a bit too much so you need a whole range of diopters: +3 for medium size fish portraits, +6 for smaller fish and large nudibranches you can then stack both to get macro. Unfortunately the sensor and aperture combination is such that when you use stronger lenses like the subsee 10 or inon ucl-100 there is less than 1 mm depth of field and drops further with something like the CMC. This is where the RX100 and all 1" sensor compact have a problem you would need a couple of stops of smaller apertures to be able to work.

In short of you don't go to super macro destinations all the time the RX100 mark II does just fine.
If all you do is muck diving then you either move to a micro four third with a 60mm lens or go for a smaller sensor compact such the older canon S series. The S series will share the same wet lenses but will have much more depth of field at macro. The obvious difference will come looking at wide angle shots where the lack of dynamic range of the smaller sensor will show
 
In general cameras like the Sony A7 are giving Nikon and Canon a run for their money. As mentioned in the article and by others compact systems are not on par with interchangeable lens systems when it comes to the extreme ends of the shooting spectrum. Especially if you are someone who must have the very best and look at all images at 300%.

As pointed out if you are crazy for super macro and refuse to take advantage of all the megapixels allowing you to crop a photo than again you need a interchangeable lens system*.

I think the following is fairly good macro, no cropping and still you have 20megapixels to play with.

 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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