Maldives - bring macro stuff or not?

[casts_by_fly]

I haven't done a maldives liveaboard, but we've done 3 different resort islands in Ari atoll area. What I've seen is that depending on the currents, if you are doing 2-3 dives a day at lest 1 will be in an area that is using the current as an opportunity. Last trip this was the early dive at 9:00 +/-. On those dives, it was typically the more advanced divers and we'd do more drift style dives, or at least dives where you were using the current to let big stuff come through. The second dive of the morning was typically more laid back on an Thila or reef with less current and less big stuff. This was because there were a lot of less experienced divers on the island. For those dives, a macro lens would have been great. I missed not having one for sure. On those dives I ended up using my 14-42 (M 4/3 mount, 2x crop) which does fair in capturing small things, but not 'tiny' things. I also cropped a bit in post when I was at MFD.

thanks
rick

 

[Hintermann]

In the Maldives I have seen an unusual blue-black striped nudibranch that looked like a variant of Phyllidiella Rosans. You can find a lot of interesting macro critters in nooks and crannies among the coral.