Sure, Turkey Day has handed, individuals—it’s formally vacation season! And that may solely imply one factor: Yup, as we speak is Black Friday and it’s time to be reckless together with your spare money! However fret not about what you can purchase—we’re right here to assist: Our epic Underwater Picture and Video Vacation Present Information is again!
As traditional, now we have ready a feast of the most popular new merchandise launched during the last quarter, and added a beneficiant serving of our favourite gear and devices of the second. It’s time to get within the festive spirit and spoil your self!
1. Interchangeable-Lens Cameras
Nikon Z9
After two main firmware updates, the Z9 is a fully-formed flagship with a spec sheet matched by few different full-frame mirrorless cameras available on the market. Endowing the Z9 with a stacked CMOS sensor and disposing of the mechanical shutter solely, Nikon has created a digicam that may be a worthy successor to the much-loved D850. Shoot 20 RAW frames per second constantly (with a buffer of greater than 1,000 frames), document 8K/60p and 4K/120p in 12-bit N-RAW (from the total width of the sensor), and flash sync at as much as 1/8000s with high-speed sync (HSS) enabled. Breathtaking. $5,500 | www.nikonusa.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
The truth that it’s been so arduous to really purchase a Z9 ought to inform you how massive an impression this digicam has made. (It’s accessible now, although.) Professional shooters are getting a hybrid digicam that does all of it—higher than nearly every thing else. All that tech does come at a worth, nevertheless, so make sure you really want it.
Housing Choices
- Seacam: Devoid of a mechnical shutter, the Z9 ought to final you for a few years, so that you’ll want a housing that may go the gap, irrespective of how excessive your dive adventures. Seacam’s is simply such a housing, crafted from saltwater-proof mild metallic alloy that’s twice hardened and anodized. Configurable with S6 or N5 bulkheads for dependable electrical strobe triggering, the housing also can have an Atomos Ninja V/V+ monitor/recorder linked through HDMI—courtesy of Seacam’s devoted housing, after all. $6,400 | www.seacam.com | www.backscatter.com
- Nauticam: One other reliable house for the Z9, Nauticam’s aluminum housing provides a wide range of important controls inside straightforward attain of its built-in handles, together with levers for the Fn1/Fn2 customizable buttons and the AF-Mode button, and double thumb levers for PLAYBACK/DISP and AF-ON/REC. As you’d count on, the NA-Z9 housing is optimized to be used with Nauticam’s high-quality water-contact optics just like the WACP-1/2 and CMC-1/2. You’ll be able to hook up your exterior monitor/recorder through the M24 bulkhead, and there are M16 and M14 bulkheads for strobes, vacuum programs, and extra. $7,223 | www.nauticam.com | www.backscatter.com
Leica SL2 and SL2-S
When you suppose Leica solely makes fabulously costly rangefinder cameras wholly unsuited to underwater images, suppose once more. The German firm’s photocentric SL2 and videocentric SL2-S (which is externally just about similar) will do battle with one of the best full-frame autofocus cameras on the market. The 47MP SL2 can shoot 10fps with the mechnical shutter and DCI/UHD 4K/60p video utilizing the total sensor width, whereas the 24MP SL2-S can seize oversampled 4K/30p 10-bit 4:2:2 video with no recording limits. Each fashions function a 5.76M-dot OLED viewfinder, twin UHS-II SD card slots, and climate sealing. $5,195 (SL2-S) | www.leicacamerausa.com | $6,995 (SL2) | www.leicacamerausa.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
When you’re available in the market to drop $5–6K on a digicam, it would as properly be an indestructible metallic beast engineered by the Germans. You too can make certain that the lenses paired with the SL2 or SL2-S can be of the very highest optical high quality cash should buy. Plus, taking a Leica underwater is simply ubercool.
Housing Choices
- Seacam: Your choices are a bit extra restricted in the case of Leica housings—however when a kind of choices is a Seacam, it hardly issues. Like all housings by the Austrian firm, the SL2/SL2-S housing is constructed from twice-hardened and anodized mild metallic alloy with Seacam’s signature silver end. Electrical strobe triggering is through S6 or N5 sockets, and you’ve got the choice of including a vacuum system or an HDMI bulkhead for a monitor/recorder, in addition to varied high-quality Seacam viewfinders. $4,450 | www.seacam.com | www.backscatter.com
- Subal: One other high-end possibility in machined aluminum is Subal’s housing for the Leica SL2. Depth-rated to 80 meters (260 toes) as commonplace with an optionally available improve to 120 meters (practically 400 toes), this housing comes with all the standard Subal trimmings: key controls organized round built-in handles, strobe connection through optical ports and 5-pin electrical bulkhead, compatibility with a spread of viewfinders, and Subal’s vacuum system as commonplace. $5,000 | www.subal.com | www.backscatter.com
Canon EOS R7
Nearly 4 years after asserting their first full-frame mirrorless cameras, Canon lastly unveiled the corporate’s first two mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensors—the EOS R7 and the EOS R10. On the larger finish, the 32.5MP R7 provides picture stabilization of as much as seven stops, twin UHS-II SD card slots, and the higher-capacity battery discovered within the R5 and R6. Mixed with Canon’s DIGIC X processor—the identical one within the top-end 1D X Mark III and R3—the R7 boasts comparable topic monitoring capabilities, spectacular 15fps steady taking pictures with full AF (mechanical shutter), and oversampled 4K/30p utilizing the total sensor space. You too can bump that as much as 4K/60p utilizing the total width of the sensor however with sub-sampling as an alternative. $1,500 | www.canon.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
With an APS-C sensor that’s suspiciously just like the 32.5MP affair within the EOS 90D, the R7 appears, superficially, like a mirrorless model of that much-loved fanatic DSLR. However the R7 is a significantly extra spectacular performer, possible as a consequence of its quick picture processor. It prices a number of hundered {dollars} greater than the 90D, however it’s nonetheless a lot cheaper than the equal in full body.
Housing Choices
- Nauticam: Till everybody else catches up, your solely actual housing possibility for the R7 is a Nauticam—which isn’t any dangerous factor so long as you might have the money to spend. You do get what you pay for, and the NA-R7 provides all the great things we’ve come to count on from the Hong Kong firm: each management positioned with ergonomic precision, compatibility with Nauticam’s premium moist lenses, and built-in fiber-optic bulkheads with the choice of a handbook or TTL set off. The housing can accommodate each RF lenses and EF lenses through an adapter. $3,377 | www.nauticam.com | www.backscatter.com
Canon EOS R10
Whereas the R7 and R10 can each be thought of entry-level interchangeable-lens mirrorless cameras, the sub-$1,000 R10 is the true successor to Canon’s much-loved sequence of cheap-and-capable “Insurgent” DSLRs. The primary compromises over its massive brother, the R7, are sensor decision (24MP vs 32.5MP) and the dearth of picture stabilization. Nonetheless, with the highly effective DIGIC X picture processor on-board, the R10 can nonetheless shoot constantly at as much as 15fps with its mechanical shutter in addition to seize oversampled 4K/30p video with no crop. $980 | www.canon.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
With the R10, Canon is lastly giving its competitors—such because the Sony a6400 and the Nikon Z50—a critical run for his or her cash. This can be a “correct” entry-level mirrorless digicam that lets you shoot quick motion and produce high-quality video of wide-angle scenes.
Housing Choices
- Ikelite: The U.S. firm was first out of the gate with their housing for the R10, boasting all the standard options discovered on 200DLM housings—Dry Lock Micro port system, ABS-PC physique and clear again, and laser engraved labels—however in an particularly compact type issue. The housing ships with an Ikelite ICS-5 bulkhead supporting handbook operation with strobes from varied manufacturers, and you may also add a TTL converter for computerized strobe publicity with a appropriate Ikelite DS strobe—or two. $1,050 | www.ikelite.com | www.backscatter.com
OM System OM-1
At first look, it might look a bit just like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, however the first digicam by OM Digital Options—the corporate that took over the Olympus imaging division—provides relatively higher specs than its forebear. Packing a 20.4MP stacked CMOS sensor, the OM-1 can shoot as much as 10fps with its mechanical shutter (plus a powerful 50fps with AF/AE utilizing the digital shutter), in addition to each 4K/60p and 1080/240p video with no crop. And who doesn’t need a 5.76M-dot OLED EVF with a 120fps refresh fee and two UHS-II SD card slots thrown in? $2,200 | www.getolympus.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
We now know that the OM-1 is the final OM System digicam to have “Olympus” on the entrance, however no, that’s not the one motive to have one. The OM-1 may be very a lot the flagship Micro 4 Thirds digicam Olympus ought to have made, and as such, it’s a formidable rival to the Panasonic GH6 and cropped-sensor cameras typically.
Housing Choices
- Ikelite: A lot because it did with its E-M1 Mark III housing, Ikelite has created a competitively priced answer for taking the OM-1 underwater. Constructed across the identical Dry Lock Micro (DLM) port system, the housing could be simply outfitted for computerized flash publicity with the addition of the identical DL3 DS Link TTL Converter, which supplies you handy switching between TTL and handbook modes on the fly. $950 | www.ikelite.com | www.backscatter.com
- AOI: Depth-rated to 150 toes, this polycarbonate housing options two fiber-optic ports plus a built-in LED flash set off that works in handbook mode in addition to Olympus RC mode for TTL computerized flash publicity. You additionally get peace of thoughts within the form of built-in vacuum and moisture detection circuitry. The housing is appropriate with AOI’s straight and 90-degree LCD magnifiers, supplying you with an enormous, vivid view of your body. $1,000 | www.aoi-uw.com | www.backscatter.com
Panasonic Lumix GH6
The GH5 developed a justified status as a wonderful software for creating high-quality movies, changing into the digicam of alternative for fanatic and even skilled underwater filmmakers. So to say the GH6 was “long-awaited” (5 years, to be actual) is a significant understatement. Because it seems, the brand new flagship Micro 4 Thirds digicam hasn’t upset, with a high-resolution 25.2MP sensor and the brand new Venus picture processor upping the ante within the video division, together with the flexibility to document 5.7K/60p 10-bit 4:2:0, 4K/120p 10-bit 4:2:0 and 4K/60p 10-bit 4:2:2. The added V-Log profile, based on Panasonic, offers as much as 13+ stops of dynamic vary in post-production. $2,200 | www.panasonic.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
DPG lately put the GH6 through its paces, with reviewer Matt Sullivan revealing a digicam “able to internally recording fanastic video with stunning element and correct colours.” As such, the GH6 is certainly definitely worth the improve for GH5 filmmakers or certainly anybody critical about video. We discovered the GH6 to be a succesful stills digicam, too, however solely at low ISOs, and photographers would possibly need to look elsewhere.
Housing Choices
- Ikelite: The U.S. firm is thought for its high-quality strobes and TTL system by which all others are in contrast. Nonetheless, Ikelite has additionally been more and more aware of the wants of the “hybrid” consumer: Now you can custom-order varied housings, this one included, with a large-bore M24 port, permitting you to make use of chunky HDMI 2.0 cables to connect an exterior monitor/recorder just like the Atomos Ninja V/V+. Evidently, although, if you happen to do need computerized strobe publicity, there’s a TTL converter for that. $1,695 | www.ikelite.com | www.backscatter.com
- Nauticam: We used Nauticam’s aluminum housing to check Panasonic’s new flagship MFT digicam and weren’t shocked to seek out the NA-GH6 residing as much as the Hong Kong firm’s excessive requirements. The housing ships with an HDMI 2.0-ready M24 bulkhead for hooking up an exterior monitor/recorder, built-in handles, optical strobe connections, and the corporate’s vacuum test and leak detection system. $4,503 | www.nauticam.com | www.backscatter.com
2. Mounted-Lens Cameras
GoPro HERO11 Black
In its lately launched eleventh incarnation, everybody’s favourite motion digicam as soon as once more leads the best way with a string of unusual inner upgrades. (Luckily, aside from the brand new quantity on the aspect, there aren’t any exterior adjustments to mess together with your housing or equipment.) The headline function is a brand new 27MP sensor (up from 23MP) that’s able to capturing 5.3K/60p 10-bit video—a big step up from the 8-bit coloration of earlier fashions. $400 | www.gopro.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
The GoPro was once a cool gadget for capturing household enjoyable in and across the water. However greater than ever, it is a critical software able to capturing high-quality footage for professional-level tasks. There’s additionally an enormous ecosystem of equipment that lets you create the GoPro rig of your goals.
Housing Choices
- GoPro: We do not know why GoPro stopped calling it a “Tremendous Go well with”—that was genius!—however their “Protecting Housing and Waterproof Case” is all you really want to dive together with your HERO11 (or HERO9 or HERO10, for that matter) and begin channeling your inside Cousteau. Most significantly, if you wish to make your colours pop, movie teeny-tiny critters, or seize expansive reef scenes, you’ll want this little housing so you may add filters and moist lenses. $50 | www.gopro.com | www.backscatter.com
- Isotta: Positive, you may be like everybody else and shove your HERO11 into GoPro’s housing, however the place’s the enjoyable in that? The Italians are betting in your want to be completely different and transfer as much as some critical aluminum and no-nonsense vivid crimson paint! In addition to being depth-rated to a powerful 650 toes, Isotta’s housing options the corporate’s nifty one-handed open/shut and a detachable hood providing a transparent view of the rear LCD even in vivid situations. And don’t fear, you may nonetheless use your favourite Backscatter FLIP filter system, as a result of the port is precisely the identical measurement and form because the GoPro one. $540 | www.isotecnic.it | www.backscatter.com
SeaLife SportDiver for Smartphones
Recognized for bringing high-quality underwater images and video to the lots with their Micro cameras, SeaLife went one higher with the launch of their SportDiver housing: Now, anybody with a smartphone—i.e., everybody!—can now begin capturing their dive adventures. This light-weight polycarbonate housing talks to your cellphone through Bluetooth Low Power, permitting you to simply function SeaLife’s accompanying app (iPhone or Android) utilizing the 4 buttons on the rear together with the massive crimson shutter button. The housing is bought by itself and in addition as a bundle with tray, grip and Sea Dragon 2500 photograph/video mild. $350 (SportDiver solely) | $750 (SportDiver Professional 2500 Set) | www.sealife-cameras.com
Olympus Robust TG-6
We will’t bear in mind the final time anybody launched a fixed-lens digicam value speaking about. However possibly that’s as a result of Olympus already makes the final word compact—the TG-6! Sure, it doesn’t appear like a lot and it “solely” has a 12-megapixel sensor, however the TG-6 is a mighty little digicam that makes for an extremely succesful software for underwater photographers. Most impressively, with its distinctive Microscope Mode, it might seize mind-blowing super-macro photographs of the ocean’s tiniest critters that might be very difficult with different digicam programs. $500 | www.getolympus.com | www.backscatter.com
Who Ought to Purchase It?
When you’re simply beginning your underwater images journey—and also you’d relatively not put your valuable smartphone in a housing—the Olympus TG sequence is a no brainer. Go for the TG-6 over its predecessor, as you may entry Microscope Mode in Aperture Precedence and Program Auto, making it doable to decide on small apertures for improved depth of subject and wonderful darkish backgrounds. Wish to shoot the massive stuff? No worries. Simply slap on a high-quality attachment just like the Backscatter M52 120° wide-angle wet lens.
Housing Choices
- Olympus: The truth that the TG sequence is so nice for underwater images doesn’t appear to be a cheerful accident: Olympus clearly understood the digicam’s potential from the start, which is why they’ve been making their very own underwater housings all alongside. Depth-rated to 150 toes, the polycarbonate housing for the TG-6 options fiber-optic ports for connecting strobes, and boasts a 52mm threaded mount for moist lenses and filters. $300 | www.getolympus.com | www.backscatter.com
- Ikelite: If the TG-6 with its Microscope Mode isn’t radical sufficient for you, how about this? Olympus makes one thing known as the FCON-T02, a fisheye converter that attaches to your TG-6! Not solely that, utilizing the digicam’s zoom management, you may go from frame-filling fisheye photographs to actually “on the market” round fisheye photographs! The very best half? Ikelite makes a housing with optical grade acrylic dome specifically designed for this digicam and lens combo. The setup lets you shoot not simply fisheye, but in addition close-focus macro and even cut up pictures—on the identical dive! $550 | www.ikelite.com | www.backscatter.com
3. Lighting
Backscatter Mini Flash 2 and Optical Snoot
When you’re a macro shooter, you don’t want a big, highly effective strobe: What you need is a compact strobe specifically designed for taking pictures macro. Backscatter’s Mini Flash (MF-2) builds on the runaway recognition of the MF-1 with spectacular new options: a modeling mild with twice the facility (1,000 lumens), computerized TTL publicity for Olympus cameras, high-speed sync (HSS) for even darker backgrounds, and the flexibility to make use of a second strobe to set off the MF-2 remotely—and even regulate its energy—for inventive off-camera pictures. As well as, the MF-2 makes use of an even bigger battery that really will increase runtime and variety of flashes. To high all of it off, there’s no change in worth! $500 (MF-2 and OS-1 combo) | www.backscatter.com | $400 (MF-2) | www.backscatter.com | $150 (OS-1) | www.backscatter.com
Ikelite DS230 with Modeling Gentle
Not way back, Ikelite unveiled not one however 4 new strobe fashions: refreshed variations of the basic DS51 and DS160 (DS51 II and DS160 II) and two novel “hybrid” strobes armed with 2,500-lumen video lights (DS162 and DS230). Extra lately, they launched a brand new “commonplace” model of the DS230—saving you $200—with a 205-lumen modeling mild (as discovered on the DS51 II and DS160 II) relatively than the built-in video mild. This highly effective strobe boasts a information variety of 32, 10-stop management of strobe output, and a 110-degree strobe beam angle with included diffuser. Evidently, if you would like computerized strobe publicity, all it’s good to do is add the suitable TTL converter to your setup. $1,295 (DS230) | www.ikelite.com | www.backscatter.com
SeaLife Sea Dragon 5000+
The most recent addition to SeaLife’s Sea Dragon vary of photograph/video lights is a robust 5,000-lumen affair packing a COB LED array that delivers a coloration rendering index (CRI) of 90—which means that the sunshine high quality is similar to daylight. However the Sea Dragon 5000+ has a few different methods up its sleeves. Interact SeaLife Shade Increase and the colour temperature drops from 5000K to 3700K, giving your footage some further heat. One other cool function is the “over-drive” mode, which will increase brightness to six,000 lumens for 2 minutes earlier than routinely returning to regular full energy of 5,000 lumens. $600 | www.sealife-cameras.com
SeaLife Sea Dragon Fluoro-Twin Beam
Fluorescence images isn’t new and this isn’t a brand new mild, however there are nonetheless far too many people that haven’t tried capturing the fascinating Technicolor lightshow that outcomes when sure critters are irradiated by blue mild. The Sea Dragon Fluoro-Twin Beam is simply the sunshine you’ll must excite organisms to fluoresce in numerous colours. It ships with two barrier filters—which take away the blue mild and go away behind the sunshine emitted by the fluorescing topic—one on your masks and one on your digicam. Very quickly, you’ll be seeing the reef in an entire new mild! $600 | www.sealife-cameras.com
Keldan Video 8XR
Everybody is aware of that Swiss firm Keldan makes the planet’s most awesomely vivid video lights—this new 20,000-lumen beast being a working example. However that is certainly one of a handful of fashions with an extra superpower: The “R” within the identify means it may be managed remotely—not a easy factor to attain if you’re underwater. To make the magic occur, simply add Keldan’s RC1 distant and also you’ll be capable of management a limiteless variety of lights concurrently through two unbiased brightness channels. $2,428 | www.keldanlights.com | www.backscatter.com
4. Equipment
Backscatter FLIP10+ for GoPro
Each diver value his (or her) salt is aware of that every thing turns a soupy blue-green as you go down, and savvy GoPro filmmakers know the way to restore these valuable reds, oranges and yellows for clips with eye-popping coloration: Backscatter’s FLIP filter system. The most recent iteration is known as FLIP10+, however concern not: It would work with any GoPro, from HERO5 to HERO11. You will get a package with one or two filters, or go professional—geddit?—with the Professional Bundle, which incorporates one other very important accent: the +15 Macromate Mini close-up lens. $200 (Professional Bundle) | www.backscatter.com | $100 (Two Filter Equipment) | www.backscatter.com | $60 (One Filter Equipment) | www.backscatter.com
Inon UCL-G165 SD and UFL-G140 SD for GoPro
The GoPro is nice, however like every fixed-lens digicam, you’ll want some moist lenses if you wish to shoot something underwater. Enter the UCL-G165 SD huge close-up lens and the UFL-G140 SD semi-fisheye conversion lens, particularly designed for GoPros. With the latter, you’ll have a wonderful 140° subject of view. With the previous, you get an angle of view of round 110°, however you may rise up to 2 inches out of your topic. To make all of it work, you’ll additionally want Inon’s SD Entrance Masks, which sports activities a bayonet-type mount that makes switching between lenses simplicity itself. $70 (SD Entrance Masks) | www.inon.jp | www.backscatter.com | $220 (UCL-G165 SD) | www.inon.jp | www.backscatter.com | $380 (UFL-G140 SD) | www.inon.jp | www.backscatter.com
AOI UCL-90PRO and UCL-09PRO Shut-up Lenses
Moist lenses don’t solely belong on GoPros. With their commonplace 67mm threads, AOI’s new super-macro lenses—the UCL-90PRO and the UCL-09PRO—could be mounted to just about any housing, offering +18.5 diopters and +12.5 diopters of magnification, respectively. The lenses are depth-rated to 200 toes and have hard-anodized aluminum alloy barrels and anti-reflective coatings on all lens ingredient surfaces. The tiniest of the tiny are truthful sport now! $600 (UCL-90PRO) | www.aoi-uw.com | www.backscatter.com | $420 (UCL-09PRO) | www.aoi-uw.com | www.backscatter.com
Nauticam Compact Broad Angle Conversion Port (WACP-C)
A number of years in the past, Nauticam’s WACP-1 provided a novel solution to seize wide-angle scenes with out the sting softness related to commonplace dome ports. The catch? It put a $5K dent in your pockets. The brand new WACP-C goals to supply nearly the identical insane optical efficiency at a way more reasonably priced worth—and fewer imposing measurement and weight (therefore the “C” for compact). Like its hefty sibling, the WACP-C is a “dry” optic designed to be used with a full-frame lens of 28mm (equal) focal size, and it provides the identical angle of view as much as 130°, full zoom-through functionality, and minimal focus from the entrance ingredient. $3,283 | www.nauticam.com | www.backscatter.com
TRT-Electronics TURTLE 2 SMART
Considered one of many headline options of the brand new Backscatter Mini Flash 2 (MF-2) is high-speed sync, the flexibility of the strobe to deal with shutter speeds properly past the digicam’s most flash sync velocity. Tremendous-fast shutter speeds let you use extra open apertures—for inventive bokeh results—whereas sustaining darkish backgrounds. All you want is a flash set off like the brand new TURTLE 2 SMART, which is available in two flavors: the i-TURTLE 2 SMART for Nikon programs and the s-TURTLE 2 SMART for Sony programs. Each work in HSS mode with the MF-2—in addition to one other HSS-capable strobe, the Retra Professional X. $325 (i-TURTLE 2 SMART for Nikon) | www.trt-electronics.com | www.backscatter.com | $325 (s-TURTLE 2 SMART for Sony) | www.trt-electronics.com | www.backscatter.com
Backscatter Distant Lighting Muck Stick
With the primary model of its Mini Flash compact strobe, Backscatter aimed to make snooting straightforward and enjoyable by sliding on their matching Optical Snoot (OS-1). With the Mini Flash 2, the corporate goals to deliver “straightforward and enjoyable” to the world of off-camera lighting—you should use an on-camera MF-2 to set off an off-camera MF-2 and even regulate its energy remotely. However all this high-tech enterprise wouldn’t be doable with out one thing relatively extra low-tech: Backscatter’s Distant Lighting Muck Stick. Simply plant the sharp finish within the sand and fasten your MF-2 to the built-in 1-inch ball mount, and away you go! $50 | www.backscatter.com
When buying underwater images gear just like the merchandise talked about on this article, please help DPG by supporting our retail associate—Backscatter.com.
