Sony Diving Raja Ampat, Indonesia with the RX100

mattia

Regular
My girlfriend and I got back from our 3 week vacation in Indonesia almost a month ago, and I'm slowly getting around to sorting through the photographs. Used the RX100 for all the underwater stuff, and the A7r for everything 'topside'.

We spent one week in Raja Ampat, in Papua, eastern Indonesia. Fantastic, breathtaking dive destination, but expensive to reach and to dive. But worth every penny! We dove for 1 week, 19 dives.

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Reefscape
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

Underwater photography is really quite a big challenge for me, because it combines requirements for situational awareness (diving well and controlling bouyancy/position in the water), flash use (at depth or for smaller stuff, available light makes things difficult) and positioning, and use of so-called 'wet lenses', which is what makes the RX100 a really great, relatively affordable diving system: everything from extreme wideangle to macro during a single dive, in a package that's travel friendly and 'affordable'. This was the second ever trip with a strobe, with new dive gear (finally bought my own), and occasional current diving, and the first real dives in almost a year, so the learning curve was pretty steep.

My setup:
- Original Sony RX100
- Acquapazza aluminum housing
- INON wet lenses (macro and fisheye)
- Single INON strobe

The fisheye (UFL-165) is the weak link for me, due to vingetting a soft corners if I forget to stop down quite a lot, and I have now bought what should be a better lens (UWL-100 with dome), but it is a lot heavier. Which means fiddling with floating devices to make sure the camera is relatively 'neutral' underwater, making it easier to hold and use. Underwater photography is a whole different ballgame! Overall, the camera itself is a fraction of the cost of the system, and that's buying the wet lenses second hand (housing 800, strobe 400, wet lenses 300 total), but compared to getting a housing, ports, etc. for my a7R or even E-M1, it's downright affordable overall, and travels much lighter.

A few highlights:

Reef:
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Reef Life
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Citrus Reefscape
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

Big Stuff:
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A trio of Mantas
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Flyby
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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How to sneak up on a scuba diver...
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

Medium stuff:
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Octo #1
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Peacock Mantis Shrimp #2
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Squid
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

Small stuff:
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Underwater floral arrangements
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Juvenile Clownfish Hideaway
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Nudibranch
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

Tiny stuff:
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Pygmy Seahorse
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Skeleton shrimp
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr

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Teensy Tiny Nudibranch
by Mattia Valente, on Flickr


Link to full album: Raja Ampat - 2016

Comments and critique welcome!
 
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Great results! I will check out the rest when I get home from work, but the underwater stuff you posted here is really good. So much color and diversity!
 
Thanks for the kind words, guys! Raja Ampat really is a dream destination for divers, photographers and otherwise! And thanks for the front page feature - have edited the post slightly so there's a picture to start off with; can't have a dull and excessively wordy front page ;-)
 
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