Moving from 60mm macro to 30mm Macro lenses? Maybe?

kelpdiver wrote:

does your camera/housing allow for back focus?

using the gear for focus becomes less essential with BF as you can just rock the camera for the precise focus. His suggestion for the 12-40 is interesting as it gives you more versatility.

There is not a lot of 4/3 macro on anything but the 60. The 45 certainly has use, but is $$.

For the issues you're having - is it backscatter from the strobes, or visible matter? How are you aiming the strobes? At short range, you may want to aim them backwards at the camera and rely on the edge lighting.

Its been a while since I was in the water using my camera, my last few days of diving have been without a camera to try to get comfortable with my drysuit. I didn't need to add a camera to a new suit and introduce extra task loading. From what I remember the debris is a little bit of everything, My strobe was in a modified rabbit ear setup, meaning it was above the subject pointing towards the floor but more than likely the light cone was centered on the nudis instead of using the edge light.

I wonder if cutting the camera distance in half could lead to you introducing your own debris in frame as you deal with the surge.

Im not looking to cut my distance in half but maybe  move from 12" to 8" away from the nudis.

If you can dive under a pier, that is typically calmer water. In Monterey, Del Monte beach's pier is one of the best spots for a lot of nudis.

I am going to try to get out to dive next week, If conditions allow for a camera I will bring it and share some photos with you guys.