Inside Scuba Issue #48

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Andy Deitsch & Byron Conroy
November 30, 2025

Welcome to Issue #48 of Inside Scuba

Welcome to Issue #48 of Inside Scuba! This edition is packed with deep dives into professional underwater filmmaking and the newest gear reshaping how we shoot the ocean. We lead off with an exclusive interview with Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Maxwel Hohn, who discusses his transition from stills to cinematic sequences using high-end RED cameras and the critical role of technical diving in his work. We also get technical with two major reviews: Alex Mustard’s first impressions of the new Sony 100mm G Master Macro lens and a deep look at the Nauticam MFO-3 for full-frame macro shooters. Plus, catch up on the latest global dive news and our high-stakes Video Highlight on cave diving!

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What’s happening in this edition?

Deep Focus: An Exclusive Interview with Emmy-Winning Cinematographer Maxwel Hohn

Inside Scuba sat down with Maxwel Hohn (MH) to dive into his unique career path, the differences between shooting a still versus a cinematic sequence, and the critical role of technical diving in landing a big production gig.

© Tynan Callesen

Part I: The Mindset Shift from Stills to Cinema

Maxwel’s career path is a testament to blending passion with professional rigor, moving from teaching scuba in the Caribbean to building complex camera systems for global documentaries.

IS: What’s it like being a professional underwater cinematographer, working with such high-end gear?

MH: It's exciting, challenging, and incredibly rewarding. Filming with RED cinema cameras underwater requires a level of specialized skills, equipment, and training that I've had to acquire over the years. The challenge of shooting a specific species, behaviors, or ecosystems changes with each job—that's the exciting part; you never know what will happen. Ultimately though, seeing your work broadcast as part of a larger project is an incredible feeling and something I'll never get tired of. My background as a commercial diver has prepared me for anything a production can throw at me!

IS: You started with a compact camera and now film with a RED 8K V-Raptor. What is the mindset shift, and what specialized skills do you need to move to your current system?

In each issue of our newsletter, we will curate some top dive news from around the world. Links to each of the original articles are available.

Sky News Australia: “Desperate search for cave diver in South Australia ends in tragedy as police recover body of man, 65. A cave diver has died following a tragic incident at a South Australian cave system. Police have now launched a recovery operation to retrieve the body of a 65-year-old man at Tantanoola. Emergency services were called to Tank Cave near the Princes Highway at 10.30am on Sunday after reports a cave driver (SIC) had drowned, SA Police said in a statement.”

Mote Marine Lab: “New Global Study Reveals Widespread Illegal Shark Fin Trade Nearly a Decade After International Protections. Despite more than a decade of international efforts to curb the trade of threatened shark species, new research led by scientists from Florida International University and Dr. Demian Chapman, project leader and Director of the Shark and Rays Conservation Research Program at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, reveals that there is massive and sustained illegal trade of shark fins occurring from many countries worldwide.”

Dive Magazine: “Mantas and devil rays in global decline. A new study led by the Manta Trust and a network of international experts has found that manta ray and devil ray populations are in global decline, with an estimated 265,000 individuals killed every year.”

BBC: “Suspected Russian tracking device found by scuba divers. A team of litter-picking scuba divers have recovered what is believed to be a Russian tracking device off the Welsh coast. Divers from Neptune's Army of Rubbish Cleaners (NARC) discovered the object on 15 November during a routine dive in the Skomer Marine Conservation Zone, off Wooltack Point in Pembrokeshire.”

Dive Magazine: “Eyewitness speaks out about Dylan Harrison’s death. A student participating in the scuba diving training session during which 12-year-old Dylan Harrison drowned on 16 August has come forward to describe how the events leading up to her death unfolded. The Fox4 interview with Ted Sickels raises serious questions about instructor William ‘Bill’ Armstrong’s fitness to conduct a course that day, and the subsequent handling of critical evidence.”

Divernet: “Kids Sea Camp goes global. The multi-award-winning Kids Sea Camp, which has garnered numerous accolades over the past two decades for its focus on introducing children to scuba diving, is now aiming to bring its specialised holidays to a global audience. Founded by Margo Peyton, Kids Sea Camp runs trips all over the world, but the clientele predominantly come from North America. In 2026, they aim to change that, and in August they are running the first-ever World’s Sea Camp.”

Olympics.com: “How scuba diving helps Spain’s skeleton and bobsleigh teams. What do you do when you coach a skeleton and bobsleigh team in a country with no ice track? For Spain’s Ander Mirambell, the answer is clear: you dive deep, literally.”

Dive Magazine: “Egyptian liveaboard Seaphoria runs aground off Marsa Alam. he Egyptian Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS) has issued a statement following the grounding of Red Sea liveaboard Seaphoria at Daedalus Reef (also known as Abu Kizan), off Marsa Alam, on Tuesday. The 35-metre Seaphoria, which has a capacity for up to 26 divers, was carrying 21 tourists and nine crew at the time of the grounding.”

News Nation: “California diver recovers 15 bodies over two year period. A volunteer diver in California has found the bodies of 15 people after answering a mother’s plea to recover the body of her son.”

Divernet: “BC theft: Dive-store man hurt in duo’s getaway. A man and a woman have been arrested after four BCs were snatched from a Florida dive-store, and an employee who tried to foil the theft was hit by the getaway car. Justin Malik Simmons, 29, and Anne Elizabeth Izatt, 25, face charges following the robbery at a Force-E Scuba centre in Boynton Beach on 17 November.“

Dive Magazine: “Florida diver dies on Key West’s Vandenberg wreck. A Florida diver has died while exploring the USNS General Hoyt S Vandenberg, one of the Florida Keys’ most popular wreck sites, according to a statement from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The diver, who has been named as Nicholas James Strazzulla, 50, of Inverness, Florida, is reported to have lost consciousness after descending to approximately 45 metres (150ft) during the dive on 22 November 2025.”

Travel Host: “Carnival Cruise Line explains limited options for popular excursion.” While cruise lines offer many standard shore excursions, lines like Carnival have mostly stopped offering adventurous water sports and diving tours. Passengers must now research and book these independently.

Deeper Blue: “A New Study Is Looking Into How Scuba Diving Affects Mental Health. Researchers in Europe are studying the psychological effects of scuba diving on the continent’s young adults aged 18-29. The new study titled “One Health Underwater: Youth Well-Being With Diving” consists of a multilingual questionnaire across the continent that is funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ Program.”

A New Macro King? Alex Mustard on the Sony FE 100mm F2.8 Macro GM

By Alex Mustard and Matthew Sullivan

In this article from The Underwater Photography Show, Matthew picks Alex’s brain on the new Sony G Master 100mm macro. We know a lot of you have been clamoring for information on this new lens, and we finally have the details! Alex had the opportunity to put the new Sony GM 100mm macro through its paces in Lembeh, Indonesia, although it was a 'skin of the teeth' operation—the lens arrived with workshop guests, and Nauticam hurriedly sent the port to Singapore for a pickup on the way through. Despite the rush, Alex was able to shoot well over 3,000 pictures with it, using it on about a third of his dives during the trip.

Overall Impressions: The Best Macro Lens

Alex Mustard: The headline for me is simple: I really, really like the lens. I think it's the best macro lens that I've shot on Sony and I would even go as far as saying I think it's the best macro lens I've shot, period. In terms of specifications, its closest competition is the Canon RF100, which is very similar, and I'd like to shoot them back to back to truly decide which is ahead.

The main reason I'm leaning toward the Sony is…

Nauticam MFO-3 Review: The Full-Frame Solution for Underwater Macro Photography

The rise of wet lenses for macro work has altered how we approach underwater macro photography. The majority of these lenses have been designed to increase apparent magnification by reducing the minimum focus distance of your camera's lens. These have been great for super macro photography, and as a result, ever smaller subjects have become popular to shoot.

However, with the rise of full-frame mirrorless cameras replacing DSLRs, there is an area of macro photography that has been sidelined—not through choice, but through a lack of options. All the major manufacturers have produced outstanding longer focal length macro lenses: the Sony 90mm, the Canon 100mm, and the Nikon 105mm. But no manufacturer has produced a high-quality 50mm or 60mm macro lens. These shorter macro lenses allow us to get closer to our subjects than the longer options, which is great for larger macro subjects where you want to have that wider field of view, and for poor visibility conditions where the water quality is a very limiting factor. With no apparent solutions coming from the big three camera producers, Nauticam has taken it on themselves to create a solution: the Nauticam MFO-3.

The Nauticam MFO-3 demands attention because it changes how you frame subjects and how close you can get without sacrificing image quality. This review looks at the technical design of the optic, what it does optically, how it performs in the water, and how it compares to the 90- and 100-millimeter macro options that many underwater shooters know well.

Nauticam MFO-3 attached to Sony 90mm port

Our Video of the Week, "Into Earth," takes you on an intense journey with a Danish underwater photographer as he attempts to master the high-stakes world of cave diving in Mexico's spectacular inner space. Discover the beauty—and the danger—of overhead environments, and witness how expert training is the key to unlocking this mesmerizing world.

Summary

That wraps up Issue #48 of Inside Scuba! We hope you enjoyed diving deep with us, from learning about the cinematic world of Maxwel Hohn to getting the inside scoop on the best new macro gear from Sony and Nauticam. The ocean world keeps giving us incredible stories and technology, and we're excited to keep sharing them with you. Thanks, as always, for reading. If you know someone who’d love to stay up-to-date on dive news and photography tips, please pass this along!

Andy & Byron

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