motionsync

Forum username: motionsync
Real name: Lambis
Posts: 582
Active years: 2005–2011
Primary forums: Photography Gear and Technique, Photo/Video Showcase, General Chat
Specialization: Nexus housings, Nikon fisheye lenses, Magic Filter ambient light photography

Community Role

motionsync (Lambis) was an enthusiastic and prolific Wetpixel community member based in Sweden with roots in Greece. He joined in March 2005 and was highly active through 2008, with occasional posts through 2011. Lambis was one of the community’s most visible Nexus housing users and an early adopter of Alex Mustard’s Magic Filter for ambient light underwater photography.

Lambis brought an infectious enthusiasm to the forums, frequently sharing detailed trip reports and gear impressions with a candid, conversational style. He regularly dove in the Mediterranean (Greece, particularly Crete and the Libyan Sea coast) and the Red Sea (Egypt — Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh), documenting his experiences and actively seeking advice from more experienced community members. His willingness to share both successes and failures made his threads valuable learning resources for other members transitioning from compact cameras to DSLRs.

He was notably mentioned in a Wetpixel article about Ikelite housings being used in Hollywood, as part of a forum discussion thread (^[1]).

Notable Contributions

• Nexus D70s housing review: Lambis provided one of the most detailed community reviews of the Nexus D70s housing, documenting his first impressions and extended use over multiple dive trips. He praised the housing’s compact size, smooth button operation, and excellent viewfinder system (which featured interchangeable magnifier lenses for wide-angle and macro work). He noted the housing’s negative buoyancy with a small dome port as a practical issue (^[2]).

• Magic Filter advocacy and testing: Lambis was among the first community members to extensively test Alex Mustard’s Magic Filter in real-world conditions. He used the filter extensively with his Nikon 16mm fisheye in Greece and Egypt, providing feedback on color accuracy and demonstrating the filter’s ability to produce natural skin tones at depth. He noted that colors were “exactly like it was in the reality” in his test shots (^[3], ^[4]).

• Nikon 16mm fisheye and dome port compatibility: Lambis started a technically significant discussion about the Nikon 16mm fisheye lens struggling to focus at close range behind the Nexus FP120-7 dome port (113mm diameter). Community member Julian (Jolly) provided a detailed optical analysis explaining that the small dome curvature radius caused significant close-focus loss with the 16mm’s longer minimum focus distance (0.25m vs 0.15m for the Sigma 15mm). This thread contributed to the community’s understanding of dome port optics and lens compatibility, topics central to close-focus wide-angle photography (^[5]).

• Autofocus troubleshooting in low visibility: Lambis documented AF-S autofocus failures with the Nikon 16mm in low-visibility conditions at the Blue Hole in Dahab. Community members including James Wiseman suggested switching to manual focus after pre-focusing at a set distance, contributing practical technique advice for challenging conditions (^[6]).

• Community engagement: Lambis was a popular community personality who started 99 threads — an unusually high number relative to his post count — covering topics from gear selection to photo critique to dive trip reports. His “NWS: Something for your eyes” thread, featuring Jessica Alba on the cover of Scuba Diving Magazine holding an Ikelite housing, generated 46 replies and became one of the most popular social threads of 2005 (^[7]).

Gear History

• 2005: Nikon D70s in Nexus housing, Nexus FP120-7 glass dome port (113mm), Nikon 10.5mm DX fisheye, Nikon 16mm fisheye
• 2005–2008: Added Magic Filter, explored Sigma 15mm fisheye compatibility, used Athena OPD-170 dome port options
• Lenses used: Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G DX fisheye, Nikon 16mm f/2.8D fisheye, Sigma 15mm f/2.8 diagonal fisheye (considered)
• Diving locations: Crete (Greece), Libyan Sea, Dahab (Egypt), Red Sea, Sweden

Activity Profile

• First post: March 11, 2005
• Last post: May 16, 2011
• Threads started: 99
• Total posts: 582
• Peak activity: 2005–2006, during his transition from compact to DSLR
• Forum focus: Photography Gear and Technique (primary), with regular posts in Photo/Video Showcase and General Chat
• Article mentions: 1