Seafrogs Waterproof Housing Lens Compatibility

[MBTS]

Hello all, I am hoping someone may be able to help me out here. I have been looking all over to find out if the Sony E 30mm f3.5 Macro lens is compatible with the standard port on the Seafrogs Waterproof Underwater Housing for Sony A6000 A6300 A6500, and am getting conflicting answers. The housing I have is the old version (purple plastic hue), not the new salted version, and I cannot find a compatibility list for the older version. An old post here stated that the old Meikon housing, which is the forebearer of Seafrogs, would just barely fit the lens with a slight modification. The problem is I don't know if that Meikon housing is the same as what I have.

For clarification, this is the housing I have: The seafrogs website only lists the new version, which does show the 30mm Macro as being compatible: SeaFrogs UW housing for Sony A6xxx series Salted Line with Aluminium Pistol Grip & 6" Optical Glass Dry dome port (White) / GEN 3

Any thoughts?

 

[Barmaglot]

I haven't tried it specifically, but the Salted Line housing with short macro port fits the 16-50mm very closely, and the 30mm macro does fit inside, so I'm reasonably certain it will fit into the older fixed-port housing. That said, I've found the 30mm macro requires one to get too close for actual macro shots - you're better off fitting a wet close-up lens to the 16-50mm.

 

[Barryattle]

I used the old school Meikon (hinged back, no interchangeable port - but black, not purple) housing with the Sony 30mm macro. It mostly worked, but was not perfect. I had to take out the little rubber spacers that hold the camera back a few mm in the case to get it to fit and found that:
1) I had to be very careful with the on/off switch when putting the camera in and be sure to test it before splashing, as sometimes it would just not engage with the camera's power switch and I'd have to open the case, reposition a bit, and try again; also, sometimes underwater I could turn the camera on but not off, though usually a few tries would get it to work.
2) the buttons on the lower/right side of the pad (so ISO, exposure adjustment, and I think rarely the center button) would often not work properly (invoking a different function than desired). Not a deal-breaker as one can set a programmable button for ISO adjustment.

I moved to the salted version when I got a good deal on a used one and am happy not to deal with those issues anymore, but I was using it for a few years with just intermittent annoyance and occasional inability to take photos when I forgot to check on/off function before diving.

I see @Barmaglot just put in a comment. I much preferred the 30mm macro, even with those issues, to the 16-50 kit lens with a wet diopter; I found that was much harder to get pictures in sharp focus, the depth of field was paper-thin, and you still had to get really close for macro shots. For the price, the 30mm Sony macro is a great lens, plus 30mm is decent for wider-angle shots, which a much more expensive 60mm or greater macro lens (which would also require me to buy a new, long port) would not be.

 

[tangerinedream]

I have been a long time user of the 30mm macro lens and used it in both the old Meikon housing with a6000 and in the newer Salted Line with my a6700. As someone else said it barely fit in the old Meikon housing and required some compromises to button functionality, but it was still by far my favorite lens. It was much sharper than the Sony kit lens in my view and faster at 30mm to boot. Although it takes work to get close enough to some subjects the quality of the pictures justified it. For fish-sized subjects you have to get a few cm away to fill the frame. But you quickly lose clarity underwater as you increase distance, so this is not all bad.

 

[david.wood]

Old post, but I'd have been happy to find this information a few weeks ago, so let me add something.

I recently bought one of these housings for a secondhand Sony A6500 and have been shopping for lenses.

The list of compatible ones is:

Samyang AF 35mm F2.8 FE
Sony E 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 PZ OSS
Sony E 35mm F1.8 OSS
Sony Sonnar T* FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA
Sigma 19mm F2.8 DN Art
Sigma 30mm F2.8 EX DN

I've the Sony 16-50mm kit lens and the consensus I found from the internet and ChatGPT was that the Sigma 19mm was the best choice on that list.

The Sony 16-50mm is a very tight fit at 64.7mmm wide and 57.5mm long at maximum zoom, so something like 65mm x 60mm, the Viltrox 20mm 2.8 for example, is unlikely to fit.

 

[david.wood]

The problem is with the lining on the interior of the lens placement in the housing. It has two different diameters, starting off wide but then getting narrower. This is OK for the kit lens which extends a narrow tube but the Sony 30mm f2.5 macro lens is the same diameter over its full length. It starts getting stuck when it reaches the smaller diameter. By forcing a bit, you can get it into the smaller space. To see what I mean, take the lens on its own and try putting it into the housing.

Removing the spacers from the legs used to position the camera doesn’t really help as this is not the limiting factor. I haven’t, but if you removed the liner, you’d likely find that the lens fits easily. The kit lens has a maximum length extended of 57.5mm and the Sony 30mm f3.5 macro is 55.5mm so it’s shorter and will fit. Things like the Viltrox 25mm f/1.7 at 54.5 mm would also fit but it will encounter the lining problem.

 

[Barryattle]

Many thanks! Reading your post and looking at my case, I see I misspoke - I had to remove the spacers on my previous Meikon case, which did help, but not on the SeaFrogs, so you are 100% correct there. I had not thought to remove that little liner for the 30mm macro lens. I should play around and see if doing that allows the camera to sit so all buttons work properly. (But in the interim, I got a Fantasea FA6000 essentially for free and have switched to using that; all the buttons work and there's a button to push the flash down, too. But the on/off switch is a pain with dry gloves and I prefer the Sea Frogs' push down shutter release to the Fantasea's pull in shutter release.)