AD adapter to Ike 67MM port

[Nemrod]

After much effort I finally managed to get the Inon 165AD FE lens on to the 67MM threaded Ikelite port. It really would be nice if Ikelite had done what I did, after all, they have the equipment to do this but alas they don't.

So here it is, Canon 570IS in Ikelite housing, custom AD adapter, custom made tray knobs, custom made extension arm for my Sekonic light meter, Ikelite single arm tray with Inon D2000 strobe. Optical sync cord is plugged into a custom "American Flag" strobe shield with a dual outlet optical Inon plug. I still need an extension arm for the strobe

The fish eye Inon lens will probably vignette very slightly in the lower corners but I can crop it out in Adobe. The resulting angle will still be in excess of 140 degrees which is significantly wider field of view than the standard lens and still a good 30% wider than the Inon/Epoque/Ikelite 100 degree wide angle lenses. It also has depth of field from the dome port to infinity.

N

 

[Nemrod]

The port with blurry adapter in place:

Port with adapter not installed:

Approximate resulting FOV is in excess of 140 degrees, semi fish eye, vs the plain port of about 45 degrees. I have about 1,500 dollars in it (not including two spare cameras and the Canon experiment, lol).

I realize nobody knows what I am doing or why I am doing it or even cares that I am doing it but there it is anyways, one years worth of occasional "puttering" finally gets that d----- lens on the housing, a minor and somewhat esoteric and exceedingly aggravating project.

N

 

[Nemrod]

The way you make the adapter, for posterity, I purchased a flooded Olympus housing on eBay for 99 cents that just happened to have the Inon adapter in place. I removed the AD adapter kit from the Oly and then resold the housing on eBay for 14.00 dollars, that is right, I made a profit. Then I took an aluminum filter, 67MM diameter, and removed the threaded lock ring. I sprayed the filter with flat black paint for extra protection except for the threads. I took the Inon AD adapter and removed the "universal bayonet" portion that is held to the back plate with four tinny, bitty little screws. I then carefully hand machined the bayonet universal ring until it sat nicely into the filter ring. Once I had it to the correct depth to optically engage my Canon 570IS and square to the ring I bonded it in with structural EA9309 epoxy, a non brittle, super strong epoxy for aviation. Of course, I had to thread the filter ring into the port of the Ikelite port and then align the index mark first for the bayonet mount to properly lock with the lens aligned at TDC. Then, using acid free pure silicone, I put a small drop at four locations on the threads of the filter ring and threaded it into the Ikelite port and carefully indexed it to the previously tested TDC position. Now I can bayonet mount with a simple quick twist any Inon AD bayonet lens, no fussing with threading stuff in and out, sand getting in the threads, dropping the lens into Davy Jones locker fussing with it, nope, set the lens in place, twist and it locks.

Effective field of view with the Inon AD105WAL, about 90 degrees, effective FOV with the Inon 165AF FE lens pictured, about 140 to 155 degrees and with the Inon macro lens of course it works super great--perfect. This compares with the FOV of the native lens at widest angle, approx in air FOV equal to a 35MM focal length underwater is about 45 degrees. That is due to Snell's Law, any lens underwater including the human eye viewing through a flat port will have a optical magnification of 1.33X therefore the native 35MM lens underwater through the flat port is more like a 50MM lens in air. JFYI, a 28MM would be about equal to 37MM focal length underwater. The Inon 165 AD FE with dome port is equal to about an 18MM focal length true, underwater. Wow.

OK, so what does this mean, with the Inon 165FE in place I can photograph at a distance of 2 to 3 feet shooting distance to subject the same area of coverage that the native 35MM equivalent lens sees at 10 to 12 feet distance. Reduce the amount of water between you and your subject and the photos are just better and the strobe is more effective. In fact, at a shooting distance of 10 feet to subject I can see the same area the typical 35MM equivalent lens (dSLR or typical P&S) would see at nearly 30 feet shooting distance to subject. More or less. Bubba N

 

[Nemrod]

Ikelite housing about 200 on sale closeout
Canon 570IS, three units, one at 12 dollars, one at 109 dollars, one at 139 dollars
Ikelite tray, about 50 dollars
Inon D2000 strobe, about 500 dollars
Inon 16AD 5FE shown, about 325
Inon 165AD macro, about 130 dollars
Sekonic Marine meter, left over from my Nikonos III from the 1980s
Other, I don't know, heck, a 150 dollars give or take? (optical sync cable, Ike ball extension, butterfly clamp etc)

Worth it, I don't know, I guess, it smokes my bud's silly little SeaLife DC BS something or another.

Bubba N, doing more with less