Best Alternate Lens For Shark Diving

[mwall04]

Took a trip down to Guadalupe Island last year for great white shark diving and brought along my D90 in an Aquatica housing and my Tokina 10-17 lens. Although it was my first experience with underwater photography, I was overall pleased with my output. Still have a lot of room to improve, but that gives me a great excuse for more trips.

From a camera/lens perspective, my only complaint was that the wide angle of the Tokina left me missing for a longer lens when the sharks were right up on the cage. Without a lot of post-dive editing to crop in tighter on the sharks, the dramatic impact of their real size was lost.

I know the usual answer for this problem is to get closer to your subject, but I can tell you without hesitation that I'm staying in the cage when diving with great white sharks. The boat crew can work to bring the sharks in closer, but what I really need is a longer lens.

As an alternate to the Tokina 10-17 FE, what lens would you recommend to get "closer" to large creatures?

 

[Viz'art]

The Sigma 10-20mm or the Nikon 10-24mm are both good option, the Sigma has a good reputation for performance underwater, both would benefit from a 8" (or larger) dome port, but both could be used to some extend with the 6", albeit with lower corner performance due to the smaller radius. if you have the 6" already, I would give it a try, since on average, Shark shots tend to have nothing more than blue water in the corner, then again, if you are getting a longer lens its most likely that you want to fill the frame with more meat!

Cheers and stay in the cage and off the food chain

 

[scottfiji]

I'd try the Nikon 10-24mm or 17-35mm. You could try renting them both to get a feel for them.

Scott

 

[slowhands]

...

From a camera/lens perspective, my only complaint was that the wide angle of the Tokina left me missing for a longer lens when the sharks were right up on the cage. Without a lot of post-dive editing to crop in tighter on the sharks, the dramatic impact of their real size was lost.

I know the usual answer for this problem is to get closer to your subject, but I can tell you without hesitation that I'm staying in the cage when diving with great white sharks. The boat crew can work to bring the sharks in closer, but what I really need is a longer lens.

As an alternate to the Tokina 10-17 FE, what lens would you recommend to get "closer" to large creatures?

....

You're a brave man!

I go along with others, the Nikon 10-24 might be just the ticket. But also look at a teleconverter. This will effectively lengthen your lens, with a loss of brightness. Make sure to get a teleconverter that is compatible with your lens, since as I recall the latest Nikons are not, but other makers' are. Confusion!

If you are traveling, saving the weight of another lens, gear and port might be worth considering.

 

[tndiver1]

Try a Tokina 12-24 mm lens