Best (better) lens & port for CFWA

[Dannybot]

I currently have a Canon SL2 and Ikelite housing, dual strobes. I have been using mostly a Canon 10-18 in a 6" dome. I get some decent images, but it gets really soft as you get out of the center.

My questions are:
1) Is it worth it to move up to a larger dome-that unfortunately would not support zoom.
2) Get a Tokina 10-17 fisheye with or without bigger dome port - also zoom not supported.
3) I also have a 10-22 Canon lens, is it significantly better than 10-18 underwater?

Any opinions or advice appreciated

 

[David Haas]

The 10-22mm older rectilinear (straight line lens) will not be any sharper in the corners than the 10-18mm. The 10-18mm is a newer design and tests sharper, is lighter plus cheaper.

The Tokina 10-17mm (which is supported with a zoom gear from Ikelite) will be decent even in the corners.

It will have more curvature so if shooting things with straight lines (wrecks or other man made structures underwater) they will be curved a bit depending where you are in the zoom setting.

You usually have to zoom a teensy bit to like 11mm - 12mm to eliminate very mild vignetting with the Ikelite standard dome port. At 17mm the lens being a Fisheye is still pretty wide too.

Some folks can fix the curvature in post processing depending on your software and experience.

Another advantage of the Tokina 10-17mm is the barrel is a small diameter. You can mount the lens on camera and slide it in from the back just like the Canon 18-55mm "kit" lens without disturbing your port.

I tried the larger dome (when I shot a Canon SL1 for years) and didn't think it was worth it.

Buy a spare small dome for travel and keep shooting

Good luck!

David Haas

 

[Luko]

I'm using a Tokina 10-17 behind a 4" Zen minidome, sometimes doing CFWA.
Until a few months ago with a Canon 70D now with Canon R7+R/EF Adapter.
I 'm quite happy with the results, even though corner might be better. Check by yourself.

 

[BoltSnap]

even though corner might be better

What is bothering you about the corners? What appears to be some slight Vignetting or something else?

 

[Luko]

What is bothering you about the corners? What appears to be some slight Vignetting or something else?

Still mushy, there's a lot of chromatic aberration too (that I cannot correct completely in LR).

 

[Blenny84]

Still mushy, there's a lot of chromatic aberration too (that I cannot correct completely in LR).

I'm using a Tokina 10-17 behind a 4" Zen minidome, sometimes doing CFWA.
Until a few months ago with a Canon 70D now with Canon R7+R/EF Adapter.
I 'm quite happy with the results, even though corner might be better. Check by yourself.

Hi @Luko, great shots! Just found this thread looking for more information around the new Canon R7 and noticed I was already following you on Flickr but did not notice you had upgraded to a R7.
I am very interested in finding out more about how the camera performs underwater particularly with the Tokina 10-17 and Canon RF / EF 100 macro and Canon EFS 60mm.
I currently shoot with a GH5 which is frustrating at times in terms of AF and low light performance - I am not too interested in video.
I have seen a couple of reviews from Bluewaterphoto and Reefphoto on the R7 which are good.
Some people on Wetpixel complain the RF100 has focusing issues with the R5 - did you notice any AF issues with Tokina or 100mm macro lenses on the R7?

Would you recommend this setup as an upgrade from m43?
I also like fact that the whole setup is pretty lightweight for travel which is important to me and after doing some numbers is pretty good value for money too I think.

Thanks for posting the pictures I will be following your new content with the R7 closely.

Salut

 

[Luko]

I am very interested in finding out more about how the camera performs underwater particularly with the Tokina 10-17 and Canon RF / EF 100 macro and Canon EFS 60mm.
I currently shoot with a GH5 which is frustrating at times in terms of AF and low light performance - I am not too interested in video.
I have seen a couple of reviews from Bluewaterphoto and Reefphoto on the R7 which are good.
Some people on Wetpixel complain the RF100 has focusing issues with the R5 - did you notice any AF issues with Tokina or 100mm macro lenses on the R7?

Hi,
Absolutely no regrets on switching to R7, the AF is out of this world. I didn't have any issue with the supposed RF100 backfocus even with a SMC1 attached.
I find the EVF is a great improvment from my older dSLR optical view since, I get details in low light that I couldn't see with my dSLR. On the other hand it is too contrasty for wide angle, but you are not so much into details for fisheye composition. We only have to trust the AF with the 10-17, and the R7's a very reliable one.

Some examples with the R7 macro and WA, to give an idea of the sharpness of the RF100 and what you get with the 10-17Tok, I haven't shot anything yet using the EFS60 :

 

[Blenny84]

Brilliant.
The results with the RF100 + SMC1 are really good. Did you use a snoot for lighting?
The focal length of the Tokina 10-17 in APS-C is just perfect, I don't mind loosing a bit of IQ to gain the versatility and cover this lens provides - really good for CFWA as shown in your pictures.
Do you have a Nauticam housing? If so which ports/adapters are you using?

 

[Luko]

Brilliant.
The results with the RF100 + SMC1 are really good. Did you use a snoot for lighting?
The focal length of the Tokina 10-17 in APS-C is just perfect, I don't mind loosing a bit of IQ to gain the versatility and cover this lens provides - really good for CFWA as shown in your pictures.
Do you have a Nauticam housing? If so which ports/adapters are you using?

Thanks
Yes I am very often using a snoot for supermacro shots. My guide fortunately enjoys doing the lighthing assistant job.
I have a Nauticam housing for the R7 which is a "100 diameter", smaller than their dSLR housings, but as I am using older 120 diameter ports (for the dSLR category) and Nauticam doesn't have yet a range of 100 ports fitting the Canon lenses I needed to purchase the Nauticam 35,5mm 100-120 port adapter (570€!) to fit a 4" Zen minidome for the 10-17 tok and a 94 macro port.