Question Fuji X-T5 for underwater photography

[Ari Gato]

Hi everyone,

So many great resources on this forum! Glad I landed here. One thing I’ve been trying to figure out is whether the Fuji X-T5 would do well underwater. I’ve owned this camera and shot it a lot topside, and I’m wondering why there seem to be so few Fuji underwater shooters. It’s a fantastic camera above water, with its manual dials to quickly adjust all settings. I could totally see myself doing quick adjustments under water using these as I’ve done topside.

I currently have a Sony RX100 w/ nauticam housing and I’m feeling limited by the smaller sensor and flash recycle speed. Every setting also requires to go in the menus, which is slow and takes focus away from the action. My goal is photography only and prints, so I’m debating getting a housing for my Fuji or just sell it and get a Sony A7R V or A7 IV.

Appreciate any opinion / experience on the matter! Thanks

 

[Barmaglot]

The main issue is availability of lenses. There is no native fisheye, and from what I understand, adapting Canon EF to Fuji X to use Canon 8-15mm or Tokina 10-17mm doesn't work nearly as good as for Sony E or M43.

 

[ChipDiver]

One thing I’ve been trying to figure out is whether the Fuji X-T5 would do well underwater. I’ve owned this camera and shot it a lot topside, and I’m wondering why there seem to be so few Fuji underwater shooters.

Great question. I used a number of the various Fuji X-T series on land and love them! In addition to no native fisheye, the Fuji low-light focus tends to be not as strong as the more popular uw systems. (Sony, Nikon, Canon). It seems this has kept it from having greater success.

Using a separate flash trigger is the key to fast recycle times. Using its own batteries works much faster than systems that rely on built-in pop up flashes.

If you want to stay with an APS-C system, perhaps check out the new Sony a6700. The Tokina 10-17 fisheye, as well as various Nauticam water contact lenses work very well with it.

As a side note, I have a friend selling his Sony/Nauticam a6600 system if you would interested. Let me know if you would like to get more info.

The Sony a7rV is also an excellent choice! (I use an a1 and a7rV.) It will give you plenty of power to photograph just about anything you want below and above the waves. There is, unfortunately, a bit of a price tag associated. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Best of luck!
Chip

 

[MacDuyver]

I'm actually about to upgrade to the XT-5. I've been shooting on an XT-1 for a while now.

Once you figure out your settings, the XT line does pretty well under water. And it shoots great out of the water after the dive. With white balance, you can get it ballpark, but know that you'll still need to take some time in Lightroom tweaking curves. I recommend Photoshop too so you can bring out specific parts of the pics, but that's also the nature of shooting RAW with any camera.

I've got a Rikonon 8mm Fisheye II that works pretty good on land, but gives me too much vignetting in my current housing, so I don't shoot with it much. Upgrading to a more modular housing available for XT-2 and beyond would likely give me a bit more flexibility, but that's not in my current budget.

some samples with the 18-55mm standard lens (the 5 has a much better sensor than the 1, but this is what 10 year old Fuji tech shoots like today)

 

[Ari Gato]

The main issue is availability of lenses. There is no native fisheye, and from what I understand, adapting Canon EF to Fuji X to use Canon 8-15mm or Tokina 10-17mm doesn't work nearly as good as for Sony E or M43.

That's an interesting point! I have the native 10-24 wide angle and it does great for that, but definitely not a fisheye.

Great question. I used a number of the various Fuji X-T series on land and love them! In addition to no native fisheye, the Fuji low-light focus tends to be not as strong as the more popular uw systems. (Sony, Nikon, Canon). It seems this has kept it from having greater success.

Using a separate flash trigger is the key to fast recycle times. Using its own batteries works much faster than systems that rely on built-in pop up flashes.

If you want to stay with an APS-C system, perhaps check out the new Sony a6700. The Tokina 10-17 fisheye, as well as various Nauticam water contact lenses work very well with it.

As a side note, I have a friend selling his Sony/Nauticam a6600 system if you would interested. Let me know if you would like to get more info.

The Sony a7rV is also an excellent choice! (I use an a1 and a7rV.) It will give you plenty of power to photograph just about anything you want below and above the waves. There is, unfortunately, a bit of a price tag associated. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Best of luck!
Chip

Interesting -- for me right now, I think the thing I'm realizing is that the fuji + case will be massive. I looked at the a7rv and sort of put it in the same category size wise (even bigger probably). I was tempted by the a7cii or a7cr, and currently leaning towards the a7cii for the better low light performance. What has been your experience with the a7rv underwater?

I'm actually about to upgrade to the XT-5. I've been shooting on an XT-1 for a while now.

Once you figure out your settings, the XT line does pretty well under water. And it shoots great out of the water after the dive. With white balance, you can get it ballpark, but know that you'll still need to take some time in Lightroom tweaking curves. I recommend Photoshop too so you can bring out specific parts of the pics, but that's also the nature of shooting RAW with any camera.

I've got a Rikonon 8mm Fisheye II that works pretty good on land, but gives me too much vignetting in my current housing, so I don't shoot with it much. Upgrading to a more modular housing available for XT-2 and beyond would likely give me a bit more flexibility, but that's not in my current budget.

some samples with the 18-55mm standard lens (the 5 has a much better sensor than the 1, but this is what 10 year old Fuji tech shoots like today)

View attachment 847459 View attachment 847460View attachment 847461 View attachment 847463View attachment 847462

Sweet pictures! Love the first three. I'm super comfortable with the X-T series and the way it does the settings as well, but sort of attracted to AC7II for it's 1/ smaller form factor, 2/ full frame sensor and 3/ blazing fast autofocus. It seems like you can set-up the wheels to have shutter speed / aperture / iso readily accessible too.

 

[ChipDiver]

Interesting -- for me right now, I think the thing I'm realizing is that the fuji + case will be massive. I looked at the a7rv and sort of put it in the same category size wise (even bigger probably). I was tempted by the a7cii or a7cr, and currently leaning towards the a7cii for the better low light performance. What has been your experience with the a7rv underwater?

The a7rV is fantastic! Underwater snd above. Sony really stepped up with their colors, menu system, and AF. Video is also now usable with it. (A7rIV and prior really was challenged) The 7Cii and a7CR seem to also be solid models as they do have the newer features as well. I am not sure you will notice a low light performance difference between any of the 3 options. The exception could be if you were interested in astro photos, but I have not seen any issues with the high resolution underwater.

Double check the sync speeds for strobes. The a7rV will go up to 1/250 with a trigger like the UW Technics model. The others max out at 1/160. If you are going to use the camera above water you may also want to consider if you like the range finder design or prefer the more traditional design of the rV.

 

[ImThou]

Hi, I am using XT-3 on Nauticam housing (NA-XT3) with Inon Z-330 strobes.
Macro: XF80mm with Nauticam N100 Macro Port 110
Wide Angle: XF10-24 with Nauticam N100 Extension Ring 50 & N100 180mm Optical Glass Wide Angle Dome.

Stop diving/shooting since 2021 due to family commitments hence didnt use it for a couple of years till recently.

Didn't encounter much difficulty for post-processing on Lightroom. Most of the shots have very little need to color correct when shooting with strobes (using Fuji native flash with optical cable trigger for INON strobe).

Only downside with X-T3 is the battery. But nauticam overcame this with a power bank stored just below the camera in the housing. Able to achieve 3-4 dives in a day without much issue.

Attached some wide angle and macro pics for reference.