How wide needs to be?

[Interceptor121]

I come from a background in stills where fisheye is what you look for, however it seems that in video barrel distortion is a no go
So having had a look around it would seem that in video:
Dome ports give 65 degrees
Wide angle is between 80-90
Super wide is around 110
Nobody shoots more than 110 FOV because of distortion

Is this correct?

 

[sinistar]

Seems like you pretty much have it covered - except some of that distortion underwater can be much less noticeable hence people are actually shooting wider than 110 degrees underwater.

I used a friend's gopro for a few days (not underwater) and it was pretty nice. I see on the FAQ that their 1080p mode is 127 degrees and other modes are 170 degrees! I'm not sure if their enclosure and port support the 170 degree option though?

I have seen some pretty darn nice looking DSLR video shot with a 15mm fisheye - underwater with the lack of straight lines anywhere it doesn't seem to noticeable and when you do see it, it often just seems like it fits with diving. From the specs its 180 degrees from corner to corner.

I will be trying a Samyang / Rokinon 14mm underwater in a few months - that is around 115 degrees. Early tests behind the large Ikelite port looked pretty good (still some edge softness but it looked better than the 17-40mm lens did at 17mm behind the same port. This lens used normally (not behind a dome port) is wicked sharp by f5.6 even out at the edges. It has funky distortion but not that obvious in underwater video.

Canon has a few 14mm non-fisheye lenses. The later one is quite good, but very expensive and not as sharp out on the edges as the Samyang manual lens. But the Canon 14mm is quite nice w/r to distortion! If I was being paid to shoot UWA underwater video, the 14mm L (version 2) would be my first choice.

There is of course the Canon 8-15mm lens as well which technically has a 180 degree FOV but I have never used to see how it changes from 8...15mm. But there are demo videos shot with it underwater if you look around.

As for dedicate camcorders I hope someone will chime in with ultra wide angle options. My previous LM housing would take a UWA port (around 110 degrees) but I don't think they had anything wider. Perhaps there are more choice these days.

 

[Interceptor121]

I would not consider the gopro a term of reference it is a specific device and the image quality at the corners is poor
I would be interested in something with higher standards

What am talking about here is standards in pro and semipro production with dedicated video

Maybe SLR are a comparison but again 15mm is 110 on a rectilinear lens whist have never seem any footage with a fisheye with an SLR

 

[sinistar]

I would not consider the gopro a term of reference it is a specific device and the image quality at the corners is poor
I would be interested in something with higher standards

...me too, I just mentioned it be more complete.

Maybe SLR are a comparison but again 15mm is 110 on a rectilinear lens whist have never seem any footage with a fisheye with an SLR

...I will include a few links to some great looking video taken at 15mm and 14mm on DSLR's. Please note, none of these are mine. I really think the footage shot at 14mm looks great.

Canon 5DII with Sigma 15mm:
JELLYFISH LAKE on Vimeo

Canon 5DII, 5DIII with some type of wide angle
Cenotes Mexico - Canon 5D Mark III Underwater Video on Vimeo

Canon 5DII with 14MM
Bergeggi Technical dive 2011 (5D MKII) on Vimeo

Canon 5DII with 14mm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2olRdp7Y8k

Canon 5DII with 14mm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-LMD2g94Io

...do you need wider than this? From what I see, I think the 14mm behind a good dome port would meet production standards w/r to sharpness and distortion.

 

[Interceptor121]

14mm looks good just a tiny bit of distortion if you look at the water
I would say it stops at 15mm really in terms of not feeling the barrel!