New Ikelite Dome for TG-5 Ikelite Housings - Any Reviews?

[krukster86]

I have been shooting with my TG-5 on a couple of dive trips so far and I love it. I predominantly use it for fish portraits and macro shots of tiny shrim and nudis. I was less than impressed with the FOV with megafauna like reef shark flybys, but that only constituted like 10% of the photos I took. I am currently running it with a SOLA light as a focus light and a Ikelite DS-51 strobe in an ikelite housing.

I am going on a liveaboard trip to the Bahamas in November and I know that shark encounters are very probable there. I saw that Ikelite now has a dome port for their housing (requires the old flat port to be unscrewed off and the dome port threaded on, so I am assuming it is NOT a wet lens).

DC1 6 Inch Dome for Olympus Tough TG-6, TG-5, TG-4, TG-3

The website mentions that the dome port can still utilize the powerful microscope (macro) feature of the TG-5, which sounds like a slam dunk, other than the fact that now there is a monster sized hunk of a dome jutting out of the housing.

I am curious if there are any reviews of this lens on this forum, as there appear to be non on the usual retailers. Also I am trying to justify spending $350 for a lens that I use maybe twice a year

 

[Mike1967]

Have you seen this lens?
Backscatter M52 Wide Angle Air Lens Review - Underwater Photography - Backscatter

 

[Chris Ross]

It only gets you back to the 25mm equivalent focal length of the lens in air. If I were going to spend that sort of $$ I'd look into a wet wide lens most of which will get you out to a 100° field of view or 18mm equivalent.

Keep in mind the Backscatter lenses are 52mm thread for the Oly housing, the Ikelite housing has 67mm thread. The back scatter 120° lens is $339 and gives you much wider angle of view, check if you can use it with a step down ring on the ikelite. I'd say it's much more bang for the buck if you can make it work.

 

[krukster86]

Thread revival! I acquired the Ikelite dome (air) lens and I am about to go on a liveaboard to the Bahamas. I will be posting a "review" when I return.

 

[krukster86]

Just got back from my liveaboard and need a few weeks to cull and edit my photos. I am thoroughly pleased with my Ikelite dome lens! I brought along the OEM macro lens that came with the housing but didn’t end up switching it out at any point. There was a lot of megafauna (sharks and turtles) that made the dome shine. I was still able to take wonderful macro shots of slugs, Coral polyps, blennies, and tiny shrimp. The bulbous dome did prevent me from getting extremely close, but it was good enough. In order to get the best results from the dome for wide angle, I needed to zoom out all the way and wait for my subject to approach the camera lens for those “keeper shots”. I will be posting some of the best shots in the upcoming weeks.

 

[krukster86]

OK it has been a while but I have some photos to share from shooting with the dome. I tried to pick out a good mix, showing that wide angle and macro is definitely possible with this product.