Sea & Sea Port advice Needed

[santacruz]

Hello,

I'm looking into purchasing a Canon Rebel XT and Sea & Sea housing, and would love some information or advice for port selection. Sea & Sea's catalog and web site seem to have little info on the difference between port selection.

I'm looking into configuring 3 lenses:

Canon 18-55mm zoom: This lens comes with camera. Sea and Sea says I can use the compact wide port OR NX zoom port. Is there an advantage of one port over the other? Any optical qualities or angle of view advantages to the compact wide port?

Canon 10-22mm zoom: I can use compact dome or fisheye dome. Will the compact dome provide enough coverage?

Canon 100mm macro: Not sure which lens I'll get, but some allow a NX zoom port OR macro port. Again, any reason to get one over the other?

Final question: Do ports come with the caps and covers, or do I need to buy those separately?

Thanks for your advice,

SantaCruz

 

[Mariozi]

Hy,

I am a big S&S (and Nikon also...)fan, the housings are just superb!
I have a good collection of S&S ports and have even made contac with S&S Japan for advice on using lenses other than those published as compatible.
Since you seem to be a "Canonian" so here is the advice I can share:

1) I hope you talk about the NEW Canon 350D and S&S's DX-350D housing, these new housings are way better than the old "square" DSLR housings. The old ones are prone to problems ins the latch system, and the new ones are much more compact. The DX-350D is a bit better than mine DX-D50 (it's sister housing) because of the shutter-activated focus light capability.

http://www.seaandsea.jp/products/digital/dx350d/index.html

2)For the 18-55m you have to consider the following:
The best results underwater with zoom lenses are achieved with the dome ports.
This happens for some reasons, first of all the 18mm acts as a 29mm on a Canon Rebel XT body, if you put this "29mm" inside a flat port (both the Compact Wide and the NX Zooms are flat glass ports) it becomes something in between of a 35-50mm, due to water refraction. The dome ports compensates those refraction aberrations, but due to its optical qualities, inside a dome port the "infite" focus is reached somewhere near a distance that equals twice the radius of the dome. Unfortunatelly, most "cheap" zooms don't focus that close... so you are going to have to add a close-up filter (usually a +4 will do) to your lens. The best S&S port one can have is the NX Fisheye Dome Port (the big one) since it is bigger it allows for more lenses to be used (due to the closest focus distance), even inside the big dome the Zoom Gear #31119 would allow you to zoom, you just have to check if the lens does not touch the inside surface of the dome (this check is usually done with a thin cottom sock over the lens, as not to scratch the inside of the dome). If it touches the dome you might need the Extension Ring 40 (this adds 4cm to the dome) or most probably the SX Extension Ring (2cm).

3)Both domes cover the entire lens coverage, but since you are much better fitted with the fisheye dome for the 18-55mm use it also for the 10-22mm (also the fisheye dome are MUCH better for half/half - or under-over pictures). Another thing that big domes are better at is depth-of-filed.

4) I shoot macro from 1:1 with a Nikkor 105mm to anywhere near 6.25:1 with several accessories (and hopefully will go beyond that!!!), the best ports I consider for macro shooting are the Compact Macro Base/Port system because the tend to be more versatile when you add teleconverters, extension tubes etc... I also find it easier to approach unwilling subjetcs with it, mainly because they are smaller and less threatening, and also because they balance better with the housing.

5) No, they don't come with the covers, and though they are a good idea, I tend to think that the U$200 or so I spent on a Pelican 1610 with dividers(that can hold the dome upright) a much better life-time insurance!!!

Hope it helps!
Mariozi