Sony 6400 seafrog - extremaly poor quality after switch from Canon? Please help!

[Jon Underwater]

Apologies, completely forgot I said I'd get back with an update on the Tokina 10-17mm in the Salted Line housing (6" dome). Unfortunately I picked up covid with not much of our UK diving season left last year, but I did manage to get a few trial shots off snorkelling (see below), ahead of what I'm hoping will be a productive wide angle 2022. One thing I will say is don't rely on the getting the Tokina working with the a6000 in this combo; I had to upgrade my body to the the a6400 (I hear the a6500 is also fine) before the focus hunting disappeared. I'm happy with the results and it really is the cheapest way I think you can get this lens underwater. I might also try and pick up the native 10-18 rectilinear for some Swanage Pier shots this year.

 

[Barmaglot]

Did you print a zoom gear for the 10-17mm, or are you using fixed focal length?

 

[Jon Underwater]

I just left it wide open for those test shots, I've not attempted a zoom gear yet, but it could be a fun project. I think I saw some folk on wetpixel printing one for the seafrogs housing?

R.e. test shots above, I wrote a bit of a piece on what worked (and didn't) for me on my page: Kit Focus: Seafrogs Salted Line Housing and the Tokina 10-17mm

 

[Barmaglot]

I just left it wide open for those test shots, I've not attempted a zoom gear yet, but it could be a fun project. I think I saw some folk on wetpixel printing one for the seafrogs housing?

It was @Lewis88 here: Sea Frogs Salted Line A6XXX - Zoom Gears

 

[Lewis88]

FYI I never got the gears to work well and abandoned the project, The way the seafrogs housing clamps the camera means the lens doesn't sit perfectly concentric in the port opening, and there's a wide range of lens position, so a hard zoom gear doesn't work well.

I ended up switching to Nauticam and sold my seafrogs stuff.

That being said, I shoot my 10-17 almost always at 10mm, even with the zoom capability in my Nauticam setup.

 

[Barmaglot]

FYI I never got the gears to work well and abandoned the project, The way the seafrogs housing clamps the camera means the lens doesn't sit perfectly concentric in the port opening, and there's a wide range of lens position, so a hard zoom gear doesn't work well.

Interesting; I would think that perhaps this is the reason SeaFrogs' own gears are made out of rubber rather than hard plastic, but they have plastic gears as well, for 55-210mm, 18-105mm, 18-135mm and others. I only have the rubber gears for 16-50mm and 10-18mm that were bundled with the housing, but both work without major issues. I do find it helpful to put a little piece of cardboard on the right side of the camera, towards the bottom, to push the body a little bit further to the left.

What's the outer diameter of Tokina 10-17mm zoom ring? If it's less than that of the Sony 10-18mm, then maybe a simple extension cylinder to fit the stock zoom gear would work.

 

[Lewis88]

Unfortunately the AF/MF switch, and the lens release on the Sigma MC-11 adapter protrude pretty far off the lens in comparison to the zoom ring. It means you need a gear with a window and specific sizing to get around those features. So you likely couldn't extend the 10-18 ring.

I had a gen 1 housing, and even had binding issues on the 16-50 zoom gear in the short port only, where it would stick on the port face, and lose mesh with the zoom knob, so maybe it was also my housing.

 

[Barmaglot]

Unfortunately the AF/MF switch, and the lens release on the Sigma MC-11 adapter protrude pretty far off the lens in comparison to the zoom ring. It means you need a gear with a window and specific sizing to get around those features. So you likely couldn't extend the 10-18 ring.

What's to stop the extension tube from having a window for the buttons?

I had a gen 1 housing, and even had binding issues on the 16-50 zoom gear in the short port only, where it would stick on the port face, and lose mesh with the zoom knob, so maybe it was also my housing.

I had those too, regardless of port - at first I would just very carefully place the gear on the lens just right, which usually took a few attempts, and then I figured out that adding a little padding (like a small piece of cardboard) on the bottom right side of the camera makes them go away completely; the rings turn smooth as butter.

 

[Lewis88]

I guess it's possible to have a cutout of the extension tube. Not sure if that will work, and still provide enough stiffness to turn the zoom ring on the 10-17, which is not the smoothest or easiest to turn.

It's a project for someone else to pick up who has a vested interest in the housing who doesn't mind the multiple housing closing attempts, cardboard shims, etc. I've shared my design files with a couple people so far if they want to continue working on it.

After coming from a Nauticam S95 setup, I couldn't take the cut corners of the seafrogs system, and changed back to Nauticam.

 

[Barmaglot]

After coming from a Nauticam S95 setup, I couldn't take the cut corners of the seafrogs system, and changed back to Nauticam.

I've been shooting SeaFrogs for coming up on five years now, and I'm generally quite happy with it, but I want something wider than 10mm rectilinear. I'm on the fence between going for a wet lens (AOI UWL-09 or Weefine WFL01) or a Tokina 10-17mm. Wet lenses give flexibility, but aren't as wide (130 degrees for AOI UWL-09, 145 degrees for Weefine WFL01), and SeaFrogs also warns that the threading on the short macro port is rated for lenses up to 450g - anything heavier must be attached and removed underwater. Tokina 10-17mm gives 180 degrees diagonal on the wide end and 100 degrees on the narrow end, but I will have to figure out the zoom gear, and, most likely, I will want to use it for CFWA, which means coming up with an extension ring for the 4-inch minidome, as the 6-inch and 8-inch domes are too big to get in close. Decisions, decisions...