Sony RX100 setup advice

[SharynC]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to underwater photography but am an experienced land photographer. I shoot a Canon R5 on land but was concerned about weight underwater so I purchased a Sony RX100VII and an Ikelite housing. I have one Oceanpro Sub Sabre video light.

I'm after advice on getting a wider field of view and being able to do macro (and video) on the same dive. I like the idea of the Ikelite DC3 dome port but I've read it's limiting with macro shots. Then there's the option of adding the Ikelite Wide Angle Port M67 and using wet wide angle and macro lenses but this reduces the zoom to 70mm. If I understand correctly I would need to zoom in anyway if using a macro lens?

Does anyone have any other ideas or experience with the RX100? Any advice on products and setup appreciated!

Thanks
Sharyn

 

[Barmaglot]

You've got the general idea - basically you have three options.

• Basic flat port with macro adapter and wet lenses - you have access to the entire zoom range, but 24mm-equivalent is not particularly wide, even if you use a wet dome for correction, so your wide-angle capability is quite limited. On the other hand, you have great macro capability.
• Short flat port with wet lenses - your zoom is limited, but you can get good wide-angle capability with something like WWL-C or UWL-09, at the cost of reduced macro capability.
• Dome port without wet lenses - more of a fish portrait setup; you get neither good macro nor good wide-angle capability with this.

A wet macro lens (diopter) doesn't modify your angle of view, it simply allows you to focus closer than the lens normally would, at the cost of limiting how far you can focus. Zooming in will give you more magnification, whereas zooming out, past a certain point, will get you vignetting.

You can use the Nauticam port chart as a good reference of what you get in various configurations -
Shooting macro and wide on the same dive sounds good in theory, but few people actually do it. Just like shooting photo and video on the same dive, it's less of a gear issue but more of a mindset thing. When I'm shooting macro, my nose is buried in the crevices, overhangs and nooks - a whale shark could pass behind me and I wouldn't notice. Likewise, when I'm shooting wide-angle, I'm evaluating the scenery, fish movements, light angles, etc - there might be some cool little critter right there, but I won't notice it because I'm concentrating on something else.

 

[SharynC]

Thank you for taking the time to respond @Barmaglot.

I understand what you are saying about doing both wide and macro on the same dive. I think the options with the flat port will be wide enough unless I’m shooting larger like wrecks then I would have to concentrate on that and put on a wide lens.

I’m really thinking now I should have purchased the Nauticam housing with the flip adapter attachment for macro!

 

[Barmaglot]

I’m really thinking now I should have purchased the Nauticam housing with the flip adapter attachment for macro!

Ikelite does the same thing with Macro 67mm Threaded Adapter for 3.9 inch Diameter Ports - it's a press-on rather than flip, but end result is the same. The WD-4 Wide Angle Dome even gives you somewhat more flexibility than the Nauticam housing, as it produces a somewhat wider field of view on the universal port - not nearly as wide as a proper wet lens, but still better than nothing. Nauticam doesn't offer such an option.

 

[SharynC]

Thank you for pointing those out!

I will look into them both

 

[SharynC]

Thank you again Barmagalot for taking the time to respond to my questions. I just wanted to ask a little more about the Sony RX100VII. Do you know if the focal length of 200mm is used for macro? (with diopter) or is a shorter focal length mostly used. I’m trying to decide whether to stick with the standard port (full zoom) and get the WD-4 and the slip on adapter with a 67mm diopter or would it be better to get the short port and screw in wide angle and diopter?

 

[Barmaglot]

I don't have personal experience with it, but there's a Backscatter review of the VI that goes into a lot of detail - Backscatter Underwater Photography & Video!

The Nauticam port charts are usually very helpful in determining the camera capabilities in various configurations, bit unfortunately, not in this case. It is typical, when using a zoom lens with a diopter, to shoot at the longest available focal length, but it is not a universal constant. Typically, if you zoom out, you will encounter one or both of the following issues. First, your objective element will get further away from the close-up lens, which will degrade its effectiveness and potentially compromise your camera's ability to focus at all. Second, if you zoom out far enough, your angle of view will get too wide, and the diopter housing itself will come into your image. However, with the RX100 VI/VII extremely long lens, I'm not sure how this will play out. Certainly, at full zoom and with a strong diopter, you can fill the frame with a ricegrain-sized subject - but what about the larger stuff? This is the main problem of shooting with wet diopters - they let you get closer, but they also limit how far you can focus, and the able of view at 200mm is extremely narrow. When you encounter a subject of a certain size, it may be too small to shoot with the bare lens, but too big to frame with your diopter of choice at the lenses full extension. The typical solution for such cases is to carry a weaker diopter, which is why you see things like dual and triple flip adapters and the Saga Trio, but whether or not zooming out to, say, 120mm will help with this? - I don't know. Since you already have the camera and the long port, see if you can borrow a wet close-up lens and test it for yourself. If you're buying it from a shop with experienced support staff, such ad Backscatter, it's worthwhile asking them as well - they should be able to answer this better than me.

Best I can do is - the long port with close-up lenses and wet dome will give you moderate wide-angle capability and excellent tiny macro (think leaf sheep slugs and sexy shrimp) capability, whereas a short port with close-up lenses and a wet wide lens will give you excellent wide-angle capability and moderate medium macro (think 1-3 inch nudibranchs) capability.

 

[SharynC]

Great explanation thank you!

I’ll try borrowing a few different things and see what works best for me.

Very much appreciated