Sony rx100 v

[aurgolo]

Dear all, great thread this one..... actually is what im looking for

I also have a G12 with original canon wp-dc34 and fantasea big eye for wide angle plus dyron +7 macro (dyron ucl 67 II) and sea & sea YS-D1 single strobe with sea arm VII (see below pictures)

this setup helps me to easily switch during the dive from wide angle to marco and gave me several years of happy underwater shooting

im thinking to upgrade to a sony RX100 V

surely the RX100 is by far better than my G12 (which anyway still delivers excellent performances) but im a bit confused about several things which are not clear to me, maybe you can help or have some clue about...:

-some friend told me that RX100 mark I and II are good... but mark III, IV and V have some problem with the length of the optics and when lens are fully zoomed out for max wideangle they give some vignetting with almost all housings......... true?

-i would like to maintain the freedom to switch from wideangle to macro during the dive (sure i can recycle the macro lens but i need to buy a good wide angle lens), so i need an housing which has the 67mm thread or better the simpler AD adapter

-also one very important thing.... the G12 is equipped with the shortcut button which i assigned to the custom white balance.... it is a very powerful weapon because in a couple of seconds i can adjust the white balance and shot ......... i did not find any shortcut button in the RX100....... this is a great limitation, dont you think?

well...... sorry for the long post, maybe somebody has some useful info, any help is of course much appreciated.......

tks again!

Andrea

 

[outofofficebrb]

-some friend told me that RX100 mark I and II are good... but mark III, IV and V have some problem with the length of the optics and when lens are fully zoomed out for max wideangle they give some vignetting with almost all housings......... true?

-i would like to maintain the freedom to switch from wideangle to macro during the dive (sure i can recycle the macro lens but i need to buy a good wide angle lens), so i need an housing which has the 67mm thread or better the simpler AD adapter

-also one very important thing.... the G12 is equipped with the shortcut button which i assigned to the custom white balance.... it is a very powerful weapon because in a couple of seconds i can adjust the white balance and shot ......... i did not find any shortcut button in the RX100....... this is a great limitation, dont you think?

well...... sorry for the long post, maybe somebody has some useful info, any help is of course much appreciated.......

tks again!

Andrea

It vignettes on the Nauticam housing but just a quick little tap of zoom and it disappears. Not a deal breaker for me regardless of whether it's wide angle or macro shooting. I wouldn't let this stray you from it.

As for switching between WA and macro on the same dive, it's doable on the Nuaticam housing but it's cumbersome. I have the Dyron UWL-H100 with the dome port and it is pretty bulky and a chunk to carry. My macro is the Nauticam CMC. You'll need to be careful not to damage it wherever you stow/store it. The WA with dome port is obviously the more challenging of the two to deal with while preventing damage. It's also extremely negatively buoyant so don't drop it.

I don't have feedback on the custom white balance point you bring up. On photo, with strobes, I just do auto. If you want to do custom, you can hit function, go over to WB, then custom. It's more than a one button press.There is supposed to be a custom C button you can use but I haven't looked into it yet.

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

Dear all, great thread this one..... actually is what im looking for

I also have a G12 with original canon wp-dc34 and fantasea big eye for wide angle plus dyron +7 macro (dyron ucl 67 II) and sea & sea YS-D1 single strobe with sea arm VII (see below pictures)

this setup helps me to easily switch during the dive from wide angle to marco and gave me several years of happy underwater shooting

im thinking to upgrade to a sony RX100 V

surely the RX100 is by far better than my G12 (which anyway still delivers excellent performances) but im a bit confused about several things which are not clear to me, maybe you can help or have some clue about...:

-some friend told me that RX100 mark I and II are good... but mark III, IV and V have some problem with the length of the optics and when lens are fully zoomed out for max wideangle they give some vignetting with almost all housings......... true?

-i would like to maintain the freedom to switch from wideangle to macro during the dive (sure i can recycle the macro lens but i need to buy a good wide angle lens), so i need an housing which has the 67mm thread or better the simpler AD adapter

-also one very important thing.... the G12 is equipped with the shortcut button which i assigned to the custom white balance.... it is a very powerful weapon because in a couple of seconds i can adjust the white balance and shot ......... i did not find any shortcut button in the RX100....... this is a great limitation, dont you think?

well...... sorry for the long post, maybe somebody has some useful info, any help is of course much appreciated.......

tks again!

Andrea



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Seems like you'd need to specify an exact combo to get an accurate answer about vignetting, but I don't think it's true that all later rx100 models vignette. The rx100 is popular and various housings are made specifically for the later editions.

For easy on/off macro, you could try a swing arm mount for the diopter. You won't get really wide without a wide wet lens, but it would get you in and out of macro mode easily. Alternatively, some wide angle wet lenses let you get pretty close -- it's not macro, but it's macro-ish without a lot of lens juggling. Beyond that, I suspect you'll need some place to stow whatever wet lens your not using when you switch.

Not sure how it has changed over the various models, but there are custom buttons on later models, at least. There are 4 on the rx100 IV. A couple of those are pre-assigned to useful things you might not want to change (flash mode and shooting mode), but there's at least one custom button that isn't occupied at all. You could use that for one-button-access to white balance or any one of numerous other choices. (Better yet, shoot in RAW.) And, as outofofficebrb said, features you need quick access to without necessarily having one-button-access to can be set to be quickly available in the function menu.

 

[aurgolo]

Tks alot for all your clear and prompt replies.........

i was thinking to buy the fantasea:

Fantasea Sony RX100 III, IV and V Underwater Housing

which is compact, good quality, good price and comes with lcd protector, handstrap, etc..... but could not understand about vignetting with RX100 mark III, IV, V......... maybe you know better....

well, i see that switching macro\WA is a bit more difficult than G12 ...... my idea was to add an arm-caddy for the wide lens or macro to stow during the dive
Few weeks ago in Lembeh i have seen a guy with 2 strobes setup and on each arm was mounted a caddy to stow the WA and the macro lens.... both with the fast AD or bayonet (whatever is called) connector, just a click to take the lens from the arm and another click to put in front of the port......... 4\5 seconds at max

but if too much complicated i can bring the marco lens with swing arm mount ........also i have seen in indonesia, this is a good solution ....even if i will not get real WA photos it is overall acceptable

------so to cut the story short:

-fantasea housing..... vignetting or not with the MK 3,4 or 5?
-if i buy fantasea, can i use WA and macro lens with bayonet or too much complicated?
-if i go only for the macro, can i add a swing arm to the fantasea?
-about custom white balance, im checking some tutorial in utube, i think soon i will figure it out

tks alot guys for support, much appreciated!

Andrea

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

The newer Fantasea housing is made for the newer rx100s so it does not vignette. (If there's a housing that vignettes I'd guess it was (originally) designed for the earlier rx100s which only zoomed out to 28mm.)

Whatever you stick on the front of the housing may cause vignetting (especially at shorter focal lengths). Many (all?) wet macro diopters will vignette at the wide end, but it doesn't matter when you're shooting macro because you're zooming in for the magnification, anyway -- zoomed in, the vignetting goes away.

Similarly, bayonets add convenience but may also cause vignetting. The Fantasea has the standard 67mm screw mount. I'm not aware of any way to remove the front port of the fixed port Fantasea and replace it with a bayonet mount (but there's a ring of screws there so maybe there will be an option in the future), so assumably you'd have to use a screw-in adapter that converts 67mm to bayonet. Once you do that you've moved all your wet lenses further away from the housing (in an amount equal to the thickness of the adapter), and this may cause vignetting because the system was designed to have wet lenses flush with the housing at the 67mm mount. The same is true for a swing arm on the wide end, but on macro it shouldn't be enough to matter because you're already zooming in. (There may also be an optical quality impact, but it probably doesn't matter much, if at all.) Also, all your lenses need a compatible bayonet mount. That means either another adapter for the lens (adding more distance between the lens and the housing and more potential to vignette; plus more cost), or else you buy only lenses with the bayonet mount already built in. There is more than one bayonet standard, so you'd have to pick one and only buy gear within that bayonet ecosystem.

All that just says that there's a reason that using a bayonet mount on the Fantasea *might* introduce vignetting. But, maybe there's a bayonet system available that nevertheless doesn't. That would be a good question to ask one of the online retailers.

 

[aurgolo]

Hello..... Ok understood,

I will askmadditional info to some retailer before buying the camera and housing

At the moment i would go for rx100 m5 + fantasea housing + sliding arm for the macro lens dyron +7 (if exists)


Wide angle.... I will think later

Tks alot, keep you posted!

A

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

The updated FRX100-V Fantasea (with the latest Sony firmware) seems to me to be a good value and comparably affordable (the earlier versions weren't as refined). In my mind, it's main weakness is no vacuum bulkhead. (Though it does have double o-rings and an included leak detector.) I think the Nauticam is probably a better system overall, and if money were no object I'd rather have it, but at that price it's just not as good of a value -- unless you manage to flood a couple cameras with the Fantasea...

 

[YCW]

Although I am using a RX100 II, I thought I would share some photos of how the housing looks like with a bayonet adapter, since I have one attached to my 67mm screw mount of my housing.

My housing is an Aquapazza. They do have a removable port that can be switched between threaded and bayonet ports. However I bought my housing used that comes with a threaded port. So instead of spending more money to get the bayonet port, I just bought an adapter.

The adapter thickness is about 9-10mm. As you can see from the photos, the adapter does add a little more length to the port. When the wet lens is attached, it makes the wet lens farther away from camera lens that may creates some vignetting . Fortunately for my RX100 II with Inon UWL-H100+ dome, it doesn't.

Like some of the posts earlier, RX100 II and the later RX100s have different zoom range on the lens. So I am not sure if there will be any vignetting with other models. I guess different housing and lens brands too may produce different results.

The arm caddy for wet lenses in my opinion works well for macro lens. I find it not practical for wide angle lens+dome (I have mentioned this in another thread) because of the size and weight. I have since abandoned the idea of using it for my wide angle+dome, and bought a pouch for that purpose.

When switching lenses I will keep the wide angle+dome in this pouch attached to my BCD. I find this more convenient and practical.

 

[aurgolo]

Yes about the wideangle i have the same idea.... better to attach to the bcd
Actually i do the same for the bigeye i have for my g12

About housing... i need to understand better what is possible to do with the fantasea
At the moment not clear if i can use a bayonet adaptor or not

Im going to submit a list of questions to one online shoo i know in italy

 

[ggibson]

I also have the Acquapazza housing, but I'm just using the 67mm thread for my wide angle at the moment. Removing or switching lenses underwater feels impractical with a screw lens in my limited experience. At least that is true with my wide angle lens because it is pretty large and heavy.

I have thought about getting the bayonet adapter, but I wonder if it is worthwhile to be able to switch between wide/normal/macro during dives or just live with your choice before the dive. For those with bayonet, is it worthwhile? How often do you switch during dives?