Thinking about buying an RX100 V rig. Any Suggestions?

[ggibson]

One quick FYI about the Sony housing (and I assume Meikon also) that support all RX100 models do not provide optimal wet lens alignment on the I and II models. These models have a slightly different lens placement on the body that does not align to the center of the port. I have no idea how this affects real world performance in the end, but Sony have stated that wet lenses are not compatible with the I and II in their housing.

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

"Incorrect. You just have to buy the right Inon, made for the corresponding Sony."

Can you please let me know which model that is? I'm kind of curious now, didn't know they have a newer wide lens. I just looked at their lineup and don't see anything that hasn't been around for 5+ years, so it's all geared towards compacts with minimum effective focal length of 28+ mm.
INON Attachment Lens [Lineup]

(btw I know their compatibility tables say the lenses work with M3-M5 models, but any -28 series wide angle wouldn't work with M5 at wide angle end of the zoom without heavy vignette) I even get minor vignetting at 28mm with my UWL-H100 on M2

They would vignette on RX100 4/5 and require zooming in to 28mm which negates much of the wide angle view.

Btw, my general view of cameras is you buy the cheapest tool to do the job properly. I get the feeling with many Sony cameras of late, they cram them with features which are akin to putting $500 racing tires on a minivan. $1000 for a compact is overkill because you can just step up to M4/3 for that price, or heck...I even got a Canon 6D body for that price and enjoy much nicer above water IQ

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I left the country traveling several weeks and haven't had internet. I have the Fantasea FRX100-V housing (fits RX100s M3, M4, M5) and the Inon UWL-H100 28M67 - Type 2 (without the optional dome; but I don't see that mattering). It does not vignette underwater.

Not sure whether this is the situation, but it wouldn't surprise me if a housing originally designed for RX100 M1/M2 (and simply refitted for the newer models without a proper redesign for the wider focal length) vignetted. Anyway, buy whatever works for you and have fun!

 

[Barmaglot]

Here's a potentially silly question: does it really matter if you have to zoom in to 28mm with a wet wide lens? If the lens is designed to produce a, say, 135 degree FoV at 28mm, you're still getting those 135 degrees - if you want a wider field of view, just get a lens that provides it. If anything, you may be getting a slight boost in image quality, since, as I understand, zoom lenses tend to lose some sharpness towards the extreme ends of their zoom range.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I have a RX100IV in a Nauticam housing with the vacuum on a full tray, a focus light on top, and 2 strobes. I have 2 ultralight 8" arms on each side and am using 8 jumbo floats. It is about -1.5 pounds negative with this set up, though that was without the focus light. It vignettes in this housing so I just zoom in a little. I also have the UWL-H100 like @Boaty McBoatface but have the dome port. For macro, I am using the Nauticam CMC.

I am more than happy with it. A quick sample of photos is available at @outofofficebrb • Instagram photos and videos - they are the first set of pictures that are most recent. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Edited to add: the vacuum addition to the housing was worth it. It was excellent peace of mind while on a recent liveaboard. Green light means go! I would get in the habit of setting up my camera at least a 30 min to 60 minutes before a dive and would let it sit vacuumed before taking it into the water. During the dive, I have visual (and audible via moisture sensor) confirmation about the integrity. I changed camera batteries every 2 dives and strobe batteries every 3 or 4 dives so I was opening the housing at least 2X a day. On a night dive, the green light is quite visible and it was easy to see that my camera was on the dinghy with me before leaving the "mothership" and also which one it was among the black cameras on the boat.

 

[bintang_shrimp]

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I left the country traveling several weeks and haven't had internet. I have the Fantasea FRX100-V housing (fits RX100s M3, M4, M5) and the Inon UWL-H100 28M67 - Type 2 (without the optional dome; but I don't see that mattering). It does not vignette underwater.

Not sure whether this is the situation, but it wouldn't surprise me if a housing originally designed for RX100 M1/M2 (and simply refitted for the newer models without a proper redesign for the wider focal length) vignetted. Anyway, buy whatever works for you and have fun!

Well that's good info, but I even get very slight vignetting at wide zoom (28mm equivalent) with RX100 MK2 and I have the same lens. Everyone I've heard of/read who used older lenses like UWL-h100 and stepped up to newer RX100 had to zoom in slightly because at the widest 24mm equivalent they were getting vignetting. Maybe your housing forces the camera lens very close to the port glass?

 

[bintang_shrimp]

I have a RX100IV in a Nauticam housing with the vacuum on a full tray, a focus light on top, and 2 strobes. I have 2 ultralight 8" arms on each side and am using 8 jumbo floats. It is about -1.5 pounds negative with this set up, though that was without the focus light. It vignettes in this housing so I just zoom in a little. I also have the UWL-H100 like @Boaty McBoatface but have the dome port. For macro, I am using the Nauticam CMC.

I am more than happy with it. A quick sample of photos is available at @outofofficebrb • Instagram photos and videos - they are the first set of pictures that are most recent. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Edited to add: the vacuum addition to the housing was worth it. It was excellent peace of mind while on a recent liveaboard. Green light means go! I would get in the habit of setting up my camera at least a 30 min to 60 minutes before a dive and would let it sit vacuumed before taking it into the water. During the dive, I have visual (and audible via moisture sensor) confirmation about the integrity. I changed camera batteries every 2 dives and strobe batteries every 3 or 4 dives so I was opening the housing at least 2X a day. On a night dive, the green light is quite visible and it was easy to see that my camera was on the dinghy with me before leaving the "mothership" and also which one it was among the black cameras on the boat.

Do you have to zoom in slightly to avoid vignetting with the UWL-H100?

 

[outofofficebrb]

Do you have to zoom in slightly to avoid vignetting with the UWL-H100?

Yes, but not a big deal. It doesn’t drastically change the composition of the subject or photo. I have the UWL-H100 with the dome port. It’s minimal zooming. I also have strobes with a pretty high guide number so if I really feel it changes anything, I just reverse fin slightly and blast my strobes on a higher guide number to ensure it still reaches the subject.

 

[bintang_shrimp]

Yes, but not a big deal. It doesn’t drastically change the composition of the subject or photo. I have the UWL-H100 with the dome port. It’s minimal zooming. I also have strobes with a pretty high guide number so if I really feel it changes anything, I just reverse fin slightly and blast my strobes on a higher guide number to ensure it still reaches the subject.

Ok that explains things better, thank you for clarification. You probably just get back to where it behaves like an older RX100 model with 28mm equivalent focal length. But then you're just wasting the feature of the later model you paid big money for, and you're still losing the 70-100mm final zoom range which is vital for macro. Nauticam makes the WWL lens specifically for this, so you can get full wide angle on your model and the results are spectacular, but it costs over $1000

 

[outofofficebrb]

Ok that explains things better, thank you for clarification. You probably just get back to where it behaves like an older RX100 model with 28mm equivalent focal length. But then you're just wasting the feature of the later model you paid big money for, and you're still losing the 70-100mm final zoom range which is vital for macro. Nauticam makes the WWL lens specifically for this, so you can get full wide angle on your model and the results are spectacular, but it costs over $1000

I looked at the WWL lens and did a lot of research. I didn’t think it was leaps and bounds better to justify the cost difference. Plus, you’d have to get the buoyancy collar (ugh so bulky) or figure out integrated buoyancy arms (more money, of course) because it's much heavier. I'm already maxed out on the jumbo floats so adding more to the arms wasn't an option. Once I switch to macro, those integrated buoyancy arms would be too buoyant for the rig. I had a pretty in-depth discussion about it with the folks at Backscatter and they were like if money's no object, do it, but honestly, the Inon that I have or even the Dyron is pretty good.

I don't have a V so I didn't pay any premium for a newer model. I have a IV and before buying the IV, also did a lot of research to comparer it to the V which indicated that battery performance was not as good as the IV. Focusing is faster for the V among some of the improvements but once put in an underwater housing and in an underwater environment, the premium for the V was not recommended.

If you PM me your e-mail address, I can send you some macro photos (higher res than what I can link you to) that I took in Lembeh with the CMC lens from Nauticam. I think it did an excellent job capturing detail.

 

[bintang_shrimp]

I looked at the WWL lens and did a lot of research. I didn’t think it was leaps and bounds better to justify the cost difference. Plus, you’d have to get the buoyancy collar (ugh so bulky) or figure out integrated buoyancy arms (more money, of course) because it's much heavier. I'm already maxed out on the jumbo floats so adding more to the arms wasn't an option. Once I switch to macro, those integrated buoyancy arms would be too buoyant for the rig. I had a pretty in-depth discussion about it with the folks at Backscatter and they were like if money's no object, do it, but honestly, the Inon that I have or even the Dyron is pretty good.

I don't have a V so I didn't pay any premium for a newer model. I have a IV and before buying the IV, also did a lot of research to comparer it to the V which indicated that battery performance was not as good as the IV. Focusing is faster for the V among some of the improvements but once put in an underwater housing and in an underwater environment, the premium for the V was not recommended.

If you PM me your e-mail address, I can send you some macro photos (higher res than what I can link you to) that I took in Lembeh with the CMC lens from Nauticam. I think it did an excellent job capturing detail.

I agree WWL isn't worth it because there comes a point when you can just get a cheaper SLR. I've played around with a friend's V version for macro. I'm sure you can make good macro photos, but you can't change the optical physics. You will still lose the close-up ability at the zoom range. Whether or not you care is a different story. Plus the lenses I like to use like Seubsee or Saga require some zooming in to avoid vignetting so losing the long end of the range would suck. I generally wouldn't use any lens like Inon UCL or CMC at wide end (1-1.5x zoom) even though they work, because of pretty terrible chromatic aberrations.

So anyway, back to original point of this thread. I wouldn't recommend anyone spend the 2-3x the money on a later model vs. just getting a cheaper II. It has everything you'd need and any extras are useless addons that don't improve the photos. I compared image quality and high ISO performance across two models I had access to, and checked the DPreview charts, there's almost no difference in image quality between II and later models. The wider aperture is meaningless for our purposes, because nobody uses F1.8 or F2.8 even underwater with wet lenses, due to crap sharpness and/or low depth of field.