Waterproof GoPro 15X lens Options?

[brightnight]

There are people using a GoRpo 15x magnification snap on lens underwater and getting great results and people who have had the same cameras fox instantly. Has anyone had success with the 15x magnification snap on lenses underwater that they can link to? Some lenses specifically say "not waterproof" and others don't mention anything. If it was waterproof they would mention it so looking for real world experiences. I'm specifically looking for this type of snap on lens, not the fold over options or options that require modification.

 

 

 

Edited September 24 by brightnight

[PeterN]

If it actually works and works underwater that would be awesome.  One of my biggest complaints about the GoPro is not having many options for macro video/photo.  

[Nikolausz]

After a quick search I have 2 problems with this lens:

1. It's probably too large to fit into the standard dive case

2. Based on the examples the image quality is really bad. Only the centre is sharp and the corners are really blurry and it's still not macro.

 

[brightnight]

6 hours ago, Nikolausz said:

After a quick search I have 2 problems with this lens:

1. It's probably too large to fit into the standard dive case

2. Based on the examples the image quality is really bad. Only the centre is sharp and the corners are really blurry and it's still not macro.

 

 

I completely agree. I'll only be shallow <20ft so won't need an extra dive case. The video I've seen have not been super sharp. GoPro does offer a "GoPro macro lens mod" which is waterproof but also states "1Macro Lens Mod is not intended for use under water", so the it must be pretty bad underwater. Still haven't found a good solution. 

[Nikolausz]

3 hours ago, brightnight said:

 

I completely agree. I'll only be shallow <20ft so won't need an extra dive case. The video I've seen have not been super sharp. GoPro does offer a "GoPro macro lens mod" which is waterproof but also states "1Macro Lens Mod is not intended for use under water", so the it must be pretty bad underwater. Still haven't found a good solution. 

Have you considered the AOI UCL-03?

https://www.aoi-uw.com/products/wet-lenses/aoi-ucl-03.html

[brightnight]

3 hours ago, Nikolausz said:

Have you considered the AOI UCL-03?

https://www.aoi-uw.com/products/wet-lenses/aoi-ucl-03.html

 

I have not, thanks for the suggestion. At first look the 40mm (min.) to 78mm (max.) worries me but will dig deeper. I'm looking to mount a gopro on the bottom and leave it for a few hours with the goal to focus close up to infinity to film fish near and far. 

 

I could also just glue the macro lens on with some silicone. Edges aren't sharp but that's at least another option. At shallow depth I'd think it would be ok.

Edited September 25 by brightnight

[Davide DB]

If huge depth of filed is your goal then the classic AOI UWL 03 (or Inon equivalent) is your friend. My experiments with trouts show that you get objects in focus nearly on lens dome with exceptional quality. @Nikolausz YT channel has several examples of what you can achieve with it.

 

ciao

[brightnight]

7 hours ago, Davide DB said:

If huge depth of filed is your goal then the classic AOI UWL 03 (or Inon equivalent) is your friend. My experiments with trouts show that you get objects in focus nearly on lens dome with exceptional quality. @Nikolausz YT channel has several examples of what you can achieve with it.

 

ciao

 

 

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for. I was planning on using a Digi-power pack for extended run time but every image I see of the AOI UWL 03 has it mounted on a GoPro underwater housingnull. Can I mount the lens directly to a Gopro without an underwater housing and do you know if there will be interferance issues with the Digi-power pack? I'll be in shallow water and want extended run time of the GoPro.

[Davide DB]

Yes of course.

Didi you read my old thread on this topic? We linked it already.

 

https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/616-inon-and-aoi-wide-angle-wet-lenses-for-gopros/?do=findComment&comment=3616

 

and

 

https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/616-inon-and-aoi-wide-angle-wet-lenses-for-gopros/page/2/#comment-2924

 

 

Basically you need:

• a 52mm screw adapter for the gopro lens.
• a 52mm screw adapter for the AOI lens.
• some DIY skill to modify the gopro lens screw adapter *

The 52mm gopro lens screw adapter holds onto the gopro lens cover with a small hexagonal screw. My adapter had two holes, and I fitted an extra screw.

The lens is very heavy and when you mount everything, the weight tends to pull off the gopro lens cover with great risk. Sometimes it doesn't come off but the lens cover loses water resistance under the weight of the lens. The only solution is to handle it with extreme care.

The AOI lens is a wet lens so I drilled two 1mm small holes to facilitate water leakage between the lens and the screw adapter and then covered it with tape because I was afraid of light penetration.

There is no vignetting in the water.

Later I also added an additional ring to distance the lens and lens cover from the gopro to try to solve some strange problems I was experiencing. It's all written in the thread. 
I could never figure out what the source of the problem was.

This year if I try again, I will try to make with a 3D printer a standard bayonet mount to use directly with the Digipower and eliminate the screw mount which is very delicate.

[Nikolausz]

30 minutes ago, brightnight said:

 

 

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for. I was planning on using a Digi-power pack for extended run time but every image I see of the AOI UWL 03 has it mounted on a GoPro underwater housingnull. Can I mount the lens directly to a Gopro without an underwater housing and do you know if there will be interferance issues with the Digi-power pack? I'll be in shallow water and want extended run time of the GoPro.

You need an underwater housing. I considered this option and the only reasonable solution I found was the combination of the following 2 items:

 https://www.panoceanphoto.com/t-housing-h10-power

 

https://actionpro.de/produkt/adapter-fuer-inon-objektive-t-housing-h10-power/

 

Another alternative is to buy a DJI Osmo Action 5 pro, that has a much better battery life.

[Davide DB]

Just now, Nikolausz said:

You need an underwater housing. I considered this option and the only reasonable solution I found was the combination of the following 2 items:

 https://www.panoceanphoto.com/t-housing-h10-power

 

https://actionpro.de/produkt/adapter-fuer-inon-objektive-t-housing-h10-power/

 

Another alternative is to buy a DJI Osmo Action 5 pro, that has a much better battery life.

 

Yes, from what I read an Action 5 pro has the same runtime of a gopro 11 + digipower. Unbelievable!

 

P.S.

I would like to have a Digipower for the DJI Osmo Action 5 pro 😄

 

[sinetwo]

Interestingly I was just looking at this. 

 

I'm probably getting the AOI wide lens, as it'll help me do close focus wide angle style shots. 

 

However, the only macro specific lens I could find was the Macromate +15? The corners (which are HUGE!) look really bad in all the footage I've seen. 

 

Is there an option here to film in 5.3K, use the macromate +15, and then crop to 4K to enable more center sharpness? 

 

I'd love to hear about, or ideally see, gopro macro capabilities. I'm off to Tulamben soon and I'm thinking of entering the video part of the competition for the first time ☺ 

[bghazzal]

17 hours ago, sinetwo said:

Interestingly I was just looking at this. 

 

I'm probably getting the AOI wide lens, as it'll help me do close focus wide angle style shots. 

 

However, the only macro specific lens I could find was the Macromate +15? The corners (which are HUGE!) look really bad in all the footage I've seen. 

 

Is there an option here to film in 5.3K, use the macromate +15, and then crop to 4K to enable more center sharpness? 

 

I'd love to hear about, or ideally see, gopro macro capabilities. I'm off to Tulamben soon and I'm thinking of entering the video part of the competition for the first time ☺ 

 I recently sold my Macromate+15 - the original idea was for it to be used in narrow mode - then as GoPros were updated, you were supposed to zoom in, which caused problems as the zoom was touch-screen controlled and would reset.

That said, you can use it in linear and get ok results. It's just very fiddly, because it's difficult to nail the correct focusing distance.

The Inon accessory focus brackets seen here would certainly help:

as would the new focus peaking functions which have been introduced.

I didn't get conclusive results when I played around with cropping in, but there was no 5.3K at the time.

 

The newer AOI / Inon lenses are probably easier to use than the Macromate, with less corner distortion.

For Tulamben, you'll have a lot of nudis which are both a little boring on film but also not super difficult to shoot - a tripod would be preferable. More mobile subjects like ghostpipe fish or active frogfish might be a little trickier in terms of focus, but with peaking, who knows.
Just look into it and play around with focusing before the shoot - you'll find tons of still pictures of Tulamben subjects here, for video there a few of mine here , but these are on a compact (I mostly dive in Amed now, as it's more flexible for me).
I actually sold my MacroMate to Fresh Fins diving in Amed, and the owner is mostly shooting on a a GoPro with the Macromate in Amed and Tulamben, so take a look at his footage here: https://www.instagram.com/freshfinsdiving/

Let us know how it goes, macro on the GoPro has always been tricky, but the newly introduced focus peaking function might be what we were waiting for...

cheers

ben

 

 

[sinetwo]

3 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Let us know how it goes, macro on the GoPro has always been tricky, but the newly introduced focus peaking function might be what we were waiting for...

 

Is focus peaking available only on 13 or 12 as well?

 

3 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Just look into it and play around with focusing before the shoot - you'll find tons of still pictures of Tulamben subjects here, for video there a few of mine here , but these are on a compact (I mostly dive in Amed now, as it's more flexible for me).

Lovely video as well! This will be my 4th trip to tulamben. I'm going to do everything I can to avoid the nudis and focus on everything else 🙂

[brightnight]

Grrr, Backscatter is out of stock of the AOI 0.73X Ultra-Wide Lens and won't have any for another 2 weeks. Haven't been able to find a second source in the USA. Would need to get 1 or two in the next 7 days. Any suggestions? Been googling with no luck...

[ChipBPhoto]

4 hours ago, brightnight said:

Grrr, Backscatter is out of stock of the AOI 0.73X Ultra-Wide Lens and won't have any for another 2 weeks. Haven't been able to find a second source in the USA. Would need to get 1 or two in the next 7 days. Any suggestions? Been googling with no luck...

Try Reef Photo in Ft Lauderdale.  They also sell the AOI products. 
 

[brightnight]

1 hour ago, ChipBPhoto said:

Try Reef Photo in Ft Lauderdale.  They also sell the AOI products. 
 

 

Appreciate the suggestion, they don't have any in stock unfortunately. 

[Nikolausz]

8 hours ago, brightnight said:

 

Appreciate the suggestion, they don't have any in stock unfortunately. 

You may try to search for INON UFL-G140SD, which is very similar to the AOI lens. Some even suggested that AOI copied Inon's optical formula (I don't know). It's more expensive though.

[brightnight]

19 hours ago, Nikolausz said:

You may try to search for INON UFL-G140SD, which is very similar to the AOI lens. Some even suggested that AOI copied Inon's optical formula (I don't know). It's more expensive though.

 

That's a good idea, probably my best bet in the short term but I was already grumbling about a $200 AOI lens for a GoPro  🙂

 

I need to do more investigation....not a big fan of fisheye video look but maybe for one camera it would be ok or I can wait it out depending on when backscatter gets them in. I assume the 52mm adapter with the AOI lens as @Davide DB had done won't work and I'd have to use the Inon SD Adapter mount, which won't work with the Digipower packs. Grrr.