I had an assignment last year to film freshwater underwater scenes for a nature movie "Ungezähmt - Im Fluss des Lebens". Mainly catfish behaviour, including hunting during the night.

The equipment I used was a Sony A6400 with a SEL1018 (10-18 mm f4) lens with 2 video lights (weefine Smart Focus 6000). I managed to shoot enough material and the film was recently shown on DasErste (available on the mediathek from Germany (use VPN) : https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/erlebnis-erde/ungezaehmt-im-fluss-des-lebens/das-erste/Y3JpZDovL21kci5kZS9zZW5kdW5nLzI4MTA2MC8yMDI0MTAyMTIwMTUvZXJsZWJuaXMtZXJkZS0xNTI )

 

I was not completely happy with the night results and I was thinking about potential improvements and even considered to switch to full-frame (A7S3 or FX3) but the upgrade cost would have been really high. Finally I addressed this with a fast APS-C prime lens (SEL11mm f1.8)  and I'm really happy with the results. It works perfectly with my current housing (Seafrogs) with 6 inch port. More than 2 F-stops gain (compared to the F4 zoom), sharp, fast AF and it's only around 500 euro. I'm surprised that it's not really discussed yet on waterpixel forums.

You can see some examples on my YT channel:

 

 

 Has anybody else used this lens?

Did you use the SEL11mm on that clip? Looks nice, and I like the music. Seems that would be a good focal length for APS-c video and stills.

Edited October 26, 20241 yr by humu9679

14 hours ago, humu9679 said:

Did you use the SEL11mm on that clip? Looks nice, and I like the music. Seems that would be a good focal length for APS-c video and stills.

Yes, I used only the SEL11 for this video. It's a perfect for wide angle videos (on APS-C).

Now, I 'm looking for something similarly priced good quality around 20mm.