Hi everyone,

just found this community as I'm in the process of buying my first UW setup. I've been a professional photographer for going on 20 years, but only just started out underwater, been using rented gear, Nauticam and Ikelite thus far. My work's mostly in commercial shoots, so I'll probably need some longer lenses and less fisheye/extreme wide angle than most people use around here.

I'll probably go with the Nauticam for my R5 II, as I have a tether solution available for it, but I'm split between the 180 and 230 mm dome. I like that the 180 can work more like a flat port with longer lenses, but the 230 offers more overall sharpness.

My ideal lens choices would be the (newish)RF 16-28 2.8 and 28-70 2.8, but obviously neither are in the port charts. Does anyone have experience 3D-printing the focus gears? Don't think the 15-35 L and 24-70 L are in my budget at the moment.

I'm also eyeing adapting to EF and getting the 16-35 L and 24-70 L, but the EF port chart only shows the 8.5 " acrylic port for the 24-70. Has anyone used it on the 180 mm port? Is there a reason why it wouldn't work? Definitely don't want acrylic, as my experience with Ikelite had it scratching just by looking at it funny.

Thanks so much for any help!

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Christoph

Hey Christoph

Given where you are coming from and the equipment you already have, I can totally understand your lens choices. Just a couple of things to bear in mind, Id suggest:

Unless you are using wet lens attachments, largely driven by Nauticam, the lens choices for u/w tend to be extreme: fisheyes (15mm for FF, 10-15mm with APS-C sensors), extreme wide-angle rectilinear; then macro - typically 105mm with an FF sensor. The reason being that you want to minimise the amount of water between the camera and the subject. This can be trickier with mid-range type zooms.

Forgive me if I'm reciting something of which you are fully aware, but I thought it worth a mention in terms of longer-term planning of lens choices and equipment.

Hi Tim,

I will admit that my choices are still pretty informed by my topside photography, so I appreciate your input.

I'm also considering the RF 15-35 2.8 L as my base lens and the 50 1.8 and 85 Macro to expand my range to a certain degree. I saw that I might need a diopter for the 50 on the 180 dome, does anyone if it works on the 230? Same for the 85, anyone has any data on it?

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Christoph