My current ancient setup of a Canon 70D in a Nauticam housing/DS161 strobes and Tokina 10-17 with mini dome is basically EOL.

The Tokina is sticking on aperture blades a lot and seems to be discontinued with no way of obtaining a new one.

Going on that im looking at upgrade options.

I have a Canon R6 (mk1) for land use so the obvious route is to house that. Nauticam housings for the R6mk2 according to their site can also take the Mk1 with a kit they sell. Has anyone tried/done this or knows much about it?

That would seem sensible to me as i could use my Mk1 and a potential future Mk2 so extend the lifespan rather than have a disontinued housing for a discontinued body.

Further to that, lens options. Primarily i do wide angle. The crop 10-17 isnt an option so looking for equivalents.

What WA lenses are people currently using commonly underwater? Full frame fisheye, rectilinears and so on? Id want roughly the same field of view as i got previously. Im not a fan of full frame fisheye with large circles that need cropping though.

Canon 16-35 or similar or is that too narrow given its not fisheye? Sigma 15mm f/2.8 ? Canon EF 8–15 mm ?

Im happy to adapt EF lenses and not need just RF.

I already have a RF-16 f2.8 FWIW.


Its been so long since i looked at options can anyone suggest common lens WA setups and ports to go with the nauticam (or other options, WACP or whatever) ?

Strobes i guess ill have to keep for cost reasons but im currently utterly unable to find a new battery for my DS161 which is another issue.

Ideally i want to stick with Nauticam although i know i cant actually use the port or anything from the old setup sadly. Id look at buying likely here in Japan as with tax free etc its over £1,000 cheaper than the UK cost. Or happy to consider second hand - they never seem to come up though.

Also went FF from cropped recently (Nikon Dxxx:s of various generations in Hugyfot housings). Tokina 10-17, Nikon 10.5 and a Sigma 10-20 rectilinear was my work horses. Nauticams wet optics is what pulled me to them when I made the transition. They have rectilinear wide ones and a Fisheye one too. Some will cost you as a whole rig tho, which might or might not be an issue… I shoot Nikon FF so have limited info to share on specific Canon combos for wet lenses. If there’s a good 28-70 zoom it should be good with the WWL1B (guessing here based on Nikon and Sony solutions) and give 70-130 rectlinear degrees throughout the zoom. And then for 24-50 the WWWL1C giving the same FoV in a slightly smaller and very trave- friendly package. I hear the Canon 24-50 is sheit though. Can not say. Nikons z-version is very sharp (but a little plastic).

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Christian K

6 hours ago, Rich W said:

My current ancient setup of a Canon 70D in a Nauticam housing/DS161 strobes and Tokina 10-17 with mini dome is basically EOL.

The Tokina is sticking on aperture blades a lot and seems to be discontinued with no way of obtaining a new one.

Going on that im looking at upgrade options.

I have a Canon R6 (mk1) for land use so the obvious route is to house that. Nauticam housings for the R6mk2 according to their site can also take the Mk1 with a kit they sell. Has anyone tried/done this or knows much about it?

That would seem sensible to me as i could use my Mk1 and a potential future Mk2 so extend the lifespan rather than have a disontinued housing for a discontinued body.

Further to that, lens options. Primarily i do wide angle. The crop 10-17 isnt an option so looking for equivalents.

What WA lenses are people currently using commonly underwater? Full frame fisheye, rectilinears and so on? Id want roughly the same field of view as i got previously. Im not a fan of full frame fisheye with large circles that need cropping though.

Canon 16-35 or similar or is that too narrow given its not fisheye? Sigma 15mm f/2.8 ? Canon EF 8–15 mm ?

Im happy to adapt EF lenses and not need just RF.

I already have a RF-16 f2.8 FWIW.


Its been so long since i looked at options can anyone suggest common lens WA setups and ports to go with the nauticam (or other options, WACP or whatever) ?

Strobes i guess ill have to keep for cost reasons but im currently utterly unable to find a new battery for my DS161 which is another issue.

Ideally i want to stick with Nauticam although i know i cant actually use the port or anything from the old setup sadly. Id look at buying likely here in Japan as with tax free etc its over £1,000 cheaper than the UK cost. Or happy to consider second hand - they never seem to come up though.

There really isn't an equivalent to the Tokina lens in full frame and Canon unfortunately. The WWL is certainly an option - but in Canon that means going with the WWL-C and the Canon 24-50 in FF which is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, plus in my mind the WWL only sort of substitutes for a fisheye as the angle of view is quite a bit less - horizontal field of the fisheye is about 144° while the WWL is about 122° and the barrel distortion that pushes the subject forward in the frame and gives it prominence is starting to be less noticeable. You do get a little more reach with the WWL compared to the 10-17. (The Nikon 24-50 is a much better lens) I'm assuming you are not in the market for the $$$$ fisheye conversion port.

So what to do if you want to re-create the 10-17? First option is to find a second hand 10-17, should be straight forward to find a nice copy in Japan and use it on an EF-RF converter with an R7. Unfortunately a bit pricey though and Nauticam have handily changed to N100 port system on that model, meaning you would need the pricey 35.5mm N100-N120 adapter which you could use your current port on. The N100-N120 is half the price of a WWL though! Ikelite and Nauticam are the only options for an R7.

Next alternative might be an OM-1 (Mk I or II) in an Isotta housing used with an adapted 8-15., yes it's a smaller sensor, but IMO the image quality is a step up on a D70 and good enough for most purposes. It works really well with the adapted 8-15. Isotta as the components are much cheaper to house an adapted 8-15 this route. The 8-15 is an excellent option in this format and exactly replaces a 10-17 and adds some reach at the long end with excellent optical quality a very flexible setup.

You could use an 8-15 on a R6 but you'd not have any zoom capability for CFWA or more reach for shyer subjects but you might be able to use your current dome. The 8-15 is either 8mm circular of 15mm full frame 180° diagonal fisheye. The Nauticam R6II housing is about $1700 more than the Isotta at Backscatter. With the R6 MkI though your only option in new housings appears to be Isotta or Ikelite, Nuaticam seems discontinued. Some older Nauticam domes can be adapted to Isotta, but you may want something bigger than a mini dome for FF, probably the 140mm in Nauticam. We've already talked about a WWL-C with this above.

I suggest you add what you would need to spend with each option to see what you would be up for. The issue is that anything in full frame gets expensive quite fast, smaller formats are much more affordable in aluminium housings.

No Canon 28-70 that will work with the WWL1B?

I don’t see the WWL as a replacement for the 10-17 or any other fisheye. It is a rectilinear zoom. In my case, replacing a 10-20 or 10-24 crop sensor zoom behind a large dome port. Not sure what the Canon equiv. would have been (10-22?). If you have/get a Canon/Sigma 15 mm FE that works with a new Canon FF body, that would cover a lot of WA-needs in combo with a wet Nauticam-lens and a zoom. I’m waiting for a z-FE (perhaps in vain) as older FE:s won’t autofocus with the new Nikons, unless using adapters. Might come to that for me.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Christian K

1 hour ago, Chris Ross said:

So what to do if you want to re-create the 10-17? First option is to find a second hand 10-17, should be straight forward to find a nice copy in Japan and use it on an EF-RF converter with an R7. Unfortunately a bit pricey though and Nauticam have handily changed to N100 port system on that model, meaning you would need the pricey 35.5mm N100-N120 adapter which you could use your current port on. The N100-N120 is half the price of a WWL though! Ikelite and Nauticam are the only options for an R7.

Id rather use the R6 (full frame) purely as i already own one. The Nauticam website lists the R6 Mk2 housing as being compatible with the Mk1 with a "supplied kit".

https://www.nauticam.com/products/na-r6ii-housing-for-canon-eos-r6-ii-camera

"*A conversion kit is required for use with the original Canon ROS R6"

That at least means i could get an R6 mk2 (which is still made) and likely available second hand for several years longer even though the Mk1 no longer exists.

Splashing money on an R7 body and new housing just to use a lens not made since 2022 doesnt seem a great idea.

Ultimately i use my 10-17 currenly about 90% of shots at the 10mm end, rarely going to 17mm. FWIW i do very little macro at all. Typically 1 day on a week long trip if its somewhere nice but thats about it so WA is my main interest here.

WACPs and so on as well as being costly are heavy and luggage weight is another huge issue.

1 hour ago, Chris Ross said:

Next alternative might be an OM-1 (Mk I or II) in an Isotta housing used with an adapted 8-15., yes it's a smaller sensor, but IMO the image quality is a step up on a D70 and good enough for most purposes. It works really well with the adapted 8-15. Isotta as the components are much cheaper to house an adapted 8-15 this route. The 8-15 is an excellent option in this format and exactly replaces a 10-17 and adds some reach at the long end with excellent optical quality a very flexible setup.

Not ideal getting an entirely new system and then the luggage weight issues as id still be taking my R6 and the surface lenses on trips as well. Im already paying through the nose for excess fees sadly.

1 hour ago, Chris Ross said:

You could use an 8-15 on a R6 but you'd not have any zoom capability for CFWA or more reach for shyer subjects but you might be able to use your current dome. The 8-15 is either 8mm circular of 15mm full frame 180° diagonal fisheye.

If the 8-15 goes full frame above 14mm or so it might be tolerable as thats roughly the same as my existing 10mm now provided i remember ot to zoom out. I might be able to live with losing the zoom as im not sure id go wider than that anyway. Hard to say really.