Will be visiting Maldives for the first time. Emperor Virgo liveaboard.

I am shooting a Canon 70d in Ikelite stuff. I wont be able to take every single lens and port I own, so I want to make an informed decision which ones to take.

For Wide Angle I have both a compact port and large port, with either 10-22mm or the 10-17 tokina. I am not really expecting any over unders so i am thinking just to take the smaller dome (5 inch precision dome). I am guessing the tokina is best (I used it for blue sharks in the azores as well on the longer end) .

I really have some doubts about taking a macro lens as well because of currents mentioned, and the chance that something big pops up when I am at 1:1

Same about strobes : wont be any use on the larger subjects, but on the blue sharks, i did use them as a fill light which worked ok.

Gerard

Activities in Iran/The Gulf and flights permitting (we're booked to travel through Doha!), I'm in the same position.

I'm planning to take a 10-17 Tokina for my D500 with a 100mm domeport - plus a 60mm macro. I've used both there before successfully. The 10-17 worked very well for manta shots.

I'm booked on a Maldives Liveaboard in April going through Doha as well Tim - making all sorts of backup plans!

In regards to to OP, Id say go with the smaller dome, easier in currents and travelling , only pixel peeping to a serious extent will show up with the different dome sizes with the 10-17 behind it.

I doubt very much all divers will be in currents and I will certainly be expecting to use my macro setup at times

Strobes will be very useful with large subjects like mantas, maybe not so much if you get lucky with whale sharks

If space or weight is a constraint I wouldn't bother with macro on this trip. You're going for pelagic actions in the channels, or for mantas at cleaning stations, not for critter hunting. Strong currents, 4 or 6:1 divers per group, dives are usually quite deep (25m, not 5/10m), and coral is in pretty bad shape overall.

Definitely bring the strobes. You'd probably do 1 or 2 night dives and these will be needed. You can also use them for CFWA.

Edited March 15Mar 15 by Johan

On 3/13/2026 at 8:42 AM, Cerianthus said:

Will be visiting Maldives for the first time. Emperor Virgo liveaboard.

I am shooting a Canon 70d in Ikelite stuff. I wont be able to take every single lens and port I own, so I want to make an informed decision which ones to take.

For Wide Angle I have both a compact port and large port, with either 10-22mm or the 10-17 tokina. I am not really expecting any over unders so i am thinking just to take the smaller dome (5 inch precision dome). I am guessing the tokina is best (I used it for blue sharks in the azores as well on the longer end) .

I really have some doubts about taking a macro lens as well because of currents mentioned, and the chance that something big pops up when I am at 1:1

Same about strobes : wont be any use on the larger subjects, but on the blue sharks, i did use them as a fill light which worked ok.

Gerard

Which itinerary will you be doing? If it's a southern one, or "sharktastic", i'd skip the macro one. If it's best of Maldives, there's macro choice, fish portraits typically, but also anemone fishes, and hawk fishes to shoot :)

masses of macro on the right dive site but the main thrust will be sharks and mantas

I would bolt a go-pro onto your rig when doing macro so if something huge turns up you can at least get some images or footage

I am on best of maldives. I am sure I can wrestle a macro lens in... Thanks everyone.

I'm back. Sharks were (quite often) pretty far away, so if I would go again, I might consider a teleconverter on the Tokina or a slightly longer. On its own, the tokina does shine when something gets close.....

PS, I was on the Emperor Virgo, I learned about the news of the fire on the Emperor Explorer on the way back. It happened the day we left but later.

Little late for the OP. Anyways I was in the neighborhood about the same time, went on the Voyager in March (Sharktastic route) and exclusively used a Nauticam WWL-C for a fullframe Nikon camera. That was a good alternative, a little less wide than the Tokina 10-17 on APS-C but full zoom through with a 24-50 lens.

Edited September 23Sep 23 by Christian K

Leaving for the Maldives in a few days. The Canon/Nauticam R50 made the cut with a CMC-2 macro diopter and my WWL-1 for wide angle and two Retra Maxi strobes. I am not Business or First Class so limited to one tiny personal item and one small carry on up to 7kg. Strobes, arms, WWL-1 will be checked, no way around it. Domestic to the Carib destinations I carry all that on but do not have the restrictive limits that international carriers seem to delight in. I do not see how y'all carry on all the domes and strobes -- ?

Edited September 26Sep 26 by Nemrod

On 9/25/2026 at 8:52 PM, Nemrod said:

Leaving for the Maldives in a few days. The Canon/Nauticam R50 made the cut with a CMC-2 macro diopter and my WWL-1 for wide angle and two Retra Maxi strobes. I am not Business or First Class so limited to one tiny personal item and one small carry on up to 7kg. Strobes, arms, WWL-1 will be checked, no way around it. Domestic to the Carib destinations I carry all that on but do not have the restrictive limits that international carriers seem to delight in. I do not see how y'all carry on all the domes and strobes -- ?

Yep, carry on weight won’t allow anything complete but some sort of compact p&s system. So for any a little more serious system, stuff has to be checked.

Good luck with your trip. The wwl (wacp) is the right choice for the Maldives inmo. Are you on a liveaboard?

On 9/26/2026 at 2:05 PM, Christian K said:

Yep, carry on weight won’t allow anything complete but some sort of compact p&s system. So for any a little more serious system, stuff has to be checked.

Good luck with your trip. The wwl (wacp) is the right choice for the Maldives inmo. Are you on a liveaboard?

Yes, you are right. I give up. I have the entire system in my suitcase. I put the housing in it's original padded bag in the suitcase and bubble wrapped my strobes. WWL in it's original padded case. I will have two checked bags right near the 50 pounds limit. Arrrgggh. Laptop and lipo batteries in my little carry on. And my few meds I seem to suddenly need, I guess.

On 5/11/2026 at 7:23 PM, Cerianthus said:

I'm back. Sharks were (quite often) pretty far away, so if I would go again, I might consider a teleconverter on the Tokina or a slightly longer. On its own, the tokina does shine when something gets close.....

PS, I was on the Emperor Virgo, I learned about the news of the fire on the Emperor Explorer on the way back. It happened the day we left but later.

I am in a similar situation: I was first time on Maledives in March 2026 (island of Omadhoo). I had Sony A7R5 with adapted Canon 8-15mm/2x Sony TC/Nauticam 140mm domeport for WA. Similar AOV'S compared to Tokina on APS-C.

Really great scenarios with plenty of reefsharks, that are unfeeded/unbaited and hence do not come close. Vis was not great and the particles in the water are too many in most cases and demand heavy postprocessing.

Here some sample photos:

#1.: 1/160s; f/9; ISO 400; 29,9mm; 2*HF-1 (4500K diffusers).

#2.: 1/200s; f/10; ISO500; 29,9mm; 2*HF-1 (4500K diffusers).

#3.: 1/200s; f/9; ISO 320; 24mm; 2* HF-1 (4500K).

In November we will return to Maledives (Rashdoo and Omadhoo again) and I am thinking now about equipment to take with me. One thing I have learned is that I will take this time the XL "shark arms" for the flashes with me (for better lighting and better avoiding the backscatter; XL&L arms instead of L&M)

Which WA setup seems the optimum (I have them all at home, but can take only one with me)?

A.: Canon 8-15mm/2x Sony TC/Nauticam 140mm again (my favorite):

Already at 30mm (fisheye) the vis plus particles are rate limiting. No benefit from a setup that would provide better zoom in-capabilities (as WACP-C). My only complaint is f/8 as the widest aperture that makes AF sometimes slow (when deeper).

B.: Sony 28-60mm/WACP-C:

Provides a little more zoom-in capability at similar IQ, but as explained, the more narrow AOV is not a real benefit. Aperture is wider, so AF may work a little better. For non-shark reefscenes I would, however, miss the diagonal 180° (only 130° with WACP-C).

C.: Sony 20-70mm (and Tokina 17-28mm)/Zen DP170:

Highest IQ and @20mm(@17mm) still good for the sharks/rays. No big scene, however.

Wolfgang

Edited September 29Sep 29 by Architeuthis

I've been trialing AF settings using my adapted Canon lenses and I think if you turn off live view the camera will use f8 for AF then close down to your selected aperture to take the shot. I have live view on the AEL button to judge background exposure.

Based on experiments with the Tokina 10-17 and Canon 60mm using the "advanced" red mode.

I'm curious if anyone else adapting lenses have trialed this?

4 minutes ago, Grantmac said:

I've been trialing AF settings using my adapted Canon lenses and I think if you turn off live view the camera will use f8 for AF then close down to your selected aperture to take the shot. I have live view on the AEL button to judge background exposure.

Based on experiments with the Tokina 10-17 and Canon 60mm using the "advanced" red mode.

I'm curious if anyone else adapting lenses have trialed this?

In the AF/MF submenue (A7R5), I have set "Aperture Drive" to the option "Focus priority". As far as I understand, the AF works then at the widest aperture possible and just closes down to the selected value immediately when the photo is taken...

AF most times is o.k. with Canon 8-15mm/2xTC (f/8 widest possible), but when light becomes dim it can struggles sometimes...

Concerning the brightness of the EVF during review, I have set "Setup>Finder/Monitor>Viewfinder Brightness" to "Manual" and set Brightness value there to "0" (=neutral)...

Edited September 29Sep 29 by Architeuthis

I will need to investigate whether my a7Riii has aperture drive as a setting, but my workaround seems to get the same affect and I like having the brighter image without the live view.

A fast native fisheye would be really useful although none seem to be looking to take a TC. The 10mm 7 Artisans AF 2.5MAX seems like the fastest we can get but obviously can't cover the same range.

6 hours ago, Architeuthis said:

I am in a similar situation: I was first time on Maledives in March 2026 (island of Omadhoo). I had Sony A7R5 with adapted Canon 8-15mm/2x Sony TC/Nauticam 140mm domeport for WA. Similar AOV'S compared to Tokina on APS-C.

Really great scenarios with plenty of reefsharks, that are unfeeded/unbaited and hence do not come close. Vis was not great and the particles in the water are too many in most cases and demand heavy postprocessing.

Here some sample photos:

#1.: 1/160s; f/9; ISO 400; 29,9mm; 2*HF-1 (4500K diffusers).

#2.: 1/200s; f/10; ISO500; 29,9mm; 2*HF-1 (4500K diffusers).

#3.: 1/200s; f/9; ISO 320; 24mm; 2* HF-1 (4500K).

In November we will return to Maledives (Rashdoo and Omadhoo again) and I am thinking now about equipment to take with me. One thing I have learned is that I will take this time the XL "shark arms" for the flashes with me (for better lighting and better avoiding the backscatter; XL&L arms instead of L&M)

Which WA setup seems the optimum (I have them all at home, but can take only one with me)?

A.: Canon 8-15mm/2x Sony TC/Nauticam 140mm again (my favorite):

Already at 30mm (fisheye) the vis plus particles are rate limiting. No benefit from a setup that would provide better zoom in-capabilities (as WACP-C). My only complaint is f/8 as the widest aperture that makes AF sometimes slow (when deeper).

B.: Sony 28-60mm/WACP-C:

Provides a little more zoom-in capability at similar IQ, but as explained, the more narrow AOV is not a real benefit. Aperture is wider, so AF may work a little better. For non-shark reefscenes I would, however, miss the diagonal 180° (only 130° with WACP-C).

C.: Sony 20-70mm (and Tokina 17-28mm)/Zen DP170:

Highest IQ and @20mm(@17mm) still good for the sharks/rays. No big scene, however.

Wolfgang

For the Maldives, the 70-130 degree WACP is optimal in most places. As you experienced, reef sharks are plentiful but do not get close enough… it is what it is. So a either crop or frame tighter. The 180 degree inmo would be for the whalesharks (which you likely won’t encounter in Rasdoo, but perhaps in S Ari —with a lot of snorkelers) and perhaps manta rays. Reef wiews… not that impressive. Good luck in the Maldives!

Maldives Shark-TV wwl @130 degrres Dfov

Maldives mantas 180 degree FE