I'm an fisheries scientist based on the West Coast USA. Traditionally, I have focused my underwater work in rivers of the Pacific Northwest, but recently been shooting pelagics during grad school in California. Soon, I'll be moving to Alaska and I'm looking to upgrade my setup for my new R5II.

For the past 5 years, I have shot with an R6, 8-15 F4, ikelite housing, and 8" dome. As I switch to an aluminum housing for the R5II, I'm prioritizing compact size to reduce drag in river shooting. Any tips here? I was recommended the WWL-C + RF 24-50, but read dismal reviews here. Now, I have shifted towards the Marelux housing and 140mm dome with my 8-15. I'd entertain a wet lens setup, if the size and IQ are competitive to the 8-15 fisheye & 140mm dome.

Any ideas are appreciated!

Hi Jiibby,

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The 8-15 and 140mm seems like the most sense to me, especially since you have the lens and can add a TC.

I do some casual river snorkeling in the PNW but haven't been able to shoot a salmon spawn yet.

The WWL-C is actually great, but would not work well for salmon as you are never deep enough to flood and remove all the bubbles from the wet mate optics.

And 8-15mm in the 140mm dome is my choice for snorkeling or shallow work. I've been shooting it with a TC recently and it is very good.

Hello and welcome, hope you enjoy the forums. On the topic of compact, if you really want to be compact I'd suggest asking if you really need a full frame sensor. There are of course reasons for going full frame, which might be publication demands, low light performance for fast moving subjects or you want it and are prepared to deal with the downsides.

Many people on here are advocates for smaller sensors as you can generally use them with smaller domes and particularly in m43 the lenses are smaller lighter and cheaper. I use m43 with an OM-1 and have an adapted Canon 8-15 which goes from a full 180° diagonal to the equivalent of a 28mm rectilinear lens, effectively a 15mm fisheye and a 14-28mm lens combined - in full frame equivalent terms. With the 8-15 and an APS-C or m43 system you could seriously look at using the Zen 4" dome which is tiny and very streamlined. Of course an 8-15 fisheye is neither cheap or light, it's a havy brick which contributes to bouyancy. Of course if a 180° diagonal fisheye is enough (and you were using that previously the tiny 8mm panasonic fisheye only weighs a few hundred grams and works perfectly with the 4"dome in m43.

Now the downside of going compact is that buoyancy drops away and the housing can become quite negative. My OM-1 with the Canon 8-15 and 140mm dome is nearly 1.8kg negative and I use two really large float arms to get it closer to neutral which if course adds back drag. This of course is an extreme case as the Canon 8-15 is quite heavy. You could sit the housing on a foam block to get some buoyancy, it would be something like 30x20x3 cm so quite a good size. I'm assuming you would be shooting natural light and not dealing with strobe arms? This of course is an extreme case as the Canon 8-15 is quite heavy.

The upside is that in aluminium housings, depending on which model you compare you could save enough $ on hardware costs to pay for a good portion of a dive trip to warmer waters. It's all a trade off.

Thanks all for the welcome! And I appreciate the advice.

5 hours ago, Grantmac said:

The 8-15 and 140mm seems like the most sense to me, especially since you have the lens and can add a TC.

5 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

The WWL-C is actually great, but would not work well for salmon as you are never deep enough to flood and remove all the bubbles from the wet mate optics.

And 8-15mm in the 140mm dome is my choice for snorkeling or shallow work. I've been shooting it with a TC recently and it is very good.

I'm leaning towards keeping the 8-15mm and using the 140mm with the marelux housing for the R5II. Any recommendations for the right TC to use? There's quite a few threads on here about this very topic, so I'll do my research. Also, a good note on flooding the wet lens, I read this might be a concern for pelagics/shallow water so good to hear it here.

2 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

On the topic of compact, if you really want to be compact I'd suggest asking if you really need a full frame sensor. There are of course reasons for going full frame, which might be publication demands, low light performance for fast moving subjects or you want it and are prepared to deal with the downsides.

This has been my exact thought process. I bought the R5II as an upgrade for topside wildlife photography, but as I look towards upgrading from my ikelite for UW work, I thought I may as well shift towards a housing for the R5. I definitely considered shifting to a smaller setup for underwater, but considering I already have the 8-15 and I just bought this new camera, I will probably stick with canon.

2 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

The upside is that in aluminium housings, depending on which model you compare you could save enough $ on hardware costs to pay for a good portion of a dive trip to warmer waters. It's all a trade off.

Love to hear that there are fellow PNW river divers. I'll definitely share a few of my images once I get my new setup. After the move to Alaska, I'm sure I will want to prioritize tropical vacations to defrost.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by jibby

Here is a tread about using the Canon 8-15mm f/4 fisheye with TCs:

It seems to me that for a Canon FF camera the Kenko Teleplus HD pro 1.4x DGX TC is the best (Kenko also has the Teleplus HD 1.4x DGX TC, but this one is optically inferior): https://kenkoglobal.com/product/teleplus_hd_pro_1_4x_dgx/

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Architeuthis