Aloha everyone,

I am an underwater photographer based in Oahu, Hawaii. I work as a professional shark diver and photographer currently. I shoot mostly blue water with the primary subjects being sharks and people. I also run trips for Orcas and Humpback Whales so looking for opinions on if I should switch systems.

I currently use the R5mii with the 14-35 f4. I feel low it’s low light capabilities and metering give me issues in blue water so running auto iso is out of the picture as it wants to shoot extremely high. I have the wacp-2 and with the 14-35 it has vignetting in the corner so kind of defeats the purpose of using that lens. I do have the 15-35 as well. I am looking at buying the wacp-c and the 20-50 F4 lens that just released as that’s a way smaller setup to shoot and handle sharks with while giving me close focus and ultra wide fov.

I got an offer for a good price on a Sony a1 setup and they have the 20-50 2.8 lens which seems interesting to me. Would be much smaller and that extra low light capabilities for Norway with orcas is huge.

Has anyone used any of these cameras and the wacp-c setups that could give some insight to steer me one way. Feel free to msg me here, respond to this posts or IG@whotippedmycow

Thank you for your time and happy 4th!

A few considerations on upgrading as you know the widest lens that doesn't vignette for the WACP series is 28mm so both of the 20-50 lenses would need to zoom into 28mm in operation and you can't just get there by turning the dial out you have to look to see you have got to 28mm. I could see this being an issue when trying to work quickly.

Also neither 20-50 lens is on the WACP-C port charts as yet and particularly fast lenses might not work with the WACP-C, though the Sony 24-50 f2.8 is on the WACP-C port chart, but there appears to be a typo in the port chart and the line advising the zoom range is 28-50 seems to be missing. I believe they have a limit on entrance pupil size which impacts what lenses work in that system. Assuming you are looking at both lenses behind the WACP-C

The WACP-1/1B includes the Sony 20-70 f4 lens, but most of the lenses for that optic are also kit lenses.

What exactly is the concern with with the R-5II? I would have thought the sensor capabilities of the A1 and R5 II to be very close, Is there no option to cap maximum ISO when using auto ISO? It might be worth asking the question how Canon shooters handle blue water metering as well, could be a better option than a system switch?

The low light and metering are 2 concerns with the R5mii as well as dynamic range and hard to focus when scene is not contrasty enough. Norway with orcas is extreme lowlight conditions and I’ve seen good stuff from Sonys using wacp-c with 28mm lens so in theory the 20-50 would be ideal. With that said I know the wacp-c/1 work with 28mm so you would have to start there. For canon they may a zoom limiter for the 24-50 kit lens which blocks the 24-27 range. Also on R5mii you have a display at the bottom right corner which helps in this rare case if you do not have the limiter but it’s still annoying in a quick shot scenario.

I have the wacp2 with canon rf14-35 and it sucks because vignetting and it’s honestly worked better behind a 230mm dome for me.

The canon 20-50 f4 though seems like an interesting option but I still worry about the low light, metering and focusing issues when little contrast.

2 hours ago, WhoTippedMyCoW said:

The low light and metering are 2 concerns with the R5mii as well as dynamic range and hard to focus when scene is not contrasty enough. Norway with orcas is extreme lowlight conditions and I’ve seen good stuff from Sonys using wacp-c with 28mm lens so in theory the 20-50 would be ideal. With that said I know the wacp-c/1 work with 28mm so you would have to start there. For canon they may a zoom limiter for the 24-50 kit lens which blocks the 24-27 range. Also on R5mii you have a display at the bottom right corner which helps in this rare case if you do not have the limiter but it’s still annoying in a quick shot scenario.

I have the wacp2 with canon rf14-35 and it sucks because vignetting and it’s honestly worked better behind a 230mm dome for me.

The canon 20-50 f4 though seems like an interesting option but I still worry about the low light, metering and focusing issues when little contrast.

I don't know how much stock you place in DXO data, but here is a comparison of the R5 (mk I), R8 and Sony A1, they all seem pretty close in performance to me:

DXOMARK

Sony A1 vs Canon EOS R8 vs Canon EOS R5 | DXOMARK

The Canon 24-50 kit lens is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and there have been several posts about its relatively poor performance. As far as AF performance goes the specs say the AF sensitivity on the R5 II is -6 - 21EV while the min for the A1 is -4EV, seems close but the devil is in the details of how they measure that. Probably best to see if you find some land based reviews to see what that means in real life as there are probably not many who have shot both underwater and with blue water pelagic experience.

You could also ask a question on the forum about settings people use for sharks/whales in lower light on your R5 II to compare with what you do. Looking at things like AF mode - single vs continuous, various AF settings and which AF points you use etc.

Also faster lenses should generally provide more light for AF assuming that AF occurs with the lens wide open. I see that the EF 28mm f1.8 and f2.8 primes are listed as working with the WACP 1B. Again on these optics there is an entrance pupil limitation, favouring slower lenses and my understanding is that this is why the range of lenses listed in the port charts is limited.

6 hours ago, WhoTippedMyCoW said:

I got an offer for a good price on a Sony a1 setup and they have the 20-50 2.8

So you insist on shooting f2.8 for low light underwater and that’s you goal ?

Congratulations… expect dismal performance of your high $$$ gear!

Cranking up the ISO a few stops will give you better results then spending tons of $$$ on one more camera or lens.

If you are desperately in search for an F2.8 candidate try to get that Canon RF 28-70mm F2.8 IS STM running behind your WACP and maybe live with a slightly limited zoom range on the Tele end.

Also have a look if you can fit the RF28MM pancake prime behind your WACP.