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Updated the Lens descriptions to better describe the lenses: AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED (**This ultra wide-angle lens, designed exclusively for use with Nikon’s DX-format, provides a versatile wide-angle zoom perspective.) AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Tokina AT-X Fisheye DX 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Kenko N-AF 1.4X Teleplus Pro 300 Teleconverter AF-S DX Nikkor 55-200 f/4-5.6G ED VR (for topside photos) (**Big versatility. Compact design.Powerful DX-format 3.6x zoom lensThe AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 55–200mm f/4-5.6G ED offers compact versatility with a powerful focal length range of 55-200mm designed exclusively for Nikon DX-format DSLRs. It’s an ideal 3.6x zoom lens for portraiture, sports or wildlife photography and an excellent companion to the AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18–55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED.) ** These statements came from the nikonusa.com website

Going diving in 10 days and will see if i can analyze. The hose is stiff. Will provide more feedback as I troubleshoot the issue.

Yep, we stayed at Buceo but way back in December 2017. Black sand diving, definitely macro, accommodation was arranged up a steep hill, all boat diving with no house reef. Thats about the best I can do!

Good points. Thank you. If Tim does not chime in, I may send him a message. I can see that both are solid choices. Do you feel the shore dives on the house reefs are more-or-less equal or is one of them "better." Not sure I wold spend much time there given the number of boat locations available, but curious.

No worries. One thing I didn’t mention before is the amount of open space at each place. Crystal Blue essentially takes up the slope with buildings and decks and has little in the way of gardens around it. Buceo is much more open feeling with lots of green. They are not so far apart so there is no difference in access or travel time to dive sites. Maybe Tim will chime in too about Buceo, I know he liked it very much. Both are nicely done in their own way and I don’t think you can go wrong at either. Being around Mike and his vast experience and enthusiasm for a week should be factored into the decision as well.

Guys, Just to let you know, if someone contemplates replacing the front glass element of a Subal macro port with the curved front element of the Zen WA-100 EP port, it will not work. The front glass element of the Subal port is about 99.9 mm, whilst the one on the Zen WA-100 EP port is about 103.8 mm. I was led to believe their sizes were the same, but it turned out they are not.

I was thinking about WeeFine WED-7 or -5 Pro underwater monitor…

For me there is a very significant improvement with long macros as well, though different people have different standards for what is/isn't acceptable.

Hi Michi, I normally use the Nauticam 35.5mm N100/N120 adapter plus the 25mm&35mm N120 extensions (totally 60mm) for the Nauticam 140mm domeport. When 8-15mm fisheye alone, I take just the 30mm N120 extension... User Dreifish made careful testing for ideal positioning with regard to entrance pupil and recommends 5mm more. I tested this also, but did not find a noticeable difference in IQ and often the raw files showed vignetting, probably due to sensor IS and unstable holding of the setup...

All of the strobes have fired at least 1000 times now, HF-1 tens of thousands at least. I won't be doing any static in water testing.

This has been an excellent rig for me over the years. I just got a new rig for a Nikon D850. Looking forward to your DM.

Didn't you make A/B comparison yet (just topside shots)? My commlite is on it's way...

So... update! This is what I heard. S&S made some trials with existing ports but didn't get very good results. Apparently they now aim to design and produce a new flat port suitable for 24-50 and WWL-C use, and also a 24-50 zoom gear. Hopefully this will exist in about three months. If that turns to reality, it's very good news for me. Much more wallet friendly than switching to Nauticam everything.

yeah, 8-15 without TC is a beauty... sharpness and microcontrast are TOP!

you're welcomed. Have you decided on monitor yet? Curious.

Thx for your Feedback! Good to know! I once had an issue underwater with strange Camera behavior after several overheating warnings (in normal Mode)… I am about to buy a monitor…

oopsie ... was on an orca trip back then and didnt check back... not wanting to be seen as ignorant 🙈 no worries about heat damage again, camera will switch itself off well ahead of such problem even with temp set to HIGH as for the monitor - using it achieves 2 goals. One is "heat from lcd screen operation elimination" - you can leave screen off in both 'clean hdmi' and 'control display' and second is the battery longevity as LCD does consume energy. But even with this I can overheat the camera - especially when I keep recording after pressing wrong lever (you know that rocker lever one for recording and the other side for focus) I leave camera recording for many minutes accidentally 🙈🤣 (and i have no idea since I am not looking at the camera at all, I am only using clean HDMI on monitor which doesnt show controls) 🤣

Just want to report back that I am using the 8-15mm fisheye with Kenko 1.4x and 2.0x TC on a Canon, unable to take advantage of the Sony 2.0x TC…. but… … recently I got myself the comlite EF RF and modified it to host the Canon RF 1.4x TC. I am really curious to try this and consider buying also the RF 2.0x TC to upgrade my IQ by a small fraction.

I think this supports also the 5% measurement and test + item variation delta I previously pointed out. Also a fresh from the factory strobe will be brighter than one that already has fired a few hundred shots. So no need in beating a dead horse and over-doing and over-interpreting these land tests. What would be interesting though is a beam (1-1.5m) wall test submerged in water to see the different dome and reflector designs come into play.

Hi Wolfgang, thx a lot! What Extension Rings are you using? Do you have Any clue about the Max coverage field angle for a „180 degree view 8-15 fisheye“ plus 2 x to at the windest end (without zooming in)? Can be also rough or in mm equivalent!?

Hi Michael, I used Sony 1.4x, 2x, Kenko 1.4x HD Pro and Kenko 2x TCs with the Canon 8-15mm. One can use them all... It is difficult to predict how a WA fisheye lens will perform with a TC, as all TC were not designed for this use... I got best results, regarding IQ, with Sony 2x and Kenko 1.4x HD Pro, the other two TCs performed less good. Surprisingly, Sony 1.4x performed not better (maybe even a bit worse) compared to Sony 2x... With Kenko 1.4x HD Pro the extension is the same as with Sony 2x, so you can use the same zoomgear (at least one can use the same 3D printed extension ring for the "regular" Nauticam zoom gear, that I am using)... Wolfgang P.S.: I have both WACP-C/28-60mm and Canon 8-15mm with and w/o Sony 2xTC. On my last two trips WACP-C was left at home (Subjectively, I find IQ pretty comparable and prefer the 180° diagonal over the 130° of WACP-C (the Canon 8-15mm w/o TC can also be used on some dives and clearly performs optically better than both WACP-C or 8-15mm&2xTC variants (but is, of course, less flexible)))

Hey @DHale , I’m located in France, in case shipping works. I’m looking into putting together a rig, and this seems like a good starting point. I’ll DM you later in the day.

Hopefully someone who actually does this will chime in, however, I assume you have read the manual; #11075-HSS-SONY-A1-A9II-Nauticam-November-2025.pdf - Google ไดรฟ์ It has a section on shooting in manual mode, there are 3 ways of doing it, the WL mode it seems is a workaround to deal with the fact you can't set manual mode in the SONY menus, so the converter is set to use the WL mode setting to turn manual on and off through the WL setting in the menu. This is programmed into the converter, so WL mode doesn't do what the camera manual says it will. It seems like the simplest way if you are not sure and new to manual mode and don't plan switch to TTL (it seems you are saying you are resigned to shooting manual), you follow the instructions for shooting in hard manual mode - setting so the converter is on zero as is the strobe. My understanding 0 is hard manual for any strobe and the other settings select the TTL profile and also allow HSS to work according to which strobe you have. You may miss out on HSS this way, but this is not likely to be a problem unless you want to shoot in wide apertures for macro. It's probably best to KISS if you are new to manual strobe shooting and get that sorted before venturing into HSS. You just need to not set a shutter speed greater than max sync speed when shooting if you are in hard manual.

Nice! I have a pygmy or two for you to compare :-) (WACP-C) I went the other way. It helped that I already had 8-15 and TC2x so it didn't hurt that much just having 140mm glass and port extension lying around these days (and waiting for the right opportunity :-) Jokes aside my decision was influenced not so much by picture quality rather then by my use case - I do both on the same dive, photo and video and in video department metabones is just not there as far as the focus goes. I also think that - surprisingly to me - at the long end the WACP-C/28-60 was a tad sharper than 8-15/TC. (While the same 28-60 paired with WWL-1B was really disappointing). But all in all each use case is different and I can totally see that the desire for extreme - and flexible - wide angle would present this 8-15/TC as the best option. Thanks for report! Cheers.

Very interesting Report and cool photography! So 140mm Port plus 35.5 n100 to 120 was used but with What Extension Ring size ? Could a 1.4 teleconverter also work? Greetings Michael