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The Canon 8-15 can lock out so it won't zoom below 10mm which can help stop you going too far. From reports I've heard the 8-15 is the sharper lens compared to the 8-15 so likely will perform as good or better with a 1.4x.

Don't need the rear screen UW, most models have a programmable time that it will display the shot you just took through the EVF and you can instantly get back to live view with a half press of shutter. So it flashes up the photo taken and you can very quickly see if the strobes hit etc. all without taking your eye from the viewfinder. Mine is programmed to show the previous shot for 1/2 second, enough to see the strobes went off and were bright enough. You hit the review button for a closer look. I use the EVF for WA and macro. If you use a 45° viewfinder you have an adjustable diopter - don't know what your eyesight is like but if you use reading glasses I find the rear screen pretty useless as I can't focus on it properly. I don't need glasses yet to be able to read computer and gauges etc, but telling if a pic is sharp or not isn't easy on the screen but straight forward on the EVF.

On my Sony there is a lever on the housing that selects VF or screen. I bought a used 45 degree Nauticam VF and used it for a couple of years until one day I realized I care nothing about macro and prefer the screen. Yes, I agree, especially for macro, a VF allows more precise framing and focus check. But, I do not care. I sold the 45 degree VF and my new Canon rig is screen only. The VF also seems to use more battery, noticeably so on the Sony IMO.

Conclusion: To my eye the quality off all of these images is quite good. Even at fairly low shutter speed of 1/20th second an mid-range apertures of f9 the images are quite sharp and the corners look acceptable. The 8-15 + 1.4 outperforms the WWL-C setup in the corners by a small margin. I don't see any significant negatives to adding the 1.4tc to the 8-15. However, on occasion you will likely miss-zoom at the 11-12mm range and slightly clip the frame. A minor crop will take care of this.

There have been a number of posts recently discussing the merits of an 8-15mm lens with a teleconverter. The 8-15mm fisheye lenses are great performers, but can feel limiting because they are either 8mm (circular) or 15mm (wide fisheye). If you are dealing with CFWA or a Wide subject just a bit out of reach like Sharks, then a bit more reach might be welcome. A 1.4x Teleconverter delivers just that sort of solution. With the 1.4tc the 8-15 fills the frame without clipping right between 11 and 12mm. This opens up a useful range from 11-15mm or the magnified equivalent of 16 - 21mm. I just completed a trip to the Pacific side of Vancouver Island in an area called Barkley Sound. There is a quaint dive lodge out there called Rendevzous Dive Adventures that runs a very nice operation. I mostly shot the Nikon 8-15mm AF-S lens with 1.4tc (kenko) under a Nauticam 140mm dome. I used my 3d printed 40mm port extension that continues to perform perfectly after about total 25 dives. I did a couple of dives with the WWL-C / 25-50mm combo and tried to take some comparison shots. Below are two similar images taken with both combos. The photos are uncropped and very lightly edited. Nikon 8-15mm with 1.4TC, @12mm, f10@1/25s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes with 4500k filters WWL-C with z24-50mm, @24mm, f14@1/50s iso400, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes with 4500k filters And a comparison image of the 8-15mm + 1.4tc @ 15mm. Nikon 8-15mm with 1.4TC, @15mm, f8@1/30s iso500, Pair of Retra Maxi strobes with 4500k filters This image needed a BSXT pass as there was a lot of fuzz stirred up by multiple divers nearby.

Thanks, that's what I was expecting. Scaling would have been too easy, and it never works that way. Thanks for all your design efforts, and explanations.

New product promotional image for the TPU Dome Port Covers: Turns out that the Giant Pacific Octopus is a fan of these too! A GPO climbed on my camera and tried to steal my dome cover. Sneaky little sucker almost tore it off and made a quick getaway! It also managed to turn the zoom knob and made the lens (Nikon 8-15 w/1.4tc) vignette a bit. :)

Hi, I didn't have so much time for diving in the last weeks but I have test the dome and compare it with the Nauticam one which my dive buddy has. There's no difference at all in performance, in terms of construction is very solid and there are only two differences with the Nauticam one, the howshot shade can be removed by hand because you can release the screws with just the the hand, they have knobs. But if you prefer it they also send the prisoner allen screws to handle the shade. In the Nauticam dome the lug is machined in the dome body, in the Howshot one the lug is screwed, so yo can use with Sea&Sea, Nauticam and even Isotta by changing the lug. Here you can see two pictures with this dome, both with Canon R6 MkII, one with the Canon 8-15 fisheye lens at 8 with the extension ring which Isotta recommends in his port chart. The other one with the same camera, same lens and Kenko 1.4x converter, the picture is taken at 15 mm with no crop. As you can see the corners are not perfect but there is a huge difference comparing with the 4" dome port, and as I said I can't find any difference in terms of performance with the Nauticam one. I would buy it again.

The truth is that 3d fabrication is iterative. Even with perfect measurements you get things too tight, too loose, half a millimeter out of alignment, etc. Different materials will expand or contact so even if you get the right dimension and you have to adjust it anyway. I have made zoom gears from measurements a few times. Once i got it right the first time, another required three or four iterations to get the right fit. So it's not worth the headache.

A set of measurements should really be sufficient you'd think. Not like it's a mechanism. Im likely passing through Seattle in the next week then a week after, could do a drop off on my way.

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 wonder if a phone based 3d scanner could make a good enough model of a port to make a "blank" to design the float around...

If i remember you started using the Canon R7 I have assigned the star button on the camera very easy to toggle from view finder to rear screen .

Perhaps Nauticam could send you CAD files for the ports. I'd be interested in one for macro port 94.

Redesign. The contours of every port are different, location of screw holes, etc. However the Cad model of these floats is very simple. 95% of the work was figuring out how to get a strong watertight print that won't leak or implode. I've done that work and shared it out. I can easily make more, but need hands on with the port to measure, do a draft print or two to check fit, then a final print.

I haven't even started playing with this file yet, but if I wanted to use it for an N85-Macro port 65, is there a simple scaling (like 85%) or would it require a redesign?

Thanks!

I think they are 1/4 inch or M6 (the inside opening width is right at 1/2 inch). The pin needs to be made snug so as to put a spring load on the shackle loop and for extra security a bit of cave line to lash the pin to the shackle loop if worried.

EVF 100% of the time. It is a huge win of the mirrorless designs. At least on Nikon, the EVF has two modes Enhanced view - basically night vision that boosts the exposure of what you SEE (default) Effect of Settings - WYSIWYG for cameras. Shows the effect of shutter and ISO on ambient lights. Amazing for wide angle natural light and exposing for the background water. After taking a shot the Preview is in the EVF, not the screen. Shoot Review You don't need to move your head, rig, or disturb the subject or environment to look at the screen These two things alone make the Mirrorless upgrade worth the cost. Add a 45deg viewfinder and it's perfection.

I have another dive buddy who has decided to go off the deep end with minimalism. He wants to get rid of all strobes and lights and then use AI enhanced programs to edit his photos. Not getting any deeper into that (AI) discussion, my reason for bringing it up is we either think we need lighting or we think we do not. If you think you do, then there has to be arms and cables. We can do single arms, longer or shorter arms but if there be strobes then there be cables and joints and connections. Is there another way?

As above, transitioning from 2 decades of DSLR to Mirrorless underwater (have used Mirrorless on land for 6 or so years so comfortable). Generally on my DSLR setup underwater and on land mirrorless i use the screen to shot the settings and menus but then look through the OVF/EVF to compose and take the image. This isnt going to work now underwater as the face detection means i have the choice of screen OR EVF but not both or a different function on each. What are people generally using? EVF for everything or screen? Im aware i can map a button to toggle between but that sounds fiddly for each shot.

I like my carry handle to be on the center pivot with a "M" set up. So why do I have the additional bolt snaps? They lock the arms together at the upper pivot. The strobes are locked in at the outer pivot to the inner with bungee. Thus when folded up the rig is a secure package for handling especially when the crew has it handing off, no flailing about of the arms whacking the strobes about. I have at least two regular dive buddies that use TG cameras. Both have three strobes and two video lights. One of them has two YSD3 on the outer arms, two high power video lights, triple clamps and over the top an Atom strobe! They cannot even get their rigs into the rinse basin yet mine slips right in neatly. And they try to call me out for the "huge" camera rig and I repeatedly point out that mine fits in a Sams bag and theirs need a porter! One of their issues in addition to multiples strobes and video lights is that they are using a single arms which makes folding up compactly a challenge for them. Rigged as shown below your rig will not flop about. And I can set it up to clip off to my shoulder D rings and center crotch scooter ring. The two center pivot bolt snaps in such case go to each D ring, and the lanyard is wrapped around the lower grip intersection and off to the scooter ring. Configured so the rig is held flat to my chest and will not swing and flop about for beach entry/exit or even arms free climbing the boarding ladder with the camera still in my keep. I do not shoot video and have no interest in video at all. But, I did get my new strobes with the video lights (for potential resale). But for those who try to do everything, combo strobes with built in video lights might be one way to get rid of two video lights cluttering up the rig?

Replace the orings on your arms so they don't flop around. Put the carry lanyard at the top of the first arm segments so you can carry it all without anything flopping over.

Hi- I literally went on my first dive and the shackle on my Nauticam clamp fell off- when I check Amazon there’s a bunch of different size shackles I can buy- does anyone know what size would be equivalent? Thanks

I'm in the middle of upgrading housing (first dives this week) and next task will be strobes and arms. BUT im currently stuck with my old setup. I find it VERY bulky and messy, especially "folded" (it doesn't - it flops). Its huge, its bulky, its negative. They're DS161s from Ikelite. I currently have: 2 x 8" Float arms 2 x 7" normal arms 2 x 4"ish normal arms I use 2 x SUPE video lights on a 3 way elbow mid arm. This is my WA setup for a Tokina 10-17 on APS-C to give FOV ideas. Its bulky, messy and due to 10 year old clamps, floppy. For my wide angle, am i better off keeping this setup OR make it neater by replacing the 7" normal size arms with my 5" arms i found in a cupboard (so 1 x 8 and 1 x 5 per side). Are there any real trade-offs for WA here vs improved in neatness? Now I've gone mirrorless the abomination of strobe wiring and arms is even more obvious. Pictures are the 8" and 4" on the WA setup. Can see its not neat at all, especially when "stowed" and holding the camera by the rope it just flops forward off balance. No easy way to carry. I find it ridiculously ungainly and so do boat crew trying to handle it. So sugestions: (i) best compromise WA arm length combo (ii) Best order of arms and clamps to make it usable U/W but also neater to stow/fold.