Christoph

Thank you for your thoughts, Wolfgang. The 15-35 on the 230 is Nauticam's recommended dome choice, so I'm hopeful for decent results. Generally, I feel like the 230 is the way to go for me, as transportation isn't the biggest issue for now, I'm flying with a lot of kit for the shoots anyway, so while annoying, it's doable. Maybe I'll get a smaller dome for private travel once I've settled into my setup. I'll be using an external screen, the Atomos Ninja in its Nauticam housing. With the big glass port and the added weight of the screen, does anyone have experience with buoyancy characteristics, still doable or should I look into floats already? I'm probably looking at several hours in the water, with lots of waiting around.

Hi Chris, thank you for the detailed write up. I have my first bigger shoot coming up soon, that's why I decided it's time for my own setup. It's a commercial project, the shots range from wider silhouettes of someone swimming in the water to people jumping into the water to closer shots of accessories they're wearing etc., all the while playing with distortion, shutter speeds, aperture, etc. Edge sharpness isn't a huge concern, most of my UW photography will embrace a certain softness, but decent split shot ability makes me favor the 230 over the 180 dome. I'll almost exclusively use natural light or the scenes will be lit externally, either inside or outside the water, done by the light crew. The nicer, faster lenses also come from me wanting to have something I can comfortably use topside as well, my DSLR setup got stolen a few months ago and I've been renting until now, that's why I'm starting with a clean slate so to speak. Additionally, I'd like to offer the option of shooting some UW video and I feel the 15-35 is a good starting point, before breaking into primes. I'm now leaning towards the RF 15-35 2.8 L on the 230mm dome and 85 macro on the 60 flat port as a starting point for some pool trials next week, that'll still give me some time to react before the shoot in early July. Both lenses are very usable topside for me as well and at least they're both in the port charts :) A sensible choice or is there anything I'm definitely missing? Again, thanks for everyone's help.

Hi Tim, I will admit that my choices are still pretty informed by my topside photography, so I appreciate your input. I'm also considering the RF 15-35 2.8 L as my base lens and the 50 1.8 and 85 Macro to expand my range to a certain degree. I saw that I might need a diopter for the 50 on the 180 dome, does anyone if it works on the 230? Same for the 85, anyone has any data on it?

Hi everyone, just found this community as I'm in the process of buying my first UW setup. I've been a professional photographer for going on 20 years, but only just started out underwater, been using rented gear, Nauticam and Ikelite thus far. My work's mostly in commercial shoots, so I'll probably need some longer lenses and less fisheye/extreme wide angle than most people use around here. I'll probably go with the Nauticam for my R5 II, as I have a tether solution available for it, but I'm split between the 180 and 230 mm dome. I like that the 180 can work more like a flat port with longer lenses, but the 230 offers more overall sharpness. My ideal lens choices would be the (newish)RF 16-28 2.8 and 28-70 2.8, but obviously neither are in the port charts. Does anyone have experience 3D-printing the focus gears? Don't think the 15-35 L and 24-70 L are in my budget at the moment. I'm also eyeing adapting to EF and getting the 16-35 L and 24-70 L, but the EF port chart only shows the 8.5 " acrylic port for the 24-70. Has anyone used it on the 180 mm port? Is there a reason why it wouldn't work? Definitely don't want acrylic, as my experience with Ikelite had it scratching just by looking at it funny. Thanks so much for any help!

Hello everyone, a quick Hello from me, I've been a professional photographer for going on 20 years and starting to work underwater. Mostly on rented housings, but ready to buy my own kit, will post my questions in the appropriate forums. Excited to have found a community of knowledgeable folks sharing the same passion!