ColdDarkDiver

To get some real-world experience, I rented the new 7-14mm fisheye over the weekend to try it. For reference, I have and love my 8-15mm EF fisheye and so my question is whether it is worth it to upgrade to the new RF version. Like my EF one – I taped it at 14mm for the whole dive, used my Marelux 140mm dome on a Canon R5. Lighting was two Inon z330s with stock diffuser. TL DR – A great lens – works great underwater and if I didn’t already own the 8-15, I would definitely get it. I’m not sure I will buy one… but may. Long version: I had no issues or challenges using this lens. It is.. maybe 5mm shorter when on the body compared to the 8-15 so I just ended up using the 30mm extension that I do for the EF version. Marelux and Nauticam space their housings differently…so a nauticam user may want to go to do something different...? I didn’t find any sort of weird problems with it being 14 instead of 15 in the dome, I did not remove the dome shade and it seemed like I could maybe zoom out to 13 without getting any vignetting on the full frame sensor… but I didn’t try (since I taped it and there isn’t a zoom gear for it anyway…yet). For this dive I turned off all non-essential stabilization (still IBIS) so had zero crop on the full frame sensor. I took it to the Channel Islands, CA and vis was great (for the channel islands) but there was still a lot of particulate in the water. I shot between F/8 and F/20 but kept it mostly at my sweet spot of f/13 and F/16 – which is how I find the EF one to be a nice balance of ISO, Shutter Speed and strobe output. As always, I find the biggest challenge with either of the lenses is to evenly light the frame without getting lit backscatter on the edges. I've selected (mostly) uncropped images for this post as I think it is most telling, but my favorite images from the day have some mild cropping done. These two images are uncropped at at f/13: I found the lens incredibly detailed with good color. At F/16ish the only bit of the frame that wasn’t sharp was the absolute most extreme corners and even those were pleasing to me. (here is a cropped one for color:) Here are a few other non-cropped: This one at f/18 and here is one at f/16 - I find this one particularly revealing on how sharp the lens is behind the 140mm dome: I returned the lens today and I'm left with a fondness for the lens and think it is the absolute right choice for anyone that doesn't already own the 8-15. I know many extend or use the EF on the crop body and that remains a barrier for the RF. Having done a lot of dives with the 8-15 and only 3 with this one - my gut feeling is that the RF lens is sharper and the corners look better than the EF. I do not think that either of those are sufficient to outweigh composition and lighting, etc. so "better" should be taken with a grain of salt. I don't think I will buy it, but haven't decided. I also want to extend my thanks for everyone who does real lens and lighting testing for this site! So helpful and soo much work to try and make things quantitative. This was just me diving for a day. Hope it helps your purchasing decisions!

Just noting that Marelux also makes an R7 housing. https://www.marelux.co/products/mx-r7-housing-for-canon-eos-r7-mirrorless-digital-camera?VariantsId=10042 and can be adapted to Nauticam ports (if you so wish). Just keeping you informed of options.

I have attached the insta360 X5 to my housing. I don't love it as I will only use the Pro dive case and it is a lot of float to move around when positioning the camera. It works fine when shooting stills but is always self righting to the top with when moving the camera . Going between portrait and landscape is a battle of floatation. I lessened this by using some extra weights up right underneath the housing mount on the selfie stick, but it is still a lot of float. Found it annoying so just stopped. I will often just take the insta 360 though, just like it a lot more on a selfie stick when not using the big camera.

In my opinion (based on personal experience), the go-to lenses for Canon FF are the 8-15mm taped at 15mm (so a prime) and the RF 15-30 for rectilinear. The RF 16 2.8 is just fine too and all of them like bigger domes rather than smaller. I bring the 16 2.8 as a backup but rarely shoot it. The 15-30 gets more keepers than the 14-35 F4L even though it is a cheaper lens. I have not used WWL or WACP because of the mixed reviews on the 24-50 and I don't shoot a Nauticam housing, even though I could get one to fit my housing with adapters. Good luck on your purchases!

I'm wondering about how the video lights are on the Maxi and haven't seen it discussed much. From the layout, it seems they would not have an even light pattern at all. I assume they are not Keldan quality but are they really just dive lights or are they usable for video? Love to hear impression's of those who got them with the 6k video lights.

And the text that goes with it Bluewater PhotoSea & Sea YS-D130R Underwater Strobe ReviewSea & Sea's newest flagship strobe, the YS-D130R, is a powerful 130 ws wide angle strobe with a recycle time of 0.8 seconds at full power. This strobe is a Bluewater staff pick. I would love to see see quality of light compared (beam evenness) to the Retra Maxi and Max II, as well as tests that are from users.

I saw this on Social. Looks like a competition for WACP. But which one I am not sure. MareluxAquista 135D Wide Angle LensAquista 135D Wide Angle Lens Anyone have any further information on it? @Phil Rudin - have you used this? Or do you know when a port chart for it is coming out?

Thanks for the great images and review. I was wondering if you could elaborate on stacking reduction rings with the warming filter. Are both of these the standard ones from Retra and can you put them in series? I also dive in meh visibility water and so was wondering how to lower the color temp while also reducing backscatter. Thanks!

Like the 8-15mm, it is really just a 14mm prime with a party trick. The circular images are really fun, but I also noticed in some of the example images the ring of color cast/distortion (chromatic aberation?) at the edges which I was hoping to not be present in this new lens, is there. Plus 190 degrees may just not work on a housing. Yes - extending would be nice to add in zoom functionality. No IS, kinda a bummer. I am interested in its EVU/ VR utility application and if that would work underwater for landscape experiences. Looking forward to underwater tests, and while excited - it would need to bring some real improved gains to get rid of my 8-15mm to see if it is worthwhile.

As yet another new strobe on the market, I am intrigued by the Sea and Sea YSD130R strobe. I haven't seen it mentioned but overall specs seem nice: -Circular Flash Tube -5600k (so a little cooler than Retra but warmer than many) -Works with a Li-Ion battery or AAs. -Not cheap but not insane either at 1k USD I've seen two reviews - One in UWP (with a link from the Sea and Sea website) https://www.seaandsea.jp/pdf/20260115_uwp.pdf and a little from Blue Water Photo, but as far as I can tell it is just some images. If anyone has some hands on experience, it would be great to see how it compares in beam evenness and impressions of the strobe beam quality.

I find that the procase is usable for more than just Social, although it is hard to judge when it will have an artifact from the case or will be usable. In particular, in the shallows there seems to be some reflection/refraction that it can't always deal with. So after the fact, it can produce some nice footage. Here is a clip showing what it looks like in a darker situation (exported to 4k in non-360) - https://youtu.be/SPpYkaQvh1Y Not amazing but sooooo much better than with the regular case. That was with Pure mode on and for context - to similarly expose the ice with a still shot @ F/10 and 1/50th - I was shooting ISO 8000. So dark.

I will add that if you do get the X5, the Pro case is a must have. It has more float but the images from it are not bad, unlike the normal case.

And for some examples (since it was asked): Marelux R5 w/ 140 Marelux dome: F/8 - 100% corner crop F/11 -100% corner And - while corner sharpness is not astounding at f/8 - I realized when trying to find these examples that I shoot at f/8 a lot on that lens and don't even notice the meh sharp corners. I also think it is important that it is the very corner that is not sharp, just a wee bit from the edge and it is so the image is often just fine. I also really like the compactness of the 140 compared to a 230 or even 180 dome. I shoot the 15-30 at f/11 and greater (up to f/14) and also find the corner sharpness completely acceptable.

I also shoot this (Marelux 140 dome) - I still shoot it stopped down but it is my go to lens. I shoot at f/11-13 and sometimes down to f/8. I don't find the corner sharpness distracting at f/9 but prefer it at a smaller aperture. The only reason I don't shoot it is if I am not looking for the fisheye look on that dive. I also own the 14-35 F4L and shot it underwater for 2 years with great some success - however, the 15-30 is a superior lens underwater and I can shoot it wider open with more sharp results. My 14-35 is now only for above water use (where it is superb). I would suggest you think about trying the 15-30 with your current dome and the proper port extensions - you may not need anything else. I would love to see someone really show me that some of the WACP or WWL options work for canon as well as they do for Sony - I am so tempted by them. Even if the 15-30 works only at 28 and 30, I don't mind shooting prime above water or below.

Anyone get their hands on one to see if it might work in an R6 ii housing? Since Nauticam released a specific housing for it - it makes me think that the III won't fit in the II housing.