Phil Rudin

I often test other ports for my own use but the 140mm is not a port that will be recommended by manufactures so I went with the 180mm which will be recommended along with the 230mm. Will test with the 140mm at some point but didn't have time before this review.

The 10mm needs a fisheye type port so 140 or 230 not 170/180. I am traveling so you can fine two or three photos with each port on my Instagram page, view the text for each photo to fine the 10mm shots. Philrudinphotography

The lens hood on both the Laowa 10mm and 12mm AF lenses are removable and small enough to be used in a dome port if you like. All rectilinear lenses work best in larger dome ports like 230mm if corner sharpness is your primary metric. I have used the Laowa 10mm in a 140mm dome port with excellent center sharpness. At 12cm it will easily focus in both ports because they are fisheye. Not so much in a 180mm dome which is not fisheye. Bottom line is that a 170/180 degree fisheyes are just not apples to apples compared to 130 & 122 degrees in rectilinear a better metric would br wet wind lenses that that are 130 degrees at 28mm on full frame.

See comments in the photo gear section.

This is Laowa's second auto focus lens, both lenses designed for Nikon Z and Sony full frame cameras. Canon RF and Leica L are also supported in manual focus only. The AF lenses have five aperture blades and manual focus are available in 5 and 14 blades. I reviewed Laowa's first AF lens, the 10mm F/2.8 in issue #138 using Marelux 140mm and 230mm dome ports. I expect the 12mm F/2.8 will have similar performance at least in the 230mm port which is most well suited to such a wide (122 degree) rectilinear lens. To answer Sokrates question, yes this is a lens I intend to review but not sure how soon.

I have tested both with 28-60 for stills. I have used CMC-1 and CMC-2 as well as stacking both, CMC-1 plus CMC-1 & 2. Regarding SMC, it depends on using the old SMC-1 & 2 or the new SMC-3. 1 & 2 are very thick which cause slight corner issues with both 28-60 and 90mm with 26-60 being more noticeable. CMC-1/2 and SMC-3 are about half as thick. If you intend to own both 28-60 and 90mm then the SMC-3 will be the better choice because it will work better with the 90mm lenses. If you intend to buy a 90mm read my review for the Tamron 90mm F/2.8 macro for Sony FE in issue #142 of uwpmag.com I owned the Sony for about tens years now and found the upsides of the Tamron to be better than those of the Sony 90mm macro. Also the savings on the Tamron will offset the higher cost of the SMC-3 over the CMC's.

Not only manual focus but no communication with the camera at all, so to have full control over the lens you would need a focus gear, a zoom gear and an aperture gear. You would have no meta date when opening files in software. Laowa only has one AF lens I am aware of and that is the excellent 10mm F/2.8 rectilinear for Nikon Z and Sony FE. I own this lens for Sony and the AF is excellent so Laowa has the ability to offer excellent AF lenses. The biggest upside to this lens is the amount of coverage it has received in the photo press, YouTube, social media and so on. Perhaps other lens manufactures will take note of the strong interest in a fisheye zoom for mirrorless camera users and consider finely offering an Auto focus fisheye for mirrorless.

The new Marelux Macroview MV-5 ($229.00 US) is on the way to me now. I will however be out of the US until August 2nd so will not have it in the water until after that date. This is a new design as Marelux is constantly improving product and I don't know at this time if the design will carry over to the current +10 and +15 which I have used. The new +5 has a max magnification of X2. Flabellina sp. with eggs taken today on the house reef at Scuba Seraya Resort, Bali Indonesia. Sony A7R V, Sigma 105mm macro, Marelux housing, two Marelux Apollo S strobes and Marelux +10 C/U lens, ISO100, F/22, 1/250th sec.

Zoom lens 60622? I don't recognize this part number. Sony simply has the most lenses that can be used with 28mm wet optics regardless of brand. It appears to me that currently only one wet lens can be used with the RF 24-50 behind aflat 67mm port and that is Nauticam WWL-C designed for 24mm's at 130 degrees. This is the least expensive of the NA-wet lenses and one would assume that other lenses like WACP-C, WACP-1 and so on would have better IQ from 28mm than the WWL-C simply because of cost. Marelux has a wet lens, Aquiista 100/67 also designed for 24mm at 120 AOV, this lens is also less expensive than the Aquista 120. When Marelux releases a port for the RF 24-50 a choice can be made between the two. I have not used the. A-100/67 so have no thoughts on full frame performance. Currently Marelux only has one APS-C housing for Canon R7. Unlike Nauticam, Marelux currently only has one port size, five inch or 127mm. As a result all ports and extensions work on any Marelux housing. So a port for RF rf 24-50 will work on any system and same for RF-S 18-45mm. The RF-S 18-45 is very similar in length to Sony FE 26-60 so I suspect it might work in the current Marelux flat port 32 but RF 24-50 will defiantly need its own 67mm flat port.

So first the Canon RF-S 18-45 is supported with a zoom gear because Marelux has a housing for the Canon EOS R7 APS-C camera. The RF 24-50mm FF lens works with several Nauticam wet lenses but I don't believe WWL-1B is one of them. It works with an N120 27mm flat port and WWL-C which is designed for 24mm lenses not 28mm and the rest are direct mount like the WACP-C and others. To make the RF 24-50 work on a Marelux housing a flat port in the 13mm range would need to be developed. The Nikon Z 24-50 will not likely be supported with a flat port (67mm) because it would need to fit inside the the Marelux housing. The Nauticam port is only 6mm so it would need to be about 9/10mm inside the Marelux housing.

Hi Chris, This is bit of a work in progress and no port chart or owner manual has been released. In the case of Sony FF mirrorless cameras the flat port 32 is used with the bayonet mount converter which threads to the 67mm port. Marelux has zoom gears for Sony 28-60mm which I use, this port also supports the Sony 28mm F/2 and the Sony 28-70mm with the addition of a 20mm port extension. The same port and lenses can also be used with WWL-1B as shown above. I believe Canon RF-S 18-45 (APS-C) is also supported with the same 32 port and can be used with Aquista 120 at about 120 degrees max rather than the full 130 degrees for full frame. In Nikon Z 24-50 is not yet supported with a zoom gear. The Aquista 120 I am testing is a prototype and did not include any type of float collar. I have used five float blocks (2oz each) and one 1500ml Flexibuoy on the strobe arms for best balance and balance.

Marelux has a zoom gear for Canon RF-S 18-45 which has been used on APS-C with a wide way lens. Have not heard at what point the RF24-50 will be supported. Marelux focus is on supporting Marelux wet lenses at this point. Marelux has several wet wide lenses including the Aquista 120 which I used Saturday’s (May 30th 25) for the South Florida Underwater Photography Society Meetup Dive at Blue Heron Bridge. The day was a bit overcast, water temp was a bit on the cool side and visibility was not the best. So a wonderful day for some close-focus work. My tools of choice, the Sony A7CR and Sony FE 28-60mm zoom in the Marelux MX-A7CR housing, with two Apollo S strobes and the new Aquista 120 Wide Angle Wet Lens. This lens is 130 degrees at the 28mm setting. Cushion Starfish at 28mm, ISO-320, F/20, at 1/160th sec. Octopus, horizontal shot at 48mm, ISO-320, F/14, 1/60th sec. Octopus, vertical at 60mm, ISO-320, F/14, 1/60th sec.

The 14-42mm is an Olympus M 4/3 lens with an Olympus M4/3 camera. The 7-14mm M 4/3 lens needed a larger than 180mm port to really work well. A 200 or 230mm dome with proper extension.