Phil Rudin

Hi Bill, Not ignoring you just very busy. I will send a PM with some photos during the week.

Which one they made two?

Regarding the 16-25mm F/2.8 I have a custom gear and I have started with 55mm of Marelux extensions with Marelux 180mm dome. No results yet worth posting, only pool tests. Regarding the Laowa 10mm the 140mm dome is not ideal but works in a pinch where corners would have been soft anyway.

The big advantage of the 16-25mm over most of the Sony 16-35 lenses is the 18cm minimum focus distance v. most of the 16-35 lenses that are in the 25cm or greater range, Much better for use in a 180mm dome port.

Both Nauticam and Marelux support the Sigma 14-24mm in the respective 180mm ports with the difference being extension lengths. I have a lot of experience with both systems and I can assure you that the 230mm will be the better choice in terms of corner sharpness. As Chris has pointed out minimum focus distance is critical and often trumps lens quality. So lenses like Tamron 17-28mm with MFD of 19cm is likely to outperform Sony 16-35mm F/4 PZ at 24cm in 180mm dome. The Rokinon AF 14mm F/2.8 with MFD of 20cm is every bit as capable as the Sony FE 14mm F/1.8 at 25cm. Recently I have been using the Laowa 10mm F/2.8 with very close MFD of 12cm for super wide with the 230mm dome. This lens has the same 130 degree AOV as wet lenses like WACP1/2, WWL-1B & WWL-C without the fisheye distortion and with the ability to shoot very wide splits.

I think the 92.9 diameter and 86mm filter size would be the bigger issue,

I reviewed the Laowa 10mm F/2.8 AF lens in uwpmag.com issue #141 using the Sony A7R V in a Marelux MX-A7RV housing using the 230mm port and 20mm extension. The conversion for Nauticam should be the N120 230mm dome and N100 to N120 35.5 port adapter. I have not tested this combo but should be close. The upside to Sony FE 16-25 F/2.8 G is the 18cm minimum focus distance, which is better than most of the other 16-35 offerings. The 180/60mm extension sounds about right for Nauticam. Seems odd they would support 24-50 and not 15-25 although 24-50 can be used with WACP-C. It appears the 24-50 gear should work. null

All kidding aside we know that Nauticam has an excellent line of products covering a wide range of cameras. I believe Nauticam's first product was introduced at DEMA in 2008, the attached Done port designed for white balancing for video. UWPMAG.com first mentioned Nauticam in a product announcement, a Nikon D90 housing and 180 viewfinder in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue prior to the 2009 DEMA where they had that housing and an APS-C housing for a Canon camera. Now 16 years later the rest is history. Marelux will be attending its third DEMA later this month and I think they have rolled out a lot in less than four years. Regarding the OM housing and other M43 cameras at this time all of the Marelux housings use the same Series 5 (five inch) port mounting system from the $12,000.00 ALEXA Mini Cinema housing to the $2800.00 Canon EOS R7 APS-C housing. Many consider this an advantage over the Four port sizes for Nauticam (N85, N100, N120, N200) because the Marelux ports and extensions can be moved between all the camera brands. Like Nauticam when they first arrived, Marelux offers port adapters for Nauticam and other brands but not in a mount as small as N85. Marelux also have adapters to mount the excellent WACP-1/2, WACP-C and FCP wet wide lenses along with a port for WWL-1B and of course C/U lenses. To move to M43 housings Marelux would need to develop a smaller port system useful with only a small number of cameras. While I think this will eventually evolve it is going to take time just like it has for other manufactures. At this time efforts revolve around new products like the excellent Apollo III and Apollo S strobes, LumiLink wireless trigger, support arm systems, video lighting and other more profitable products. Regarding housings that except more than one camera Marelux has several including the Sony FX3/FX30, Sony A7R III/A7 III, ALEXA Mini LF/MINI, Z6 II/ Z7 II, EOS R6 II/R6, Sony A7C II/A7C and Atomos V/V 5".

The down side to the blue O-rings is that you can't Gucci out the black housings or strobes, with Marelux you have a choice of five colors for both housings and strobes which seem to draw a lot more interest than O-ring color. If you feel left out the T-shirts, Hats, Luggage and more are available at Marelux.co or your through the dealer network. I will also point out that a pack of 10 Marelux 25mm O-rings sells for $9.00 not $16.00 so some folks may want to move to green for Guccigram.

Thank you, perhaps next year in Orlando Florida.

DEMA (The Diving Equipment & Marketing Association) show begins on Tuesday November 19th in Las Vegas. Marelux will have a booth in the imaging section where participants can see and handle the latest equipment including the excellent Apollo III & Apollo S strobes. I used the Apollo S strobes for 65 dives and now over 12,000 images on a recent trip to Bali. I will be in the booth along with Stanley and Bella, we will be happy to answer your questions and demo any equipment of interest. If you are at the show please stop by booth #7125 and say hello.

I personally own Marelux housings for the Sony A7R V and A1 cameras and have field tested several others. Currently all of the Marelux housings use five inch dome ports which are interchangeable to any Marelux housing. Nauticam uses the smaller N 100 port system for the A7C II/R housing which allows them to be a bit smaller and lighter. Nauticam makes high quality equipment but it is more expensive than the Marelux systems which are also high quality. In addition to the housing Marelux accessories, Vacuum, flash trigger, ports, extensions, arms and more are all a bit less expensive than with the Nauticam system and it all adds up. The bottom line is that both Marelux and Nauticam are excellent choices for the Sony A7C II/R cameras. Be aware that I am the Senior Advisor for Marelux and also have a long history with testing Nauticam systems going back over more than a decade.

Clearly this is all relative to how much you are willing to spend on a camera and housing. I am sure many think that those of use with A1 cameras and housings are crazy for having spent $9800.00 to $11000.00 depending on housing. The $1000.00 increase +/- for the A1 II V A1 is steep but the $3400.00 Canon R5 has increased by $900.00 for R5 II which also has the same sensor and AF that now equaling the A1. So the percentage of increase for the Canon R5 to R5 II is actually greater by about 10% than for the Sony A1 to A1 II. It is all relative and will not change anytime soon.

Marelux also has adapters for N 100 lenses like wet lenses like WACP-C and N 120 for WACP 1/2.