Phil Rudin

I want to make it clear that in the top photo I used blocks of foam flotation zip tied to the lens and that any vignetting is from the foam and not the lens. The bottom photo is what the lens will look like with the float collar in the final product, so no vignetting. Regarding wider apertures, for full frame rectilinear lenses in the 16mm to 10mm range the common rule of thumb is to start at F/13 or smaller. Wide Wet lenses at the 28mm end are reported to allow one to two 2.5 extra stops with like corner sharpness. I have attached two photos both taken at F/8 and close but not exactly the same distance to subject. The first photo is the Aquista 120 using the Sony 28-60mm at 28mm with the A7RV, the second is the WACP-C same lens at 28mm on Sony A1, both images are full frame. To my eye the 120 appears to render a slightly wider field of view and a flatter image, I.E. less center bulge associated with fisheye. You can be the judge regarding corners.

This lens has been announced and not to burst everyone's bubble but it is a high end Cine lens. Canon Announces the CINI-SERVO 11-55 T2.95-T3.95 Cinema Lens

Not apples to apples at all. WWL-C is for 24mm at wide end and more designed for compact cameras. The Aquista 120 is currently listed at $1660.00 and it is designed for full frame at 28mm.

The Marelux Aquista 120 wet lens that I have been using is a prototype and lacks any flotation. When I first tested the Nauticam WWL-1 prototype (one of several) about a year and a half before its release that lens did not have any flotation either. When Aquista 120 (130 degree AOV) And Aquista 100 (110 degree AOV) arrive they should both have an aluminum float collar. Both the Aquista 120 & 100 are designed to work with a 28mm full frame equivalent lens at the wide end. As a Sony user I have found no better choice than the Sony FE 28 to 60mm which has been my goto lens for most of the wet wide lenses I have tested. These include (with Sony 28-60) Nauticam WWL-1, WWL-1B, WACP-C, WACP-1 and Marelux Aquista 120. I would say the prototype A-120 I.Q. is most similar to WACP-C. Photos of the Aquista 120 mounted on A7CR housing with some foam blocks which tend to vignette and without any flotation. The bayonet mount on the flat port 32 used for the lens on Sony housings. The prototype lens and the final product concept.

This week Laowa, (Venus Optics) released a new lens roadmap which includes the already released AF FF 12mm F/2.8 and the Laowa AF FF 180mm F/4.5 CA-Dreamer Macro 1.5X lens. The list also includes two video lenses and two TS lenses. A 180mm AF macro that goes to 1.5:1 would be a welcome addition to the Laowa line and will likely first be released in Nikon Z and Sony FE lens mounts. This is a lens that should have great potential for those of use that are addicted to super macro. In the attached photo the lens appears to have internal focus which is a good thing and top aperture of F/22. Laowa has an excellent reputation when it comes to exotic manual focus macro lenses and the Laowa AF 10mm and AF 12mm lenses (Laowa's firsts entries into AF) have been excellent both in speed and tracking ability. Looking forward to trying the new 180 macro.

As I reported in the review several manufactures are selling housings for these cameras. The Marelux MX-A7CII/R housing that I used for the review has access to all the same buttons and features as the Sony A1 housing. I am using the same custom function buttons as with A1, A7R 4&5 with slight differences in placement.

My review for the Sony A7C II and A7CR cameras has posted today in uwpmag.com issue #146. This is article #123 for me since beginning to write for UWP over ten years ago. These are great little full frame cameras with a verity of housing choices and price points. Cushion Starfish, Blue Heron Bridge, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, Sony A7CR, Sony 28-60 Zoom at 28mm, Marelux housing and flat port 32, Aquista 120 W/A wet lens, two Marelux Apollo S strobes. ISO-320, F/20, 1/160th sec. Glassy Snapper, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, Sony A7CR, Sony 28-60 Zoom at 60mm, Marelux housing and flat port 32, Aquista 120 W/A wet lens, Marelux Apollo S strobes, ISO-400, F/11, 1/125th sec.

The Nauticam port chart recommends the 105 flat macro port for the Sony FE 90mm lens. This port works with all accessories including the EMWL #3 and bayonet mount. With Marelux the Sony 90mm uses the flat macro port 97 which has the same 67mm threads which will allow the bayonet mount and the EMWL #3 to be used. I don't see any reason why the EMWL should not work the same on Marelux as it would on Nauticam. Adapting a Nauticam port to Marelux is not going to be the same. I use the Nauticam SMC-1 on the Marelux 90 macro ports and the results are the same with Sony or Tamron 90mm macro lenses.

As long as you are using the recommended Marelux macro port the MFO-3 wet lens should work the same. I have used wet closeup lenses from several manufactures on both Marelux and Nauticam with like results.

When the Laowa 12mm is mounted on the Sony A7RC camera in the MX-A7RC housing the front of the lens is parallel to the flange on the housing, I found the best results using a 40mm extension with the Marelux 230mm optical glass fisheye port. Attached are with the 40mm and 230 port.

Started on another promising looking lens today, the new Laowa 12mm F/2.8 FF AF Dreamer a (122 degree) rectilinear. Using the Marelux 230mm optical glass dome with 45mm of extension for this photo at ISO-125, F/14, 1/160th sec. Still working out the best extension length. Any extension suggestions?

You can read my Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 review in the current issue of UWPMAG.com for my take on this lens.

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.