Phil Rudin

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.

Well they did have a few new items but a Z330 replacement was not one of them. Inon has never had a booth at DEMA to my recollection so if a new strobe arrives there it will be displayed through retailers at the show.

If I understand your question correctly, yes I have mounted the bayonet mount II on the Marelux 32 flat macro port to use with the Sony FE 28-60mm and the WWL-1B. Note in the images that the MX-32 port is shorter than the Nauticam port and the BLUE lens release hits the port when it is pushed down to release the lens. In the photo you will see I shaved a few mm off the blue release to make it work more easily.

Tamron has a very long history of releasing 90mm macros. Up sides not mentioned, the focus limiter has a range from 1:1 to 70cm unlike the other 90/100/105 lenses that are all 1:1 to 50cm the extra 20cm is a very welcome addition to help reduce hunting. Twelve rounded aperture blades v. 9 for most others, helps with soothing out of focus areas. If you go to the Tamron web site under Tech Specs the minimum aperture is listed as F/16-F/22. Because many macros don't have manual aperture rings the aperture is changed in camera and with this Tamron stops at F/16. However as the lens is extended into the 1:3 to 1:1 range the aperture often changes to F/22 by default. It remains to be seen if this will appear in the lens meta-data.

I agree with Craine, extends to far, needs a macro port with wider glass not to vignette, does not have the focus speed of more modern lenses like the new Tamron 90mm F/2.8 Di III VXD for Nikon and Sony, if you use a Sony 90mm macro port you will need over 30mm of extension. So no real up side for this lens.

Hi RV, My guess would be that the limiter switch would be set at 1:1 to infinity and the MFO would do the rest. This however could change from lens to lens and I think Edward would be the better person to ask for clarification.

I think several are missing the main up side here, the lens is called MID-range Optimizer. Its main function is not as a closeup lens but as a way to hit a focus range not available on current macro lenses like Canon 100, Nikon 105, Sigma 105 or Sony 90mm. These lenses have a focus limiter switch which gives you only two options for macro. You can set the lens for focus from 1:1 (1.4:1 Canon) to infinity or 1:1 to 0.5 meters that is 50cm. The MFO-1 appears to allow you to now shoot from 1:1/1.1:1/1.2:1 (depending on lens) but now more than doubles the the max working distance to around 114cm or 1.14 meters (+/- depending on lens) which is about as far away as a 90 to 105 could possibly give you a respectable image. This will allow you to more than double working distance without the lens "hunting" like it would it you were set at 1:1 to infinity mode. I can't stress enough what a large upside this could be over having to chose between 0.5 meters max working distance or infinity and the hunting associated with it. The obvious second upside will be how well it improves LoCA created by the flat port air/water interface. This alone should improve macro images and be worth the price of admission.

I suspect you may see a new release at this event October 25-27 2924 in Tokyo Japan where Inon will be an exhibitor. null

First I made it clear I was using a Marelux housing, port and extensions the extension length would not be the same using a Nauticam housing which has been well documented here. Use one Marelux 1500ml flexbuoy for flotation and also have 5 inch diameter extension rings which add a bit of bounce so not a big issue for me. The bigger point here is that my response was to Architeuthis who did not want to travel with both the 140 and 180 ports and planned on taking only the 140 for 8-15 and not using the 20-70 at all. My response is simply that the 140 can be used for both lenses with good results, if properly used. I am aware that the 180 may give a bit better corners and the 230 is even better. The issue was what do you want to travel with. You need to go back to the drawing board and work out an extension combination for your own Nauticam housing and port system then retest and see if the results are a bit better. Until then I have attached two more Pipefish at 61mm and Shrimp at 70mm results with the 140 port look good to me.

I own the port and use the same extension recommended with the 230 port for a verity of wide lenses. So use the recommended extension for 8-15 with your type of housing system.

Marelux offers two types of optical viewfinders, 45 degree for EVF and 180 for LCD, also Inon Viewfinders are supported with an adapter which can be had a Fun-In. Also when I transitioned to Marelux I used Nauticam 140and Zen 230 for NA dome ports for a verity of lenses including Canon 8-15mm, WACP-1 and WACP-C with the Marelux N100 to MX 17mm adapter. I used both NA and MX extensions based on the recommendations on the Marelux port charts for your camera choice. Zoom gears are not compatible and macro ports may need to be for MX. I have also used the WWL-1B with the MX 32 port.

Just for your consideration I am in Bali with the 20-70 and left my 180mm port behind and I am only using the 140mm dome for Laowa 10mm and the 20-70mm, with Marelux I have worked out extensions of 75mm and dome. These were taken yesterday 17 Sept at Secret Bay no crop at 20mm and 70mm to give am idea of what the smaller port will do. null

Hi Nick, you may also want to post in the Industry section.