dentrock

This is Laowa’s first autofocus (AF) lens, and it’s a beauty, with ultra-wide rectilinear coverage (130 degrees on full frame Sony) and fast, accurate and reliable autofocus. It supports all the latest Sony subject detection and tracking modes. The fastest 10mm full frame lens available. Close focusing to 12cm. 77mm filter thread, compact and light weight. Close to zero distortion (Zero-D). Selling only because I’m not using it as much as I thought I would. So it’s in perfect condition with original box, paperwork, caps etc and would suit a new buyer. New price approximately AUD $1450 in major camera stores. Asking AUD $1000. Will consider sensible offers. Note to US buyers: atm we can't post parcels from Australia. When the dust settles and the postal service resumes, the asking price will not include any pre-paid tariffs that apply (possibly 10% from Australia, but who knows...).

Not sure what you mean by "dome centre" but as a starting point for calculating extensions, the lens entrance pupil (EP) should be aligned with the optical centre of the dome. Almost no domes are full hemispheres, so the optical centre is somewhere behind (camera side of) the port mounting flange. To find exactly where means calculating the actual radius of your dome, if the manufacturer won't tell you. In terms of dome thickness, I don't think it matters much whether you measure the radius from inside or outside the dome... With a properly aligned dome and wide angle rectilinear FF lenses up to say 105 degrees FOV, you should be able to get sharpness across the frame to the far edges of the FF format at f11-13, leaving only a little corner softness. That's with Nauticam 140 and 180 domes. Wider lenses will need larger domes for decent results, OR go fisheye and you can have your small domes with good results. With narrower normal focal length macro lenses behind domes, you can get sharpness right into the extreme corners from f8; something that is impossible with flat ports at any aperture.

Thanks to all for your replies. I will definitely ask the dive guides if I can visit places with rubbish! I will bring 35 and 50 lenses with 140 dome to get close but with background context. And 105 with flat port for the small stuff. I will be at Murex 6-21 Sep, so perhaps we might cross paths, Chris!

I'm heading to Lembeh for two weeks in September, staying with Murex Lembeh. I want to photograph the interactions of the muck dive critters with rubbish, if that's possible (how they live in it, what they do with it etc). Can anyone comment on whether the usual muck dives will showcase critters with rubbish? (OK, unusual question, I know, I know)? The answer will affect what lenses / ports I bring, as I wish to include the rubbish as background in the photos of the critters! Thanks in advance for any comments, and as background, I just returned from a week near Tulamben (Bali). Great muck diving, but no critters in or with rubbish (not much rubbish actually, apart from occasional soft plastics).

Out of curiosity, I compared the mounted dimensions of my 140 "curved port" + 25mm adapter, with as far as I can work out from the photos, the dimensions of the originally suggested N100 4" port #37122, plus the suggested 16mm extension. There is nothing in it, meaning the 140 is just as compact (if not more so) than the 4" rig. Plus the 140 may be slightly easier to light (i.e. getting the strobes correctly positioned) for extreme close-ups, and it doesn't place the lens further from the subject (appears to be slightly closer). So no need to chase the 4" port for normal FOV macro (say, 35 to 60mm).

Not a bad review. Worth mentioning again for Nauticam users that the zoom ring for the 24-50 fits the 16-25 perfectly (I just checked and Nauticam port chart still doesn't include the 16-25). Out of curiosity, did you try this lens with 140 dome? Your review only mentions the 180. I found I got slightly better corners with the 140 cf the 180 Nauticam domes. I don't know why that could be so I will retest to check.

Couple of things: The Zeiss 50mm Touit is a better lens for APS-C than Sony 50 macro. Faster focusing, but you need A6400 or newer to get the best out of it. Make sure you get the updated firmware thru Zeiss (FOC) if you have the original V1. Otherwise it won't work properly with flash. It also has internal focus and is narrower so will easy fit inside N85 accessories, so better in every way. Buy used (too expensive new). Second point: I opened up a 36125 N85 port by approx 0.5mm to fit a Samyang 12mm. I used a cheap rotary sanding attachment in a drill press (has flip up bits of sanding paper, so good for sanding inside a tube). I packed the inside of the dome first with a rag. When finished, wash the dome carefully. Don't wipe with tissues!

Thanks @Craine for taking the time to post the evaluation and samples. As I suspected, the AF is probably good enough; in line with, or slightly faster than, the Sony 50 macro which I have been using a lot (with AFC) with a 140 "curved port". I forgot to mention its 35mm with FF I'm interested in. For APS-C, in addition to the 30 macro, there is the excellent Sony / Zeiss 24 (35 equiv) which focuses very close and works great behind a mini dome, such as the #36125. Too expensive new, but there are good used examples on Japanese ebay sites.

Then why not use a 60 (or a 50 for Sony)? Use a dome to calm the aberrations! Much smaller and lighter rig than what is illustrated....

This strikes me as a good general purpose lens, and good for a little light duty close-up work. It is keenly priced (c. AUD 350). Minimum focus is 15cm (1:2 mag), which makes it OK to use smaller domes (eg. 140) to calm the aberrations. Land reviews praise its sharpness, and criticise its AF as slow (a bit faster in AFC cf AFS). There is no other close-focusing AF option around 35mm focal length for Sony shooters, but Canon makes an R series 35mm macro. So, is there any Sony shooter out there using it underwater, and if so how do you find the AF (especially in low light); and are you using a dome? Thanks in anticipation...

Aside from port and lens issues, if your budget can stretch to a new camera and housing, the Nauticam housing for A7CR is 1924g and A7RV is 2806g, as measured on my kitchen scales. There is a further approx 200g saving in the camera bodies. AF performance of the two is identical, although the A7RV housing rig has a few ergonomic advantages, such as placement of the playback button, plus a joystick control, and a few more custom buttons. Design is clamshell vs removable back.

Agreed, but A7RV as tested; also A7CR. Maybe the MFO needs the A1!

In the other thread I asked if other Sony 90 / MFO users could share their settings. In particular, I was hoping to find out whether they have had any luck with AFC. But there have been no replies... In fairness to the MFO, it probably works fine the Sony 90 using AFS, which I didn't try. And the 90 is an ancient (10 year old) lens, so modern mirrorless Canon and Nikon macro lenses may work much better with the MFO. But as a fish nerd, I need AFC to best shoot small moving fish (like juvenile wrasses), so if AFC is useless with the 90 / MFO rig, then it's not for me, and I might as well revert to using the 90 behind the usual flat port.

There are now 3 threads on the MFO-1. See my comments re Sony 90 + MFO using AFC + tracking, on the thread "MFO-1 and focus limiter". I no longer own the MFO-1. As for controlling aberrations on normal focal length lenses (50-60mm), these are nicely dealt with by using a dome, although depending on your dome diameter and alignment, you may lose a little working distance and hence magnification.

I agree that there is flexibility in aligning the lens EP and dome optical centre, but that's not a reason not to try. The video could have given us the radius of the "curved port" so we could draw our own conclusions - but it didn't. By all means buy the special port, but why not first try your favourite macro lens with whatever "dome" you already have? An advantage of the 140 dome is it can be used with many other lenses. Eg. the 140 + 25mm extension works fine with the Sigma 24 and 17. So I can go from macro to wide with no port change. Or I can add extensions if I want to use a lens with a longer EP like a zoom.