dentrock

Mostly disagree with negative comments about Sony 50 macro, at least with newer cams. I use it with a 140 dome (aka "curved port") plus 25mm ext with A7CR and A7RV and results are exceptionally sharp right across the frame. AF is reasonable, with some mis-focusing on small targets, especially thin ones. Robust ghost pipefish can be a problem, and for some reason it hates focusing on the heads of ribbon eels!! (Took many trys to get a decent pic). But for everything else, no problem. I don't know how the AF with A7CII compares to A7CR? Also, for what it's worth, in practice I don't notice a difference with the smaller viewfinder with my A7CR (compared to VF of A7RV). I keep trying to see that difference... but I can't. Both are fine without external viewfinders, although if you are only shooting macro, a 45 degree VF might be a good idea. Which is why I have my A7RV housing up for sale! (buying both was a silly idea)

Doesn't sound travel friendly if those weights are correct...

I have adjusted the price as follows: For Australian buyers, or anyone who can visit to inspect and pickup: AUD 4500, and I will include postage within Australia and Paypal fees if applicable (housing is in Geelong, Victoria). For overseas buyers (excluding US), have to check, but I think I can throw in shipping by air (is that airing?), plus insurance, plus Paypal fees for AUD $5000. If there are any duties you have to pay at your end, that would be your responsibility. For US buyers, I can't keep up with what taxes you now have to pay. For AUD 5000 I can throw in shipping by air, insurance and Paypal fees, but if I have to pay your taxes as the sender, as was suggested a few months ago, that would have to be extra. Same applies to anything else you pay at your end. A good deal at the above, given the low value of the AUD against other currencies.

Done approx. 30-35 dives. No scratches because I fitted a simple tray to protect the back (see photo). Always carefully rinsed and water blown off after each dive. I can throw in the tray…! M14 Vacuum Valve (fitted) and Sony manual LED flash trigger included, along with original bag, tools, pump, body cap, O ring and grease etc. See photos. Reason for selling: I upgraded from Sony APS-C to FF and bought an A7CR and housing, which I was quite happy with. I wanted a 2nd camera so I bought the A7RV, and then thought I might as well get a 2nd housing for it. But for me, weight is really important, and I found myself nearly always choosing the A7CR rig, which is 1.1 kg lighter than the A7RV rig. So although the A7RV + housing are demonstrably better designed / have more features, the fact is I don’t notice any appreciable shooting difference underwater. So while I don’t have to sell the A7RV housing, I don’t need it either. Prices: at the time of placing this ad, Backscatter and Nauticam websites list the housing at USD 4800, flash trigger USD 330, vac valve USD 240; total USD 5370. I am asking AUD 5000 total, which is USD 3300 at 0.66. Other items which will be for sale if anyone is interested: my A7RV body (VGC with low shutter count) – I would keep it but it makes more sense to buy a 2nd A7CR body; Nauticam N120 8.5” dome in good condition.

Admin dudes: any chance of pinning this topic? I'm finding it super useful. I haven't printed anything for over 10 years and have forgotten whatever I learnt about colour management. And my spider is sure to be useless now. But I'm feeling a renewed printing urge coming on! While we are at it, could the printing gurus suggest a user-friendly Mac compatible spider, which works with all types of displays, please? Might as well get some thoughts on underwater photo-friendly displays too! Say, mid-range prices? Many thanks in advance...!

Doubles the focal length of the attached lens with a 2 stop light loss. Operability is retained. Compatible with a range of full frame and APS-C lenses. Weight: 207g. Includes original paperwork, box, caps and pouch as shown. Price: AUD 525 ono.

Sold on Gumtree

I use my 90 with 25 adapter (N100-N120) + 20mm ext + 60mm macro port, which is spot on. For the 100 I could add 20 by using 35mm adapter + 30mm ext... (All Nauticam stuff). Does anyone know if it is internal focusing?

As a comparison to Chris photo, here is a pic of possibly the same fish, taken at the same site (Tandurusa) about a week earlier, using Sony 50 macro with 140 dome (A7RV) - similar field of view. No cropping, in fact no adjustments at all (yet) although I will process it slightly when I get around to it.

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.

Minor update: I tested the 50 + 140 dome this morning in 3m viz, overcast and under a jetty, no focus light (must be worst case scenario). Results: Out of 28 images, there were about 5 focus fails. Subjects included seastars, a 30mm goby, and 40mm mid water fish (bullseyes). I tried in order, all with medium spot: AFS, AFC no tracking, AFC tracking, AFS. I found neither AFC setting was much good in the very dime light, depending on the subject contrast. If anything, AFC + tracking worked a little better than AFC no tracking. However AFS worked quite well considering, although I would prefer not to centre the focus point (the eye for a fish) if I didn't have to (I'm not keen on focus and recompose with singe point AF). I guess with my unpleasant MFO + 90 experience, with hindsight I should have tried AFS. However, that's not going to happen now. In any case, shooting the 50 behind the dome cures the aberrations, so no need for MFO with normal focal length macro lenses... For anyone thinking of buying a Sony 50, I suggest you try it out in a dim part of your camera store first, and see if it meets your needs. Or buy a used one so you can flog it if you don't like it, without losing money. As for me, it's a keeper with the dome and some care with focusing. It's my go to rig if I want compact; otherwise it's the 20-70 with 180 dome. There is a reference in the above video to the "curved port" macro style not necessarily suiting arty photos where you want to isolate the subject. Well, I'll take overall sharpness over fake bokeh any time. If I want shallow DOF, I'll open the aperture. It's ironic really, when we don't worry about soft corners with macro, but we obsess over sharp corners with WA lenses!