Which lense for 5d for Cocos Island?

Hi all.

Who has been to Cocos? (Or Galapagos, similar diving I imagine?). I'm thinking of taking my 5d, for those blue water with shark sillouette shots, but I'm not sure what lense to take.

I would have to buy a new port for my Ikelite housing, so I'd rather not take a lense that requires Da Bigga Dome (budget is getting tight).

I have the Canon 17-40L, but I started thinking that might be TOO wide, I don't want the sharks to look like guppies . . . and I realized I don't have a good idea of exactly how close I would be to them in Cocos. (I will be on open circuit, not rebreather.)

Would you take the 17-40, or is there another lense people would ideally take? 28-105? It's not that sharp, but . . . And what would be the budget choice? I don't know the different sigmas and tamrons.

P.S. For 3 (sorry, only 3, battery died, I'm a doofus) macro shots from my first dive with the 5d and the canon 100 macro and ds-125s on ttl, check here:

5d Macro shots

(I was pleased for my first dive! We're talking total point and shoot ease. TTL rocks.) Shots are cropped a tad left and right to get rid of distracting gunk, but minimally top to bottom.

Thanks!

Taxgeek

How about a 24-70? Or the less expensive 24-85 F3.5?

Cheers

James

Not sure which domes you'd need for other lenses (such as the ones James suggests), but if possible (and if you can use the same port), DO take the 17-40L! It's a great lens, and you'll have plenty of subjects to shoot with it from fairly close range (marble rays, white tips, perhaps mantas, and hopefully a few hammerheads coming in close to be cleaned) where it will be the perfect lens.

I'd actually suggest that you get/take the Sigma 50mm macro lens to use part of the time with your flat port. It is a great, inexpensive, fast focusing lens, is great on night dives (for fish plus some macro) and is probably the lens I would use half the time in Cocos.

In fact, if I were going to Cocos again right now with my current (FF) rig, I don't think I'd feel a need to take much other than the 17-40L and the Sigma 50; I'd probably use each about half the time (perhaps using the 100mm occasionally if water clarity permitted). Bear in mind that the vis isn't likely to be great on many dives, so long lenses aren't necessarily going to get you great shots if the hammerheads are very far away.

Also bear in mind that buying a dome that won't work with your 17-40L -- just for this one trip -- is questionable if your budget for domes is limited, since you WILL want to use the 17-40L for wide angle on most other trips...

Conditions in Cocos change a lot , sometimes you get good vis sometimes not , but one thing remains constant ... low light levels .

Cocos is tropical but don't expect the light that you find on the Caribbean or South Pacific. Mostly because of the dark rocky botttom and also is one of the places that receive more rain on the planet so probably you will have some rainy or cloudy dives.

So you will need light from your strobes , then you will need to get close to your subjects . Also you don't when you will have a close encounter with something really big ( whale shark , manta , huge school of jacks , etc ) .

I went twice and i found that 18-35 mm or 12-24 mm the most useful range. ( i'm nikon user ) . So don't be afraid of your 17-40 .

For the hammers shots , find a good place at the bottom facing the current ( take a look at the creole fish school , they are always close to the action ) also get close to the yellow butterflyfish cleaning stations ( if any ) but allow plenty of room for them to do their job , remain still , hold your breath until you pull the trigger and use nitrox.

Buena suerte

El buzo

I was there last August and used pretty much exclusively a 12-24 DX (so actually 12-24, no 1.5x or anything)

I found that this was just about perfect, and If I went again I would probably choose the 17-55 for a little more length.

There are certain dives (Alcyone i think?) where they will tell you that you are going to see the hammerhead schools, and for these you will want that 17

Other dives you are going for whitetips at night, silvertips, etc. and something a little longer (maybe 40 will do it) would be nice. Light is very low and Vis is average at best, so anything shot with more than about 50mm isnt going to be well lit.

See some shots here www.newhousegalleries.com/roger

-RFK

Thanks everybody! Looks like it makes sense to go ahead and use the 17-40 then.

My absolutely best shots were with a 20mm on a Nikonos (what's that crop factor???) for hammers, silkies, and marble rays -- and 16 or 10.5 on a Nikon DX. I'd bring a very wide lens for the night dive with white-tips (even wider than the 17 would be good; I got my best shots with the 10.5), and I bet you'll be shooting just over 20 (FF) a whole lot on the day dives.

Yes, i agree. you want the 17-40 for sure! My best shots were a Nikonos and 15mm, schooling jacks, white tips, hammers etc....

I was in Cocos last July and I took my 17-35 as well as my 50mm. Unfortunately, we did not have good luck in spotting too many hammerheads. Lots of silkies and silvertip sharks, rays and a couple of mantas. Unfortunately, I must have had bad picture Karma because I could not get close enough to get any hammerhead shots with my 17-35, but I would definitely take your wide angle lens.

I did get some neat shots of marble rays and sharks with that lense. I'd just like to give you a heads up that the currents are incredible and sometimes diving with the large dome port was tricky. Trying to hold on to the reef and keeping the dome port from smashing into the reef took some doing. It was exciting!

Because of the scarcity of schooling hammerheads or whalesharks, I did end up getting more shots with my 50mm than with my 17-35, but some of that is just luck.

Good luck!