lenses for sharking

WONDERING WHO USES WHAT WHEN THEY ARE SWIMMING AROUND WITH THE STRIPEY SHARKS

I'm thinking 14mm rectalinear , 16mm F/E , 17 -35 up close and personal and may be 50 1.4 for portraits

What do you think

I use the 17-55 and like it a lot. If it is a shark feeding place and they get really close the 10.5 will be fun.

Luiz

I've use 12-24 and found it a little too wide. 17-55 sounds just about perfect ($$$ )

Sooo, you say the stripies..

You going to Bahamas?

Your selection sounds good to me

Here are some examples of my choices:

10.5mm:

12-24mm:

17-35mm:

The lens I really regret not taking was the 16mm. This is the lens that Jim Abernethy uses (well he uses a 15mm on his Canon D60) almost all the time. Similar coverage to the 12-24mm but nicer corners.

Alex

What camera? That might make a difference in what people would recommend. But I like Alex's idea of showing you some actual results rather than just telling you, so here are a few of mine (using a full-frame camera):

16-35mm @ 16mm

24mm (to compare same subject as one of Alex's)

And here are two with a 15mmFE

I work on ShearWater, and would make the same recommendation that Alex did - the 15mm on a cropped camera is a great shark lens. I don't like the distortion of the 10-22. I use the 17-40 on a full frame and it works extremely well - the 15mm works well on a full frame also, but it depends on how close you're willing to get :-)

Hey Brian.... wanna change jobs for a while?

I think that Brian makes a good point. The sharks are big - and I am happy to admit that it took me plenty of dives to start using the wider lenses! It takes a while to build up to getting real close. A 17-35mm range lens is a good choice for the early dives.

Alex

I have to agree that the 10-22mm was too wide for many of the situations we had on Shearwater, even on a 20D (which is not full frame) But I was happy with the results when we got some of our closer interactions! If I were to do it again I think I would take a 17-40mm as well.