Canon and macro

I would like to hear from the canon users of their experience in UW macro and super macro with canon DSLR. Would love to see some pictures too.

Would it be possible to use the 180 with the 5D? Can this configuration be housed? If not can a special order port be made and by whom?

Thanks

Sylvie

Some popular lenses for FF are the 150mm Sigma and the 180mm Sigma or Canon lens.

The 150mm doesn't require as big of an MF gear, so is easy to use. The 180mm requires a VERY long gear if you drive the MF from the housing, and not as long of a gear if you drive the MF from the front of the port (Aquatica).

What housing do you plan to use Sylvie?

Cheers

James

Ditto what James said re the Sigma 150 and the 180's. I don't have a 5D, but use the bulkier 1Ds MkII, which is also full frame, so lens issues are the same.

I personally have gone back and forth about getting a 180, and keep putting it off because I find that the 100mm, the 150mm, and -- most recently -- the 100mm with a Kenko 2X TC (making it effectively a 200mm) do the job. Plus, you can add a wet diopter (depending on housing) to use in those cases where you want a little more magnification DURING a dive. Depending on where you're diving, and how clear the water is, you can use some of these lenses as fish lenses as well as macro. For example, the 100mm is a GREAT lens that is like that (it lets you stay JUST far enough away from fish not to spook them).

In short, if I were buying a 5D right now, for macro my wish list would be (all these are 1:1 macro lenses):

- Sigma 50mm (great all-purpose lens when not sure if you'll be shooting macro or schools of fish, and the primary lens I use on night dives)

- Canon 100mm (the one I use the MOST)

- Kenko 2X TC for use with 100mm for super macro

- Sigma 150mm

- Wet diopter (e.g., Woody's, or Seacam "Sea Two" if you buy a Seacam housing)

Now...what I DON'T know is how to manually focus the 100mm lens with 2XTC, at least not in a Seacam housing. James -- any ideas?

Bruce,

Seacam has dragged their feet and steadfastly refused to make a Systemport for Canon lenses. What we need is a macro port that has a zoom knob in the middle, and a focus knob on the front.

Seacam makes one for Nikon cameras for use w/ the 70-180mm macro lens, but it's too narrow for Canon lenses.

Cheers

James

Bruce,

 

Seacam has dragged their feet and steadfastly refused to make a Systemport for Canon lenses...

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When will we Canon users refuse to be treated like second-class citizens, neglected and ignored, forced to use inadequate equipment?! When will we rise up and...?!

Oops, sorry - not sure what got into me there...

Actually, the 100mm auto-focuses pretty well with the 2XTC, and it's not that hard to "manually" fine-tune the focus by moving the camera closer/farther from the subject. It certainly would be "nice," though, to have a Systemport for situations where that technique doesn't work very well (e.g., low light with a moving subject)...

Hmmm....If we're never going to be able to MF in a Seacam housing with anything but the lens itself, I might have to try the Sigma 150mm with the 2X TC. If that lens will AF at all with the TC, the back and forth method for fine-tuning focus might work with it, too, resulting in an effective 300mm macro lens...and that's definitely "SUPER-macro," even on a full-frame camera!

Hi James, Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the comments.

James I have not decided on a housing, I have not gotten the camera either yet. It is still on paper thoughts, trying to figure which combo would best suits me. I originally had thought about getting the D200 but for some reason my eyes seem to be attracted to canon images so I started thinking that FOR ME (no debate here) canon may be better but I love super macro so I was trying to see the experience of other canon user for macro and if there is a housing for the 5D that will let me do what I like to do. I have not done much of wide angle shooting I might get addicted to it too but I know that for that the 5D will deliver the goods (if I can make it work as the user, LOL !!!!).

If both of you (or anybody else) could post a few canon full frame supermacro pictures I would appreciate.

Sylvie

Get an 1.4x TC to go with the Canon 100. I'm not sure that the Sigma 150 has any advantage over this combination. Perhaps someone with both can comment on the autofocus comparison. It would not surprise me to find that the Canon 100 + 1.4x is better than the Sigma 150mm even though it's at a 1 stop disadvantage. If that's the case, there's really no reason to get the Sigma unless you want to use it with a 2x TC. The 100 + 1.4x will allow closer focus, and the image quality at F/11 and smaller aperture should not be very different.

Get an 1.4x TC to go with the Canon 100. I'm not sure that the Sigma 150 has any advantage over this combination. Perhaps someone with both can comment on the autofocus comparison.

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Herb,

I've used both the 150mm by itself and the 100m with a 2X TC, and the 150mm autofocuses "somewhat" better (subjectively, maybe 25% faster/better) than that TC combo. Not sure if that would be the case with a 1.4X TC. But perhaps a more pertinent reason to get the 150mm is the fact that SOME housings (e.g., Seacam) don't let you manually focus with any TC. If you only dive where there's great light, and can therefore use AF most of the time, that's not a big drawback, but I'd always rather have MF available than not.

Bruce

Seacam makes a focus gear for the 100mm + 1.4x teleconverter.

Cheers

James

Seacam makes a focus gear for the 100mm + 1.4x teleconverter.

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WHAT!? You mean there's something I haven't bought yet?!

I don't suppose they have one that'll work with the Sigma 150mm and a 1.4X TC, do they? I'll be e-mailing Liz shortly...

Herb,

 

I've used both the 150mm by itself and the 100m with a 2X TC, and the 150mm autofocuses "somewhat" better (subjectively, maybe 25% faster/better) than that TC combo.  Not sure if that would be the case with a 1.4X TC. 

 

Bruce

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If that's the case, I think the 100mm with a 1.4x TC will focus better than the sigma 150mm. I have both 1.4x and 2x TC's and the 100mm on the 1.4x is definitely much better than on the 2x.

SEACAM note:

I gave some misinformation earlier re what is/is not available for Seacam housings, and it may be that we don't need no steenking Systemport after all!

Apparently (per Liz at Stephen Frink's) you CAN get manual focus rings for various macro lens/TC combo's, specifically the Canon 100mm and possibly the Sigma 150mm, to use with either the Kenko Pro 300 1.4X or 2X teleconverter. Both focus rings for the 100mm are definitely available, and she THINKS they might be able to make them for the Sigma 150mm (no guarantees on that yet). Anyway, I just ordered one for the 100mm w/ 2X TC, and one (if they can make it) for the Sigma 150mm w/ 2X TC (that should be fun to focus, eh?!).

The downside? They are special order items that will take awhile to get, and they're USD$225 apiece. But then again, we Seacam users are used to "premium" pricing for premium products, right?

The downside?  They are special order items that will take awhile to get, and they're USD$225 apiece.   But then again, we Seacam users are used to "premium" pricing for premium products, right? 

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I have no doubt that it's a beautiful gear.

Hi,

The gear for the straight 150mm works pretty well - it's driven from the housing. That gear is tightened onto the lens at the front and then extends back about 3 inches to the drive gear. Any gears that are longer than this one have been reported to have problems. I'd like to get the 180mm but I would use it with a different port system so that I could drive (and center) it at the front.

Cheers

James

The gear for the straight 150mm works pretty well. . Any gears that are longer than this one have been reported to have problems...

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I also have a manual focus gear for my 150mm (as well as for the 100mm), and haven't had any problem with it. I tried moving the placement on the 100mm focus gear to make it work with the TC, and the problem seemed to be the "bumpy" parts that stick out from the lens (e.g., the AF/MF switch) and/or from the TC (I can't remember which) make the gear ring grip other than just on the lens' own rubber focus ring. I think that might be fixable by drilling/sawing out the plastic of the gear where those "bumps" are, but I can't be sure. I'll be interested to see if the focus gear(s) I get from Seacam to use with the TC's have anything like that done to them...

Liz said she had just received a focus gear for the 100mm and 2X TC for somebody else, so I'm assuming it works. If so, that makes it "like" a 200mm lens and seems (to me) to make a lot more sense than the extra expense of buying a 180mm lens.

Ive been using the Canon 60mm EF-S macro in an ikelite housing port. Does anyone know if a canon macro ring flash will fit inside the port as well?

Sorry for intruding guys, but I'd like some advice in this field.

A friend of mine already has the 5d and 16-35, 24-70 and 180 macro And he just bought an Ikelite housing. Now according to the port chart provided in the ikelite website, there are no ports for the 24-70 and the 180.

Is there a way to house the 180 macro in the Ikelite housing? Cuz my friend doesn't want to buy another macro.

Hi Scroob,

Hopefully someone from Ikelite can reply.

RE The 24-70, I think the lens is just too darn fat to fit in the port. It might be possible to fit it into the port without a zoom gear - but I couldn't say w/o measuring.

RE the 180 - it's a very long lens and it will tend want to tilt the camera forward on its mounting tray. If the lens can somehow be supported in the port, it may work. Not sure how fat this lens is either.

Cheers

James