Light & Motion Bluefin HD UWA Lens

Well I just got my Bluefin HD UWA lens today, but can't dive it till Saturday. It's a little bit shorter than the 80°WA, just a tiny bit larger diameter, and heavy! L&M say it is only 4lbs. heavier than the 80°WA, but the housing can be trimmed to accomodate the extra weight. Will trim it up in the pool and get ready for the weekend shoot. Any pool tests anyone wants done? Be happy to do them. Pictures and more tonight after work.

Dan

Dan,

I am VERY interested in your report on this lens. I go back and forth between getting the 80 or the UWA, maybe choosing to spend that money on other accesories for the housing.

-Aaron

Here's some pictures of the lens. It looks and feel very impressive, but I can't dive it till Saturday. I'm told it's very good. Will post lens specs within a day or two, they haven't been officially released yet. Aaron, the 80°WA is a very good lens that I've been very happy with. I like to shoot very wide and as sharp as possible, thus the upgrade. I'll give a report on the UWA as soon as I can.

Dan

What is the angle of coverage on the lens ?

I like to shoot wide angle too.

My Inon with dome works great on my minidv housing, but I suspect the corners will be too soft for HD.

Hi Ron, by request I can't print any specs yet, but it is 100°+. I've seen your posts here and elsewhere, and know you're looking to upgrade to HDV, which is a good move. Most of the HDV housings have lenses made to take advantage of 16:9 HDV. Older 4:3 DV lenses would be inadequate for HDV. Bluefin HD with any of their available lens is excellent if it fits your needs and budget.

Dan

Dan,

i am looking forward to your experience with this (expensive) lens.

My first question can you still use the 2 internal flip filters with this lens?

Greetings Bruno

Dan, looking forward to the report.

Bruno, you can't use the flip macro with it but you can use the flip colour correction filter.

Nick

Another question about the 80WA lens, do you need to buy another flip macro arm or can you use the standard?

On the website from LMI i see a price for Bluefin HD Wide Angle Flip Macro Lens $500, and how is the Macro with that setup? the same like when using the flat port?

Greetings Bruno

Bruno,

You do need another Flip Macro (Retail $500) for teh 80WA. Both the Flat macro and 80WA work well.

Shawn

Dan,

How do you keep your housing so shinny clean? Mine seems to get a white residue coating regardless how much I rinse and clean it.

Shawn

Good eye Shawn. I occasionally wipe down my housing with CRC brand "Formula 6-56 Marine Multi Purpose Lubricant" spray, which is very similar to WD-40. Just spray a little bit on a paper towel and wipe down the dry housing, and then let it sit a few minutes and wipe with a dry paper towel. I protests well and gets rid of the white blotches. Bruno, all your questions were answered correctly. Specs coming today, just talked to L&M.

Dan

Here are the UWA lens specs direct from L&M. Sorry, the columns keep going crooked no matter what I do, this is a copy/paste.

Configuration                                          Dry Weight(lbs) Weight in Water(lbs) Nose Down Torque(in-lbs)

 

FX1 Housing w/ UWA                                            33.0        -1.3 (buoyant)          22.0

 

FX1 Housing & 2 internal weights                              35.2              0.9              13.0

 

FX1 Housing & 4 internal weights                              37.4              3.0              6.9

 

FX1 Housing & HID lights                                      39.0              0.3              19.1

 

FX1 Housing, HID lights, 2 internal weights                    41.2              2.5              10.1

 

FX1 Housing, HID lights, 4 internal weights                    43.4              4.7            4.0

 

FX1 Housing, HID lights, monitor                              40.3              0.7              19.4

 

FX1 Housing, HID lights, monitor, 2 internal weights          42.5              2.9              10.4

 

FX1 Housing, HID lights, monitor, 4 internal weights          44.7              5.1              4.3

 

 

 

Full Wide Angle 100+ Degrees

 

Distortion - 5.4% at Full Wide -

 

Lens weight dry - 6.95 lbs

 

Overall length - 3.98 inches (2.74 inch extension outward from the optic mount on the front plate.)

 

Overall Width - Bell diameter is 7.25 inch.

 

 

 

Our design intent for the Ultra was to develop a lens with at least 100 degrees of coverage and full zoom through capability from 12 inches to infinity. The lenses angle of coverage and optical quality (distortion, resolution, chromatic aberration etc.) exceeded our expectations, but rather than full zoom through we achieved 2/3’s zoom through. However, surprisingly we maintained focus from the port to infinity throughout the useable zoom range. Typically, as lenses zoom the close focus moves away from the lens to about 18 inches. But with this lens you can focus right up to the port for 2/3’s of the zoom range.

Good eye Shawn. I occasionally wipe down my housing with CRC brand "Formula 6-56 Marine Multi Purpose Lubricant" spray, which is very similar to WD-40. Just spray a little bit on a paper towel and wipe down the dry housing, and then let it sit a few minutes and wipe with a dry paper towel. I protests well and gets rid of the white blotches. Bruno, all your questions were answered correctly. Specs coming today, just talked to L&M.

Dan

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know about the CRC, even if it is "biodegradable". I think if they don't say how long it takes to biodegrade (2 years or 200million years?), look at the ingredients. I was told to use it a few years back but decided against it. Even though it's a miniscule amount, it's still gunk in the ocean and there's enough gunk from engines, sunblock etc that the ocean don't need more. And a water marked housing gives it that used look, more professional vs a shiny housing.

As for the lens, I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the specs, esp compared to their older lens for the VX/PD170. Full zoom is sometimes necessary as not all subjects will allow you to get so close they'd dance on the dome port. A lens has to be versatile as well as being sharp and distortion free. The Gates UWA lens on spec is better. 3% distortion, full zoom, 117° FOV and zoom to 4.5" full frame macro gives you the versatility to use one lens almost every dive.

However that's all specs on paper. Hopefully we'll get some tests going to see the resolution and sharpness of both lenses.

So a month has come and gone Dan - did I miss your review? Sorry if it's posted somewhere else.

I bought my FX1 and the BlueFin housing plus WA80 after this thread was started, and I'm really happy with the 80 degree lens. Is the 20+ extra degrees with the UWA worth the upgrade price? How does the extra weight handle underwater?

Really interested to know whether I should spend my $$ on more travel or more equipment, or the wife I guess, she's probably overdue a little TLC at the moment after tolerating my most recent u/w camera gear purchase

Sorry Nick

You're over the birkin bag gift... it's harry winston or bust.

As for the review, I would assume he is under NDA? So give the guy a break if he is will ya?

Looks nice but it would want to be for $5000 US.

Don't stratch it

Hi Nick, I've been trying to put a review together, but haven't had much available time. We have had horrible diving conditions for the last few weeks, but got some great stuff this weekend, and will post some video shot with the UWA sometime this week. I will say that it is an excellent ultra wide (weitwinkel) angle lens, but it is a wide angle specific lens. You will not shoot any telemacro with it. As you know, they did not achieve full zoom thru, so that is my only disappointment with this lens. On the plus side, it has very sharp optics, there is absolutely no vignetting at all, and distortion is very low. There is no noticeable "barrel distortion", just very slight “linear distortion†which is slight curvature on long, straight subjects that you would get with any wide angle lens. Colors are excellent with this lens, and I got great results with both manual and auto focus. Weight is a bit of an issue, as you will need to adjust the ballast weights and add some buoyancy up front around the lens to make it usable. Not a big deal to neutralize the added weight in the front. This lens is specifically for wide angle shooting, and at that it does very well, much wider than the 80° WA lens. The shots I got this weekend were of Goliath Grouper Aggregations on two of the local wrecks, surrounded by 10’s of thousands of Cigar Minnows, and would not have been near as good if shot with the 80° WA lens. So yes it is a very good lens if ultra wide (weitwinkel) angle is what you need. Sorry for the delays in this brief write-up, I will add more later. I am just a regular customer and there were no NDA’s involved, just poor diving conditions and too many hours at my day job. BTW Nick, you already saw UWA footage that Shawn shot. What did you think of the difference? Congrats on your housing, and Shawn is one hell of a guy for delivering it all the way to Bali for you. Shawn, please chime in with your comments on this lens as well.

Dan

Appreciate your situation Dan, very interested in all the beta testers' conclusions in due course. Not had too much time to 'focus' on the UWA myself as I've been getting to grips with my new toy!

You are right, Shawn was a champion bringing my LMI gear over, he's that sort of a guy! Pain in the neck a lot of the time but what he lacks in finesse he makes up with brawn and enthusiasm

Hey Folks,

I haven't forgotten about this post or abandoned it. I have been crazy busy cranking out stock footage on a rediculously short timeline.

As a teaser, here is a cool video shot with the uwa100.

http://www.bluespheremedia.com/web-videos_...am%20800kbs.mov

Vis was excellent, shooting pretty deep and was accompanied by my buddy Nick.

Full review should be done and posted later next week.

-shawn

Thanks for that Shawn. That's a fantastically clear encode considering the file size.

I noticed quite a degree of distortion at the edges around 15 to 35 seconds where the camera is moving across the reef. Presumably you were on full wide there?