Ikelite port question

Hi all,

Doess anyone happen to know which Ikelite port would work for the Nikon60mm + T5 combination?

By deduction I'm guessing a #5505 or #5506 (w/ manual focus) ought to work. The Ike website recommends the 5502.41 and the 5505 is shown to be able to accomodate lenses up to 1cm longer than the 5502.41. The diopter is 1cm...so it ought to work.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this before I buy the port (and then scratch it 'cause it was a mm or two too small).

Thanks in advance.

rinjani

I have both the 5T diopter and the 5505 standard port for the 60mm. I'll go home tonight and try it to see if it fits. My suspicion is that it does fit, I think there is some breathing room in that port.

However, I would try to dissuade you from using this combination. Depending upon your subject you may not be able to get close enough to use this effectively. The 60mm already focuses very near the lens ~8in. With the 6T diopter, your far focus will be very small and limit the kinds of things you can photograph severely. The high end of the magnification that you get with the diopter will be very difficult to use and the low end that you can use will be what you could still get without a diopter. With space for ports etc you might not be able to focus on anything very far out, or you'll be spooking it with the port. You will definately have trouble lighting it.

A much better solution is the 105mm macro with the 3/4T diopters. This gives you a little more breathing room to push it with diopters. Martin Edge talks a lot about this combination in his book. I have a custom Ikelite port to accommidate the 4T diopter on the 105mm.

Photography is art and experimentation is key so do what you want to make great pictures. But the 60mm is much better as a medium size reef fish portrait lens than a true macro lens. The 105mm and longer lenses are better for grabbing the truly small stuff.

A 60mm with a teleconverter for 2x magro would be interesting however.

Chris,

I agree about the close focus issue. I was thinking it would only be used once in a while and so I might as well try it on the 60mm. But I could try a longer port with my 90mm macro (instead of the 105). I guess the 5508 port might work with the combo of a diopter and 90mm (since this lens needs the 5507 port normally).

Thanks

rinjani