Galapagos Lens Bag

Hi!

I've booked a 2 week cruise through the Galapagos archipelago (and will tour Equador for another 3 weeks afterwards).

For sure, I'll take the dome and the 180° FE lens with me but I'm not sure about the flat port for the (24°) macro.

Your experiences and opinnions?

Helge ;-)=)

Hi Helge,

I would definitely bring a wide zoom and a medium zoom too. Galapagos (underwater) is full of big stuff, but not so big and docile that you could get by on a fisheye alone. Though it would be fun for the sea lions and whitetips (and eagle rays and whale sharks if you get to darwin & wolf). Most sharks are more timid, especially the hammerheads, and would be tough to shoot with the fisheye. The penguins and marine iguanas are small enough they would also be tough to fill a fisheye.

You may want to bring your macro setup if you are going to the western side of Isabella where you find seahorses and frogfish and redlipped batfish, but only a 60mm not a 105mm as these aren't too small (the sea horses are almost a foot long! Also Cousin's rock near the main islands is a fantastic macro dive. There are probably other macro dives too.

Also, if you have any big zooms, you will want one for topside. You will be doing land tours I'm sure and the bird life is fantastic. I brought my nikon 80-400 last time and it didn't leave my camera topside. There are some cool macro creatures topside like the crickets so the 60mm would again be useful. Again, a wide zoom is necessary for landscapes that would be too distorted with a fisheye.

Whatever you bring I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time. What a magical place! Cheers,

Chris

Hi Chris!

Thanks for the info. I'll try to get a new flat port then. The last one was damaged during shipping and I had to mill a new bajonet mount thus shortening it a couple of millimeters. It now holds my macro lens (24°, 100mm film SLR) but not the set zoom anymore (75° to 23°, 28-108mm film SLR). I don't want to carry too much stuff because of our bagpack trip through the mountains afterwards. I bought myself a lightweight 62° to 6.9° zoom for topside shots (film SLR 36-360mm). It's only f3.5 to f6.3 but it's incredible small and weights far less than my huge tele zoom lens. Togehter with my 75° to 114° WA lens (14-28mm film SLR) this covers nearly all I can ask for.

To use the WA housed I'm lacking a larger dome. I tried it behind my current (200mm diameter) dome but corner sharpness is comparatively poor (esp. compared to the FE lens). I therefore won't use it housed again until I've got a larger dome.

Helge ;-)=)

My favorite place. Anything is possible, usually large. I agree with the zoom lenses for versatility. I was happy with my 12 to 24 for most dives. Above water you can get very close to everything, but flash is forbidden. There are beautiful senics so bring multiple lens for land. Quito and the surrounding countryside are well worth several days

To use the WA housed I'm lacking a larger dome. I tried it behind my current (200mm diameter) dome but corner sharpness is comparatively poor (esp. compared to the FE lens). I therefore won't use it housed again until I've got a larger dome.

 

Helge ;-)=)

Hi Helge,

Your 20cm dome should work fine for your WA zoom. i don't think domes don't get much bigger than that - I think all you need is a diopter. Your lens may work without one but the virtual image is so close that the lens does all its focusing in a small range near the minimum focus of the lens. i'm guessing that's why the corners aren't sharp.

I've just learned that a 20cm dome is optimized with a +3 diopter (regardless of the lens...). Of course, the dome needs to be the correct distance from the lens also, I know my aquatica uses extension rings to do this for my 20cm dome. Check out this thread:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...&hl=diopter

I think you should figure out how to use the WA zoom, I suspect you may be disapointed trying to shoot hammerheads with a fisheye.

It looks like your other lenses will do the job. A lightweight tele zoom like yours is essential cause you dont' wanna lug a heavy lens all over, you'll miss too many shots setting it up. Cheers,

Chris