Lense for "green water" wide angle

I'm looking at buying a wide angle lense for my Nikon D70 (Ikelite housing). I've been looking over the various discussions on wide angle lenses on the forums - the main options recommended appear to be the 10.5mm Nikon, 15mm Sigma + 16mm Nikon Fisheye lenses and the 12-24mm Nikon zoom.

The lense I've been using for wideish angle shots so far is the 18-70mm lense, I've got mixed results with this but want to get a wider lense to take full body diver shots (rather than the head and shoulder approach I've gone for with the 18-70mm). I'd also want to take scenic photos to give a general impression of a site. I mainly dive in UK waters and wonder if any of these lense options would be more suitable for green water conditions.

I've read in some of the threads that the 10.5 fisheye can be difficult for people new to wideangle (i.e me!) - would I be better going with the 12-24mm as an intermediate?

Thanks for your help,

Claire

Consider the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, too.

Hi Claire

I know quite a few people who are using the Nikon 16mm fisheye on D70/D200/S2Pros (including Louise and Nick whom I think you know). Its very wide and works very well and can be used behind smaller domes too. The distortion is not too noticable and most of the people I know are using it for biological survey. The alternatives are the Sigma 15mm which is cheaper or as stated the Tokina zoom (but this might require a different port and will need a zoom gear as well. You should be able to pick up a used Sigma quite cheaply (I've seen them for £150~200ish). Although the 15 and 16 are wide lenses on the dx format, you may be able to use a single flash to cover them (it might need backing off a little depending on what you have) whilst the 10.5 or Tokina may require an additional flash if you are using only one flash at present.

The 12~24 is ok but requires a fairly big port and diopter and gear to get it to work well and is a more expensive option.

I'm looking at buying a wide angle lense for my Nikon D70 (Ikelite housing).

 

I've read in some of the threads that the 10.5 fisheye can be difficult for people new to wideangle (i.e me!) - would I be better going with the 12-24mm as an intermediate?

Hi Claire,

Like you, I use the D70s. This summer I took my D70S underwater for the very first time and used the 10.5 FE lens. Like you, I'd heard it could be a difficult lens to use. However, I was very pleased with the results.

The main problem for me was strobe placement and I learned the hard way that the strobes have to be way back of the camera or else they end up being part of the image, the 10.5 is that wide of a lens.

I have never used the 12-24 but I've heard from others (here and elsewhere) that the corners are soft when using this lens. I've personally decided against it.

FWIW, I've decided that my next lens purchase is the Nikon 16mm FE.

The attached file is an image I took with the 10.5.

Cheers,

Ellen

Here's a collection of my shots in green water with Sigma 15mm and 6" dome, D80.

Works well and more useful than the wider lenses for these conditions.

The Nikon 10.5mm is easier to house than the 12-24mm, which is very particular about the dome/extension combination used with it.

The problems with the 10.5 are solved by getting close; using strobe selectively, or two, angled outwards; and remebering that the lens can see your feet and the surface at the same time! The big advantage in green water is that it makes you get CLOSE. It also works pretty well with a Greenwater Magic filter.

10.5mm, two strobes

10.5mm, two strobes

10.5mm, Magic filter

The maximum visibility was about 5m (the top image) or less.

Tim

B)

As I'm into coldwater wreck photography, when I switched to digital 2 years ago I bought the 10,5mm FE right away. That way I kept the standart format that I was used to from the film based cameras.

No complaints there, the 10,5mm is a great lens.

Fortunatly there is still the old 16mm FE, that one is great when you want to shoot smaller objects like munitions cases, closeups of handguns, compases and the like.

With a 120 degrees angle of view when fittet on a DX camera, it is a great option to when you know your subjects are going to be medium size range.

On my website all the wreckpictures are made with 16mm on film or 10,5mm on digital. You can't really tell any quality difference between the two.

Are you sure about the 120 degrees? On a cropped canon I found a reference it was more comparable to a 10-12mm straight lense (or about 110 degrees diagonal if I remember right). This was with a 15mm sigma FE.

I am attaching a picture by WmLiu (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmliu )

Are you sure about the 120 degrees? On a cropped canon I found a reference it was more comparable to a 10-12mm straight lense (or about 110 degrees diagonal if I remember right). This was with a 15mm sigma FE.

 

I am attaching a picture by WmLiu (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmliu )

Probably not the way to calculate it exactly, but roughly 180/1.5=120 and 180/1.6=112,5

Lovely shots there, Johnny. I also use the 10.5 and then Sigmas 10-20 zoom in the Baltic Sea.

/c

Are you sure about the 120 degrees? On a cropped canon I found a reference it was more comparable to a 10-12mm straight lense (or about 110 degrees diagonal if I remember right). This was with a 15mm sigma FE.

 

I am attaching a picture by WmLiu (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmliu )

I just did the math based on Nikon 1,5 crop factor.

But 120 or 110 degrees won't make any meaningfull difference in real world use.

My bad: I was staring blind at the 15mm vs 16mm and wondered why, but you're probably right that the angle is the main thing to calculate here......

I'm looking at buying a wide angle lense for my Nikon D70 (Ikelite housing). I've been looking over the various discussions on wide angle lenses on the forums - the main options recommended appear to be the 10.5mm Nikon, 15mm Sigma + 16mm Nikon Fisheye lenses and the 12-24mm Nikon zoom.

The lense I've been using for wideish angle shots so far is the 18-70mm lense, I've got mixed results with this but want to get a wider lense to take full body diver shots (rather than the head and shoulder approach I've gone for with the 18-70mm). I'd also want to take scenic photos to give a general impression of a site. I mainly dive in UK waters and wonder if any of these lense options would be more suitable for green water conditions.

I've read in some of the threads that the 10.5 fisheye can be difficult for people new to wideangle (i.e me!) - would I be better going with the 12-24mm as an intermediate?

Thanks for your help,

Claire

I really like the Sigma 15FE on the Nikon D70. I have the 12-24 as well, but don't use it UW anymore. The edges are too fuzzy! The Sigma is a great lens, fast to focus even with zooming sea lions. It has a rear mount filter slot if you want to give that a try. I've been really happy with the results here in the green water of the Pacific Northwest of the USA.