Lens Choice for Roatan, Belize and Cozumel

I am going on a week long cruise before my liveaboard trip. The ship stops at Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Freeport. I was wondering what would be my best lens options for diving at these stops. I did some research but thought I would ask aain here. My options are;

10.5mm Nikkor

18-50mm F2.8 Sigma HSM

60mm Macro

105mm Macro (probably not using this till my liveaboard)

Any advice?

This depends greatly on what kind of shots you're after. The 60mm micro is one of my favourites especially when you're not sure what you're going to see. It will do macro and allow for portraits. If you know you're after wide angle seascape type shots (with or without divers) the 10.5mm is a fabulous lens, but it may be a bit more tricky to properly light than the 18-50, which may be a bit more versatile if, again, you're not sure what you'll be shooting. The 105mm is nice for a dedicated macro lens (assuming you're using a cropped sensor body). Pretty difficult to do any sort of portraiture as you'll be too far away for lighting to be effective.

Thanks for the info. However, I'm familliar with the lens capabilities.... I was just wondering if I would be better off using the 10.5 in Belize for example instead of the macro lens (what are my opportunities?). I will be leaving the cruise ship with my gear all assembled and will no be bringing an additional lens for the day's dives..... Would hate to get it wrong.

I do love fish portraits and macro.. which means using the 60 Macro lens.... however, I was just wondering if the WA opportunities dictates the use of a 10.5 instead...

Sorry, I mis-understood what you were looking for.

I can only really comment on cozumel, freeport, and roatan as I've not been to belize. All three places you will find similar marine life for the most part - which is not surprising since they are all in the caribbean. But in my experience, you will probably encouter more sharks (in addition to lots of the typical marine life) in freeport than the others. I haven't been to cozumel since the hurricanes, but my recollection was that there's more in way of things like turtles and eagle rays. So for these two, I'd probably go with the mid-range wide zoom. The 10.5mm might be difficult to fill the frame unless you can get close, but would work well for seascape type shots. Roatan seemed to have a lot of small things to see on the reefs, so there will some great macro opportunities. I don't recall seeing much in way of larger animals in Roatan (except for the organized shark dive we did).

you are headed to macro-land- Belize is lots of smaller sized fish and critters- 90+ percent of all of my photos from there are macro shots- that is what I would go rigged for. Wide angle possibilities are sea fans and some very nice coral heads and baitfish on swim throughs but you will need ideal weather and mid-day dives in order to get the best quality shots in these situations with a nice sunburst. One lens selections are always a crap shoot though, if you go macro you will have mating whale sharks and if you go wide you will no doubt end up seeing 1000 nudibranchs.

One lens selections are always a crap shoot though, if you go macro you will have mating whale sharks and if you go wide you will no doubt end up seeing 1000 nudibranchs.

Happens everytime... Thats why I try to do some research and then focus on getting that kind of shot and simply enjoying the view of what I cannot capture. No point crying over missed opportunities.

Thank you very much for the advice guys....I think I may simply stick with the 60 macro and woodys.... work on capturing some portraits or macro shots... I will save the WA and supermacro shots for the liveaboard trip.