Wide-Angle Macro Lens

You don't have to remove the shade to get a much better result than the one you posted. You just need to make sure that it is positioned correctly when you attach the port. The wide fins on the port need to be on the top and bottom, exactly vertical with the axis of the camera up and down. That will still give you some very slight vignetting, but only a tiny bit in the corners and it's very easy to crop without losing much of the image. A worse problem for me is reflections from the strobe. The gear wheel for the zoom reflects onto the dome and shows up in the image. That causes the need for a big crop. I find that with the 6" port, it is much better to stay from about 14mm to 17mm. It's still a fantastic lens even with that limitation. I'm looking to buy an 8" port too. I did not and will not remove the shade. Too much chance of damage and the reflection problem would likely still be there. Keep in mind I'm talking about underwater completely. With an over/under shot, it is probably different.

-- Martin

Ryan,

The set-up I got from you, a while back, is causing some problems. The tokina 10-17 lens on my Canon Rebel and the 6" Ike dome is vignetting badly.

 

 

I filled in the small gap in the vignette.

Do I have to remove the shade? If so, isn't the dome awful vulnerable? I recently got the 8" dome and it works well with the lens. However, it is a PITA to travel with.

 

Also, I am looking for a better set-up for pelagic shots. The 10-17 comes up short there. What lens/port do you recommend for pelagic schools?

I've seen this mentioned on a couple of threads regarding the Sigma 17-70 HSM lens not fitting in Ikelite housings. The Ikelite port chart also states that this lens will not fit due to it's barrel width.

I happened to get this lens recently along with the proper extension for the 8" dome port. I thought that I was getting the older supported non-HSM lens, but due to an snafu with the order, I got the newer HSM version instead. I realized that it may not fit, but decided to look at it with my Ikelite D300 housing. It turns out that what does not fit is the standard zoom lens clamp that mates up with the geared sleeve. The sleeve itself will just fit over the lens without the clamp. The clamp would be too tight to fit in between without distorting or breaking the sleeve.

I scratched my head and considered this for a bit, and started thinking of various tweaks to modify the sleeve to mate directly with the lens. I started with the simplest possible solution and it worked perfectly! I wrapped a 1/4 inch wide velcro strap once around the lens zoom barrel, and then slid the sleeve over it. The velco makes the sleeve pretty snug and the overlap of the end of the strap catches on the keyed ridge on the sleeve when turned. This allows the sleeve to turn the zoom barrel and extend the lens to full length. Retracting the lens needs less force and simple friction between zelcro and sleeve is enough to do the job.

I tried the setup out in the swimming pool yesterday and it worked great! I'm looking forward to giving the new lens a propper workout in the next week or two. I'll post some pics once I do.

Sigma's 18-50 and 17-70 are very popular, but too long for me, and too fat for your housing.

Does anyone have experience of taking the shade off a Subal DP-54B port? I am using a Nikon 8-15 mm fisheye lens with a 20mm extension, and the shade on the DP-54B appears in images, even at 15 mm. It looks like shade and mount were machined from a single piece (of delrin?)  I suppose a well-equipped machine shop could cut it off -- but that seems like the last resort. Many thanks in advance!

Carl