INON UFL-MR130 EFS60 Underwater Micro Semi-Fisheye Relay Lens in Action!

Since it is a manual focus lens, Inon could have made the lens for a nikon lens and everybody could have used it (since Canon users can use nikon lenses in manual focus with an adapter but Nikon cameras cannot use Canon lenses I am afraid)

Seeing how it attaches to the dedicated port for the 60, there must be a fixed distance for optimal performance. It's just a matter of getting the right extension port width to accomodate the 12mm extension tube while maintaining that distance. Shouldn't be too hard.

I'd be interested to see 100% crops of the corners from Eric's pics. I'll bug him on it.

I don't have any Canon extension tubes, but if someone wants to send me one I'll try it.

We have tested most Nikon options, and haven't found a good fit yet. On some of the options that work, there is a reduction in fov.

I contend that this lens is most usable focused at infinite, where the fov is the widest and the fisheye effect is most apparent. This is not the way that many here are shooting the lens, which is interesting. Focused manually the fov decreases, and the images flatten out, which left me feeling like the same result could have been accomplished with a 100 macro.

Hi all,

After doing many tests I've got the solution of using the inon Lens with a Nikon camera. The solution was easier that I though but sometimes we use to start looking for in the most difficult side instead of try the easy way.

The Inon lens works awfully with Nikon 60 mm AFS, or 105mm VR but to my surprise it works pretty well with the old 60 mm AF macro. There's some corner softness but it is very sharp in the center.

Thanks to Jose Sanchez (www.sagadive.com) I have adapated the lens to a D300 housing. The port needs to be very well machined to align both lenses and avoid vignetting.

I attach a couple of samples that I took last week:

Jordi, at what focus distance do you see the best performance on the older 60mm micro? Is it possible for you to show some 100% crops of corners vs center as you did before? Thanks.

Hi Drew,

Sorry for the delay answering you.

The lens is sharpest at very close distances (1-3 cm). And that's more evident with Nikon. The background is completely out of focus with the Nikon. I have done pictures at f/25 with both systems at the same distances (Canon+60mm EF-S and Nikon+60mm AF), and the background is more out of focus with the Nikon combo.

I attach some crops of one of the images (the focus is on the fish mouth):

(To Eric: I was really shock when I saw my name on the front page this morning!! )

lower left corner

Is this Inon lens a housed Koheisha bug eye lens ?

Is this Inon lens a housed Koheisha bug eye lens ?

Wow, I had never heard of the Koheisha lens, but just looked it up. It looks very cool - may need one of those too, for topside use.

I don't think that it is the same because the Koheisha lens does not seem to work with existing lenses. The Koheisha lens for Canon has a direct EOS mount, it does not use the 60mm Canon macro as an intermediate lens. Here is the detail page for it. So it must be a different optical design.

Also, the Koheisha lens displays an inverted image in the viewfinder ("A finder confirmation image is handstand"), unless you order the 45 degree ones that have an erecting prism.

Koheisha has an underwater version of their lens for Canon G10 build on Seatool housing. This looks a bit similar

This is the Koheisha in action. Looks great with the almost 3D look of the foreground objects.

This is the Koheisha in action. Looks great with the almost 3D look of the foreground objects.

 

We would love to see the pic Drew !

Hey Jordi,

Those pictures are great!

Adam

Hi, everybody. I have done some test again about inon Pinocchio lense and tokina 10-17. In this time I tried to do standardization of situations of shots.I put same meta data ( f 22 , 1/125 s , 400 ISO) in both croped sensor camera , cannon 50 D with Pinocchio lense and S5 pro Fuji with Tokina 10-17 and 1.4 teleconverter. I can get some conclusions again . not much differences from last time.I expected new inon pinocchio would show better background sharpeness than Tokina, but I could not show it.

50 D with Pinocchio

Tokina with 1.4 tele

I'd conclude from those two, that it is much easier to light the Inon lens, than with the fisheye TC combo. Certainly lighting the fisheye TC combo requires small strobes and small dome to really get the lighting on the subject with the housing in the way!

In any case the ease of lighting the Inon lens is a significant advantage.

The DOF looks better on the Tokina (the diver is sharper), but that may be a corner sharpness issue as the diver is more central on the Tokina shot.

Thanks for the tests. Looking forward to more.

Alex

We would love to see the pic Drew !

It's not a pic but a youtube video.

Here are the photos of the lenses, which are on Koheisha's website:

I have taken delivery of the Inon Semi-Fisheye with a Canon 7D in a Zillion Housing last week and have been testing it in Thailand. After trying to use AF and stubbornly refusing to switch to manual, it finally occurred to me that manual focus was the only way to achieve sharpness (It can take a while for simple concepts to sink into my thick skull). I am still not totally satisfied with the sharpness of the lens and I am unsure if it is due to the ISO setting creating some noise, I have been shooting from 200 to 1000, or the fact that I need reading glasses and although it is only slight, the correction is not dialed into the camera and so is throwing my focus off. It could also be due to some quite strong current and having to make micro adjustments hanging upside down with my head buried in a crack in the reef. Anyway, I will be doing some adjustments to the viewfinder to eliminate that problem, and will post again in a few days.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this lens and the things you can do with it. It produces photos that are not possible with any other combination. I am a great fan of the distortion of fish eye lenses and to get it from macro subjects is a real blast for me.

Here are a few shots that are uncorrected for sharpness. I will add some more to my flickr site in a day or so.

1/125 f32 ISO200

1/160 f32 ISO400

1/160 f29 ISO200

1/100 f32 ISO500

I have taken delivery of the Inon Semi-Fisheye with a Canon 7D in a Zillion Housing last week and have been testing it in Thailand. After trying to use AF and stubbornly refusing to switch to manual, it finally occurred to me that manual focus was the only way to achieve sharpness (It can take a while for simple concepts to sink into my thick skull). I am still not totally satisfied with the sharpness of the lens and I am unsure if it is due to the ISO setting creating some noise, I have been shooting from 200 to 1000, or the fact that I need reading glasses and although it is only slight, the correction is not dialed into the camera and so is throwing my focus off. It could also be due to some quite strong current and having to make micro adjustments hanging upside down with my head buried in a crack in the reef. Anyway, I will be doing some adjustments to the viewfinder to eliminate that problem, and will post again in a few days.

 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this lens and the things you can do with it. It produces photos that are not possible with any other combination. I am a great fan of the distortion of fish eye lenses and to get it from macro subjects is a real blast for me.

 

Here are a few shots that are uncorrected for sharpness. I will add some more to my flickr site in a day or so.

 

1/125 f32 ISO200

 

 

 

1/160 f32 ISO400

 

 

 

1/160 f29 ISO200

 

 

 

1/100 f32 ISO500

Hey Julian

Great shots and great angle.

I like the "Mick Jagger" clown fish & the "salute" from the cuttlefish (Flickr site). You were right about the lack of sharpness especially near the edges. Looks like only the centre portion is sharp.

I tried using a zillion & 5D MII with the AF 100 macro with the buy eye lens. I got some interesting results. Centre is sharp enough but background is like a FE lens.

See attached:

David

A bit gimmicky - but intresting results possible. Drew was the footage taken with a 7D , do you use it often . Very expensive piece of kit !

It seems there are only 3 parts to the lens , a cctv lens a tube and a helix . How is focus obtained?

Are they any updates from people using this lens? I have been on the verge of buying one, but I had no dive trips planned so there wasn't much motivation to seal the deal. That will change soon. I would probably get the Nauticam housing and Canon 7D. Let me know if anybody has more experience with it.