changing lenses underwater?

I am looking to upgrade from an old point an shoot system. I'm looking at the FIX G11 or S9. I have previously never had wet lenses, and the ability of the S9 to change lenses underwater certainly has me interested, but it raises the question. How often in practice is it necessary to change lenses? What are the thoughts of the forum?

Brad,

you cannot change lenses underwater, but what you can do is screwing on macro or wide angle wet lenses

as you feel to need it.

I have a INON wide angle wetlens to screw on the wide angle port of on my Patima G11 housing.

Having a good wide angle wetlens comes often handy whan you don't know the dive site and you get

"surprised" by a big fish or a wreck to big to fit the screen.

Underwater you will use mostly macro or wideangle (or macrowideangle), teleobjectives (exept macro tele)

are mainly quite useless due the increased distance degrade the picture.

Chris

Brad!

I usually dont change my wetlenses in the middle of the dive. I decide what I'm going to shoot on the surface (WA or macro), stack the lens I need and thats it.

Offcourse there have been cases when I remove the lens in the middle of the dive, to get a better shot, but like 90% of the time I dont change or remove the lens during a dive.

Cheers

Karel

Thanks for the feedback. This was exactly what I needed... Ordering a G11 FIX today!

I remove or install my wide angle or macro lenses regularly underwater, especially to remove the macro or wide angle and shoot through the port for a different look.

Brad!

 

I usually dont change my wetlenses in the middle of the dive. I decide what I'm going to shoot on the surface (WA or macro), stack the lens I need and thats it.

Offcourse there have been cases when I remove the lens in the middle of the dive, to get a better shot, but like 90% of the time I dont change or remove the lens during a dive.

 

Cheers

Karel

I share Karel's thoughts too.

With my G9 in an Ike I even swap the short and long ports depending on whether I decide to shoot macro (long) or w/a (short). Dedicating a dive to a photo technique allows me to enter a mindset and I only look for the subjects which I am properly equipped to shoot. Frankly, I probably wouldn't even see the whaleshark swimming behind me because I would be so intent on shooting the nudibranch. I feel going with both macro and w/a dosn't double the photo opportunities, it halves them...

I switch regularly.

I sometimes somewhat "dedicate" a dive to WA or macro, but my S90 rig allows me to switch the dive's plan easily and instantly at any time. When I'm on a "wide angle" dive, and I swim by a fellow diver who has found a rare nudi, it's wonderful to pop off the WA lens, pop on the macro lens, and start shooting. Likewise, if a given "nudi hunt" dive turns up bust, but there's a beautiful school of mackerel moving through the area, it's great to pop on the WA lens and go to town.

And everything in between.

... I probably wouldn't even see the whaleshark swimming behind me...

Too true! It's the difference between taking photographs and taking snaps. Some well-known photographers don't even trust zoom lenses...

Tim

I think that it's a matter of personal mentality,

i get upset when i put the macro lens on my D90, drop in the drink and get a close encounter with a whale shark,

other people don't mind and go shooting macro because they will repeat the dive with a WA to documentate the whale shark ....

I find wetlenses are a nice thing to have with me and i'm happy that my Patima Housing will mount srew-on wetlenses.

Chris