I recently bought a Seacam Fisheye Macro dome for my Seacam D700 housing. Nikon's 16mm f2.8 won't focus close enough for this port, but the Sigma 15 f2.8 will. But the Sigma lens will not fit into the port unless you file off about 7mm of the lower and upper portions of the lens shade, which I did. If seacam had made this port just a few mm larger in diameter, which they could have easily done without compromising its close focus wide-angle optical effect, the would have worked well with this lens on the D700 as well as with Nikon's own 10.5mm on some DX chip cameras. The port is also lacking any knurling, similar to that on most of their macro port and extension tubes. This would have made taking the port much easier to put on and remove from the housing. Despite the extra work necessitated by these oversights, it is an excellent tool to have available.
I'll try to attach a few of the pictures I took with the rig on my first two dives which were in the Edithburgh Jetty in South Australia in water vis of about 5m. The brown crown on the feather duster worm(s) is 50-70mm across.
Fred
HI,
I have been talking to the Seacam importer / distributor in the UK (Paul Kay) about this port, as I am interested
in this port to use with my 10/17fe, it was explained to me that it may require a extender to line up the
dome port correctly. Like with my 12/24 nikon I use the W/P with a 35mm extender with a 4x diaopter
with great results. Have you spoke to your local distributor on thier veiws??
Andy
Hi Andy,
I haven't spoken to anyone about using the Tokina 10-17 Fisheye zoom with this port because that lens is not compatible with the D700, unless you try to use it with teleconverters, which I avoid as much as possible. But that said, I would think that you could measure the length of the Tokina lens and estimate the length of extension ring you would need to use to try it.
Fred
HI Fred,
my understanding of this lens is that it used for fisheye lens only as I have spoken to Paul Kay (UK distributor)
about using this lens with my 12/24 wide angle lens. But it is not designed for that type of lens.
Andy
Hello again Andy,
Again, please understand that I have no experience with FX cameras underwater. Only the D700. BUT. Don't worry about what Seacam or a dealer tells you. Just because a dome is designed for a particular purpose, there is no reason not to try it a different way. Seacam has another small dome, which they "designed" for use with the 60mm macro and similar lenses. I use it with the 70-180 Micro-Nikkor and the Nikon 24-85mm lens. A dome is simply a dome. A small dome means that the lens must have the capability to focus quite close. Or you have to use a diopter, which I try to avoid. Small domes make it easier to light close subjects. Big domes often give slightly better edge sharpness due to depth-of-field considerations. But they can make it difficult to get close to smaller subjects and still light them.
I would say try your 12-24 behind the Seacam fisheye macro port. A bathtub will do for a first look. If it works for you, use it.
