Nikon 16-35 & D700

I moved to FX a few months ago with the D700 and a Subal housing - I already had the D700 for land use and stumbled on a half price housing, which proved irresistible...

I had also bought the Nikon 16-35 for land use and was keen to use it underwater. I am using a Subal FE3 dome and the consensus on WP seemed to be that a 65mm EXR was the way to go and no diopter required. This seemed about right as Subal recommend a 60mm EXR for the 17-35 (the 16-35 is not listed...).

I came back from Mozambique three weeks ago where I used the 16-35 a lot, but was quite disappointed with the corner sharpness. I tried 60, 65 & 70mm EXR's with & without a +2 diopter, but did not see much difference although the 70mm seemed the best.

Then I heard from the Australian rep that Subal recommend a 90mm EXR and +2 diopter....

I was down at Edithburg in SA last weekend for the leafy seadragons and tried the 16-35 with an 85mm EXR and +2, which was better but still not what I would expect from such an excellent lens.

The lens performs excellently above water, so the corner issues seems to be related solely to using it behind the dome.

Don

Try a +4 diopter, & extension ring that positions the center of curvature of dome at nodal point of lens. Hopefully the manufacturer figured this out - give them (or sales rep) a call. Just as reference my 12-24 had soft edges without diopter. A +4 corrected that. You can test all this in a big tub of water by placing targets with small text in corners on bottom of tub. Only dome needs to be wet, not entire housing. Its very helpful if you can borrow a few ext rings & diopter kit to test different setups.

I have not tested the 16-35mm with lots of domes, I use it with the Zen 230 (also available as a Subal 230) - which really helps realise its potential. The ext ring I use is 65-68mm - don't remember.

I am very happy with the performance in this combo - and I have used the lens extensively on many shoots since the summer. I recently uploaded a lot of new galleries to my website - where you can see many examples from it (basically all the wide angle shots that are not fisheye) - although some galleries you need to email me for password access.

Alex

Thanks for the responses - never thought of trying set-ups out in the bath tub before!

The large 230mm dome is not really an option for me right now as I understand it's has a larger bayonet and my housing takes the smaller size (Type 3?) ports plus an adapter would negate using the 15mm Sigma.

I called Subal in Austria last night and confirmed that they do recommend a 90mm EXR with the 16-35 & FE3 dome. I leave for Bali on the 23rd and will be doing some diving around Tulamben & Ahmed over the next 3 weeks, so I will try it out there and will take +2 and +4 diopters with me.

Still interested to hear if anybody is using the FE3 dome with the 16-35 though?

Thanks, Don

This is shot last week with the 16-35 at 16mm, f9, uncropped,no diopter, FE2 (same glass as FE3) with 70mm extension.

Not the greatest image but, but I don't have a problem with the edge sharpness particularly considering the viz was poor and the edges are not in the same plane of focus as the central area. No smearing noted.

This is shot last week with the 16-35 at 16mm, f9, uncropped,no diopter, FE2 (same glass as FE3) with 70mm extension.

Not the greatest image but, but I don't have a problem with the edge sharpness particularly considering the viz was poor and the edges are not in the same plane of focus as the central area. No smearing noted.

 

Has anyone used 16-35 on DX underwater and would they recommend it? Deciding between 16-35/17-35/17-70 as a 3rd lens to take on diving trips along with the 10-17/105 combo. I do have FX as well but for above water only.