Wide angle and macro lenses with WP-DC300

Hi

I use the Canon S40 with its housing WP-DC300. Is there any way I can get a wide angle lens or macro lens to use with it. I have both lenses for my Sea and Sea MMIIEX. Is there some way of adapting them to use with the DC300?

If this can be done, does anyone have any top tips/ pitfalls to be aware of when using them?

Many thanks

Steve

Yes, I believe Inon makes a WA lens and an adapter that screws onto the camera housing's tripot mount.

Cheers

James

Hi,

I have the same camera and housing.

http://www.seaandsea.com/dig_conv_lens.html

Today I bought: 20mm wide Conversion lens & 2T Macro lens

Should I have gotten the 16mm Wide Conversion lens instead? I thought it was "more extreme" (and the same price) so it probably wouldn't work as well.

/Anders

Hi,

 

I have the same camera and housing.

 

http://www.seaandsea.com/dig_conv_lens.html

 

Today I bought: 20mm wide Conversion lens & 2T Macro lens

 

Should I have gotten the 16mm Wide Conversion lens instead? I thought it was "more extreme" (and the same price) so it probably wouldn't work as well.

 

/Anders

I hope you're right but my experience with these two lenses and the WP-DC700 was not very impressive. The 20 mm has so much vigneting on my case that once I've zoomed in to remove it I ended up with the same field of view I would get without the lens! The A70 lens on wide angle is rated as a 35mm just like the S40. May be you will get better results with the WPDC-300 but I wouldn't be too optimistic.

The 2T macro is almost useless with the WPDC700 because you must be too close to your subject to take a picture safely or light it properly. May be you will get better results with the S40 due to it's longer minimal focusing distance in macro than the A70.

Let me know about the result you'll get I'm the most interested.

Clément

I use the Canon S40 with its housing WP-DC300. Is there any way I can get a wide angle lens or macro lens to use with it. 

Hi,

The following Inon lenses work well with S40/DC300 combination:

UWL-105AD Wide Conversion Lens

UCL-165AD Close-up Lens

More info from product manuals at Inon documentation page:

Inon documentation page

An mounting adapter is necessary, between the lens and housing. For the DC300, it is called the "AD Mount Base DC300".

-Mark

Inon America

I got the wrong lens adaptor, and if the dealer can't get me the correct one before 24 dec I'm returning the whole kit.

The instructions on the adaptor, conversion lens and macro lens don't say much.

Zooming with the wide converter seems like a bad idea, bad what about zooming with the macro lens?

And what about focusing: can I leave autofocus on instead of locking it to infinity? What happens if I use the macro lens and then set the camera to macro mode? How close can I focus then?

If someone knows a good reason why I should have gotten the 16mm instead of the 20mm or the 3T instead of the 2T please let me know - I can change them.

Thanks Guys

I am wary about going down this route if as Clement says there is little point because the vigneting means you have no wider lens. Does the Inon lens and adapter require the same amount of vigneting leading to a similar reduction in angle? The technical specs in Mark's link certainly don't seem to indicate a great loss in wide angle underwater.

Zooming with the wide converter seems like a bad idea, bad what about zooming with the macro lens?

Hi Anders,

I'll try to post some pictures to explain why zooming makes sense.

This is the result of the 20mm Sea&Sea on the WPDC-700.

I don't know how to attach more than one image at once so I'll do several post, I apologize for the inconvienence.

Clément

This picture, now show the previous subject but zommed in to remove all the vigneting.

Clément

This one shows the result of the A70 set on wide without any conversion lens.

Clément

It was possible to crop the image obtained with the 20mm while maintening a 4:3 ratio and get wider field of view than by zooming in. I assumed that this is due to the fact that the control on the zomm is not fine enough to obtain the minimum zoom that would remove vigneting or that LCD screen doesn't allow to accurately control it.

The image could have been cropped with a 1:1 ratio to give the maximum field of view in each direction without vigneting as you can see on the following image.

These are the results with the A70 and the WPDC-700. Even if the S40 has the same equivalent focal length than the A70, the sensor size is different. So may be the vigneting is not that bad.

If you are still interested in the vigneting cause by the 2T conversion lens I may have a look at my library to see if I can come up with something.

Clément

Thanks!

I'm not sure I want these conversion lenses now. Why use a wide angle converter if you have to zoom in and/or crop the image? I believe I've seen pictures (that looked ok) taken with WP-DC300 and Sea&Sea conversion lenses at digideep.com.

Since the converter attach to the housing instead of the camera; how well the camera and housing fit together must affect how well the converters perform.

What apertures have you been using? Do you leave the camera on automatic (eveything)?

You getting that much vigneting with the 20mm converter makes we wonder about the 16mm: I can't imagine the 16mm being sold/used (with adaptors) if it performs significantly worse than what you got with the 20mm. So I'm hoping it will perform equal or better, although it is wider. I'm replacing my 20mm with the 16mm.

Hi Anders,

I'm not sure I want these conversion lenses now.

If I had to buy something new I would go for the Inon lens. I bought the adapter because I already had the 20mm and the macro 2T lenses with my MMIIEx.

Why use a wide angle converter if you have to zoom in and/or crop the image?

I agree with you 100%, I didn't use it at all, except for tests. The only thing I haven't test throughly is how closer I can get with the 20mm to a subject. But I haven't seen a great improvement.

I believe I've seen pictures (that looked ok) taken with WP-DC300 and Sea&Sea conversion lenses at digideep.com.

Once again these are the results I got with the WP-DC700 case and the WPDC200 adapter. The S40 and the WPDC300 may eventually allow the conversion lens to be closer and reduce the vigneting.

Since the converter attach to the housing instead of the camera; how well the camera and housing fit together must affect how well the converters perform.

You're right but the WPDC 200 adapter fits perfectly on the WPDC-700, the 20mm lens is as close as it can be from the port of the case. The problem is more that the sensor is too far from the port.

What apertures have you been using? Do you leave the camera on automatic (eveything)?

There is no limitation on this except may be using the macro mode. The obligation to set the focus to infinity on the MMIIEx is not an issue if you use the autofocus or focus on the LCD screen. The F/5.6 limitation of this lens on the MMIIEx is virtual, you can set the MMIIEx to F/3.5 if you want but the quality of the image would not be optimal. I took all these pictures with the aperture priority mode set to F/8.0.

You getting that much vigneting with the 20mm converter makes we wonder about the 16mm: I can't imagine the 16mm being sold/used (with adaptors) if it performs significantly worse than what you got with the 20mm. So I'm hoping it will perform equal or better, although it is wider. I'm replacing my 20mm with the 16mm.

My guess is that the 20mm and the 16mm will get the same vigneting (both are diaphragmed to F/5.6) and the MMIIEx is a F/3.5 camera. The field of view will be larger the 20mm increase the MMIIEx FOV from 46 degree to 80 degree and the 16mm form 46 degree to 91 degree. The Inon "bost" 105.6 degrees for the WPDC 300 and 102.7 degrees for the other cases (excluding the WPDC-700 where slight vigneting is mentionned). May be Mark from INON has some figures form an other source than the UWL-105AD_v1.20.pdf on the INON America site?

Clément

I have also the Inon UWL-105AD and its work fine to me.

Out of the water there are black corners but in the water its work perfect.

A problem that I found with the INON setup is that the adaptor is sitting on the place you suppose to connect the tray to the housing, I solved it by adjusting my tray (self made one) to the Inon adaptor by 2 screws.

Arnon

This is good news - the Inon setup seems to be the one to go for. I privately emailed somone from another thread because he used it - and he said that he also uses the a dome attachment for best results. TBH I was only hoping to be able to use the S&S lenses because I already have them for my MMIIEX. Will the S&S lenses fit on the Inon adaptor?

Arnon. I see that you use a S&S YS25. Is that enough light? I am in the UK and was thinking that i would have to go for the YS90.

Steve

Hi Steve,

I don't think that the S&S lens will fit on the Inon adaptor but I didn't check it.

The YS-25 is quit good for macro but not for WA (although It’s surprised me few times when I used the WA lens, it's was much better then I thought)

Arnon

Thanks Arnon. I guess it's the YS90 then! Shame about the lens not fitting. Anyone want to buy a MMIIEX cw WA and macro lenses?

Steve