CP 5000 + 19mm + dome port

I'm thinking about buying al 19mm+dome for my ike housing. Couple of questions:

Don't you think I'll be missing the somewhat longer distance I can use (for sharks f.e.) with my standard lense? Suppose the dome and convert will make it neccesary to get closer which is not always possible.

Because the domeport is supposed to worrk with a visual image on a fixed distance will this be used preferably with manual focus? Don't think there's much use for autofocus when the (virual) subject is always on th same distance. If so this woul improve speed and battery life (which is not that long with thjis camera).

Distance to virtual image is also for the macro objects?

best regards

Edwin van Riel

www.dirtydivers.net

Edwin, welcome to the pond.......

I use the 19mm WA and Ike dome port 100% of the time. It's not a dome in the conventional sense, just a curved lens. The only time I use the standard lens and port is for a dive dedicated to macro.

I use autofocus for every shot. I prefer WA over the telephoto because of strobe limitations beyond 3 or 4 feet.

Check out my gallery for examples. Every shot posted is with the WA lens.

Karl

Karl, just to let you know, your link to your page is a link to "http:///". IF this is on purpose to avoid spammers then you should remove th html tag so it just shows as regular text.

Thanks Robert.........don't know how it got changed, but I appreciate you letting me know

Karl

I always use the 19 mm lens and dome. No problem with the sharks. Don't tell the camera you are using the 19 mm lens and you can zoom out to about 56 degrees. I've shot a lot of sharks and I know its hard to get close, but every good shot I ever got was up close.

Do experiment with manual focus using the hyperfocal distance. Remember to use the real focal length of the lens to calculate the hyperfocal distance. On my webpage of CP 5000 images. All the night shots of the white tip reef sharks were shot using the 5000, 19 mm lens and fixed manual focus (set at hyperfocal distance)

Set at what hyperfocal distance? Do you have the exif data on a few of the shark pics? BTW a must have link for hyperfocal distance is http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/gu...yperfocal2.html

There are a number of calculators for hyperfocal distance online. I didn't use any such sophisticated method at that time. I believe I set the focus at 5 ft. Later when I calculated this out this turned out to be to be about the right spot for the hyperfocal distance. I was using one DS 125 strobe set at 1/2, F4, 1/125th and ISO 200. I no longer have the exit data. The settings above are from memory.

There were hundreds of white tips swarming around in schools. Constantly going around and through us. The limiting factors was the coverage of the strobe and the speed of the sharks. If I were to do it again I would use two strobes, 1/250th, F5.6 and set the manual focus at the hyperfocal distance. I now have an UW slate with the hyperfocal distances on it. The sharks come out of the dark too fast for any AF. Even that of a dSLR.

At first a lot of people didn't want to do the night dive at Cocos. Too tired from the day and a little nervous. Once you make the dive though, you realize it is the best dive of the day.

Rstark, very good link on hyperfocal. Thanks.

If using with the 5000 and 19 mm lens remember to use the actual focal length of the lens and the conversion factor if using the 19 mm lens (.56x I believe)

The conversion is .68x. If anyone wants a wide angle lens chart that they can print out (Excel) and laminate to take down with them let me know and I'll email it. It comes in real handy for all wide angle stuff, CFWA, fast moving subjects, etc.

Oops, my bad. Thanks again.

Set at what hyperfocal distance? Do you have the exif data on a few of the shark pics? BTW a must have link for hyperfocal distance is http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/gu...yperfocal2.html

But what is the "circle of cofusion" for the CP5000 CCD?

Like Karl and the others, I use the 19mm and dome on my CP-5000 in AF mode 98% of the time. Although for fish portraits the 55mm telephoto (with 19mm) is a bit limiting, I don't have to worry about color fall off from my strobes because I'm too far away. The rare exceptions being when I'm night diving and couldn't see the focus marks on the lcd display, even with the model lights from my DS-125 strobes on. In these cases manual focus (hyperfocal) is obviously the way to go.

By the way, nice Cozumel Octopus shot Karl.

Doug

Set at what hyperfocal distance? Do you have the exif data on a few of the shark pics? BTW a must have link for hyperfocal distance is http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/gu...yperfocal2.html

But what is the "circle of cofusion" for the CP5000 CCD?

Circle of confusion for the CP5000 is 0.008