Sigma 15mm FE w/ikelite 8" dome on full frame?

Can anyone who has used this lens and dome combo report their experience? I'm searching for something wider than my 17-40, and curious as to the less expensive alternates to the Canon 14mm. From what little I've been able to find on the 'net, the Sigma 14mm has some troubling reports, and while I'm not sue I want a FE Lens I'm curious to the 15mm's application with the outfit...

General observations and any particular issues with vignetting and/or corner sharpness are most welcomed. Thanks!!

John

Sigma 15mm FE is an awesome lens with a full frame camera (in my case, a 5dmk2.) Used it with the Aquatica 8" Dome. Keep the dome clean or else the len can focus on dust INSIDE your dome.

S.

I've used that exact combo and can confirm what Stewart says above- it's a great combo- you should get great shots with it. It was my most used lens with the ikelite and 5D mk II.

Thanks folks, that's great to hear! It'll be used with my 5dII as well...

Happy clikn and safe divin'

John

Hey guys...I just bought the D800 and the Ikelite housing...took the rig into my pool a couple of days ago with the Sigma 15mm and 8" dome which is attached to the housing with the #5510.11 port body. As you can see from the sample photo below, I can see what I think are the edges of the port body...anyone else experience this? Solution to fix?? I am headed to Raja Ampat in a couple of weeks, and really want to fix this problem...otherwise, I will be cropping a ton of photos...

Do you have the dome port shade attached? Try removing it. I don't have one on my Ikelite 8" with the Sigma 15fe, but I don't have full frame. No clipping as you are seeing.

I just got my new Hugyfot D800 housing but unfortunately the 20mm long adaptor from my Athenas S&S to Hugyfot bayonet,

is a few milimeters too long and i will shoot the dome border.

I fear thet theonly solution to correct this problem is to find another shorter (15 or 10mm long) adapter from S&S to Hugyfot.

The Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye is a awesome lens and widely used, but it need a very short (or no) extension ring to avoid vignetting.

scottygraham: I fear thet there is nothing to do against your vignetting as most probably the port is slightly too long for the Sigma 15mm

Chris

Hey guys...I just bought the D800 and the Ikelite housing...took the rig into my pool a couple of days ago with the Sigma 15mm and 8" dome which is attached to the housing with the #5510.11 port body. As you can see from the sample photo below, I can see what I think are the edges of the port body...anyone else experience this? Solution to fix?? I am headed to Raja Ampat in a couple of weeks, and really want to fix this problem...otherwise, I will be cropping a ton of photos...

 

Hi Scott,

I friend photographer of mine had the same problem when he used the Sigma 15 mm FE with his D700 in an Ikelite housing and he askes Ikelite what to do about it. Their not so satifying answer at that time was: 'you can crop or clone it out....' Personally, i think that maybe shaving of the sunshades partially will solve the problem.

I just got my new Hugyfot D800 housing but unfortunately the 20mm long adaptor from my Athenas S&S to Hugyfot bayonet,

is a few milimeters too long and i will shoot the dome border.

I fear thet theonly solution to correct this problem is to find another shorter (15 or 10mm long) adapter from S&S to Hugyfot.

 

The Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye is a awesome lens and widely used, but it need a very short (or no) extension ring to avoid vignetting.

 

Chris

Hi Chris, i had exactly the same problem with my Nauticam minidome with a custom made adapter: shades were visible on all sides. Now i use the 5" Hugyfot glass minidome (second version) and it works fine with the Sigma 15 mm FE when your underwater. Topside, when focused on eternal, you will see the sunshades. I know the sigma also works well with the regular Hugyfot domeport.

I also own a 8.5 Inch Nauticam dome, but even when it's used with a 13 mm thick adapter you can see the inside of the port. I don't know the S&S port but i'm affraid that it will never work with any adapter.

The Sigma is a problematic lens in this respect, it's simply too flat and it also suffers too much from lensflares. I hope that Nikon will develop a new updated close focussing fisheye lens for FX one day which is slightly longer then the Sigma. Something like the Canon 8-15 mm FE would be great, or even better a fisheyezoom 15-25 mm with a closest focus at 13 cm...

Udo

Hi,

Check as well if your camera is well attached to the housing (the black plate to the back of the housing, and the camera on the black plate. It can make a small difference !

The Ikelite lens / port chart does say that full frame cameras will experience clipping on the 8" dome.

Hey Scott,

I just got the D600 and am considering housing it in an Ikelite housing to use with my Sigma 15mm FE and 8" dome. Can you confirm if you are using this with a dome shade or not? I never had a problem using the D70 with the 10.5mm and assumed there would not be a difference with the 15mm on FX. Very suprised/dissapointed to see this. If the guys over on the DX is done thread are right, Ikelite better find a more satisfying answer. The 15mm is a much better solution UW than the Nikon 16mm because of the focus distance. I haven't seen Nikon giving any thought to a re-make of their FF FE.

Hi,

black corner with sigma 15 + D700 in Ikelite depend on focus distance!

Sometime there is no black corner, sometime there is.

We has dicsuss this with Alex Mustard (he have the same problem with subal) but I can't find the topic.

I've purchass the precision dome 5 inch by Underwater camera stuff, I will try it for black corner

_{Thanks J-S. Did you try removing the shade on the 8" dome port? When I bought one of the early dome ports it did not have a shade. The shade was an add-on so its easy to remove.}

Find it : http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29986

I've never remove the shade. I'm affraid of straching it on the rock. It's a huge piece. Maybe the simpliest way is to cut out the corner of the shade?

I would try to remove the shade and try it topside or in the pool. If it works you can cut it down. You do not have much to loose with that approach. If you do not like the results you can always get a new one. Ikelite sells these as a seperate part.

To answer your question from the previous post, I think the Sigma is a much better option for UW than the Nikon 16mm. The Sigma focuses much closer which makes for very interesting close focus wide angle shots. With a lens this wide the challenge can be filling the frame with interesting subject matter without large areas of boring or distracting subjects. Close focus is one way to get dynamic effects and eliminate distracting backgrounds. Imagine a closeup of a nudibranch one one side and a shipwreack in the background and you have the idea. The nudi looks huge in this type of view. The sigma can do that better so I think it would be best to make the sigma work with the 8" dome without cropping if possible.

Thanks for being the guniea pig here. I thought we worked this all out with digital alrerady. FX has some new tricks up its sleve.

Have just been and tested the sigma 15mm with my D600 FX with 8 inch dome and the super wide body and no shading/black corners at all. This was with the shade attached too.

Sure there are a few out there looking at this combo and thought it worth a mention.

Hey guys...I just bought the D800 and the Ikelite housing...took the rig into my pool a couple of days ago with the Sigma 15mm and 8" dome which is attached to the housing with the #5510.11 port body. As you can see from the sample photo below, I can see what I think are the edges of the port body...anyone else experience this? Solution to fix?? I am headed to Raja Ampat in a couple of weeks, and really want to fix this problem...otherwise, I will be cropping a ton of photos...

Hey Scott - did you figure out how to kill the black corners without removing the shade? I just bought this set-up for my D700 and had black corners during my first quick test. I don't really want to remove the shade because it protects the dome.

Alexis

strange, I have the shade on and have no black corners. Have tested at differing distance too

Are you sure it is the shade and not the dome mount (where the dome attach to the port body) itself?

As UWphotoNewbie wrote: remove the shade and take some pictures on various distances to see if the problem disappears.

If it does well, cut the shade a few millimeters

If it don't, it will be the port body and there are no so much solution for that.

One thing to check is the alignment of the camera, if the camera is one millimeter more in front may solve this problem.
There may be a slight manufacturing error so that the camera is sitting too much behind leading to this problem.

Chris

Hi,

Take a pic only with the 5510.11 attached (no dome) and you will have black corners too. The Sigma 15mm lens is so short that there is no chance to use this without black corners.

This lens is just not usable or you crop as Ikelite recommended.

Bad news. I´m effected too. I dont think there is a solution as Ikelite does not take it too serious with precision.

René