Tokina 10-17 for sharks. mini dome or 8"?

I would agree with John, just returned from the Maldives doing lots of channel/kandus, the sharks just didn't get close enough for the tokina.

idk if in places like that though id necessarily aim to shoot sharks. In certain parts, yeah like the whale sharks and mantas but doing normal reef dives (keeping in mind i havent been there, but reef sharks in the caribbean are the same deal i assume) im not going to set up on the chance ill see distant sharks ya know id just set up wide angle and if one happened show up and get close then then awesome but if not im then its no biggie

i think in those instances when the tokina doesnt reach i'd be willing to sacrifice an alright image and just watch the animal cruise by instead

I'd prefer to not have to spend another $500 on an 8" ikelite dome in addition to the zen dome if the mini dome will be acceptable and if they tokina is an adequate shark lens

I personally would not pay for the Ikelite 8'' acrylic dome as the ZEN - or any other especially for your lens made - anti reflection glass dome will have better optical quality.

A mini dome will give you better CFWA and lesser weight/bulk for travelling and you can balance your rig with floats and weights to make it neutral and horizontal/vertical balanced.

The Tokina 10-17 mm will work with curious sharks, but for more shy creatures it will be too wide and a good lens for them is a +/- 18-35mm zoom lens.

Should you use a 24MP + camera you can crop the shark/motiv out of the image without too much degradation if the visibility is very good.

I learned photography as a kid with my dad's Leica M2 35mm fixed lens, where te zoom was made of my legs, walking towards or away from the motiv,

this still works well with still motives but is not working very well with moving motives.

Chris

I would agree with John, just returned from the Maldives doing lots of channel/kandus, the sharks just didn't get close enough for the tokina.

So would i ...here are 3 images. Except for the nurse sharks on a night dive its very difficult with the currents to take decent images of sharks in the Maldives. Nurse shark was with a mini dome i think and the other two with the large.

Cheers,

Diggy

Cheers for all the replies - looks like I'll be saving money on the 10-22mm and taking even more mants shots than I'd planned!

Mike

Maldives and Tokina 10-17 is good for mantas though!

Another thing to consider that if you went with a Zeni min dome it is only designed for the Tokina 10-17mm with the Ikelite setups. If you go with the Ikelite 8 inch dome you can use a huge range of lenses with the addition of suitable extension rings. By looking at that I believe the most versatile dome for your Ikelite would be the 8inch dome and then choose which lens you want to house it.

Honestly if you cant shoot a shark with a 10-17mm as its too far away when its going to be too far away to get any light from your strobes on it. So you might as well shoot strobeless with the Tokina 10-17mm and crop to get the same ordinary dull image ( unless your trying to get a silhouette image).

If your after some sort of general purpose lens which has a large zoom there is the Sigma 17-70mm Macro. It might be suited if you needed that extra reach for far away subjects. I personally found the Sigma 17-70 a pain as it wasnt wide enough when shooting wide angle and macro was useless as you have to shoot the lens behind a larger dome. Every time I used the Sigma for wide angle I wished I had just taken the Tokina 10-17mm out instead. Now the Sigme sits on my desk and never gets used (its for sale if anyone is interested in a Nikon mount).

Why I love the Tokina 10-17mm. It fast to focus. Focuses right up to the dome. and is wide enough to fit most large subjects in so you can get close fill the frame and light the whole subject up.

Here are some shots to show you what the Tokina 10-17mm can do:

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Regards Mark

again, thanks for all the replies guys. Im going to be sticking with just the tokina for a long time so i figured id go with a port designed specifically for it (the Zen or Precision Dome). John, thats a sweet shot of the Manta and Mark i love the wobbegong shot