Sony 30mm macro lens + wet Inon lenses, why it dosen't work?

I just bought Sony nex5n together with 30mm lens for macro. On the front of the port I can put adapter for M67 thread.

I do not have too much experience with macro, I prefer WAL but because I still have some lenses from my compact camera I simply put in on the front and I took some pictures ... then I found that there is no significant difference with inon UCL165 and/or UCL330 and without them.

Is the reason for that is just short focusing distance of the 30mm lens or what .... I am a bit confused.

What kind of wet lens You can recommend me to get a bit more than 1:1, I want to take super macro pictures.

I have limited time (just 1 week) before next trip, so is the idea to buy telephoto converter x2 for land use is the good idea or just stupid?

Hi Tomek P,

Wet lenses of a given strength have a proportionately greater effect in reducing the close focus distance of longer focal length camera lenses (I won't go into the optical mathematics!). The Sony e mount 30mm macro lens has a very short focal length and somewhat wide angle of view for a macro lens for an APS-C sized sensor camera. You would therefore not expect a wet lens to reduce close focus distance by much. DSLR users usually find wet diopters most use with 100mm or 105mm macro lenses.

There is also a practical issue when using the Sony 30mm macro lens underwater. The close focus distance is already very close (it has to be because of the relatively wide angle of view) which means that subjects already need to be very close to the port glass making good lighting and avoiding touching or frightening the subject challenging. A wet lens can only make that even worse.

For macro on the Sony NEX series, a +5 or so wet lens works quite well with the 18-55 kit lens at it's maximum zoom (55mm) in the absence of another satisfactory alternative for underwater use. The long awaited Zeiss Touit 50mm macro will give 1:1 at it's closest focus distance without a wet lens and will provide a bit more working room that the Sony 30mm macro. It will be in the shops any day now. We wait to see whether or how it is supported by ports from the underwater housing manufacturers.

Mark

Thank You Mark for clarifying how it works. In the mean time I did some test with Sony 16-50 lens and wet lenses, so I will play a bit with this two options.

Touit 50mm sounds nice, but as You mentioned I will also consider 100mm lens for A mount and LAEA1 adapter.

There's a magnification calculator at the bottom of this page that will give you an indication of what magnification increase you can expect when adding a close up lens:

http://reefnet.ca/products/subsee/

Tiger Shark, THX for the link. This subsee +10 looks like very popular wet lens.

I see that You are using teleconventers, how big magnification ratio can You obtain?

1.4x teleconverter gives a 40% increase in magnification and 2x gives 100% increase in magnification. Main downside is that functionality of auto focus decreases with increasing strength of teleconverter. With 1.4x autofocus is noticeably slower and with 2x autofocus is virtually unuseable. I rarely use teleconverters these days and usually use wet close up lenses.

1.4x teleconverter gives a 40% increase in magnification and 2x gives 100% increase in magnification. Main downside is that functionality of auto focus decreases with increasing strength of teleconverter. With 1.4x autofocus is noticeably slower and with 2x autofocus is virtually unuseable. I rarely use teleconverters these days and usually use wet close up lenses.

I am thinking about taking pictures like wild textures, and for that purpose I am looking for high magnification. Did you ever try to use teleconverter and wet diopters??

I see that You have Tokina 35 macro lens. Did you found that lens useful for macro?

 

I am thinking about taking pictures like wild textures, and for that purpose I am looking for high magnification. Did you ever try to use teleconverter and wet diopters??

Yes, but that was with lower power close up lenses than the Subsee +10 I use now. I get all the magnification I need with the Subsee by itself with the Canon 100 macro.

 

 

I see that You have Tokina 35 macro lens. Did you found that lens useful for macro?

Not good at all for small stuff, great for reasonably sized fish. I rarely use it these days.

Given what you are trying to do, have a look at the Nikonos 80mm. you can pick them up cheap on ebay. along with extension tubes.

some shots i did with them here

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=50651&hl=

There is also a solution from Nauticam to take a canon 100mm down with the nex

Here: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=51705&hl=%2Bcanon+%2B100mm&do=findComment&comment=341370

jmauricio I know that almost everyone have Nauticam housing but I bought Acqapazza