Cage diving with great whites

Monday. Cape Town. Cage diving. Great white sharks. Can't miss the chance, and need to get this right - advice please!

I use a Sony NEX-6 (which is APSC) in a Nauticam housing, and have a choice of lenses and ports available:

(a) 7-inch port with 10-18mm zoom; or

(b) 4.33-inch port with either 12mm wide-angle or 8mm fisheye.

Obviously (a) gives me more flexibility, but maybe the size of the dome could be an issue in the confines of a cage. Also, note sure whether the sharks will be close enough to merit the fisheye.

Any advice welcome, please!

I think the 10-18mm.

Thanks. Is a 7-inch port practical in the cage ie does it fit between the gaps in the bars?

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You will have a big viewing 'window' in the cage (big enough for a small shark to get in!) - plenty of room for a 7" dome

Yes The port will Fit through the bars. But be extremely careful as they will have about 8 people in the cage together depending on whose services you are using. Try and get in first or last so that you are in one of the corners. I used a small dome while i was there. Try and get your shots early as after a while due to bait being thrown in the water can be full of particles. Good Luck and have fun :-)

Attaching a few pics. Not the best but it was great fun.

Yes The port will Fit through the bars. But be extremely careful as they will have about 8 people in the cage together depending on whose services you are using. Try and get in first or last so that you are in one of the corners. I used a small dome while i was there. Try and get your shots early as after a while due to bait being thrown in the water can be full of particles. Good Luck and have fun :-)

Attaching a few pics. Not the best but it was great fun.

I havent done any cage diving in SA but have had the fortune of doing it at Guadalupe. The cages at Guadalupe on the Nautius Explorer were designed with photographers in mind so they were great even for the big FE domes. The numbers in the cage were a lot less than 8 as well so opportunities at Guadalupe were great. The type of cage diving was also very different from what you will experience as my chosen operator did not bait from the back of the boat. Half of my images had the cage in them, some on purpose, some not. At the end of the day I went cage diving so wasnt at all bothered about getting it in the frame. You'll have a great time in SA.

http://www.euphoticzoneimaging.com/sharks

Thanks to everyone for their comments! On the day, I took the 10-18 but mostly used it wide open. Vis was not good and there was a lot of muck around, so no great shots resulted. But like you say, it was great fun - even my non-diving wife joined in!

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