a6000 lens for underwater + underwater case

Dear March

your Z12/2.8 looks so different from mine. What have you modified?

Well, if you'd read the posts, it's all described in there...

Yes...my worried point the the wide front being too wide to suit any of my current ports. Thought once having an a system with potential wider ports. However, after studying the dimension of A7II housing from Nauticam, I decided not to go further.

Meikon's housing is good with a fixed port, good for the 16-50 and also...30 macro

I shoot a NEX7 in a Nauticam housing and absolutely love the ergonomics and Sony 24MP APS-C sensor. The A6000 is even better at focus, etc at a lower price point. As you're seeing, many of us NEX users are still struggling with lens and ports for a high IQ compact underwater system, which is why we went with mirrorless to begin with. The Zeiss Touit 12mm has been rated as the sharpest lens available underwater, going beyond Canon and Nikon SLR's. Yet as Marc has pointed out, it normally needs an expensive 2 piece dome and adapter to work due to it's physical width. However, what many don't know, is the bell shaped shell on the lens is cosmetic or functions solely for the lens shade mounting. The lens is fully functional without this outer shell allowing it to fit in the Nauiticam NEX 4.33 and 7" domes. My Z12 is in Germany at the moment having the front cover (which hides the shell mounting screws) removed (it's glued on). Zeiss has been great and agreed to remove this cover for me at no charge other than shipping it to their NY service dept.

 

I will soon be able to experiment with the lens in the 4.33 compact dome. This is a FE (fisheye) dome and not ideally suited for wide rectilinear lens due to the dome's extreme curvature, so I may lose corner sharpness, but I don't believe anyone has tried it "real world" yet. I'll soon find out when the lens arrives. Should IQ suffer from the 4.33 dome curvature, the Nauticam 7" dome will work perfectly, but unfortunately, will add to the size of the compact system for travel. Yet, the good news is it's less than half the price of the Zen DP170 & adapter ($550 vs $1,200) and much lighter. It also will not require the 2 part dome/lens installation that Marc explains above.

 

I'm hoping it will perform in the small 4.33 for travel purposes and also because I have a 20mm extension which will allow me to use my S18-55 lens in the 4.33. I've figured out a way to adapt my Port 72 flip macro mount to the 4.33 port and like the idea of still having the kit lens for single dive versatility in WA and M. Again, because of the 4.33 curvature, I may have trouble with the corners at 18mm? The good news is, the N 7"dome finally has a zoom gear for the Z16-70 which will be a higher IQ replacement for the 18-55. Putting my flip macro mount on the 7" will be more of a challenge though….LOL.

 

For super-macro I'm using the exceptionally sharp Canon 60 EF-S macro and Aquatica +10 diopter with a Metabones adapter in Nauiticam's custom NEX port which offers some autofocus (slow, but works) and more important for macro, manual focus, which the shorter 50mm Touit set-up does not have. Sony's Focus Peaking is a fabulous tool underwater. Plus, the added 10mm over the Touit makes the lens longer in 35mm equivalency which is an added bonus, as the Sony "NEX" system doesn't have a long macro. Perhaps Nauticam will make a 2 part NEX port for the upcoming Sony 90mm FE e-mount macro, but that's a BIG maybe and certainly a long ways off. 90mm on a cropped APS-C body makes a great working distance macro, comparable to the more popular C100 and N105 macros, which are the most popular for SM. I'm sure many NEX macro shooters are keeping their fingers crossed…..

 

If I had to do it all over again, I would have considered the more mature 4/3 system with it's large and sharp lens selection. Yet, I print large and like the 24MP Sony sensor and can't afford to change systems in mid-stream. Fortunately, Sony's systems are slowly catching up.

 

Welcome to the expensive world of UW photography. It's kind of hard to cut corners with cheaper equipment. Purchasing a used NEX or 4/3 system rather than trying to get a cheap housing to work, is a better option in my opinion.

 

Cheers,

 

Marsh

Dear March

I apologise for your name's typo. Thank you again for your thoughtful feedback and now I am thinking thoroughly transforming my 10Bar to Nauticam...coz 10Bar is not moving on. I am more interested in using a 90mm macro...native from Sony cos the converted Canon lens is less fast..and I wonder my DeoTech converter works inside a Nauticam port

Meanwhile I have to search solutions to use all the extension tubes from 10Bar on a Nauticam housing. Even though Nauticam is a big name here, local shops stocked only dSLRs housings and ports. Sony nex is indeed a rarity

Mark K,

I know nothing about 10bar and it's accessory use on Nauticam.

I assume the DeoTech you refer to is a Canon to Sony adapter like the Metabones. The Nauticam ports that work with these adapters are the Nauticam Canon 60 port (like I have) or the Zen model which will work with both the 60 and 100mm Canon macros (with the correct outer port). Nauticam has said they'll support the Sony 90 as soon as it comes out for the FE A7 series housings. While not announced, I suspect also for the NEX platform at some point.

In the meantime the S90 may work in their Canon 60 port with 40mm of extension (two 20'). I'm hoping this is the case as I imagine the native port for the Sony macro will be quite expensive if they include manual focus and auto/manual control knobs. Since it's an autofocus lens and one can turn it on and off with the camera controls, maybe it'll just be a simple 2 part port which would make it more affordable. More or less how I will use it in my Canon 60 port. Too bad the S90 is 2mm wider than the ID of their focus gear for the C60 or I might have been able to get the port to do manual focus on the S90.

The Sony FE macro is supposed to be available in July, so we'll see soon enough what will or will not work..

Good luck with your 10bar ideas. I wouldn't think much, if anything, would cross over to Nauticam.

Marsh

Thank you Marsh.

I have Meikon + sony A6000 + the 16-50mm lens set up

Did anyone actually succeeded to use the 30mm Sony Macro ? with this housing port ?

At the edge of my Nauticam A6K housing purchasing, I had unfortunately some heart problems. At that time, local dive shops are all persuading me to buy other dSLR housings instead of A6k because Sony housings are not available but dSLR housings had been always there.

I had to give up the ideas of using heavy housings and instead, we, a group of three A6k housings from Meikon.

Newer housings from Meikon like this one look and feel much better than their early products. Build quality is much better with a leak detector. However, the fixed port only accommodate 16-50 and 30f1.8. Their measurement before I placed my order suggested the port being compatible with 30 macro and it turned out to be wrong.

Bumping old threads is usually not for me, but some open questions here back from February... Just came back from PNG, up north (sharks & fish, not Milne Bay / Critterland). Quite happy with the 1670Z -> used it with a +3 in the Zen 170 dome. The difference to the 1650 at its sweet spot is not huge, but noticeable - bit sharper, better colours. Using the dome instead of the flat port might be responsible for that, too, especially regarding sharpness. Of course, not quite as good as the Z12. The 1650 loses pretty fast outside the sweet zone, though, where the 1670Z offers more options. Still no really good MFD even with the +3, but quite usable for fish and larger critters. Did one dive without the +3, drove me nuts. Autofocus seems to me a bit faster and more precise than with the 1650. And it doesn't have that annoying habit of going back to 16mm as soon as you look at the preview too long - zoom stays where it is All in all, happy with it - will come to Galapagos in October with me.

On another point - the CMC on the 1650 is pretty much miraculous, got some excellent pics out of that combo.

Now trying to get that 90G in a N85 port, somehow :-D