Panasonic LX-100 Nauticam housing

Chris, enjoy the new housing! If you ended shooting video, head over the the video forums. Are you getting the dome port?

Once again, this is great information, thank you all for sharing.

The +7 is giving you some pretty heavy CA! Check out the edges of the coin. Personally, I wouldn't find that acceptable.

I have my doubt about being able to shoot pygmies (or other small, well camouflaged critters) without a strobe or light source. Granted, the small sensors with help with DOF, but if you have to stop down, it will become a battle between DOF and exposure. The downside of the smaller sensors is they are not as good at high ISO.

You just have to wait for the pygmies to turn back....

Adam

Adam,

The comment about light with Pygmies are in reference to video. For still, it's not that relevant since the strobe fire so quickly that the pygmies might get dizzy and don't know what hit him/her, but they wouldn't turn their back as long as there is no focus light blinding them. One trick the dive master at Lembeth told me is to have the muck stick in front of the pygmy seahorse, and the seahorse would like "kiss" the muck stick, then when you're ready to shot photo, lift the muck stick and expose the front of the pygmy, it's easier to do with two person and the dive master/guide are the one that hold the muck stick.

As for the +7, it's really depend on the subject and background, at least from my experience if the background is busy/one tone (like Lembeth sand), the CA is almost like part of the bokeh, but then it could be my untrained eye that feels that it's acceptable. I'm in the process of getting rid of the +7, do you have any suggestion? I like the +5 and it's "Achromatic", but it's not strong enough.

Keep in mind that all these +5 and +7 may not get you enough close up shot, but if your end result is 1080p video output, the 4K will give you the advantage of being able to zoom 200% without lost of quality. But for future publishing where there will be more 4K content demand with 4K display become common, a strong diopter is required and that's when the CMC comes in.

Adam is correct that the ca needs correcting however in the centre the image quality is quite good if your background is blurred or dark Ca at the edge won't matter at all i video

For still images instead you need something better ie inon UCL-100 subsee 10 or nauticam CMC / SMC as you will be staring at the whole scene

Moses is also correct if you crop away the ca is eliminated anyway

Thanks Moses, i am sure i will have fun with my new baby.

I got also the SubSee +10 macro lens and the flip adapter as you,

i will give it a try in the pool to redo your test to see how the SubSee behaves.

Chris

Argh I totally missed this thread, being in the mirrorless section.

Thanks so much for all the great info about this housing! I can't wait to see how you do underwater.

I've been waiting for months for it to finally be released, looking to buy it as my first underwater camera rig. In the meantime I might have already been convinced that the port system is just too complex and limiting for me for my first underwater work. The LX-100 is a great camera on land, but maybe at this stage I need more experience to understand how different options work underwater before I have to lock into a specific port combo before getting in the water.

Thanks again!

i also like the camera but for me the port system is to complicated to work with so i am looking to the Sony RX series.

Smaller and with macro and wide inon lens you have a nice set thats capable of nice results. For me its just fun taking

underwater photos. And in video i am not interested.

If you

i also like the camera but for me the port system is to complicated to work with so i am looking to the Sony RX series.

Smaller and with macro and wide inon lens you have a nice set thats capable of nice results. For me its just fun taking

underwater photos. And in video i am not interested.

 

If your interest is still images and you do not want to use a port system then look into the Sony RX100 Mark II

CCCAM,

It really depends on if you're shooting video or photo. If you think you will use it for more video in the future, this camera is more future proof for the next 3-5 years. Yes, the port system could be confusing/challenging for new comers, but it's something that you can learn and understand very quickly.

Just a note about the housing, this happen to me:

The down cursor button could trigger the right button easily. When I press "down" to scroll through the menu, many times it would trigger a "right" press to get into the deeper part of the menu. I'm not sure if it's just my housing since I'm the first consumer in US to get the housing. It's no big deal though as you can use the rear dial to scroll down the menu. When I move to Florida in a couple months, I will have Nauticam look at my housing to see if they could adjust it.

If you look at the lid of the housing, the yellow circle is where the cursor key is and mine could use some adjustment.

If you have your housing, test the down cursor button. Mine behave the same under or above water.

I guess I am used to SLR port/lens combinations, but the options here are actually pretty limited, and if you simply buy the standard port, will give you much the same performance as the RX100 III for example. It is simply not that complicated! I wouldn't let the fact that there are options change any choice you may make.

In terms of CA and image quality in general, I have found that the SMC and Reefnet diopters are very good.

"Shooting to crop" is, in my opinion, not a great philosophy in either stills or video! The quality and resolution loss is too big a compromise to make. Shoot as if you are planning to use the whole frame, and then any cropping you do will still give excellent quality. Of course, if you witness a scene that means that you have crop, then you can still do so.

I have never seen a pygmy "kiss" a pointer (but have seen guides use their pointers to turn their heads). I get the issue with video lights, just switch them off, let the pygmy turn, hit the shutter and the switch the light on....

Adam

Thanks Adam, will look into Reefnet diopter.

Shoot for cropping is an option for 4K to 1080p down scaling as there is no pixel quality lost. I agree that it's best to plan to shot the way you want to use it. When I tried out the GH4, with uncontrollable movement because of macro and not having a tripod, it's nice that a light bulb comes on and I switch my brain to shoot 4K with possibility of 1080p, so I reframe my subject not too close to the edge to give me room to stabilize and crop during post.

Those who're curious about LX100 or some other camera, this review sums up all (I think!) the features that the camera has, it's quite exhausting to follow because the camera just have that many features!:

Moses

The subsee is only 52mm wide as the adapter is far away from the lens I would check for vignetting. Would expect it to vignette at least until 50mm if not more. If the nauticam is 67mm it would be a safer option

I have the LX100 in my hands and the NA-LX100, 3.5" dome, and flip diopter holder on order. Since I'm off to Bonaire at the end of February I should be ordering a close up lens soon. It's probably too late to hold out for the CMC, so I'm guessing that the best options are the ULC-100 or the Subsee 10?

Any reasons to buy (or not) either of these?

Subsee 10 is known to be more difficult to use because of depth of field issue. Not sure about ULC-100. What kind of macro subjects do you anticipate to shoot? Aquatica and Saga is another option, I haven't look through the forum but you can check it out:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=47939

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52369

I kind of like the Saga + 10 mainly because it's specifically mention that it's "Achromatic". My +5 is Achromatic and there is no CA around the corner. The +7 is not achromatic so it has serious CA problem.

I couldn't find much information about the Saga+10 though.

I found this useful link:http://www.deepshots.co.uk/2013/07/close-up-lens-test-pt2-inon-ucl-100-vs-subsee-10/

The size makes a big difference to me. I never bought the subsee at is big and heavy...and difficult to use. I generally use a ucl-02 FIT. +8 achromat lens. Very thin, good quality...and perfect on the 60mm macro.

F.I.T is another good one, I have the +5 and really like it, but it's not strong enough on the LX100. For the F.I.T +8, it's 43mm at the back and require a stop up ring to 67mm? If that's the case there might be issue on the LX100 with the diopter flip holder.

Here is a good review of the F.I.T +5 and +8 by Alex Mustard:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39600

UCL 100 same power as subsee however it needs to be close to the port or image quality is bad. Size wise is 67mm. Safe bet is nauticam CMC power around 11 so more than subsee and inon. Depth of field gets less as you increase magnification the camera stops at f/16 and the lens is only 75mm so you have around 1.6 cm of working range with 1-2mm dof so pretty tough. Crop or izoom with your current diopter will be an easier option to work with unless you use a tripod

F.I.T is another good one, I have the +5 and really like it, but it's not strong enough on the LX100. For the F.I.T +8, it's 43mm at the back and require a stop up ring to 67mm? If that's the case there might be issue on the LX100 with the diopter flip holder.

 

Here is a good review of the F.I.T +5 and +8 by Alex Mustard:

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39600

Yes I agree I have the +8 one but it is the 67mm version not the 43mm. I think you can order either way.