Photos from Sony RX-100 IV

Had so much fun shooting the new Sony RX-100 IV with our new Wet Wide Lens and the CMC during our Workshop at Club Paraiso, Mactan, Cebu during early August. The image quality with the new sensor of this little camera is just amazing, especially paired with our new lens.

More/larger files in our Smugmug site: https://nauticam.smugmug.com/HousingTests/NA-RX100IV

The corner performance of your wet wide lens looks great in that second photo. Alex

Many thanks Alex, it actually looks even better on my display with the original file. Developing wide lenses is so hard! This is my fifth design/prototype until I think it is good enough for production, and each round takes 3-4 months.

It must be a challenge to get rid of the CA and pincushion distortion from the flat port, before the lens can look through the wide lens. It looks very impressive at low resolution above. Alex

Hi Edward,

Nice pictures! Work your new Wide Lens with the 24mm end of the RX100 IV or must zoom in to 28mm?

Greetings from Switzerland,

Tino

PS: When comes the housing for the new Sony A7rII?

The mark III camera worked fine with the Inon UWL-H100 without dome even at wide end. Does the new IV behave the same way? Have you tried any video and does it still have white balance issues?

Hi Edward, beautiful images.

The new wide lens look wery promising but the Sony Rx 100 iv (and other compact cameras) could benefit also of a 67 mm tele-macro wet lens.

It could be a perfect pair : wide and tele conversion wet lenses to overcome the limits of 24-70 lens (and 14-42 mirrorless kit lenses) .

Nauticam could be the first to offer a perfect solution to all people that need / want to travel light.

Regards

Livio

Hi Edward, beautiful images.

 

The new wide lens look wery promising but the Sony Rx 100 iv (and other compact cameras) could benefit also of a 67 mm tele-macro wet lens.

 

It could be a perfect pair : wide and tele conversion wet lenses to overcome the limits of 24-70 lens (and 14-42 mirrorless kit lenses) .

 

Nauticam could be the first to offer a perfect solution to all people that need / want to travel light.

 

Regards

Livio

 

 

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and constructive comments!

I must say that it means a lot to me for what Alex said about the lens and the photos, from someone who owns so many W/A lenses and has such broad knowledge about photography and optics, and has been judge for so many renowned worldwide competitions. Not to mention having shot and shared so many stunning photos himself. Alex surely gave me much inspiration during our brief meeting in Milan in 2013 discussing future of underwater optics.

After several years of full commitment in underwater lens design I can say that no single one lens is perfect, whether it is Zeiss or Samyang, for land or for underwater. So, this Wet Wide Lens is never meant to be perfect. A good lens design is always a good compromise between cost, size, glasses chosen, complexity and ease of production and quality assurance. I hope I have found a fine and reasonable balance this time.

For some of the questions:

- when used with the RX-100 IV, I had to zoom the camera lens to around 25-26mm equivalent.

- Haven't compared image quality with the Inon lens. I hope someone can do that and tell us what he/she thinks.

- Haven't tried the white balance capability of the camera. All my w/a photos were shot with Magic Filter at sunlight wb and color corrected in post.

- We already tested most versions of Panasonic/Olympus 14-42mm lenses and they all worked with the appropriate ports at all focal lengths.

Greetings from Hong Kong.

Edward

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and constructive comments!

 

I must say that it means a lot to me for what Alex said about the lens and the photos, from someone who owns so many W/A lenses and has such broad knowledge about photography and optics, and has been judge for so many renowned worldwide competitions. Not to mention having shot and shared so many stunning photos himself. Alex surely gave me much inspiration during our brief meeting in Milan in 2013 discussing future of underwater optics.

 

After several years of full commitment in underwater lens design I can say that no single one lens is perfect, whether it is Zeiss or Samyang, for land or for underwater. So, this Wet Wide Lens is never meant to be perfect. A good lens design is always a good compromise between cost, size, glasses chosen, complexity and ease of production and quality assurance. I hope I have found a fine and reasonable balance this time.

 

For some of the questions:

- when used with the RX-100 IV, I had to zoom the camera lens to around 25-26mm equivalent.

- Haven't compared image quality with the Inon lens. I hope someone can do that and tell us what he/she thinks.

- Haven't tried the white balance capability of the camera. All my w/a photos were shot with Magic Filter at sunlight wb and color corrected in post.

- We already tested most versions of Panasonic/Olympus 14-42mm lenses and they all worked with the appropriate ports at all focal lengths.

 

Greetings from Hong Kong.

 

Edward

I have the whole set of inon lenses with and without domes in there versions that work with the rx100 happy to do some tests if I get a prototype on loan!

Hi Interceptor, that's good idea. I will arrange a loan lens to you. The first production ones will be available about 2 weeks later.

Thanks Edward. I can compare with fix UWL-04 inon UWL-H100 without dome and UWL-100 28AD with dome. I see that the lens is designed for best performance at 28mm so I suggest I perform tests with RX100 mark II as the lens is closest to the glass port or alternatively Panasonic GX7 with 14-42 lens mark II. I would not recommend testing with 24mm lens zoomed in as there is always fringing due to lens to port distance

Hello Edward can you tell me what add-on-lens you used for the 4th picture?

Thank you!

Hello Edward can you tell me what add-on-lens you used for the 4th picture?

 

Thank you!

Hello Edward,

looks like the RX100 IV performs best at iso 80 ? Is it still ok at iso 125 ? None of your photos were taken at iso 125. Some times image quality looks not so great like the snake and it was just iso 200 ??? How would you compare image quality between RX100 IV at best settings and EM-5 (the first) ??? I am interested in the flexibility of a compact camera and the possibility to do macro and wide angle in the same dive.

Do you think battery can support 2 dives with stills only ?

Hervé

Hello Edward,

looks like the RX100 IV performs best at iso 80 ? Is it still ok at iso 125 ? None of your photos were taken at iso 125. Some times image quality looks not so great like the snake and it was just iso 200 ??? How would you compare image quality between RX100 IV at best settings and EM-5 (the first) ??? I am interested in the flexibility of a compact camera and the possibility to do macro and wide angle in the same dive.

 

Do you think battery can support 2 dives with stills only ?

 

Hervé

I did a little write up on the subject

Underwater Photography and Video: 1″ Sensor Compacts vs Micro Four Thirds | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog

http://interceptor121.com/2015/07/12/underwater-photography-and-video-1-sensor-compacts-vs-micro-four-thirds/

To a good extent you can replace a micro four third with a compact but the latest compacts have lenses that are not so flexible to cover all shooting situations that an ILC system can manage

The most flexible of the 1" sensor compact remains the RX100 mark II and yes you can do two dives with it

To be honest i don't think micro four third battery life is exemptions like either but the Sony cameras don't offer a manual flash setting and this has an influence on battery consumption

Still a compact will not achieve a full 180 fisheye nor the supermacro magnification that you can get with dedicated lenses on mft

Thanks to Edward I was able to go for a quick dive in the pool today

I don't need to do more further testing to confirm that this wet lens is the best on the market in terms of optical quality.

I have tested it with the Panasonic LX100 but I believe the best results will be with the Sony RX100 mark II or the Panasonic GX7 and 14-42mm lens

The full review is here

http://interceptor121.com/2015/09/14/nauticam-wwl-1-wet-wide-angle-lens-review/

It is scheduled to go live at 00:00 GMT tomorrow.

Hello Herve,

You really have nothing to worry about the file quality of the Sony RX100iv. If you download photos from our Smugmug site you can look at the Exif data and find the ISO setting of the photos. For example the Whale Shark photo (1st one in this thread) was shot at ISO640, and some other wide angle photos were shot at ISO320. My personal feeling is the files from the RX100iv is even cleaner than the EM5 Mk I.

I can usually use 1 battery for 2 dives.

Edward

 

I can usually use 1 battery for 2 dives.

 

Edward

Wow thats very effective use! I absolutely love the RX100iv but always feel that the biggest shortcoming is the short battery llfe. Admitted: I do mostly video, so that is probably somewhat more of a power drag.