Review of the new Nauticam wet wide angle lens WWL-1

Looking at an EM10 mk2 for a trip to Socorro in May and find it difficult to decide between the WWL-1 and the OLY 9-18 for wide angle.

The 7-14 OLY pro would be my first choice but the cost is just too high for me and the required SLR size glass dome somewhat negates the benifit of an OMD for travel. Really hoping Interceptor121 can point a novice in the right direction. Thanks for the help

Maybe this can help:

https://www.opticaloceansales.com/olympus-epl-7-with-nauticam-wwl-1-and-cmc-lens-review.html

https://gotmuck.com/nauticam-narx100mkiv-review/

Also, issue 87 of UWP

http://www.uwpmag.com/

FWIW, unless you are really seeking the ability to shoot wideangle and non-wideangle on the same dive, I believe an 8mm fisheye or 7-14 in a good glass dome is a better choice, but I have to see any actual and useful comparisons. I think the WWL-1 is larger and much heavier than one might expect and unless attached all the time, creates some handling issues.

AFAIK domes limit your aperture range to f/8 and darker for 4/3, while the WWL-1 allows f/5.6: http://interceptor121.com/2015/11/26/nauticam-wwl-1-macro-port-29/

In socorro you are not really going to remove the wet lens. I think the 9-18mm is a useful lens to have on land but hopefully depending on what you will see a bit narrow. I would go with the WWL-1 or the panasonic 7-14mm. You will most likely have water background so sharper corners are less important. The 7-14mm with the 6" dome is light in water the WWL-1 really heavy but gives more zoom range

AFAIK domes limit your aperture range to f/8 and darker for 4/3, while the WWL-1 allows f/5.6: http://interceptor121.com/2015/11/26/nauticam-wwl-1-macro-port-29/

Domes do not limit aperture per se. Perhaps you mean to suggest that corners look OK on the WWL at 5.6 while some domes require stopping down further to clean up the corners? If so, corner sharpness when using domes is dependent on the lens, the dome construction and the size of the dome as well as aperture. I also have to think that the WWL corner performance is affected by which lens one uses, and at what focal length (assuming it is a zoom).

Unless and until someone actually does a performance comparison between a 7-14 or even a 9-18 in a 170 or 180 glass dome and the WWL-1 with appropriate lens, we can only speculate. Unfortunately, most people with a 7-14 and a glass dome aren't going to go out and buy a WWL-1 to play with, and vice versa. Comparisons of the WWL to a fisheye are not an apples - oranges kind of comparison and the 9-18 has not proven itself to be a particularly great performer underwater, at least not in one of the small ports usually used with that lens.

Keep in mind the WWL is on par with a 170 or 180 glass dome, price wise. WWL-1 and a really good zoom lens vs. a 9-18 in a 4" port, I am pretty sure the WWL-1 is the better performer, but to me, that is like saying a FF Nikon with a highly-rated fisheye zoom in a 230mm dome performs better than a EM1 with the Lumix 8mm fisheye. It is true, but does it mean anything in the real world?

Understand, I am not criticizing or dismissing the WWL-1, but it is neither cheap nor light weight nor small and comparing it to the 9-18 in a 4" port doesn't make sense to me.

I am not sure this discussion is actually in the right place. It seems like it is a mirrorless topic and not a compact camera topic...

Maybe it should get moved?

Unless and until someone actually does a performance comparison between a 7-14 or even a 9-18 in a 170 or 180 glass dome and the WWL-1 with appropriate lens, we can only speculate. Unfortunately, most people with a 7-14 and a glass dome aren't going to go out and buy a WWL-1 to play with, and vice versa.

I had the 7-14mm with the 170mm dome and now have the WWL with the 14-42mm MK2. Alas I don't have two GH4's so couldn't do real side by sides with identical setups, but from videos I took with the 7-14mm compared to videos I've taken with the WWL (not many at the moment!) the WWL is a vast improvement - for sure in corner sharpness, even when cropped in at 4k.

The main difference between a dome and a wet lens (from my understanding) is that with a dome, the camera is focusing and recording a virtual image generated by the dome, this virtual image is warped from the curvature of the dome (hence why the corners are soft as the corners are closer to the camera, the bigger the diameter of the dome, the flatter the virtual image.

Wet lenses, on the other hand provide you with a 'flat' image as seen underwater, so don't suffer from soft corners (thats not to say they don't suffer from CA mind)

The main reason I swapped the 7-14mm for the WWL was to have complete flexibility underwater. Most places I go diving (liveaboards etc) you get to do a site 1 or maybe 2 times. Being stuck at WA - only for some extraordinary fish or nudi to turn up and you can't video it. Other benefits (on Panasonic bodies) is the added OIS and the 14-42mm is a stop faster than the 7-14 and 9-18m too.

I have the 7-14mm panasonic and I had the WWL-1 from nauticam on test for one month. If you take pictures the WWL-1 is the way to go with the Panasonic 14-42mm is very sharp in corners and you have one stop difference net compared to the pana 7-14mm not tested the olympus so don't know. The WWL-1 is not rectilinear though if that matters. However for video with the crop involved the 7-14mm works just fine and is a lighter rig but as a lens is less versatile in water due to limited focal length. Also for video all wet lenses on the market allow for full zoom and once cropped in 4K the difference with the WWL-1 is minimal. If I had a GH4 I would use the old Inon UWL-100 because I like the focal range it allows 20-60mm in 4K and without lens 35-105 of the bare port. For my RX100 Mark IV I use the same lens. Am on my way back from Puerto Galera where i shot mostly pictures wih my GX7 but I did 3 video dives to test the Sony. It looks as good as expected and I could also use w push on magic filter that peter rowlands kindly provided. The colours look natural though I like my blue more saturated. Will post the link soon

You can see from those images that the corners are blurred which is a characteristic of this lens to be honest also a bit on land and is made worse behind a dome

Ultimately the 7-14mm is fine with blue backgrounds and also for wrecks as long as you don't do picture peeping in the corners

It is not a lens for close focus wide angle as the blurred edges show with coral especially under f/8

At f/8 the lens does pretty well with close focus

Bubbling Bike by Interceptor121, on Flickr

However for far wreck shots you can get away with f/5

Exploring the Chrisoula by Interceptor121, on Flickr

For video the 7-14mm is not really versatile enough anyway as the focal range is pretty limited and you don't shoot at f/8

By the way I shot a video last year when I received the lens prototype but forgot to upload it

It is interesting to see how it compares with the Inon lens in terms of size and weight

Interceptor 121

Can you shoot over and unders with the WWL 1?

Interceptor 121

 

Can you shoot over and unders with the WWL 1?

The WWL-1 is a wet lens so you need to seal the port to do it. I have not tried but i guess it could work. The lens is very heavy though so keeping the rig still could be hard

I just bought a refurb RXM100M2 and will be getting the nautical housing for it. Is the WWL-1 an overkill for this set up?

No it will be perfect

I just noticed the request above for comparisons, and have these v. Panasonic 7-14 and Olympus 9-18.

https://www.evernote.com/l/AOLgDuGdr6RCtI_MOcA2i1CWuv-7CvNuimM

WWL-1 is significantly wider than both of these, with some barrel distortion. Keep in mind the lens is full zoom through, and when you frame to match the fov offered by these two options a lot of the barrel distortion is cropped out in camera.

Just got myself a RX100 mk4 in a Nauticam housing with a WWL1 as an upgrade from the Go pro i was using.

On the link is some test footage i got just to have a first idea of how the camera works. Very quick edit in Premiere shot is SLog2 profile

I'm between Canon g7x mk2 + WWL or Olympus om-e5 mk2 7-14 pro lens.

Is there big difference between these?

I have not found any review between mirrorles vs new compact camera +wwl

Hi all... Thanks for all the info in this thread. I finally decided to go as well with A7R II + FE 28mm + WWL-1 setup.

Will post pictures once available.

Thanks