Dome port size difference, zoom not compatible?

I'm looking into dome ports for my Ikelite housing and the Panasonic 7-14mm and I'm torn between the 6 inch Ikelite one vs the 8 inch one. 8 inch would be a little sharper I'm told by Ikelite but it doesn't support any zoom which I found weird. Is there any other 8 inch domes that would work with a zoom kit for the lens that I'm not aware of?

Also, how bad is the sharpness on a 6 inch dome with the 7-14mm? Feels dumb to spend 4000$ On a set up and ending up with poor sharpness.

Hi,
what camera are you using?
What is your target / motive?

Regards,
Wolfgang

The camera is the Panasonic gx80. Motive would be just general WA stuff, reef and sharks/mantas in the blue etc.

I'm looking into dome ports for my Ikelite housing and the Panasonic 7-14mm and I'm torn between the 6 inch Ikelite one vs the 8 inch one. 8 inch would be a little sharper I'm told by Ikelite but it doesn't support any zoom which I found weird. Is there any other 8 inch domes that would work with a zoom kit for the lens that I'm not aware of?

Also, how bad is the sharpness on a 6 inch dome with the 7-14mm? Feels dumb to spend 4000$ On a set up and ending up with poor sharpness.

First of all the support limitations that you mention regarding the Ikelite port system is just limitations of Ikelite. Please note that Nauticam has by far a much better lens / port support in their M43 housings.

http://www.ikelite.com/images/products/housings/general/mil-port-charts.pdf

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56e78eb6d51cd466c98e0f72/t/580e97a303596ec8949c5739/1477351334306/N85+Panasonic+%26+Olympus+%26+BMPCC.pdf

If for i.e. cost reasons Ikelite is your only option then you have to live with these limitations.

Secondly all manufactures recommends their biggest domes as most optimal regarding corner sharpness.

Remember that domes generally are a sub optimal solution for the water/air interface, i.e. some people still uses the age old Nikonos wet contact optics even on a RED!

The dome creates a virtual image in front of the dome and since it follows the dome shape its half spherical in shape and not flat whereas the sensor surface is flat.

This means that it's diffcult to get the whole image in focus.

Bigger domes are less spherical and therefore better since more of the image is sharp given a paricular narrrow depth of field.

The other compensation is to make sure that the focus depth is adequate for the whole virtual image on the half sphere, i.e. this means using a higher F-number to get more depth of field.

Other options instead of old Nikonos is to use special water contact optics like WWL-1 from Nauticam or similar stuff from other manufacturers (i.e. Inon).

I have no practical experience with Ikelite housings, but there are third party domeports available for them. See e.g. here:

https://www.unterwasserkamera.at/shop/catalog/en/Unterwasser-Foto/Dome---Planport/Domeport/-3280-4031.html

Best to ask Ikelite or Zen (best both) whether this will work with your camera/lenses...

Wolfgang

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I'm aware that nauticam is superior but as the rig is expensive enough as is I opted to go for the Ikelite housing.

Perhaps I could get an 8 inch dome from nauticam with some sort of adaptor for Ikelite>nauticam port to dome so that I can get the zoom function.

But it's hard to decide when I'm not quite sure how "bad" the 6 inch is compared to the 8 inch one.

So espen, are u saying I'd get better image quality with the wwl and say, the kit lens, rather than an expensive dome and lens? And also, how would the macro quality be if I got a wet macro lens? Equal to let's say the 60mm Olympus lens (which is the one I had in mind)

Thanks archi, I'll have a look!

So espen, are u saying I'd get better image quality with the wwl and say, the kit lens, rather than an expensive dome and lens? And also, how would the macro quality be if I got a wet macro lens? Equal to let's say the 60mm Olympus lens (which is the one I had in mind)

 

I have personally no experince with the WWL-1. However, its designet to integrate directy with the water interface and can probably be thought as a modern answer to the old Nikonos optics.

The downfalls of the WWL:

As far as I can tell there is no possibility of manual focus. Operating it with a Panasonic 14-42 II lens i.e. the only gear available is for zoom. No port has an extra knob for focus operation.

Its heavy and expensive. But probably worth it considering the picture quality and corner sharpness. Others here have more direct experience.

I have personally no experince with the WWL-1. However, its designet to integrate directy with the water interface and can probably be thought as a modern answer to the old Nikonos optics.

 

The downfalls of the WWL:

As far as I can tell there is no possibility of manual focus. Operating it with a Panasonic 14-42 II lens i.e. the only gear available is for zoom. No port has an extra knob for focus operation.

Its heavy and expensive. But probably worth it considering the picture quality and corner sharpness. Others here have more direct experience.