7-14 mm with or without focus knob?

I'm considering to buy the Panasonic 7-14mm for my GH-5 in Nauticam housing. For this lens, there are 2 ports, with or without focus knob

http://www.nauticam.com/product/36164/

http://www.nauticam.com/product/36133/

The advantages and disadvantages are obvious on the first sight.

+ manual focus

- price (port and gear, several 100's of $)

- more risk for leakage or damage

- more difficult to mount

Other things to consider? What would you do? I do mainly video. Thanks for all the advice.

Rollin

Nauticam options for Pana 7-14mm are: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzggKvdoNvhkRlZhNTdLZzRIeXc/view

Then, two ports to do basically the same. In two options, you need a focus gear, For me is a costs question.

Option 1: with focus knob

Port 31164-> https://www.onderwaterhuis.nl/nauticam-6-wide-angle-port-with-focus-knob-36164 --> 726€

Focus Gear 36043--> https://www.onderwaterhuis.nl/nauticam-p714-f-focus-gear-for-panasonic-vario-7-14-36043 --> 213€

Long time ago I had same question. I went to option 2 and saved money...

Didn't know about this pdf, thanks!

Now, I'm confused. You need zoom gear for both, but only focus gear for the option 1, no? Does the port come with standard zoom gear then?

Edit: You made a mistake, you need two gears for option 1

http://www.nauticam.com/product/set-up-b-39/

Option 1: with focus knob

Port 31164-> https://www.onderwaterhuis.nl/nauticam-6-wide-angle-port-with-focus-knob-36164 --> 726€

Focus Gear 36043--> https://www.onderwaterhuis.nl/nauticam-p714-f-focus-gear-for-panasonic-vario-7-14-36043 --> 213€

Zoom Gear 36044--> https://www.onderwaterhuis.nl/nauticam-p714-z-zoom-gear-for-panasonic-vario-7-14mm-36044 --> 213€

You need to differentiate between zoom gear and manual focus gear.

Nauticam comes with an integrated knob, normally used by zoom gear with zoom lens (i.e. Pana 7-14mm ...) and manual focus for prime lens (i.e. Oly 60mm)

With Option 1 you could have zoom + manual focus, but for video , no sense to have manual focus gear, due to Pana 7-14mm focus fast in Wide angle...

With Option 2 you could have zoom gear only, but for video, I think it's enough.

Then, for use Pana 7-14mm zoom capabilities, you need to buy, at least, zoom gear, that is not included in any option. ..

Two gears in Option 1 are not mandatory, Manual focus gear is a plus. but for me, in video usage, I don't know if it's is very useful.

Pehaps is useful for the seller, due you need to pay 213€ more

....

Thank you for thinking along! In video, at least above the surface, one of the nice things to do is focus pulling, where you shift focus from background to foreground and vice versa. This is almost impossible in autofocus.

But maybe, focus pulling under water is too difficult. Has anyone tried with gear like this? Of course, I will use my tripod for this.

Rollin

My GH4 set up has the dome port with the focus knob.

I have the focus gear on the 12-35mm (which I find that I use very infrequenty) but not on the 7-14mm.

I don't miss not having the focus gear at all - the depth of field of the 7-14mm is so deep that I generally have no trouble at all finding focus (I always use back-button focus).

Cheers

Steve

Forget polycarbonate domes (they scratch like hell) and go for the large and beatifull 180 mm glas dome with focus knop adapter.

This is indeed the best solution, buth 3x the price. Good if you do a lot of boat dives. I'm a shore diver, climbing down on steep rocks.

I have had a big scratch on my Seacam Superdome once. Very costly.

One can polish acrylic domes. But I agree, they scratch by just looking at them!

I use Deepshots zoom gear for Pana 7-14mm and it works well. Saves you some money over OEM.

https://deepshots.myshopify.com/collections/gears-for-olympus-and-panasonic/products/deepshots-panasonic-7-14-zoom-gear

I use Deepshots zoom gear for Pana 7-14mm and it works well. Saves you some money over OEM.

 

https://deepshots.myshopify.com/collections/gears-for-olympus-and-panasonic/products/deepshots-panasonic-7-14-zoom-gear

Or, even cheaper, 3D print your own. Find someone that has a printer, or use a printing service. Works great. I gave a friend $10 US to make it for me. I've also used him for a few other gears as well.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=60536