Best Salted Line Combo for a6300

Hi All,

I’ve spent hours researching online, and unfortunately haven’t found everything I need to determine the ideal setup as I start from a clean slate.

I currently use the old Meikon/Seafrog gen1 case for underwater photography with my a6300. My a6600 is used for my primary land photography and the a6300 is my backup and dive camera. 

Due to asthma, I’m not cleared to dive (hope to fix this in the future), so most of my time is spent snorkeling or free diving to 10-15 ft deep. This new setup would be exclusively for 15ft and shallower. 

During our move, I sold my 16-50mm kit lens that was used with the case. This is giving me a good excuse to consider upgrading to the new salted line case with vacuum for my a6300. 

I currently have these lenses - Sony 18-105 f/4; Sigma 30mm & 56mm f/1.4; and the Rokinon 12mm f/2  

My understanding is that the Sigma 30mm would be compatible with the standard salted line port and the 18-105 would work with an extension tube. However, I understand the 18-105 is not ideal due to minimum focusing distance. I’m not sure how much this will matter if I often am not within 1.5ft of my subject and haven’t done macro before.

In your opinion, what would be the best setup for a snorkeler/free diver with a Salted Line setup? I have the ability to get the Sony 16/50mm again for $70 locally or the Sony 10-18 f/4 for $550 locally. 

Ultimately, I have the ability to start fresh with a new salted line case and getting different ports or lenses would not be a concern. At this time I’m not interested in higher end dive case though, unless sub-$500, which I believe would be hard to find.

Sorry for the long post! I really appreciate all the advice that can be shared as I fly to Bora Bora in 14 days and need to get this ordered ideally by Sunday to arrive in time. 

Thank you!

2 hours ago, Rslb75 said:

Hi All,

I’ve spent hours researching online, and unfortunately haven’t found everything I need to determine the ideal setup as I start from a clean slate.

I currently use the old Meikon/Seafrog gen1 case for underwater photography with my a6300. My a6600 is used for my primary land photography and the a6300 is my backup and dive camera. 

Due to asthma, I’m not cleared to dive (hope to fix this in the future), so most of my time is spent snorkeling or free diving to 10-15 ft deep. This new setup would be exclusively for 15ft and shallower. 

During our move, I sold my 16-50mm kit lens that was used with the case. This is giving me a good excuse to consider upgrading to the new salted line case with vacuum for my a6300. 

I currently have these lenses - Sony 18-105 f/4; Sigma 30mm & 56mm f/1.4; and the Rokinon 12mm f/2  

My understanding is that the Sigma 30mm would be compatible with the standard salted line port and the 18-105 would work with an extension tube. However, I understand the 18-105 is not ideal due to minimum focusing distance. I’m not sure how much this will matter if I often am not within 1.5ft of my subject and haven’t done macro before.

In your opinion, what would be the best setup for a snorkeler/free diver with a Salted Line setup? I have the ability to get the Sony 16/50mm again for $70 locally or the Sony 10-18 f/4 for $550 locally. 

Ultimately, I have the ability to start fresh with a new salted line case and getting different ports or lenses would not be a concern. At this time I’m not interested in higher end dive case though, unless sub-$500, which I believe would be hard to find.

Sorry for the long post! I really appreciate all the advice that can be shared as I fly to Bora Bora in 14 days and need to get this ordered ideally by Sunday to arrive in time. 

Thank you!

I suspect if you are going to Bora Bora you might be shooting wide angle?  The lenses you talk about will all work to some extent.  The 16-50 is probably best combined with a wet lens at the wide end as it's basically a 24-75 equivalent which is basically a fish portrait setup.  The 30mm is neither wide nor tele and not a macro lens as it doesn't focus that close 56mm even worse.  The minimum focus distance is mainly an issue with dome ports, both the Sigma lenses would struggle behind a dome. 

To me the 10-18 behind the 8" dome would be the best combo and allow reef scenics, schooling fish etc.  It really depends on what you think your target might be.

I've been using an A6300 with SeaFrogs housings for the past five years or so, and thinking about your question, all I can bring up is... it depends. Primarily, it depends on how closely you're going to approach your subjects. I use both 16-50mm and 10-18mm lenses, both of them in the 8-inch SeaFrogs dome, and my choice of which one to take for a dive primarily stems from shooting distance - if I'm going to be doing reef scenics, big sea fans, large fish schools, etc, then I'm taking the 10-18mm, but if I'm going to be shooting skittish fish from a distance, then my choice is 16-50mm. It can still capture wider scenes, given clear water, but it is not as good at it as the 10-18mm. Edge case - if you want to shoot a fish school as it's coming right at you, the 16-50mm is a better choice than 10-18mm, because the fish will typically break off before they come into 10-18mm's effective range, and you won't get that nice head-on shot. Note, however, that I dive on SCUBA, and I use a pair of Retra Pro strobes - bare or with white diffusers for 10-18mm, typically equipped with reflectors or sometimes left bare for 16-50mm. Since you're snorkeling/freediving, and, I'm assuming, using natural light, your circumstances may differ.

Thank you both for the replies! To clarify, yes, I only use natural light for my photography given most is within 10ft of the surface. 

I plan to capture some larger items such as manta ray and whale sharks in future travels, but this trip likely will be mostly skittish fish off the resort and on a few off shore trips, where we might see schooling, sharks, or rays. 

Given that, do you think I should go with this setup?

https://www.saltedline.com/products/salted-line-underwater-housing-for-sony-a6xxx-series-with-8-dry-dome-port-gen-3?_pos=1&_sid=77b0377a8&_ss=r

That should arrive within 5 business days, hopefully just in time. Would you recommend purchasing the vacuum system as well?

If I go this route, I can then use the 16-50mm, sigma 30mm, and Sony 10-18, all to test out. 

Additionally, what benefit does using the 8” port over the standard port for the 16-50 and 10-18 help with? I’m usually able to pick things up quickly, but underwater photography is a lot more complex the more I keep reading into it and there isn’t a whole lot of materials I’ve been able to find out there, so I really appreciate the help!

Also, would a wet lens be used with the standard port and not the done for the 16-50? What benefit does a wet lens provide?

Thanks again!!

1 hour ago, Rslb75 said:

I plan to capture some larger items such as manta ray and whale sharks in future travels, but this trip likely will be mostly skittish fish off the resort and on a few off shore trips, where we might see schooling, sharks, or rays.  

Given that, do you think I should go with this setup? 

https://www.saltedline.com/products/salted-line-underwater-housing-for-sony-a6xxx-series-with-8-dry-dome-port-gen-3?_pos=1&_sid=77b0377a8&_ss=r 

Yes, that should work.

1 hour ago, Rslb75 said:

That should arrive within 5 business days, hopefully just in time. Would you recommend purchasing the vacuum system as well? 

No. The VPS-100 leaks underwater. Not often, but over several hundred dives, I've had it happen twice. Get a Vivid Leak Sentinel V5 XB, see details here:

View archived post in: PSA for SeaFrogs housing users regarding vacuum testing

1 hour ago, Rslb75 said:

If I go this route, I can then use the 16-50mm, sigma 30mm, and Sony 10-18, all to test out.  

I don't really see the point of Sigma 30mm when you have Sony 10-18mm and 16-50mm.

1 hour ago, Rslb75 said:

Additionally, what benefit does using the 8” port over the standard port for the 16-50 and 10-18 help with? I’m usually able to pick things up quickly, but underwater photography is a lot more complex the more I keep reading into it and there isn’t a whole lot of materials I’ve been able to find out there, so I really appreciate the help!

Better corner sharpness. I've done some comparative testing in a pool some time ago, see here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AupWSggdlFYKjtRFu-IIxyopM8fvAA?e=xNoYPJ

Also, a larger dome makes over/under split shots easier.

1 hour ago, Rslb75 said:

Also, would a wet lens be used with the standard port and not the done for the 16-50? What benefit does a wet lens provide?

A wet lens can be fitted to a short macro port (https://www.saltedline.com/collections/flat-ports/products/flat-short-macro-port-for-a6xxx-salted-line-with-67mm-thread-40m-130ft); the standard port does not have threading for attachment. A wet lens will give somewhat wider field of view than a 10-18mm lens (130 degrees vs 110 degrees diagonal) and better corner sharpness at the cost of some distortion. Its front element is also smaller, which makes split shots more challenging. I'm planning to move from 10-18mm + 8-inch dome to 16-50mm + short macro port + AOI UWL-09F, but it will be a few more months before I can post comparative results

10 hours ago, Rslb75 said:

Thank you both for the replies! To clarify, yes, I only use natural light for my photography given most is within 10ft of the surface. 

I plan to capture some larger items such as manta ray and whale sharks in future travels, but this trip likely will be mostly skittish fish off the resort and on a few off shore trips, where we might see schooling, sharks, or rays. 

Given that, do you think I should go with this setup?

https://www.saltedline.com/products/salted-line-underwater-housing-for-sony-a6xxx-series-with-8-dry-dome-port-gen-3?_pos=1&_sid=77b0377a8&_ss=r

That should arrive within 5 business days, hopefully just in time. Would you recommend purchasing the vacuum system as well?

If I go this route, I can then use the 16-50mm, sigma 30mm, and Sony 10-18, all to test out. 

Additionally, what benefit does using the 8” port over the standard port for the 16-50 and 10-18 help with? I’m usually able to pick things up quickly, but underwater photography is a lot more complex the more I keep reading into it and there isn’t a whole lot of materials I’ve been able to find out there, so I really appreciate the help!

Also, would a wet lens be used with the standard port and not the done for the 16-50? What benefit does a wet lens provide?

Thanks again!!

Agree with what Barmaglot says, the 10-18 will be most useful for reef scenics, schooling sharks etc, the 16-50 for skittish fish .  Forget about the 30mm, it might be a fine lens on land but you can't make use the wide aperture in a dome as the corners turn to mush.  In general you'll want to be stopped down to at least f8-f11 in a dome.

Thank you both for the replies again! I ordered the case and hope it arrives by next Friday, it’s currently at the final island to be shipped out. 

My 10-18mm just arrived and my Sony 16-50 should be arriving sometime this week. I’m looking forward to testing the new case out!

I’ll look into that vacuum system but given the timeline, I’ll go without vacuum testing this trip and will test empty prior to flying and then another empty test on day 1 on the island before trying it out with my camera. 

I bought a cold shoe mount for my GoPro and am hoping it won’t see the case in it’s line of sight, but figure then I can run both video and photos with my camera.

Thank you both for all the help! I’ll remember to keep the aperture in check as I wonder if that impacted my sharpness before when shooting underwater. 

I went snorkeling for the first time, a few times last year.  I borrowed someone's underwater camera (and used a disposable film camera the other times).  I am going again soon.  This time with my own underwater camera.

I just got a Sony a6100, and the salted line underwater housing.  I went through the setup video.

How are people attaching the housing to themselves, for snorkeling?  I bought a paracord, but am unsure how to best connect it to the housing, and my wrist.  Does someone have a specific recommendation, and a video on how to attach a strap to the housing?

2 minutes ago, nuraman00 said:

How are people attaching the housing to themselves, for snorkeling?  I bought a paracord, but am unsure how to best connect it to the housing, and my wrist.  Does someone have a specific recommendation, and a video on how to attach a strap to the housing?

Hi nuraman

There are a million and one one ways of doing this and everyone has their own preference.

The housing appears to have a loop on the right hand side on which you could attach, for example, a wrist lanyard - or, create a lanyard from paracord (easy - check out Snake Knot on YouTube). Paracord is cheap, super-flexible, very strong and comes in a multitude of colours. You can get it from Amazon.  It's fun to make exactly what you want!

1 hour ago, TimG said:

Hi nuraman

There are a million and one one ways of doing this and everyone has their own preference.

The housing appears to have a loop on the right hand side on which you could attach, for example, a wrist lanyard - or, create a lanyard from paracord (easy - check out Snake Knot on YouTube). Paracord is cheap, super-flexible, very strong and comes in a multitude of colours. You can get it from Amazon.  It's fun to make exactly what you want!

Thanks.

My paracord looks like this, it doesn't look separated into a strand, like on some videos.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085QL3PKC?smid=A2E32ZWYK8ZMCG&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp&th=1

For example, this video has it starting as a single strand:

Here's video for the Cobra knot (sorry, but you have to flog through a couple of ads) - which I've used a lot. (see the pic). I add small shackles and then carabiners - and, voila! a multi clippy thing.

You don't have to start with a single strand. You can use two strands (in different colours if the mood takes you).

1 hour ago, TimG said:

Here's video for the Cobra knot (sorry, but you have to flog through a couple of ads) - which I've used a lot. (see the pic). I add small shackles and then carabiners - and, voila! a multi clippy thing.

You don't have to start with a single strand. You can use two strands (in different colours if the mood takes you).

Thanks for the video.  I watched it.

My paracord already came braided, it looks like this:

It also came with a buckle on one end.

So what should I do from here?  Do I add a carabiner to the end with the camera housing, and connect that skinnier, non buckle end to the carabiner?

Also, is a carabiner preferred to the end with the camera housing, or a metal ring?

From the look for that seems to me you don't need to do anything. Just attach the single strand loop end on to the housing loop - and you're good to go.

You don't have to use a carabiner. Some folks just like them 

Thank you.

Whenever I wanted to use my camera snorkelling I have used a fin-saver as used by body boarders like this:

https://www.bodyboardshop.com.au/products/limited-edition-fin-savers

Just loop the cord through a shackle on your housing and wrap the velcro band around your wrist.  You can find them in surf shops.

41 minutes ago, ChrisRoss said:

Whenever I wanted to use my camera snorkelling I have used a fin-saver as used by body boarders like this

Super idea, Chris!

I ended up using a paracord and carabiner.  It worked out well and was secure.

I was happy with how the shots from my a6100 and Salted Line underwater case came out.  I used the provided 16mm-50mm lens.

A few questions for how to make the experience better:

1)  Moreso during the Key West snorkeling excursion, but also a little bit during the Key Biscayne National Park snorkeling, the glare from the sun made it hard to see the LCD.

This is when I had the camera inside the salted line underwater case.

I don't remember this being a problem when I borrowed someone's Canon G1X and their similar looking underwater case in Maui in 2021.  

But I also only used that camera one time in Maui, vs. 3 times with this Sony camera on the Miami and Key West trip in 2022.

Which of these options would have helped the most?

A)  Use the eye sensor, disable the monitor.

B)  Turn the monitor brightness to the max setting (range from -2 to +2).

C)  Set the monitor to "Sunny Weather".  (That may have the same effect as option B).

The glare from the monitor was not just a problem when underwater, but also when on the boat.  I couldn't see the monitor when the sun was on it.  So I had to just take shots and hope I was capturing good ones, which sometimes I did.

As I said above, this was a big problem in Key West.  Also a little bit in Miami, but I think the mangrove trees provided some shade and protection from sunlight.  In Key West, we were more exposed, in the middle of the water.

2)  The water in Miami seemed clearer.

Here's an example:

https://i.imgur.com/M29t17f.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tV9sVt8.jpg

In Key West, it was darker.  Examples:

https://i.imgur.com/866Ne6Y.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zc7uIPP.jpg

In both Miami and Key West, most of the underwater shots, which were in auto mode, where at ISO 100.

That may have been ok in Miami, but I think I could have done something in Key West.  Would I have been better off, going to manual mode, and setting the ISO to 400 or 800?  Maybe even 1600.

I was able to capture the manta ray (the last picture). But overall, I think I needed a different setting or mode, since auto mode seemed to favor ISO 100 too much.

1 hour ago, nuraman00 said:

1)  Moreso during the Key West snorkeling excursion, but also a little bit during the Key Biscayne National Park snorkeling, the glare from the sun made it hard to see the LCD.

You can try this: https://scubaboard.com/community/threads/seafrogs-salted-line-housing-with-fantasea-lcd-magnifier.575518/

1 hour ago, nuraman00 said:

I was able to capture the manta ray (the last picture)

That's, uh, not a manta Trust me, you'll know a manta ray when you see one, and that ain't it.

1 hour ago, nuraman00 said:

But overall, I think I needed a different setting or mode, since auto mode seemed to favor ISO 100 too much.

Nothing wrong with ISO 100 if you have enough light to shoot with. If there is not enough light and the camera emphasizes ISO at the cost of too slow shutter speed, resulting in blurred pictures, you can shoot in shutter priority mode, set the shutter speed to something fast enough (1/250, 1/500, whatever) and let the ISO and aperture float, or shoot manual mode with fixed shutter speed and aperture and let auto ISO fix the total exposure. Most people here shoot full manual though, with direct control over all three points of the exposure triangle.

9 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

You can try this: https://scubaboard.com/community/threads/seafrogs-salted-line-housing-with-fantasea-lcd-magnifier.575518/

That's, uh, not a manta Trust me, you'll know a manta ray when you see one, and that ain't it.

Nothing wrong with ISO 100 if you have enough light to shoot with. If there is not enough light and the camera emphasizes ISO at the cost of too slow shutter speed, resulting in blurred pictures, you can shoot in shutter priority mode, set the shutter speed to something fast enough (1/250, 1/500, whatever) and let the ISO and aperture float, or shoot manual mode with fixed shutter speed and aperture and let auto ISO fix the total exposure. Most people here shoot full manual though, with direct control over all three points of the exposure triangle.

What is the sea creature in the last picture then?  I thought some of the other people in the tour group, around me, say they saw manta rays.  So when I looked and saw that, I thought it was a manta ray too.

I might try manual next time, thanks.  This trip was the first time using the camera, and I bought it specifically for underwater photography.  I also tried auto mode at first, because my friend and I were taking turns taking pictures, so I wanted to keep the settings easy for him to use.  Your suggested settings for shutter priority were about what I was thinking of too, when I examined the shots later at home, and was thinking of what I could have done differently.

I am fine using manual mode myself, as I've done it with many cameras.  If I know I'm going to be sharing the camera with someone else, I might consider shutter priority.

Thanks for that LCD magnifier solution.  If Salted Line had their own official part/accessory, I think I would try that.  As a DIY add-on, I think I would screw it up and not attach it properly.

Do you think any of the settings I mentioned above would help, and if so, which one?