4" dome vs 8" dome for D800E with Tokina 10 -17

I'm heading back to Raja Ampat in January - Third trip - I'm getting older and I hate carrying a lot of heavy bulky camera gear halfway around the world (now that's a shocker). I'm bringing my D800E and Aquatica housing with my Tokina 10-17 - Nikon 60 and Nikon 105 lenses. In the past I always traveled with my 8" dome and macro port. If I leave the 8" dome at home and bring a 4" dome instead how much do people think I am really losing. Obviously if I leave the big dome home I have more room in my Think Tank case. Or - I can just bring my GoPro10 Black and do a lot of screen captures - or a housing for my iPhone 14. Hmmm.

Thanks for your opinions

Andy

I shoot a Zen minidome (4.33") with my Tokina 10-17 via adapter on a Sony A6100. 

It works great, and it's a very compact package. 

Depends on your standards, fisheye lenses are a lot less impacted by dome size compared to rectilinear lenses, but the corners will not be quite as good with a 4"dome.  Many people though go to the 4"dome regardless to do CFWA, trading off the corners for the ability to get closer.  As long as it is properly positioned I think many people will find the 4"dome acceptable. 

It is subjective of course - if you are the type who dives straight to the corners of the image to check the sharpness at 100% you may be disappointed.  If you bring the image up and look at it full screen judging the overall image you may well be satisfied.

Interesting that you shoot the Tokina 10-17 on a D800E, DrF.

I was a devotee of the Tokina with a D300. When I moved to a D800 I switched to the Sigma 15mm as I really didn't like the Tokina on an FF and didn't want to flip the D800 to a DX format. 

I'm now on a D500 and back to the good ol' Tokina and a 4"dome. Great for travelling, easy to manoeuvre in the water especially, of course, for CFWA - and nice and sharp.

The only reason I wouldn't use the Tokina is for bigger critters that may not come so close. I then use the Nikkor DX 10-24 and an 8" dome.

As Chris says, it depends how picky you are on fisheyes. Given the impact of photographing through water, I reckon you can't go far wrong with an FE on an FF or DX sensor for most wide-angle imagery. The ability to get so close to a subject, allowing you to light it better but still providing the background to give context, is fantastic. I find it very rare (FF or DX) that a fisheye's image quality detracts - the problem is more likely to be cr*p composition decisions. As I say, for me, subject proximity (or lack of) is the only reason not to use a fisheye.

Enjoy Raja! I'm jealous......

1 hour ago, TimG said:

Interesting that you shoot the Tokina 10-17 on a D800E, DrF.

I was a devotee of the Tokina with a D300. When I moved to a D800 I switched to the Sigma 15mm as I really didn't like the Tokina on an FF and didn't want to flip the D800 to a DX format. 

 

 

Missed that - the Tokina is strictly speaking an APS-C lens but it will mount and work on FF cameras the corners are probably not fantastic anyway so going to a 4"dome you probably won't notice much change.  I would suggest though that you give it a try before you go on a trip - I would hate to go all that way and find you don't like the 4"dome, you could probably just walk into a water body and shoot the sand or the edge of a pool and shoot the bottom. to see what it does to the corners.

Thanks for the thoughts - I can always take my D500 - fast focusing DX camera - and it works well with all my lenses. I will think about it between now and January.

Andy

I used my Tokina 10-17 on a Canon APS-C with a Zen 4” dome for well over a decade.  Loved the small size with nice image quality.  I’ve switched to FF and now use an 8-15 and a Nauticam 4” dome.  As I typically am at f/11 or f/13 I find very the corners to be perfectly acceptable, even when printed.  I also found the lens quality of the Nikon or Canon 8-15 to be much better on a FF than the Tokina.  If it’s in your budget, that might be the best of both worlds - small size and great images quality.  

8 hours ago, chipdiver said:

I also found the lens quality of the Nikon or Canon 8-15 to be much better on a FF than the Tokina.

Agreed!