Lens for cage diving?

I am going to be doing some shark cage diving and wondering what lenses anyone has had success with. I am thinking a 12-24 nikon. D2X camera body. Any suggestions?

That's an excellent choice. You didn't say if you'd be in clear or turbid water.

Another lens to consider is the 17-55DX ($$$) Do a search here for more info.

Cheers

James Wiseman

James

Thanks for the suggestion. Just looked at the 17-55 on BH Photo....looks pretty sweet. Would you happen to know if Subal has a zoom adapter for this lens and would I have to buy a special port to accomodate it? I have a standard dome and a 60mm macro port.

Subal has a zoom gear for the 17-55. They also have a dedicated ext. ring to to use with the lens and their 9" dome port.

Thanks for the info. That is excellent news. My bank account, however, is going to suffer.

Eric Hanauer's excellent Sport Diver cover shot was taken with the 12-24mm. And from the results that lens seemed to work perfectly in the cage.

You can see the shot on his website:

http://www.ehanauer.com/

Has the 16mm fisheye been retired from crop-sensor Nikon folks' camera bags? I love the 15/16mm full-frame fisheye look on a cropped sensor.

16mm fisheye sounds good to me.

Good suggestion Eric. I agree with you and Sarah on that one. I used that lens for all my recent whale shark and manta shots in the Maldives. It is also small so there is always room for it in the camera bag!

Alex

I will be bringing the 16mm for sure as I never leave home without it but I definitely want another lens with a little more range. I like the 12-24 but I am thinking the 17-55 may be more practical overall.

I used the 16mm fisheye until the 12-24 came out. With a 1.5 crop factor, it was approximately equivalent to the Nikonos 15 (which is a 20 underwater). It would be a good choice for cage shooting, but the 12-24 is better owing to its ability to zoom in and fill the frame when sharks don't come quite close enough.

On another note, the 10.5mm fisheye is great for impossible situations, like shooting a 20 foot whale shark in 15 foot vis. See my website: www.ehanauer.com

Thanks for everyones input...I ended up buying a 12-24 through BH Photo. So I will have a 12-24 and a 16 for the trip...

Good decision IMHO Just make sure you have the correct dome and extension.....from my experience, try to shoot at f8 to f11 for best results

Karl