Anyone has contacts at Inon / Epoque ?

Does anyone know how to contact Inon, Epoque or Sea & Sea?

I would like to ask them if they could produce a wide-angle lens for my Sony Cybershot F707 in an Ikelite housing.

I tried an Epoque lens, it will fit onto the housing but I have to zoom to the 190mm end of my camera to get rid of vignetting. So that way the W/A is useless. I was wondering if they build custom lenses.

If anyone knows of a Wide angle lens that works on my camera & housing, please let me know!

Voets,

What is the thread size and diameter of the Ikelite housing for the Sony F707? The reason why I am asking you is because I think you might be able to use the Sea and Sea WAL type L, INON UWL-100 or Oly PWC-01 wide angle lens with an aid of a step up or step down ring.

See if you could get the correct lens port diameter and thread size of the housing from Ikelite.

It's not the thread size. That's standard on the housing. I tried an Epoque DCL-20 when I picked up my housing.

The problem is that at the wide end of my camera lens (38mm) one third of the picture is blacked out by the edges of the Wide Angle lens (vignetting effect).

To solve that, I have to zoom in. But by zooming I loose the wide angle effect

So it's not a matter of fitting the thread, but more of a lens that knows to correct for the rather long lens on the F707 without vignetting.

Voets,

I think you'll get the same results with the INON, Sea and Sea or Olympus WAL because they are all similar.

Good luck.

Try Amphibico. They make a WA lens for their 707 housing. Maybe you can figure out how to make it work on the Ikelite. Its not cheap though. Also I would love to see some of your pics or anyones using the Sony 707.

That might be an option, thanks!

I've uploaded a few images to Photo.Net

I saw on the Gates website that they offer a 0.5 port without any vignetting for their F707 housing.

Too bad their housing whas out of my financial reach.

Gates wasn't thinking when they priced their housing. People who spend $2,000 on a housing probably are using D1x, D100 and D60 cameras. They built a professional housing for a consumer camera. Doesn't make sense. By the way nice pics. What type of lighting are you using? The reef shot had nice color. Love to see more when you post them.

If the vignetting is that bad I really think the problem is one of two things. The distance from the back of the W/A lens to the front of the 707 lens. As the camera is fixed in the housing/port, there is too much distance between the two lenses. If this is the case I don't think you have any options without Ike modifying your housing to get the front element of the 707 closer to the port. Am I right Ike?

The second thing it might be, but not likely, is the fact that the 707's front element is much bigger than what the Inon, Sea&Sea, etc were made for. if you look at the Inon's rear element it is smaller than the 707' front element. I don't think this is the case as Gates claims to be able to use the Inon lenses with their Multi-Port system on the 707 housing.

I had ordered an Ikelite DS125, but that didn't get delivered on time. So many thanks to my dealer for renting out an Ikelite DS50!

The reef shot was pretty close to the surface, most of the light probably came from the sun, and on top of that I corrected the colors a little in photoshop to remove the blue a bit.

The wide angle lens problem is most likely caused by the 'big' lens on the F707 as rstark suggests. It gives me a nice f2.0-2.4 over 38-190mm but it doesn't match well with the existing wide angle lenses.

I'll be posting some new pics every week to photo.net. I don't want to flood my directory since nobody will rate or critique them if you mass upload.

They could, but only if you order 1,000 pieces...

Unfortunately, that is not a huge seller like the Oly 30x0/4040 series...

That's the problem. Although I see a lot of pictures on photo.net that are taken by a Sony F707 it is not a popular underwater cam.

Most postings here are about the coolpix 5000.

I got a reply from Fathom Imaging / JBV optical they can make a Wide angle lens for my setup, but haven't had a lot of requests for an Ikelite F707 combination.

So maybe if 999 other divers with this kind of camera / housing who also want a special build WA lens leave their email here

I would be interested in a WA lens for the 707. As I can not afford a separate camera for land and water I'll be housing the 707. Have they given you a price for the WA lens?

triggerfish,

I'm new to the forum but am looking to house the 707 as well.

we currently use an ike housing with a minolta 7000/15mm or 20mm lens and 10" dome port, this setup works by the 20mm 'WAL' focusing on the back of the dome port. Then would the 707 be able to do the same with its minimum focal length set to 17-19mm.on the backside of a port mounted infront of the housing? i'm certain that if the 707 could get that image off the back of the port then little or no vignetteing would be seen in the image. Then (I suppose the sony 'wal' doesnt fit inside the housing) what does the camera see and focus on?

No quotes yet on a price for a Wide Angle lens this is the reply I got:

Hello yes we can make them ??   but we have not had to meny calls for that

model but we can mcheck it out

 

John B Voyles CFO

after asking this:

I'm looking for an underwater wide angle lens/adapter (something like 0.5x) for my Sony Cybershot F707 in an Ikelite housing.

I tried a W/A lens from Epoque at my dealers office but that one won't work.

... removed the rest ....

Today I replied and asked how many orders for such a lens would make it interesting for Fathom to start producing them.

I'll keep you informed.

I have the Sony VCL-MH047A wide angle lens, but it surely won't fit inside the housing.

Just found an interesting link for F707 owners: All kinds of WA and tele converters

I would be interested in a wide angle lens for the Ikelite housing for the F707 too. I also would like better macro capability...

Some recent photos with the Ikelite/F707 normal rig (using a DS125) can be found at http://www.BonaireDiving.com/richter - look at the November 3rd and 4th entries for F707 specific stuff.

Has anyone using an F707 used the White Balance function with any success, BTW? Also, does anyone know the fastest shutter speed at which the DS125 will still slave sync with this system?

Jake

I found this website that may be able to help with a WA lens for Ikelite housing for 707. They make a lot of lens for Amphibico plus adapters. I always wondered why Amphibico lens were high priced. Now I know

http://www.jbvoptical.com/fathom/design.html