Some more thoughts on wet lenses

So in my previous article here I shared some thoughts on starting out and buying right for underwater photography.

I remember how daunting this was for me. Information is available by the truckloads but how do you know what is the right thing for you? Have a look here to see only Inon's assortment of wet lens attachments. Now throw in 5 or 6 more brands offering a similar variety and it could become very daunting if not downright intimidating.

Personally, I always go the direct opposite way of mainstream opinion. That does complicate matters somewhat but, like me, you too march to the sound of a different drum, right?

What you see here is Inon's Dome Lens Unit II for UWL-H100. It is actually a combination of two components. The glass dome is attached to Inon's UWL-H100 28M67 Wide Conversion Lens Type2.

The Wide Conversion Lens can be used as a stand-alone moderate wide attachment wet lens. The dome alone is not usable without the wide conversion lens but it adds oodles of wideness which you will need underwater.

As you can see from the above picture, the housing is completely usable without any wet lens attachment but this limits your abilities to the camera's lens and the very different way water refracts light.

In normal English this simply means you will lose wideness without the dome lens. Lots of it.

That bit of space between the housing's front window port and the attachment lens is where the water leaks out. That is a bit of a pain but it is quite essential to make everything work and last. The laws of nature dictate that water can't be compressed and so something must give. Tick one in favour of D-SLR housings then.

So how wide is it really? Silly fish-eye wide on dry land is a good short answer.

Yes, my car needs a wash but we are currently experiencing a severe water shortage. The front of the dome was no more than 25-30cm from the car's light. It is THAT wide on dry land.

Do remember that you lose a fair bit of this wideness the moment you enter the water. This is the why the camera's 28mm equivalent is simply not wide enough. In 35mm format 28mm is far from wide enough on dry land. Losing some of that the moment you enter the water is simply not good enough.

This is why you need a wide angle dome.

So do you need that wide?

My opinion is ABSOLUTELY YES!

In my style of underwater photography I mostly find myself at one of two extremes. Super wide and super macro.

Often I have found that which I consider super wide is not that super wide after all and often simply adequate. Best way to know is to go play. Shoot lots of footage, shoot loads of stills, come back home and see what works.

The mere thought that I can swop between super wide and macro underwater is a great benefit to me. Yes, I need to concentrate on entering the screw thread properly while riding the surge. Stopping face-first against a piece of reef while riding the surge is less pleasurable.

It would be good to include a lens carrier on one of your light arms.

The round object on the short arm section above the housing is a lens carrier with, you guessed it, M67 screw thread. It does a splendid job of holding either the macro lens or the wide angle dome while one of the two is in use on the housing.

So there you have it. Excellent bang-for-buck and versatility all rolled into one!

Happy shooting, make time to play and have lots of fun doing it!

Anton