Shinythings
Contributor
Would you still recommend the LX100 for someone who does a lot of macro, possibly supermacro with additional wet lens down the road? What do you mean but is has a lack of fisheye option?
High-end point and shoot options
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Would you still recommend the LX100 for someone who does a lot of macro, possibly supermacro with additional wet lens down the road? What do you mean but is has a lack of fisheye option?
No I would not recommend any camera that has a lens shorter than 90-100mm at full zoom. I would also stress that larger sensor will make it very difficult to focus.
If you are a macro fanatic you will get more satisfaction from a smaller sensor camera like a Canon S series or G series
A SMall Camera with a lot of features is the Canon D100. It is A DSLR and has many housings that will accept it from different manufacturers. I just got one and I am still very much on the learning curve for its use. I use the Ikelite DS161 Strobe with a Vega Lite for a spot when desired. It is not a large camera with housing (in my case a Ikelite) and tray easy to carry during the dive. Aluminum housings are better overall but costlier as well.
Shop around and check out the reviews. I suggest before you take the camera underwater be sure to learn it's abilities by playing with it on land. The time spent on learning the camera above water really pays off when you are under. Have Fun
Shop around and check out the reviews. I suggest before you take the camera underwater be sure to learn it's abilities by playing with it on land. The time spent on learning the camera above water really pays off when you are under. Have Fun
Sorry for the late reply. I checked my housing with the camera in it last Sunday's dive. The only button without a control is the front lower-right button (looking from the front). That's the button to remove the lens ring, which you would not want to touch during a dive anyway.
So I'd say every button or control you would want to possibly adjust on a dive has a control.
Shinythings
Contributor
If there anything wrong with compensating for that using wet lenses? And just a little confused - how would a larger sensor cause focusing problems?
The smaller sensor implies a shorter focal-length lens (to get the same field of view), and thus a greater depth of field and depth of focus for the same f-stop.
K
KeithG
Guest
By my experience - it does not work. YMMV. It all depends upon the specific camera. Likely lens and sensor dependent?
I have used a S&S DX-1G (Ricoh GX100) camera since new. It has a 24-72mm lens and is capable of focusing within 1cm of the lens at both 24 AND 70mm (wide & telephoto). I have come to learn that this telephoto close focus ability is very uncommon. The close focus ability allowed me to always use 70mm and get very close to non-skittish subjects.
But I wanted more magnification. So I purchased a subsea +5 and +10 wet lens set thinking I would get larger macro. No dice. Adding either of these lens did increase magnification, but it also meant that the focus distance went from 1cm to around either 5cm or 10cm. So I had to move back from my subject (which then gets smaller in the image). Moving the camera back to the new focus distance means the subject ends up being the same size as it was without the diopter. So diopters on my DX1G only bought increased distance for skittish subjects, not larger subjects.
I recently purchased a Canon G16 (28-140mm) but have not yet got it wet. Its telephoto focus distance sucks big time (compared to the ricoh) such that it appears to be able to get bigger macro at less than full telephoto. At 140mm the focus distance is around 40cm. That is a long distance away from a Pederson Cleaner Shrimp.
Until you add the wet lens. This appears to shorten the telephoto focus distance. I have not yet had it underwater, so I am unsure of the actual end results of the Subsea and G16 combo.
The focal length has a relationship with field of view. Ideally for macro you want the narrower possible field of view and the closest working distance. This gives you less background and more subject in the frame. The problem with the LX100 is that the max telephoto is only 75mm so the lens is pretty wide even fully zoomed a +12 diopter will give you 1:1 macro but there will be a lot of stuff behind your subject that gets captured too. Camears with lenses 24-75 make use of diopters less worth it. The canon G16 of the previous poster instead with the subsee +10 will give super macro 1.4:1 when fully zoomed. Moreover getting on top of a subject is a no go. Fish gets scared and getting your port on top of s subject is poor practice. Even a tiny critter likea Pygmy seahorse should be left with at least 2" ideally 4"+ space from the port. How would you feel if you had a big glass triple of your size suddenly on top of you?
If you don't want to spend a fortune I'd say go for a cheaper camera and spend some money on lighting and flash. If you only dive while travelling a smaller camera is to preffer either a camera like the Sony rx100, or maybe a mirror less.
You can use one or two flashes or only light's (but light's might scare some creatures of) but if you also want to take some films lights are a big benefit.
I started out with a Canon S95 with only lights, then went over to a NEX 5 in a Nauticam housing with two lights. Latelly I have added on one flash, having two lights mean I get some help on the side where the flash is not lighting up and it has worked pretty well, but I now added also a second flash, but have not yet used that setup.
You can see some examples @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomas_woren/sets/
Lipe 2012 is shot with one light and a canon S95 (some with Nex5 in a Meikon housing, but it did not work under 15m so had to use S95)
Bali 2013 Two lights Sony nex5
Thailand 2013 and later Sony nex5N two lights and one flash.
Weight might be an issue if you go for an Aluminium Housing, my setyp with Nauticam housing for Sony nex5N and a "4 dome port, diopter holders, two lights and a flash adds up to 9kg so a bit too much to bring on to most flights as carry on, but so far I luckily not meet no problems doing so :cool2:. A flat port with wet lenses is likelly a lighter option, where you with some risk to loose the wide angle shooting for a trip could put the wet lense in the check in luggage.
Once I get my new housing for Sony a5100 I'll have a housing and camera set for sale
(but you need to add on ports and zoomgear)
You can use one or two flashes or only light's (but light's might scare some creatures of) but if you also want to take some films lights are a big benefit.
I started out with a Canon S95 with only lights, then went over to a NEX 5 in a Nauticam housing with two lights. Latelly I have added on one flash, having two lights mean I get some help on the side where the flash is not lighting up and it has worked pretty well, but I now added also a second flash, but have not yet used that setup.
You can see some examples @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomas_woren/sets/
Lipe 2012 is shot with one light and a canon S95 (some with Nex5 in a Meikon housing, but it did not work under 15m so had to use S95)
Bali 2013 Two lights Sony nex5
Thailand 2013 and later Sony nex5N two lights and one flash.
Weight might be an issue if you go for an Aluminium Housing, my setyp with Nauticam housing for Sony nex5N and a "4 dome port, diopter holders, two lights and a flash adds up to 9kg so a bit too much to bring on to most flights as carry on, but so far I luckily not meet no problems doing so :cool2:. A flat port with wet lenses is likelly a lighter option, where you with some risk to loose the wide angle shooting for a trip could put the wet lense in the check in luggage.
Once I get my new housing for Sony a5100 I'll have a housing and camera set for sale
(but you need to add on ports and zoomgear)Similar threads
