Info Nikon Z lense advice

[JohnK1980]

Hi everyone,

First post so go easy on me!
I am currently rigging a Nikon Z6ii camera with a Sea Frogs Housing and a single strobe/flash light and looking for lens recommendations. I know that two stobes is better, but this will get me going to start with.

With a budget of no more that $1700AUD for the lens, looking at three options:

* 14-30mm F4;
* 17-28mm f2.8;
* 20mm f1.8.

Would like to also use the lens as an every day lens mainly for landscapes and astro-photography although I currently have a 14mm Samyang manual focus which I will keep as my go to astro lens mainly for timelapse.

Kinda leaning towards the 20mm f1.8 at the moment to avoid having a zoom ring in the housing and it adds some additional focal length as an astro lens but not sure that this lens will be wide enough for most underwater photography? So then the 14-30 or 17 to 28 might be better?

Thoughts?

Appreciate it.

John K.

 

[tbone1004]

Disclaimer, I don't really like to shoot underwater and when I do it's on friends rigs usually for projects so my personal preferences don't matter since it's their gig not mine, and while I do use a Z6ii above water, I have a thing for shooting animals and sports so my lens expertise is in long range/fast moving neither of which are applicable to this.

When you are underwater you are typically stopping way down to get a pretty deep depth of field so you don't gain anything by the 2.8 of the 17-28 but you lose the ultrawide with the 14mm so I think that safely eliminates the 17-28, at least for me.

Now we have the 20mm vs 14-30 which I think is much more difficult. I think you really need to check out the exif data on some photos that you really like and what else you'll be doing for every day. You aren't gaining anything with the aperture for underwater and probably not for landscapes either. It is an inch longer than the zoom which is probably pretty inconsequential for the housing. Has 9 blades vs 7 so bokeh is probably better but again not super critical for underwater.
Also sometimes the ultra fast primes do not deal terribly well being stopped all the way down for some reason that I have never bothered to research so make sure it behaves at f/11 and smaller for underwater. I suspect the zoom being an f4 will probably be better off that far down but you would have to look at the sharpness tests to see what they do when stopped that far down.

I think it ultimately comes down to what you would benefit from at the surface more than underwater but even underwater you need to sort out what you really want to shoot to make sure that the 20mm is wide enough.

 

[AZTinman]

As a DSLR user rather than a mirrorless, I'm not an expert on Nikon Z lenses. I do believe there's an advantage to having a wide range of focal length available for use underwater. The 14-30mm has the largest zoom range of the lenses you've listed.

Obviously, opinions will vary. I very seldom open any of my lenses wider than f/8 underwater. For me there is little advantage in using an f/2.8 or f/1.8 underwater. Lenses often have a 'sweet spot' in terms of what apertures yield the best results. I've not seen many lenses perform at their best at f/1.8 or f/2.8 despite the fact that I own lenses with f/1.8 and f/2.8 capability.

Again, opinions will vary, but underwater photography and astrophotography in my opinion are different sorts of 'beasts'. I was beginning to learn astrophotography prior to the pandemic shutdowns. My wife bought me a bunch of astrophotography equipment before my mentors paused the work they were doing with me due to the pandemic. The image here is a simple capture of the Milky Way over Baja with a stationary tripod mounted Nikon D850 and a Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 lens. It was exposed at 17mm for 25 seconds at f/2.8 with an ISO of 3200. Could I have captured the image at f/4? I probably could have by bumping the ISO up a little bit. I could've probably used the D850's image stacking capability as well.

-AZTinman

 

[PatW]

There are all sorts of options.

For all around walk around use, the Z 24-120 f4 has gotten very good reviews. It gives up a little in edge sharpness to the top of the line F2.8 lenses but that is only an issue if you pixel peep and print over sized format images.

In my diving, a lens that has close up abilities and a mid range size is handy. I have shot the micro f2.8 60 mm lens. And it handles subject from angel fish and smaller. With a wet lens for some magnification, I can take small subjects but you have to get pretty close even then. So to mimic that the Z macro F2.8 50 mm could be nice.

Before the mirrorless systems, my zoom was the 24-85 variable F lens, And it did really nice service. It did decent wide angle. And it was very good for large subjects. For an even wider lens, I used the 16-35 F4,

Now right now Nauticam does not support the Z 24-120 F4 so I would go with the Z 24-70 F4 which is supported. For wider options the Z 14-30 looks really nice. The 14 mm lets you get in close to get nice shots of schools of fish on coral heads.

For real macro, you want the Z 2.8 105 macro.

 

[Gene]

I've been a Nikon guy going back to the 70s with my father's cameras, and I've been shooting professionally since the 80s.
I've been shooting digitally underwater since 2004, and the one lens I've been using is an older 20mm 2.8 lens, and very often at f/2.8 in caves underwater. I've never shot with a zoom lens underwater, although I always carry and use two while shooting out of the water.
I've used the D800 for years and still do underwater. I've been using the Z7 since it came out, mostly on set of various film and television productions. Since I carry and use both bodies above water, I don't use any Z series lenses, just Nikkor with the adapter.
Don't know if this helps any, but at least it's what I've been doing.
Gene Page
www.pagephotography.smugmug.com
@genepagephotography

 

[Hoag]

Two of the three lenses that you mention are zoom lenses. Are they supported by Sea Frogs with Zoom Gears? If not, then for all practical purposes, they will become primes the second you close and seal the housing. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that you need to be aware of since it will likely factor into your decision making. The other question is does Sea Frog make domes to support each of those lenses. If they do, then great, but if they don't, then you can eliminate any (all) of then lenses that Sea Frogs does not make a port for.

 

[PatW]

I shoot under water. my experience is mainly with F lenses and DSLRs (Nikon). I have gone to mirrorless but have not used Z lenses much.

An easy lens to use is the f micro 60 mm 2.8. It is good for fairly large fish and small stuff. I used a sub see diopter to work close up.

My zoom lens was a 24-85 variable f lens. It gave good results and worked for most situations quite well. Really good for medium fish and up.

I did use a 16-28 f4 lens (I think that was the range. Big and pretty expensive. It was good for getting shots of big schools of fish at large coral heads.

The micro 105 2.8 lens is good for medium to small fish and small subjects. It has enough reach for those smaller shy subjects.

It depends on what you shoot.

On the Z lineup, I am thinking I will mainly use the macro 105 2.8 or the macro 50 2.8. For a medium zoom, the 24-70 f4 and for wide zoom 14-30 f4.


As I said the 105 for small stuff. The 50 for close ups and medium fish. The 24-70 as a medium zoom - good for turtles, angel fish, groupers, smaller landscapes and divers. Butterfly fish are a bit too small for it. The 14-30 is good for things like wrecks and be great for big schools of fish,

As noted above, underwater, one is usually shooting stopped down some so f2.8 and f4 are sort of irrelevant. I would never use either lens wide open. Given that this is always travel, the weight and $$$ savings for the f4 glass is a GOOD THING.

On a dive trip, I would probably shoot the 105 or 50 about 60% of the time and the 24-70 most of the rest of the time. And the 14-30 about once a trip. Now for people who are shooting landscape type shots well the distribution of lens use would be quite different.

On land, a photographer shooting small birds might want a 600 f4 with a 2X teleconverter and a landscape photographer would like the 24-120 f4 zoom (for the versatility).

 

[4togrfr]

I have been shooting a D90 under water a few years. 50/50 between a micro 60 and 12-24 f4 DX. I just acquired a housing for my Z6 and decided on the 14-30 to replace the 12-24 which won’t AF on the Z6. I haven’t taken it underwater yet, but I am very happy with the shots I’ve used it on so far and expect the same underwater. Even if you can’t control the zoom in your housing, you still get that benefit on land.

 

[ridgebackpilot]

Check out Dr. Alex Mustard's recommendations for the best lenses to use on the Nikon Z8 underwater: