Nikon Z9/Z8 vs Nikon DSLR for underwater photography

[Nicool]

And here is mine, also published by DivePhotoGuide:

Nikon Z8 Underwater Review - The Underwater Club

To find out how the Z8 fared underwater, I spent 35 hours over a five-week period diving the camera in a Nauticam NA-Z8 housing in the temperate waters of Sydney, Australia—sometimes challenging waters of varying visibility, from 4 to 20 meters (13 to 65 feet).

theunderwaterclub.com

It took a little while to come out, as I really wanted to spend enough time in the water, to try the camera in variable conditions, including low visibility, low light. Overall a strong performer!

 

[AaSF]

Yes, I saw your report in DPG which was stellar! I assumed that your review was better known to Scubaboard members. I found Alex's after I found yours so I wanted to share the link with others....I hope I didn't offend.

Based on the two reviews -- both of which were enormously helpful -- I have opted to go ahead with the Z8 and the Nauticam housing. I plan to use the 24-50mm lens and the WWL-C as you suggested! I am excited to get the rig into the water.

I did have some questions about fisheye with the Z8: I have a Tokina 10-17mm that I used with my D850 as a prime lens (15-17mm) shooting in FX mode with a 230 glass dome port. I sold the large dome port, but still have a 140mm Nauticam fisheye optical glass port. I assume I can use my FTZ adapter with this lens, but wonder how it will perform with the Z8 and the smaller dome port? In addition, I saw that Nauticam has a zoom gear for the Tokina and wondered if I could switch the Z8 into DX mode and then use the lens as a zoom with the smaller dome port. I'd really appreciate your thoughts in this regard.

Best

Aaron

 

[Nicool]

Hi Aaron,
No offense taken, Alex's review has valuable insights and our field-observations nicely complements each others as he's tried the Z8 in tropical waters, while I focused on temperate waters.

Unfortunately your Tokina won't be usable on the Z8 (or any Z camera at the moment) because it's one of those older lenses which doesn't have an internal focus motor, and it relies on the camera's own motor.
The issue is that the current FTZ II adaptor does't support passing through these focusing instructions, so Z cameras can only use lenses which have their built-in motor - which is the vast majority of useful lenses underwater, except the Tokina.

I'd recommend you get the Nikon 8-15mm fisheye, it's a brilliant, modern, sharp lens, which will get you the 180 degrees field of view which you used to get on the Tokina, only with much better image quality.
Or, wait a bit for Nauticam's FCP, which will turn the Z 24-50mm onto something that compares with the Tokina 10-17mm (zoom through fisheye) but with much improved image quality.

But the 8-15mm works very well behind the 140mm dome port which you already have (with an extension), so that sounds like a good starting point.

 

[AaSF]

Thanks SO much for this helpful information. The financial hurdle of jumping into the Z8/Nauticam Housing/New Viewfinder is rather intimidating. I may have to wait a bit before I jump for a new lens. If only underwater photo gear grew on trees!!

 

[AaSF]

Nicolas....Well I bit the bullet and now have a Nauticam NA-Z8 for my new z8, along with the 24-50mm lens and the WWL-C. It's really slick and I can't wait to get the rig into the water.

I had one quick question for you. I noticed that when I put the Nauticam's camera tray on the Z8 as I had with my 850 --i.e. with the little rubber cube on the back of the tray between the lower edge of the monitor and the camera back -- the monitor overrides the viewfinder. I wrote Nikon and they said this is proper behavior with the monitor lifted. To use the camera tray in this fashion, it seems as if I have to either change the display mode to "viewfinder only" or remove the little rubber piece from the camera tray. I was wondering if you encountered this behavior and if so how you opted to deal with it.

Thanks

Aaron

 

[Nicool]

Hi Aaron,
Happy diving with the Z8! You're going to love it.
I am not too sure on which rubber piece you're talking about (post a photo?) but I certainly have changed my viewfinder settings for underwater use, shifting between "EVF only" and "LCD screen only" modes, as I noticed the eye detection wouldn't work well with the camera inside a housing.

 

[AaSF]

I think the pictures from the NA-850 better illustrate the "rubber piece" I am referring to. I've circled it (as best I could) on the first image. It is better illustrated on the second image where you can see it just under the edge of the monitor. Apparently this piece is removable on the Z8 tray which would allow the tray to sit properly with the monitor completely flat, allowing one to have access to the various display settings so that you could use either the viewfinder OR the monitor.

 

[Nicool]

Right I see what you mean now. I don't have the Z8 body anymore, but from memory I had the LCD screen tilted up. I had no issue toggling between EVF and LCD screen, which I think I did via the display lever, after having set "EVF only" and "LCD only" to be the only allowable modes (no auto-display switch).

 

[AaSF]

Interesting. I had removed Viewfinder only or Monitor only as options and left the others in. I'll give this a try, especially given your comment that the viewfinder was not terribly efficient as sensing an eye (now encased with a mask) underwater!!!! Thanks so much for your comments