Stupid question - Fantasea Bayonet with.... W-30?

[Yoda117]

I've got this Ikelite W-30 WA sitting here with not much to do, and one of the reasons is that I don't like having to switch around a lot between lenses when diving. I'm getting reading to move to the Fantasea Bayonet system for my macro lenses and was curious whether anyone has tried a W-30 (or similar) lens with it.

Normally I wouldn't think much about it, but how Fantasea writes it up, it sounds like their system is rather particular about which WA lenses it'll work with.

Thanks!

 

[David Haas]

The Ikelite W-30 is really an Epoque DCL-30 lens. The rear 67mm mount is not compatible with Fantasea branded lenses to mount their QRS (Quick Release System) rear bayonet mount.

The Fantasea lenses and QRS set up are manufactured by AOI in China and work very well.

That said I've used them (I'm a Fantasea dealer) and depending on what housing with 67mm threads you have the Ikelite W-30 / Epoque DCL-30 is pretty good

Depending on your individual housing and camera lens you may have to bump the zoom a bit to eliminate mild vignetting (dark corners.) The Ikelite W-30 / Epoque DCL-30 lens was designed for 28mm widest focal length compact cameras. My Canon G7X II has a 24mm widest focal length so I either bump my zoom a tad or simply crop the corners out in post processing.

I thread it on for entry and many times don't need to unthread and "burp" the lens. My Fantasea FG7X II housing (for Canon G7X II) front port has slots the bubbles escape with a little "swish" around those slots. You need to rid air bubbles between the housing front element and rear lens element having only a thin layer of water for sharp pictures.

David Haas

 

[Yoda117]

Thanks Dave! I figured as much, but without as much info on the design available, I couldn't tell.

I'm prepping for a trip and I know that my usual camera (Nikon D850) is going to be used by my wife while I'm in the water. Since she's by far the better photographer, I'm okay with that.

So I'm dusting off my backup, which is an old RX100 ii (which always took great pics for me) in an Ikelite 6116.11. Widest FL on that one is 28mm,

Yep, going to have to burp that lens if it's on the housing when I go in with the Ikelite. It's a regular thing for me with my AOI UCL-05 (I didn't like larger macros on that camera, and the +6 works wonderfully).

But if there was a way to change them a bit faster... boy wouldn't that be nice. I know on this trip, I'm going to need to change between lenses more than a few times while I'm under, especially at a few of the dive sites which are known for both their architecture, and their nudibranchs. Just didn't feel like having to worry about threading them on and off if at all possible.