Wide Angle or just Macro Photography?

[brownmola]

Hello, first of all, thank you to everyone on this board. I just booked my tickets to dive in Indonesia (been wanting to for 4 years now), without all of your posts, advice, and reports, I probably would have never thought about going. Very excited.

I am going to Bankga and Lembeh. I have a DSLR setup with everything I need for Macro photography. Based on where I am going, will I want to take wide angle photographs or just macro? I know Lembeh is primarily a macro shoot, how about Bankga? The reason I am asking is because I will need to spend a lot of money on getting some equipment for wide angle if I want to take those kind of pictures.

Thanks!

 

[ScubaduoAdventures]

You will have some opportunity for wide angle but you can probably get at least some of that shooting with a 60mm just not great.
Another cheaper option would be to buy a low cost point and shoot to clip to your BC in case something big comes up.

 

[Luko]

hi,
Bangka is mostly macro too although ther are several sites like Sahaung with good viz and excellent coral life where you can have a ball with a wide angle, Batu Mandi is not too bad either with lace like corals... I am sure you can have both decent macro and wide angle shots around the pillars of Paradise pier, for instance, this place is a dilemna.

but all in all, i would state that Bangka is more of a macro destination. You can check my Bangka/lembeh gallery here. Only dslr macro shots though hence if you're on budget, stick to macro and even super macro with a teleconverter.. on the coral Sahaung site you can still focus on pygmy seahorses.

 

[JudyG]

We just returned from our first trip to Lembeh, and it is indeed a macro paradise. There was one site that I would have liked to have been able to take some wider shots, but the rest was (glorious) muck. I have not been to Bangka, but a quick search reveals it too is mostly macro. I think you will want some sort of fish portrait lens - I only had a 105mm or a 10-17 on our trip to choose from - in the mucky viz, something like a 69mm would have been great for larger subjects like mimic octopus.

Fwiw, Lembeh Dive Resort management told me that they are planning on offering "reef diving" in the near future - I believe on the outside coast of Lembeh Island. The channel is where the diving is now, and there is not much coral there, and viz was sploogey.

I hope this helps,

J.