Lens for Nikon D7000- macro and large pelagics

Hi Folks,

I bought a Nikon D7000 since the extra cost and availability of the D800 was a challenge to me in terms of available housings and so forth. I am looking at buying a few lens for macro and wide angle photography. What recommendations would you have in terms of the first few lens I would need to get setup in shooting both macro and wide angle photography with the Nikon D7000? I checked housings as well and looking at Subal and Nauticam and Sea&Sea or Inon strobes. Here is what I am thinking of getting for the D7000:

Tokina 10-17mm
Nikon 60mm

Those two lenses are good ones to start with. For the 60mm, you might want to get the AF-D (older) instead of the AF-S version. When you are looking at the housings, you need to also remember that you will need to get the corresponding ports for the lenses, and potentially extension rings.

The Tokina 10-17 is a very popular lens for underwater photography. It is a "fisheye" lens. You get all sorts of curviture distortion with lenses like this but underwater with no straight lines, it is not really much of a problem. The Tokina will focus very closely so you can use it with a compact dome of about 4" which makes handling the apparatus far easier. If you are dealing with stationary large fish, you can get in nice and close and get photos. If you can not get in really close, you would want something with more reach. By the way, this lens is great for underwater landscape photos and does nicely for diver photos also.

For large pelagics, many people prefer rectilinear lenses like a 12-24. A rectilinear lens attempts to keep the straight lines straight. I have not used one of these underwater. I would think that with even a 24 mm lens, you would have to get in pretty close. Now if you are in a situation like a shark dive where they feed the sharks, even a lens with a short focal length should do fine.

The Nikon 60 mm micro is a great lens. You want one with "internal" focus. That means the lens stays the same length when it is focused. Some older 60 mm macro lenses change length when focused and that would bang them up against the port. It is good to check and be sure that the port/housing combination you are looking at is exactly the one you want for that lens. The 60 mm lens is good for true macro, small fish and even medium sized fish if you "stand off" a bit. For 1:1 reproduction, you have to get really close and on some subjects, that does not work very well. If you want to add diopters and try your hand at "supermacro" photography or magnifications of greater than 1:1, you will need to go with a 105 mm macro.

To add some variation to your macro work you can add a 1.4 TC to the 60mm lens and get the working distance you want without the cost of the 105mm. The "older" Nikon 60mm is required because of some incompatibilities of the newer 60mm and the TC. The 60mm alone is a great fish portrait lens.

Hi: I am retiring and have a perfect, in mint like-new condition, Nikon Nikkor 2.8 Macro lens, no problems. I can ship from California. Sell for $300 US plus $10 postage in US. Or I can sell thru' Ebay.
email: 68.elias@gmail.com