Panasonic LX-5 in Ikelite housing- Wide angle/ fisheye options?
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I think I remember some discussion about this in the Ikelite group. Someone requested a port for using a dry mount wide angle lens, the panasonic DMW-LWA52. Ikelite determined that with a flat port, the net increased field of view was less than with a wider (.56x) wet mount lens on their 67mm port, so they decided it was not worth producing. As you know the Panasonic lens is .75x, and a flat port wipes out the gain. Things would be different with a dome port, but those are apparently quite a bit more expensive to make and low volume, so not worth developing.
If you search for this discussion, you will find it here on the board or go to:
Ikelite is recommending its own W-20 67mm wet mount lens, or the Epoque. I know of no reason why the Inon wide lens would not work too, but they don't mention it as an option.
Slowhands, I read the thread in the Ikelite forum. My experience with the Ikelite W-20 was the same: I had to zoom in till 35mm to avoid vignetting. the result is just a bit wider than the original 24mm. I'm afraid it doesn't worth it.
As I understand, the widest coverage will be from the Inon UWL-100+ dome, but the combo it's bulky and pricy.. Could someone estimate the field of view of this combination? more than 120 degrees would be fine for me.
Jack, I tried the fantasea bigeye and the results were bad. Do the Nauticam Wet Mount Wide Angle lens will be superior? If so it could be my best option.
Jack, I tried the fantasea bigeye and the results were bad. Do the Nauticam Wet Mount Wide Angle lens will be superior? If so it could be my best option.
Again, thank you both,
Dany Weinberg
Yes, it fits right on the port without the huge mount the BE has. It's a quality glass lens as opposed to the "air" plastic lens of the BE.
... My experience with the Ikelite W-20 was ... I had to zoom in till 35mm to avoid vignetting. the result is just a bit wider than the original 24mm. I'm afraid it doesn't worth it.
As I understand, the widest coverage will be from the Inon UWL-100+ dome, but the combo it's bulky and pricy.. Could someone estimate the field of view of this combination? more than 120 degrees would be fine for me.
Jack, I tried the fantasea bigeye and the results were bad. Do the Nauticam Wet Mount Wide Angle lens will be superior? If so it could be my best option.
Dany Weinberg
Jack recommended the relatively small Nauticam Wet Mount WA Lens. I like the looks of it. I'm not a great fan of spending a ton of money on the Inon wide angle plus dome setups, mainly because you depart so far from the compact camera ethos. I prefer something that is more compact that does a modest wide angle enhancement, and does not cost more than the price of the camera and housing. :-)
The challenge now is that camera lenses have gotten wider. Just a few years ago, 35mm was typical for Point and Shoots, and many of the wet lenses were designed to match that. When 28mm became more common; the older lenses were found to vignette and new versions were released, like the INON 28 series. The LX5 has a 24 mm lens, and the difference is quite dramatic. But -- the LX5 will vignette with almost all the older 28mm wet lenses. So we're a victim of progress, in a good way. The trick is to test any wide lens, because what worked before might not now.
For instance, look at the visual review of wide wet lenses for the Olympus xz-1 (with 28mm lens) done by Reef Photo here in June: XZ-1, PT-050, and Wide Angle Lenses
That gave you a pretty good idea of how the various available lenses worked with the 28mm XZ-1. Enter the LX5, wider at 24mm. Many of the lenses shown in Reef's review will begin to vignette with the 24mm. A few lens makers rose to the challenge.
I have not found a round-up review of WA wet lenses for the LX-5, but piecing together what people say, it appears that there are a few options that are good optically, don't vignette, are compact and inexpensive. (I'm ignoring the ultra wide domes, because they just don't make sense to me, but that's personal, they may for others. I do note that they were designed for 28mm and will probably vignette on the 24mm lens of the LX5.)
One candidate that Jack mentioned is the Nauticam wet WA lens, maybe a .7x magnification, small, good optical performance, reasonable price ($240).
Another candidate is the new Dyron DY.UAL67 II. It seems to be a .5x magnification lens that has good optical performance, does not vignette with the LX5 and has a higher price ($400) and larger size.
Jack recommended the relatively small Nauticam Wet Mount WA Lens. I like the looks of it. I'm not a great fan of spending a ton of money on the Inon wide angle plus dome setups, mainly because you depart so far from the compact camera ethos. I prefer something that is more compact that does a modest wide angle enhancement, and does not cost more than the price of the camera and housing. :-)
The challenge now is that camera lenses have gotten wider. Just a few years ago, 35mm was typical for Point and Shoots, and many of the wet lenses were designed to match that. When 28mm became more common; the older lenses were found to vignette and new versions were released, like the INON 28 series. The LX5 has a 24 mm lens, and the difference is quite dramatic. But -- the LX5 will vignette with almost all the older 28mm wet lenses. So we're a victim of progress, in a good way. The trick is to test any wide lens, because what worked before might not now.
For instance, look at the visual review of wide wet lenses for the Olympus xz-1 (with 28mm lens) done by Reef Photo here in June: XZ-1, PT-050, and Wide Angle Lenses
That gave you a pretty good idea of how the various available lenses worked with the 28mm XZ-1. Enter the LX5, wider at 24mm. Many of the lenses shown in Reef's review will begin to vignette with the 24mm. A few lens makers rose to the challenge.
I have not found a round-up review of WA wet lenses for the LX-5, but piecing together what people say, it appears that there are a few options that are good optically, don't vignette, are compact and inexpensive. (I'm ignoring the ultra wide domes, because they just don't make sense to me, but that's personal, they may for others. I do note that they were designed for 28mm and will probably vignette on the 24mm lens of the LX5.)
One candidate that Jack mentioned is the Nauticam wet WA lens, maybe a .7x magnification, small, good optical performance, reasonable price ($240).
Another candidate is the new Dyron DY.UAL67 II. It seems to be a .5x magnification lens that has good optical performance, does not vignette with the LX5 and has a higher price ($400) and larger size.
I won't pretend this is a complete list. I just mention the two lenses I know of that work will with the LX5.
Slowhands, I really appreciate your detailed answer.
After 9 years of underwater photography with DSLR's I decided to buy Panasonic for a different kind of experience and to challenge myself: My goal is to be able to shot compactly both super macro and Super wide at the same dive. Super macro is no problem with 1-2 diopters stacked. As I can see, the other side of the scale is much more problematic. As you mentioned, the advantage of the 24mm lens on the wide side became a disadvantage. after checking all my candidates (according to Dyron support- both dyron wide lenses won't work well on the panasonic/Ikelite), and relying yours and Jack's recommendation, I decided to order the modest option- the Nauticam wet lens, and keep using my Seacam, D300 & Tokina 10-17 for the really wide stuff .
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Originally Posted by Dany W
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