Best Fish Eye or WA Lens for RX100

[Anthony A.]

i too am looking to purchase a WA lens for the rx-100 with nauticam housing. the only other choice that is close to the fix is the uwl-04. both lens seem to have the same FOV at around 165. any input on the uwl-04 compared to the fix? is one sharper than another or vignette less? and do you have to zoom in at all with either of these lenses to get a decent picture without fisheye distortion?

 

[Interceptor121]

A fisheye lens produces barrel distortion by design, if you don't like that you buy a flat lens with 100-110 degrees fov
The UWL-04 is the old version of the UWL28 from fix, it is a good lens however with the Canon S95 did vignette in RAW so should vignette even more with the larger sensor RX100, however that is not a big deal the lens is very good if you can find it, it is now discontined

 

[Anthony A.]

This will be my first venture into domes and fisheye lenses, so pardon my noob questions but most of the shots I've seen taken with the fix and uwl lenses are super wide but no barrel distortion at all. How do they get those shots to look perfectly straight and yet still be very wide.

 

[Interceptor121]

They are not straight unless they have been corrected with software
Usually the picture corners end up in blue water or black so you don't notice too much
To have an idea look at this pictures where instead the diver is on the side and check how squashed he is
http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/interceptor121/8237106778/

 

[Nemrod]

This will be my first venture into domes and fisheye lenses, so pardon my noob questions but most of the shots I've seen taken with the fix and uwl lenses are super wide but no barrel distortion at all. How do they get those shots to look perfectly straight and yet still be very wide.

They are not straight. However, any line that passes through the center of the field will appear straight but as soon as it moves off center, it will appear curved, increasingly so to the edges.

N

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

I've done extensive wet lens testing in the pool with my Recsea & Nauticam Rx-100 housings, with many lenses including the UWL-04 (which is definitely not discontinued), the UWL28, the Bluewater WA-110, and the Inon lens. I liked the results from the UWL-04 and WA-110 the best, although all 4 lenses gave excellent results. - Scott

 

[Blondie09]

I've done extensive wet lens testing in the pool with my Recsea & Nauticam Rx-100 housings, with many lenses including the UWL-04 (which is definitely not discontinued), the UWL28, the Bluewater WA-110, and the Inon lens. I liked the results from the UWL-04 and WA-110 the best, although all 4 lenses gave excellent results. - Scott

Is that even over Inon UWL-100 type 2 double lenses?

 

[Interceptor121]

I think fix doesn't sell anymore the uwl-04 however it has reappeared here in Europe under the h2o-tools brand
Possibly is not made by any of the two brands but by a subcontractor
The uwl-04 from some shots I can see does better than the uwl28 if it is the same lens as fix used to sell

 

[coralgirl]

Has anyone tried the UWL-05. A dive shop here offer to sell this product. They said it is made the the same contractor that made UWL-04 for Fixeyes . It is made in China. The seller did not said the manufacturer name. The seller the 05 is the 04 with some improvements. It came with the M52 to M67 adaptor in the package. I tried it on the shope, a slight vignet at the corner at 28mm. Zoom abit and it is gone. It has 0.42x magnification. It is imposible to see how sharp it is as the plastic screen protector in front still on.

The nauticam europe is selling this item Wide Angle / Fisheye Lens UWL-05 (M52) | Adaptor | lens & Adaptors | H2O-Tools | Aqua-Fototeam GmbH for €419 before tax. The shop was offering it to me at $350.

I also found this UWL-05 sell as i-das http://i-divesite.com/product_len_uwl05.htm and ebay seller is selling the i-das UWL-05 for less than $200 I-Das Wide Angle Lens - Dome x0.42 for 28mm DC with M52 & M60 Monnt<< UWL-05>> | eBay

Such wide price diffrence, i am not sure if they are the same brand. Has anyone tried this UWL-05 and from which manufacturer?

 

[Interceptor121]

From the german site it says that it is designed for larger aperture lenses however I don't know anyone who has tested it
I do know the nauticam UK importer so I will ask him if he has tested it