Fisheye FIX for the S90

[girellator]

I don't understand? You are saying that the Ikelite WAL lens is wider than the Fisheye UWL-04?

The UWL-04 comes in a 52mm mount and supposedly comes with a step up ring to 67mm.

Nice looking shot, looks clean and sharp.

N

I've tried both of them and I can said that the UWL-04 is undoubtefully wider than the Ikelite WAL when used with the Canon S90
But you need to have the 52 mm adaptater to use it , with the 67 mm adaptater and he step up ring you'll have vignetting . In fact even with the 52 mm adaptater you need to be very careful whe mounting the lense to eliminate any vigneting . Anyway the UWL-04 is a very wide angle lense , and more of all very light above and underwater .

 

[Nemrod]

I think what he is saying is that the FOV ABOVE water is similar which is to be expected but the Ikelite lens like any flat port lens is much reduced underwater from over 130 degrees above water to about 100 degrees in water whereas the dome UWL-04 retains most if not all of its above water FOV when submerged.

As to how wide the UWL-04 is compared to other lenses, who knows, nobody seems to ever post any picture with any reference info.

N

 

[Nemrod]

But you need to have the 52 mm adaptater to use it , with the 67 mm adaptater and he step up ring you'll have vignetting .

Per the FIX webpage the UWL-04 52/67 works with the S90 and FIX housing and FIX67mm kit at full wide and with no vignetting.

N

 

[girellator]

Per the FIX webpage the UWL-04 52/67 works with the S90 and FIX housing and FIX67mm kit at full wide and with no vignetting.

N

No it was what I thought but it don't and I had to change the 67 mm adaptater against the 52 mm one .
I bought step 67 to 52 to use my Inon 165 macro lense with the 52 mm adaptater.
Look at that link fromUW digitalcamera a well known japanes shop for underwater housing

UWdigitalcamera.com :: Compact camera housing :: FISHEYE FIX S90 housing

even with the 52 mm adaptater it's difficult to get no vignetting , my husband is going to built for me another more convenient adaptater ( yes he can do it !!)

:blinking:

 

[CompuDude]

No it was what I thought but it don't and I had to change the 67 mm adaptater against the 52 mm one .
I bought step 67 to 52 to use my Inon 165 macro lense with the 52 mm adaptater.
Look at that link fromUW digitalcamera a well known japanes shop for underwater housing

UWdigitalcamera.com :: Compact camera housing :: FISHEYE FIX S90 housing

even with the 52 mm adaptater it's difficult to get no vignetting , my husband is going to built for me another more convenient adaptater ( yes he can do it !!)

:blinking:

They lifted the photos from the Fisheye website. (They're only linked on the Japanese website for some reason, but the model numbers are clear, or Google can translate) http://www.fisheye-jp.com/works_lens/index.html

Everything we have heard from Fisheye and from Ryan at Reef Photo has said that the Fix S90 housing has no vignetting, even at full wide, if you use it with the UWL-04 (and I believe the 67mm mount). Has your experience been otherwise? Can you show us some photos?

 

[Puffer Fish]

I hate to show really bad images...but here goes

First image is with the fix lens... held firm against the glass, with the camera at 28 mm...difficult to hold in the center. This is from about 18 inches closer than the ones I posted yesterday.

My finger is in the image, from holding it...and you can see the dome glass distortion in the steps:

This is with the Ike, in the identical spot, with the camera also at 28 mm. the off center issue is due to the morons at ike putting the wheel gears in the wrong location...I had to remove the gear system to get the camera centered.... which I did for the images I posted.

Note: This is the cause of the camera lockup, by the way.

Ok, which one is wider? Distortion, by the way, tends to make people think things are wider than they are.

Also, and I find this odd, the lens sticks out more at 28 than it does at 35...it is retracted the most at 50 mm...and goes out as you go in either direction. That 35 works better seems more to do with the lens being farther back than any thing else.

I used to work for NSA, and we had a saying "In god we trust, all others we monitor". I tend to believe what people say, after I see the results.

 

[Nemrod]

Well, hmmm, interesting, this will require some thinking to understand. If Puffer's photos are typical and as expected of the UWL-04 then as I have stated before, the wide angle champ for the S90 is in this order for both the Ikelite and FIX90 housing and the DC35 where applicable:

(Wider)
Inon 165AD (DFOV 150 plus degrees)
Inon WAL100-28AD with dome (DFOV ? 150 degrees)
Inon WAL100-67 with dome (DFOV 125 degrees)
Inon WAL100-28AD/Fisheye UWL-04 (DFOV 105 degrees ?)
Inon WAL 105AD (DFOV 100 to 105 degrees)
Inon WAL 100-67/Ikelite UWL-20 (DFOV 90 to 100 degrees)
(Narrower)

Lens/camera/housing application to the best of my knowledge with some admitted guesses below.

Ikelite S90:

Inon 165AD -- NA
Inon WAL100-28AD with dome--NA
Inon WAL100-67 with dome -- acceptable
Inon WAL100-28AD/Fisheye UWL-04 -- Inon NA, Fisheye unknown
Inon WAL 105AD -- NA
Inon WAL 100-67/Ikelite UWL-20 ---acceptable

FIX90 with appropriate lens kit:

Inon 165AD -- acceptable (tested by me)
Inon WAL100-28AD with dome -- acceptable
Inon WAL100-67 with dome --acceptable (tested by me)
Inon WAL100-28AD/Fisheye UWL-04 -- both acceptable
Inon WAL 105AD --- acceptable
Inon WAL 100-67/Ikelite UWL-20 --- acceptable (tested by me)

Canon DC35 with Inon 28AD mount kit:

Inon 165AD -- unknown
Inon WAL100-28AD with dome --- acceptable
Inon WAL100-67 with dome -- NA
Inon WAL100-28AD/Fisheye UWL-04 --- Inon acceptable, Fisheye NA
Inon WAL 105AD -- unknown
Inon WAL 100-67/Ikelite UWL-20 --- NA

Above data subject to change, interpretation and inaccuracy as I am not a professional "tester" so use with caution. In those I tested (FIX90/S90) I zoomed to either 31mm or 35mm and had none or minimal vignetting, mostly none but with some light fall off typical of a fisheye lens used with a single strobe.

I am of the mind, that if I were to be buying a lens for my S90 (FIX) today, I would get an Inon 100WAL and the dome kit. It is a big heavy lens, reasonably sharp, all glass, optical coatings, high quality, not prone to vignetting nor flare. The FOV is sufficient to photograph a nuclear sub, lol or certainly wide enough to do close focus wide angle, shoot large objects and divers in context, play with exaggerated perspective and extreme close focus and depth of field. The only practical way to go wider is possibly with the 165AD (with the issues it brings) or go to a dSLR and Tokina 10-17 fisheye lens.

N

 

[Nemrod]

Also, and I find this odd, the lens sticks out more at 28 than it does at 35...it is retracted the most at 50 mm...and goes out as you go in either direction. That 35 works better seems more to do with the lens being farther back than any thing else.

Yes, exactly, thank goodness, from the beginning I have stated this is a good thing and is why the S90 can work for wet lenses. The short rack distance this lens design allows keeps the lens closer than if it were a "extend" only zoom as it goes from wide to tele. This is a common design. Many zoom lenses move rearward before racking forward. The lens elements are moving internally as well as the moving the front element fore and aft.

Puffer, so you are saying if I follow that your lens malfunction in Australia was the fault of the Ike housing and not the camera? More info please?

N

 

[Puffer Fish]

Yes, exactly, thank goodness, from the beginning I have stated this is a good thing and is why the S90 can work for wet lenses. The short rack distance this lens design allows keeps the lens closer than if it were a "extend" only zoom as it goes from wide to tele. This is a common design. Many zoom lenses move rearward before racking forward. The lens elements are moving internally as well as the moving the front element fore and aft.

Puffer, so you are saying if I follow that your lens malfunction in Australia was the fault of the Ike housing and not the camera? More info please?

N

Hate to hijack this thread, as there is lots of great information here.

The tolerence for the lens on the Ike case is in hundreths of an inch (maybe thousands.. it is really small)...the gear drive wheel,when meshed with the gears moved the camera every so slightly to the left, just enough that the rubber skirt pressed against the larger lens ring. Very slight lens movements moved it a bit closer or a bit farther away (very difficlut to see just looking at it). But it is rubber, and zooming in and out rubbed against it...until it stuck..once stuck, turning off the camera produces a lens error...and even after the camera is removed, that error may not clear...which means the camera will not even try to retract the lens. Remember, this camera has position memory.. which also means it has fault memory.

The camera installed without the gear wheel always worked fine.. which is how I shot those first images.

Not exactly sure what happens when you plug it into a usb and wait, but it has some effect on the memory or the motor control...as the lens does not extend when on usb, would guess (really big guess) that the camera does not look at the lens fault after a while.

Cleaning up the gears and getting the rubber skirt ever so slightly slippery and it does not happen...

The Ike guy today helped by telling me it was most likely the tolerences and would be an easy fix...

 

[dogdrjohn]

I went to the Fisheye Japanese site and downloaded many of the pictures to iphoto and did my own cropping. With their cropping or zooming the FIX UWL-04 52/67 is the clear winner, although apparently with an M52 mount (instead of M67+52-67 adaptor ring) that is not available to the public, and the FIX UWL-04 ST is a close second. INON UWL-100 28AD, INON UWL-100 and INON UFL-165AD on the AD28 mount are nearly identical when they zoomed to eliminate vignetting, defying all logic (apparently the UWL-100 28AD was not zoomed) - The UFL-165AD should have been significantly wider. Taking their un-zoomed image with the UFL-164AD and cropping to eliminate the vignetting resulted in a picture with nearly the same FOV as the FIX lenses, probably intermediate between 52mm and ST lenses. My downloaded copies of their pictures are quite low resolution so I cannot comment on such things as center and edge focus or softness, but it appears that the FIX UWL-04 and INON UFL-165 AD should produce nearly identical FOV and a person's choice can be made based on expense (FIX cheapest), size
and weight (INON clear winner) and whatever you happen to have in the way of WA or other lenses. The INON 10028AD and 105AD seemed to produce nearly identical FOV when the 105 was zoomed to to 35mm equivalent, which makes perfect sense since it's rated FOV is 105 degrees with a 35mm lens, and the 100's FOV is 100 degrees with a 28mm lens. They do not have pictures with the UWL-100 28AD + dome, but that combo's rated FOV is about 150 degrees with 28mm lens, so it is likely to be in the ballpark with the FIX and 165AD, especially if the FIX is mounted on the M67 adaptor with a 52-to-67mm ring pushing the lens a little farther out from the port. Expense/size/weight makes the 100 28AD + dome the loser in that competition.