Nauticam housing for LX-5

[Ryan]

Hi Squit,

Our tester says the tripod wasn't moved from shot to shot, and the tripod was weighted with 16 pounds of lead to make lens and camera swaps easy without lots of movement.

The LX5 shots are at 24mm, and no zooming is required to knock out vignetting. LX5's lens is almost exactly the same length at full wide angle as full telephoto, while XZ-1 is almost 1cm longer at full telephoto. This means LX5 can be closer to the port at full wide, and results in the vignetting being insignificant, and the fov being quite wide.

It is correct that the lens is designed for 28mm, not 24, but I'm pretty impressed with how well it holds together on LX5. There is some purple fringing, but I think it is manageable, and less than we've seen from lots of other popular wet lenses in the past.

The Nauticam adapter for 28LD bayonet lenses is not shipping yet. I have a prototype, and it yields the same performance (allowing the lens to be placed against the port glass). These are expected soon, and we'll confirm compatibility when they arrive. UWL-H10028LD + the adpater will cost more, but will offer locking bayonet convenience.

 

[rusti999]

A few shots taken with the LX5 in Nauticam housing in Cozumel last week:

Cozumel 2011 Wide Angle - a set on Flickr
Cozumel 2011 Super Macro - a set on Flickr

The wide angle shots were taken with the FIX UWL04 lens with a custom adapter that brings the lens closer to the port glass. Still, with that, I had to zoom to 35mm to eliminate vignetting, but even then, I still got useful increase in FOV. The super macro shots were taken with the Subsee +10 diopter (needed to zoom to at least 50mm).

Can't wait to get my hands on the UWL-H100 lens.

 

[okiejeff]

Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing them, One question for you.

Does the LX5 give you the option to record RAW and JPG files at the same time, or does it make you choose one of the two?

 

[rusti999]

Thanks, okiejeff. You can record both RAW+JPEG at the same time with the LX5.

 

[jcork101]

Anyone had experience with the LX-5 in an Ikelite housing? What is the opinion of the LX-5 for macro?

 

[Puffer Fish]

Ikelite housings are ok, not great, and they do work to keep the camera dry.

Macro without a 67mm add on lens will only work so close. The camera will focus very close, but at some point it will turn the flash off (as it would be blocked by the lens).

Here is one taken without any extra lens...

Best point and shoot I have ever used...and I have a lot of camera's

Carrying a macro wet lens does give one more choices.

Anyone had experience with the LX-5 in an Ikelite housing? What is the opinion of the LX-5 for macro?

 

[jcork101]

Will the camera turn off an external stobe too, at close up macro? I'm retired, on a budget, and am trying to decide where to go with this. I have a Canon T2i that I've considered buying an enclosure for, but I can get the LX-5, Ikelite box, and strobe, for considerably less than using my Canon.

 

[Puffer Fish]

The two great deals in really nice camera's are the LX-5 and the Oly zx-1 or xz-1 (forget which way) and the Oly case. I happen to have the LX-5. The oly turns off the strobe if you shoot in their super macro (the lens would block the strobe).. the LX-5 will do the same based on how close your are to the lens. I shoot macro by zooming out to the maximum.. and you don't have that issue (as the closest it will focus, is farther out than the auto strobe off feature is.

You can focus closer ...stupid close in fact, as you zoom back, but the strobe will turn off. Using a LED light solves that issue, but using a camera underwater at a couple of inches from the glass is not easy or without risk to the glass.

If you want that, better to add a wet macro lens (they are small, can be put in a pocket and work really well) and leave the camera zoomed out.

Will take a while to learn the camera (they have a lot of settings), and you can get the add on lens anytime.

 

[derway]

I would have thought connecting a strobe to the lx5 hotshoe, as is done in the ikelite housing, would convince the camera to leave the strobe on, no matter how close you get..

 

[shaker]

Hi,
I believe Puffer Fish is talking about the ZX-1.
The Lx5 never turns off the built in flash in the macro mode.
This can happen only if the the "Conversion" option is ON, and in case you will mount a WA lens and certainly not a macro lens.