Nikon 105mm lens

[mcknight4]

Does anybody have experience using the Nikon 105mm 1:2.8 G ED IF S VR lens?
I am wondering about the effectiveness of the VR feature underwater. I currently have a D80 with the Ikelite housing.

 

[mjh]

I owned the old version then picked up the VR from somebody getting out of the hobby. I don't think the VR makes a big difference underwater but I do feel it locks focus quicker than the old version. Either way you can't go wrong with this lens.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Adm. Linda has the 105 VR. I have the 105 AF from about 1993. Her 105 VR focuses REALLY fast,
so fast that I think the camera AF has trouble keeping up. The VR won't be useful UW because
the strobe will freeze things, and because it's pretty easy to hold the camera steady because it
has lots of mass and almost no weight.

Where are you shooting? For poor vis, I think the 60 mm is a better choice.

 

[philmayer]

I love my 105VR, but I don't think the VR works well underwater. I have many photos shot at 1/60 that are blurred.

Yes, the lens focuses incredibly fast. But it also hunts a lot. And you have to have plenty of light on your subject for it to focus reliably. It's a serious PITA in low light/low viz.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I love my 105VR, but I don't think the VR works well underwater. I have many photos shot at 1/60 that are blurred.

Yes, the lens focuses incredibly fast. But it also hunts a lot. And you have to have plenty of light on your subject for it to focus reliably. It's a serious PITA in low light/low viz.

Why are you shooting at 1/60th? For macro, it's generally best to shoot at the max
synch speed of the camera, generally AT LEAST 1/250th, and let the strobes supply
all the light and freeze the subject with their speed of at 1/1000 of a second. The
occasional reason to go with a slower speed would be to lighten up an open water
background, but you usually still end up almost all of the light on the subject coming
from the strobes.

If you have trouble focusing, add a focus light. Adm. Linda and I both use the Ike
Mini-C (about $25 at LeisurePro, UltraLight makes a nice holder). Get the light out
over the subject so it gets cross-lit which makes for good AF. Ultralight has a
longer mount for the mini-C that does well with a housing and long macro port.

The VR does work REALLY WELL on the surface. This evening, I saw some flower
pictures that Adm. Linda took hand-held, in full sun. with her D40 and 105 VR. She's
got full-frame pictures of bees where you can see all the hairs on them, I was
wowed.

 

[peterbj7]

There is one vital component of any focusing system - YOU! Get REALLY good buoyancy control, so that during the exposure you are totally still relative to your subject. THEN you should be able to hand hold down to 1/30th, though as someone said if you're using artificial illumination you don't need to. I take probably two photos without flash for every one I take with it.

Nikon's VR and Canon's IS merely consume batteries faster under water, though they're great on the surface. U/W just turn them off.

To me, 105mm on a D80 is very long for use underwater. It's equivalent to a 35mm focal length of 157mm which is longer than I ever use. Though I'm interested to know what lenses people do actually use underwater (together with the crop factor of the sensor, otherwise it's meaningless).

 

[Papa_Bear]

100mm Canon on a 20D from May on the EV Explorer I of the face (Right eye) of a Fire worm!

 

[Eskasi]

In low light/vis, it may hunt a bit more.... In any case, I always dive with a focus light. Helps tremendously. The 105 is indeed quite long. I too find myself using the 60 much more. I take out the 105 when I know what's in the water and when there are specific photos I want. Topside though, the 105VR is fantastic.....

 

[DiveTub]

I Just picked up my 105mm VR & Shooting a Nikon D80 in a Sea&Sea.
Two dives with it so far and I am IN LOVE !!!
These are both taken at 1/60th, f5.6 with dual Sea&Sea YS120's on TTL.
Still tack sharp with the VR on.

Cheers
Chris

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

These are both taken at 1/60th, f5.6 with dual Sea&Sea YS120's on TTL.

1. You should be able to shoot stopped down a lot more than that. The YS120 has
an ISO 100 guide number of 22 feet on land. With two YS120s, the guide number would
be 1.4*22 = 30. Underwater that drops to maybe 20. Your strobes are probably
about a foot from the subject, so you should be able to shoot f/20. On TTL at 5.6,
the strobes were probably shutting off after about 1/10 of a full pop, so the flash
was about 1/10,000 of second. VR was making no difference whatsoever at those
flash speeds.