S95 + Fix recsea housing + extra lens

[RetroBlader]

As someone who already has a S95, but is still waiting for FIX to finalize their S95 housing (still only a CAD mockup on the FIX website), it is great to read about the RecSea S95 housing.

I am still learning about the different wide-angle/fish-eye wet lenses, but I'll take Nemrod's word for it that the FIX S95 will be inferior to the FIX S90 in terms of connectivity.

Many thanks to ripseven and Nemrod.


Bob

P.S. Ripseven, did you say the UWL-04 does not vignet at 28mm?!?! I thought even with the well-praised FIX S90 housing one needs to zoom in to 35mm with fish-eyes?

 

[ripseven]

P.S. Ripseven, did you say the UWL-04 does not vignet at 28mm?!?! I thought even with the well-praised FIX S90 housing one needs to zoom in to 35mm with fish-eyes?

Hi Bob,

I should try some UW 28mm photos with the UWL04, but the dry test did not show vignetting at 28mm (as my vendor told me : no vignetting with the Recsea at 28mm compare to the ikelite housing with which you need to zoom to 35mm in order to avoid vignetting).
I think (Nemrod should confirm) that the Fix S90 doesn't vignet either at 28mm.

 

[Nemrod]

Look, since the FIX95 is not anything more now but a solid model my or any other persons speculation about it based on observations of that model may or may not prove to be accurate.

The FIX90 and I assume the SeaRec95 housing should not vignette with the UWL-04 at full wide 28mm with the 52mm adapter. I know that I and Girellator both shoot the UWL-04 with the FIX90 with no vignetting with the UWL-04.

However, here we go, deep breath, it is true that the FIX90 and again I assume with the SeaRec95 using the Fisheye UWL-04 (with 52mm adapter) when shooting RAW and when using Photoshop or other third party software may and probably will show vignetting. This does not occur in jpeg and it does not to my knowledge occur using the Canon DP software with a RAW file.

I am not a RAW expert or a software expert so I will leave all of that to the experts, I just know what I see. There is further speculation that the FIX95 may have been altered to move the lenses closer to the port, if so this may improve overall performance and could reduce or eliminate the RAW file vignetting in PS etc.

Will the FIX95 be able to utilize all wet lenses like the FIX90 is capable of, well, if it has a fixed female 52mm thread, probably not because the port flange would move 67mm lenses to far forward for optimal coupling, the AD lenses, never say never. Just a guess, well, maybe a bit more than a guess, an observation based on my experience with these things.

N

 

[Nemrod]

No you do not need to zoom the FIX90 to 35mm with the UWL-04 Fisheye brand lens and the 52mm FIX adapter, you will shoot full wide at 28mm with no vignetting. On rare occasion a corner may go dark, if so, crop in or use your magic tools. This may occur due to lens shift usually at f.2.0.

Geeeez, , do I have to buy all the lenses and actually test them, well, actually I did .

N

 

[ripseven]

I'm just back from Indonesia, and I realized the UWL04 adaptor is in fact made of plastic, not metal.

Globally, all the lenses gave me satisfaction, I have just two info to report :

1) the lenses are "wet mount"
I realized that it wasn't an option : To avoid air/water mix in the space between the housing and the lens >> you have to screw the lens under water.
When you do that way, the space between is 100% water, then the image is perfect.

2) the plastic adaptor of the UWL04 is not perfect, because sometimes (due to the weight of the fisheye probably, and then the force of leverage) the fisheye turned partially mounted during the dives !!!!
Once, It fell on the ground during a night dive, I didn't even notice !!! Fortunately another diver saw it on the sand just above me...
Anyway, I find a way to avoid this : screw the adaptor with a little piece of plastic paper between the housing and the lens in order to create a stronger mount.
I think that a metal adaptor will have a better comportement as the adaptor flexibility will be harder.

3) The UWL04 Fisheye is an awesome lens
I will shortly post the link to an album of my S95 pics.
The repartition is : 98% fisheye - 2% macro - 0,0005% no lens
I used macro for specific pics (pygmee sea horse for example, or some nudibranch), the rest of the time, the fisheye was great.

4) concerning the Recsea housing usage underwater : perfect.
Smooth commands.
I shot only in manual mode, then I appreciate to have access to the front (operture) and rear dial (speed).

5) External strobe
as I was in mode M on the S95 : I had to use M mode also on the Inon D2000 external strobe
It wasn't a problem at all, as you can quickly adjust the intensity of the flash between two shots.

Conclusion :
I really enjoyed the configuration.
I wouldn't change a thing (except the plastic adaptor of course).
It was my first time as a full manual user and I managed to do approximately all the shots I wanted.

 

[Nemrod]

I assure you that my 52mm port adapter is anodized aluminum which is not plastic.

The FIX port adapter kits are machined nylon but the 52mm port adapter for the UWL-04 is aluminum, at least mine is and the three others I have seen are. If yours is not, you have a fake or they have changed the design.

The aluminum port adapter has no tendency to come off. The nylon ports kits, at least the one I have, has had no problem with coming off. I was worried about it at first that it would not prove durable but at least so far, so good.

A better answer than threads on the port would have been a bayonet system and apparently FIX chose to just make the port fixed.

N

 

[muzikbiz22]

My port adapter is aluminum, as well, FIX UWL-04 52/67. That's what it came with right out of the box. My lens has NEVER fallen off, that is extremely odd

 

[ripseven]

The adaptor I have in the box of the UWL04 is made of metal but : 52mm-58mm which I cannot use with the recsea housing which need a 52mm-44mm adaptor.

For this reason my vendor sent me also a 52mm-44mm adaptor but this one is in plastic.

The reacsea housing has a 44mm screw dimension.

;-)

 

[dogdrjohn]

My RecSea housing has a 46mm male threaded port. Like the others have said the 52mm adaptor available from Reef Photo and Backscatter is aluminum. I have finally managed to cobble together an AD adaptor screwed to a 52mm to 77mm step up ring that mounts securely onto the 52mm adaptor with the lens consistently TDC and less than 1mm from the port. Now if only I was going diving again before NEXT November. Oh well/

 

[John_B]

Can't I get a 67mm port with the RecSea 95 instead?

I had planned on ordering the M67 lens adapter (M67: SKU16307131) with the RecSea 95 housing from UWdigitalcamera.com.

The idea is to be able to add the 10bar M67-to-AD bayonet adapter for the Inon UFL-165AD, while still being able to use all the M67 (67mm Type 2) threaded macro and WA wet lenses out there.