Wide Angle Set Up for Sony a6xxx

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

None that I could detect. Note that 16-50mm by itself doesn't quite cover the APS-C sensor - if you look at uncorrected RAWs, you'll see black corners which get filled in by lens correction. I did get corner vignetting with 7.5mm fisheye and the 4" dome.
 
Nothing in life is perfect. Everything is a compromise and what works (worked) for me may not represent your ideal solution. Having said that, here we go ...

OK, first for what I use:
I have a Sony A6000 in a Nauticam housing. For wide angle, I have the 10-18mm lens and the 7inch dome port. For dives where I expect a little of everything, I use the 16-50 kit lens and for macro, I just received (but have not yet dove with) the Inon macro wet lens.

Next how did I get to that decision?
I tend to shoot primarily wide angle under water. Even when I shoot macro, it is more often than not more of a "Close Focus Wide Angle" (CFWA), rather than a true macro image. Because of this, I wanted to build my set-up focusing (pardon the pun) on wide angle. I was able to eliminate the Sony 16mm f2.8 pancake lens (with or without the WA or FE adapters) pretty quickly after just about every review I read talked about it being soft. The 20mm pancake appeared to be a little better but not much. I saw little to no benefit to using the Sigma 19mm other than it had an aperture of f2.8, and I would never shoot wide angle at f2.8 because of the narrow depth of field. I also eliminated any manual focus lens since I knew that for me, I would hate the constraints that such a lens would impose under water where I could not focus and would have to rely on an image being "close enough to in focus". (This is not a limiting factor above the surface in any way, and Samyang/Rokinon are known for making some very respected lenses used in astrophotograpy including the two you mentioned.)

This left me with basically two choices: the 16-50 kit lens and the 10-18 lens (the Sony/Zeiss 16-70 was also briefly considered and although it was an amazing lens, and maybe what I should have opted for, I ruled it out). So, for most dives, I hit the water with the Sony 10-18 and a 7inch dome. It does not give any vignetting and I can shoot it all the way down to 10mm (the equivalent of 15mm on a Full Frame sensor). I do not have a zoom ring on the 10-18mm, I set it before I load my camera into the housing & then shoot it as if it was a "prime lens" from that point on. On dives where I expect to run into a variety of subjects (Split Coral Head in the Bahamas comes to mind with everything from Christmas tree worms to a healthy Reef Shark population) I will put on my 16-50 kit lens (and zoom ring) and live with the fact that I can not get wider than 16mm, but I have much more on the "long end".

So, What would I recommend for you?
The first thing I would recommend, is that you read this review. It is not for your camera, nor for your housing, but I think that it might have a lot of the information that you are seeking. It discusses shooting the Sony 16-50 kit lens underwater with wide angle wet lenses. (See that? My first recommendation didn't cost you a penny!)

Next, I would likely opt for the 16-50mm kit lens either with a wide-angle wet lens or on its own. It is reasonably fast and relatively fast focusing and will give you a lot of versatility (including OSS) and with very few limitations.

Here are a couple pics I have shot with my 16-50mm lens (on my A6000):
First, although you are looking for wide angle, here is a macro shot of a Christmas Tree Worm simply to give you an idea of the range you can expect in practical terms.
Bahamas 2017-71.jpg


On the same dive, I also shot this Caribbean Reef Shark:
Screen Shot 2018-12-08 at 9.51.14 AM.png


The Christmas Tree Worm was shot at 50mm and the Reef Shark was shot at 16mm. Neither had a wet lens on the port.

Ultimately, only you will know what is right for you, but if I were to make a recommendation, then it would be the Sony 16-50mm kit lens with or without a Wide Angle Wet Lens.

Good luck in your search.
 
Excellent information! Thanks a lot! I decided to go with the 16-50 using a uwl-04 wide angle wet lens and a inon macro wet lens.

What flash did you use for the beautiful shark pic?
 
Excellent information! Thanks a lot! I decided to go with the 16-50 using a uwl-04 wide angle wet lens and a inon macro wet lens.

What flash did you use for the beautiful shark pic?
The shark pic was shot with a single Sea & Sea YS-03. (I had dual strobes, but one of them failed on the very first dive.) I was pretty shallow by that point on the dive (IIRC, I was on my safety stop), and most of the light is ambient light. I have switched to Inon S-2000 strobes since that trip but I have not dove with them yet.
 
Thanks for all your advice! I bought a UWL-04 wide angle wet lens and a Sealife SL961 flash to work with my SeaFrogs housing, a6300 camera and 16-50mm lens. :)
 
Check well before buying Fantasea UWL-04.
For that camera (a6300), at least in a Fantasea housing, Fantasea says it is not compatible. I do not know if it works fine with Meikon. See PDF attached
 

Attachments

  • WetLensesCompatibilityTable.pdf
    967.8 KB · Views: 252

Back
Top Bottom