I am moving to Israel for a year in March and will be diving the Red Sea every week.

I am new to under water photography and would like your advice on what 1 or 2 lenses should I take with me? I am interested in fish portait shots, coarl pictures and large fish pictures.

I got a Canon EOS 300 and I am buying an Ikelite housing and DS-125 strobe.

What lense(s) would you suggest I buy that can "do it all?"

Thanks

For underwater there is really no one lens that will "do it all". Some of the wide angle zooms are great but they are expensive and won't do macro/fish portraits. The consumer zooms won't do either wide angle or macro very well.

From your description I would recommend you get two lenses: the Sigma 15mm fisheye for wide-angle and big stuff, and the Canon EFS 60mm/2.8 macro for macro/fish portraits/etc. Both are excellent lenses and both will do their tasks very well. Together they will set you back about $1000. Good luck!

Hello and welcome to the Middle East
In Israel itself you have the Eilat area and the Mediterranean. let start from the Mediterranean, the visibility is not so great most of the time but its getting better from time to time especially before the winter, there is no much big life there but sometimes macro and few very nice wrecks, most of the dives are with boat from the shore, in the winter the water is quit cold (at list to someone who use to dive most in tropical areas)
Eilat, much better visibility, water temperatures from 22 to 27 so diving is all around the year. No much big fishes, a lot of macro options and fish portraits, there are few small wrecks (one is a battle ship - quit impressive), In Eilat I use most the Nikon 60mm micro, great for macro and portraits.
Also it very simple to pass the border to Egypt and go diving in Sinai, you have there the Dahab sites and Ra's Mohammad in 3 hours driving distance from Eilat.

HI

I second Arnon with the NOT MUCH BIG STUFF.

I've dived TABA lots & Lots of times, Mostly small life stuff really but there are a few wide shots to be had.

I'd go with a Macro 100mm and a wide zoomer , that would cover everthing really

i think a 15FE would be too wide, Except for Dolphin excounter's.

Regards

craig

If you want a "wide zoomer" instead, I would recommend the Canon 10-22. Advantages are that it is a zoom so gives more flexibility (it has both wider and narrower fields of view than the sigma 15FE), and it is not a fisheye so it is more useful topside. Disadvanges are the price ($200 or 40% more expensive than the sigma 15mmFE), and the fact that you will only ever be able to use it on a cropped sensor camera like the 300D, 350D, or 20D. The sigma 15FE is also sharper underwater. One final note: on a cropped sensor camera like the 300D the sigma is not as wide as people think it is. I think it's about the same as an 19-20mm (normal rectilinear lens) on a 35mm, so wide but not super wide.

Thanks everyone for the response. lanierb, I understand that there isnt a lense that can do everything but what I was trying to ask is whats the best lense that I can take a variety of shots with under water? I am going to look into the Canon 10-22.

Thanks