I just wondering whay nobody is not using the Nikon 50mm 1, 4 or 1,8 underwater?
Is i becauce the not existing ports or are there other reasons?

Lambis

The focal length of 55mm is rather limiting. Can't get close like a 60mm macro, cant take Wide Angle, Limiting depth of filed although the 1.4 is in another class than the 1.8 You can get results from this lens but it has to be a very specific picture, like med sized fish a few in the shot. Just limiting compared to the other choices. Kind of like the 35mm Nikonos. A waste (with the exception of extention tubes) compared to the other choices.

I just was thinking that it will be a great lens for availabel light divers portraits. Off cource you are limited but just to use it for portait work as i use it topside....

Lambis

I agree with you Lambis, I often thought about using this Lens myself. The only draw back would be it’s limited close focusing range. I own the 50 mm Sigma macro and it’s a nice Lens but it’s a little soft. I wish it had the resolving power of the Nikon.

Marc

Not nikon, but I use the canon 50mm f/1.4 (with a +4 diopter) underwater behind a dome port.

It worked out great on crop-factor camera (have not yet tryed it on 5D) for medium/large fish type shots. I like it for this type of shot because it focuses much faster than a macro lens which is usefull for fast moving subjects, and will focus in much less light.

It does not make a very good macro lens because it can not focus all that close, though It can work in a pinch. I took this shot of a ghost pipefish. I had to crop pretty heavy but it is fine for web.

I choose lens focal lengths for the perspective they imply. That perspective is part of the composition.

For me, 24mm and shorter yeilds a wide-angle effect, emphasising the foreground, and 70mm and longer brings the background into the image. The 30-60 mm range is kind of a bland no-emphasis range, so I rarely use it. Macro excepted, of course.

I know there are many shooters far better than I than can make the focal length work for great images; I guess I just depend on the "crutch" of having a center of interest.

All the best, James

The 60mm f2.8 Macro is very close in focal length and is very popular underwater. It gives many of the advantages of the 50mm but adds good close focus capability as well. Depending upon what effect you are trying to get, trading (Edit: oops 2 stops) of light from 1.4-2.8 (with such shallow DOF) isn't bad in order to gain closer focus. Most people photograph with strobes and the 3' close focus distance with the 50mm is limiting.

If you want to do shallow DOF photography with filters, or even long distance narrow FOV photography (gaining a bit more DOF but loosing sharpness due to water effects) with available light then this would be a good lens. You could shoot it behind either a flat port or a dome depending upon your FOV needs.

IMHO usually you want a wider angle prime for this sort of shot. Even without strobes, its better to just get closer and limit the water between you and the subject. There are other wide aperture primes like the 20 or 24mm that are popular underwater. If you want tight head shots I'd prefer to add a diopter to these (52mm thread) and reduce the water.

I could be wrong, but I think there are 2 stops between 1.4 and 2.8.

The 50mm f1.4 is a great portrait lens - on film cameras. Portraits are usually taken with a lens to subject distance of ~8-10 feet. That's what the lens was designed for. At this distance and a low f-stop you can get excellent subject isolation and bokeh. I'm not sure how that is useful underwater except in very specific situations, like what lambis mentioned - diver portraits. The 50 on a cropped sensor camera may be too long though, only getting the head, instead of the head and shoulders.

Cheers
James

I just ask becauce i have this lens and i love it :-)
But tis a true 75mm on my nikon a 60 mactro will be ca 90 cm
In general i was just wondering if someone have use it. I only know that Eric use some canon lenses that are very light sensible

For full body diver portait a lenses that i think that they will be great
(maybe I am wrong) are

Nikon Objektiv Af 28/1,4D Very expensive
Nikon Objektiv Af 35/2,0D Cost the same as a 50mm 1,4
Nikon Objektiv Af 17-55/2,8DX G IF ED AF-S very expensive

Altenativ will be a 12-24 Nikon but for available light i think F4 is to lite

I have jsut think that nikon 1,4 is very special, as in topside, but may create some really great portraits..
This is more importand underwater becauce on topside you can have Studiolights softboxes etc and in general control the light in such a way that you can do many thinks with any lens..

Lambis

Using the DOF Calculator on digitaldiver.net, at f=1.4, a 50mm lens at about 6' (2 m) gives you just 9 cm DOF, or 4.5 cm +/- of your subject, at 12' a more respectable 36 cm total DOF.

So depending upon the effect that you want you could use this tool to selectively focus parts of the divers body at near ranges. After 12' I'd be more worried about vis affecting my sharpness than lens charcteristcs. The way most people handle subject isolation bokeh underwater is by putting the subject against a blue background.

I'm sure it could be used to good effect in some limited conditions. I love this lens topside where I don't worry about water and its hard to isolate subjects amongst ground clutter. But IMO still I think you can get a lot of milage out of a 60mm for this purpose and a lot more in macro photography too.

the use off a 1.4 will help the camera to focus better on available light .. i may use 5.6 for photos.. but readings are always on 1.4

Lambis

Hi Lambis,

The 50mm will not work for full-body portraits, as the subject will be too large for the lens, and the DOF too small to get everything in focus.

For your style of photos (which are great, BTW), I'd recommend looking into a sigma 24mm 1.8 lens. It's about half the cost of a Nikor 12-24mm, has a very fast lens, close focusing capability, and a large angle of view. Check it out!

Mat

What about the 30mm F1.4 Sigma lens. It will have better depth of view, focusses down to 40cm, has HSM autofocus, can handle larger subjects like Homo sapiens, is pretty small being an APS-only lens, and doesn't break the bank.

Bart