IKELITE LIMITATIONS…
Have to sell his housing and ports everybody who wants more macro than 1:1?

I been trying to figure how to get more than 1:1 from my 105mm inside an Ikelite housing, and want to share my experience…

A year ago I got on e-bay an 4T diopter, but when I try to fit it into my 105mm port, guess what… it bumps the front (barely but enough to mark it or slightly scratched)…

But I found a couple of solutions for this,

N°1: the less expensive solution is to extend the lens almost all the way to 1:1 with the 4T stacked until it reach the front of the port (is something like 1mm short), then you go down and focus leaning front and back onto your subject until you think is in focus. (I got pretty decent shots of sergeant eggs doing this…)

N°2: The second one is to get the next longest port from ikelite and use it in AF, but if you add a woody´s diopter to this, the AF is no longer as good as it was for it…

More recently I want to add a TC to the 105mm and bought the 2X Kenko telepro 300, this boy is huge so I need a really long port for this combo, but looking in the Ikelite website I just to find my solution… the 5508!!! 19.0 cms!!! and with MF just for 200$!!!, but again… guess what… when you attach the zoom calmps to the lens it wont fit inside the port… is too wide!!! even worst, if you try to use it without the MF clamp, you MUST dremel tool the inside zoom gear and use it in AF or as solution N°1 for the 4T+105mm described before…

On the good side, you can fit a 2X TC + 105mm + 4T inside this port, but you have to use it in AF or fully extended and try to focus leaning front and back… Anyone who try to use a 105mm + 2XTC knows how hard is to get focus with AF, but MF with Ikelite is not possible…. At least until now…

Ah! And this is with the non VR 105mm, don´t even think about get more than 1:1 if you have VR, and Ikelite!!!

WHY THEY CAN´T COME WITH THE NEW 8” DOME BODY RINGS EXTENSIONS SYSTEM FOR FLAT PORTS??? I DON’T GET IT…. (and don´t came up with the excuse that is another o´ring to add flood risk to the system… I´m sure if subal, aquatica and sea&sea users don´t care, we IKE´s users neither!!!)

To finish I even got a little flood trying to take the long port underwater, because is really hard to fit it in the housing (is the only port I have that do this, all my other ports easy fit my housing..), I have to even apply a little pressure to take it out of the housing….

I´ll try again next weekend with the zoom gear “dremelled” since I tried at home and get no flood after this… but port still hard to fit into my housing…

Yes, it is most likely not possible MF the 105 VR in an ikelite port but you your case with the old 105mm it is not a problem.

Rather than risk ruining your camera and lens by trying to put something together yourself all you need to do is shoot an email off to Ikelite. They will be more than happy to make a custom port for you. Since they allready have both an AF and a MF port for the 105, it would be no problem for them to whip up either AF or MF port for your 105 + 2x TC. All they should need is a measurement of how long the TC is.

Their #5508.45 flat port with focus for Canon 100mm 1:2.8 EF USM Macro was born as a custom job for me. It was more tricky as I was not just requesting an extention to an existing port. I just mailed them my lens so they could build the port around it. 2 weeks later I had a perfectly fitting MF port. And they did not charge me an arm and a leg for it either.

My only complaint was that I did not think to have them leave some extra room in front. It was just a hair to short for me to use a 500D diopter(which a very fat filter)

When you put the 500D on the camera are you then resigning yourself to only very close photos for the dive? Do you carry two cameras?

Hi,

I use the 500D with the 100mm - it's great. The 500D is a +2 diopter - so the infinity focus goes to 1.5 feet and the close focus ends up near the tip of the port. So it's just about perfect if you're shooting macro - you shouldn't be outside of 1.5' or you're doing "fish photography" and should be using a different lens :-)

Cheers
James

I am able to get MF with 60mm or 105mm with a 2xTC with Ikelite. See:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...mp;#entry135282

Bob Whorton had Ike make him a special port as well... I have a picture he sent me somewhere, DSLR with macro lens and teleconverter... Very long!

Dave