I'm new to dSLRs, so forgive me if this question has an obvious answer.

I own a D80, S&S housing, 10.5mm lens, compact dome port (about 6 inches wide).

S&S offers 3 different dome ports: compact dome port, regular dome port, which I assume is 8 inches, and a glass dome port.

Anyhow, my question is, for wide-angle shots, do these different ports give different image quality? if so, why? I am *NOT* talking about over/under shots btw, I am only talking about underwater shots.

I guess I'm wondering if my shots would look any different in the 2 other dome ports... I'm not really thinking of switching right now, I was just curious...

here's my shots with the 10.5mm and the compact dome port...if that helps. well, about half of these shots were with the 10.5, the rest were with the 60mm & a macro port, hopefully you can tell which is which...

http://www.scottpenny.smugmug.com/gallery/2757354#146647701


thanks alot,
Scott

Hi Scott
I own S&S optical domeport and S&S CX compact dome port. (shooting with Nikon D80 and Nikon D50 under S&S housing)
until now, i haven't been able to tell, which pics were taking using the optical and which pics were taking with the CX compact dome port...
i can't tell the different in term of Image quality.
both my pics turn-out almost identical.

The only good thing with S&S optical dome port is not easy to get scratches (Compare to the CX dome port)

Not the same housing but my experience may shed some light on the subject.

I have a 20D in a Subal housing. I recently got the Tokina 10-17 fisheye and against all common wisdom I started to use it with my small radius SWC dome port instead of the recommended large radius DP-FE dome port (I have an arrangement with a good buddy to loan her DP-FE dome port on the understanding she can loan my 10-17 but I'm impatient and couldn't wait until she wasn't using it). I've only used the 10-17 on four dives, on two days a week apart. I was pleasantly surprised with the results I got, much better than I expected. My only problem being that I can't zoom wider than 11mm without getting the shade on the SWC dome port in the frame. You can see my results here along with the various camera/lens settings here:

http://www.gudgeon.id.au/Diving/Lighthouse...2007/index.html

I have the Sea & Sea compact dome and the larger fisheye dome. I have no experience of the glass dome but from other posts I gather this fits in the middle of these two size wise.
There are quite a lot of previous posts indicating the best image quality, especially corner sharpness, comes from the larger dome.
At the moment I really can't see any difference when using the 10.5mm in either of these ports. I'll keep looking though, to see if I can see any benefits in using the larger dome. I have to presume that the experience of others on this forum must count for something.