Hello all. I am an experienced above water photographer and diver, but new to underwater photography. I have a D20 with a wide assortment of zoom lens. I am planning to get the Ikelite housing with ettl capablility and the D 125 strobe. My question is what is the best all around lens to take fish portraits and critter close-ups. I assume macro, but what focal length. Ikelite doesn't appear to make a port for my Canon 28-135 IS USM zoom, and I don't have a prime. A friend of mine used a Nikon 60 mm Macro with a D-70 on a recent dive and was very happy, but it seems that the only choice for the canon is a 50 or 100 mm macro.
Thoughts?
Ed Druy

As one who's extensively used the 10D underwater, my suggestion would be the EF-28-405 f3.5-4.5 USM. I use a Subal so don't know if Ike supports this lens, but I've made 20x30 blow-ups from my images made with this lens that will blow your socks off. Shot behind a dome port you're covered from small sharks/seals to 1:2 macro if you use an external diopter like the one sold at http://www.nexusamerica.com

Stewart

Canon has just announced a new EF-S 60mm f2.8 USM macro lens that will work on the 20D, you should look into that. It will be available in April.

Do you mean the 28-105 mm?

OOPs! Yes, sorry, yes the 28-105mm, Make sure you don't get the cheaper 3.5-5.6 version!

s.

I also like the tiny 24-85 USM. Since you're using Ikelite, you're a bit limited in your port choices, or I'd recommend the 70-200 F4L

Cheers
James

I am leaning toward Ikelite because of cost - other housings seem to be twice the price. Are there companies that will make ports that will attach to the Ike housing, but will give me the flexibility of lens choices that Ikelite doesn't?
Thanks to everyone for their responses.
Ed Druy

Check out Sigma's 50 mm macro. It can do 1:1 unlike Canon's 50 mm. My dive buddy has had good results with it:

http://homepage.mac.com/samilaine/PhotoAlbum39.html

Canon's new EF-S 60mm USM Macro can do 1:1...

~Matt Segal

yet another terrific EF-S lens to stick it to us non-EF-S mount Canon owners

I used the 50mm Sigma and I can recommended it, as well!

I guess the new EF-S 60 mm macro is good if you don't see a 1.3x of FF sensor in your near to mid future. I personally am staying away from EF-S lenses (shooting 20D) so I can carry my lenses forward (too bad I can't say the same about the Subal housing!).

The 50/60mm macro lens is just right for fish portraits. I also use the 60mm on the D70 and I get my best results with this lens. A mid-range zoom will give you a similar focal length but it doesn't have the same sharpness or magnification for close shots that you get with a macro prime.

If you think you will be in the market for a full-frame camera in the next few years (look into your crystal ball, these are in the 5K+ bracket now but maybe will come down eventually) then I would look into the Sigma 50mm. The newly announced Canon 60mm does 1:1 and has a USM for fast focusing. Its very interesting but is limited to digital. If you want versitility go for the Sigma 50mm, it does 1:1 and works on full frame. The Canon 50mm doesn't do 1:1 without diopters.

For real close ups you want the Canon 100mm USM. This focal length has the same magnification as the 50/60mm but gives you a bit more working distance between you and the subject. You need this if you want to get close for good magnification and not spook the critter and also so that you can effectively light it. At 50mm it really isn't practical to get close enough for 1:1 and even if you did you would have more trouble keeping shadows out of the frame than you would at 100.

A bit of perspective is needed here. Ikelite offers ports for just about every lens you will want underwater. Unless you have some very exotic needs you won't have a problem here.

Yeah, like that "exotic" Sigma 12-24 for your 10D...

My Nikkor 12-24mm fits just fine....

Hi, I agree - it sounds like it works for you.

Sure, the 12-24 fits, but you have to take the lens off if you want to take the camera out of the housing, right? And you have to take the camera out of the housing to change the CF card, right? I change the CF card after every dive and I do 5 dives a day. That's 5 chances to drip water on my camera, put the port on wrong, mess up an o-ring, etc. If you're a Canon owner and you have the 10-22, the setup is awesome. You don't have to take the camera out as you can slightly slide the housing open and get at the card from the side of the camera. If you have a 10D, you just don't get to use a wideangle zoom period - and I know there are a lot of 10D's around - which is a bummer.

Nothing against Ikelite - I have their 20D housing and it's excellent - but each housing has its pros and cons. Whether it's price, port selection, ease of use, weight, etc.

Cheers
James

Speaking of 10-22 I really have not heard a lot about it yet. How many people hear have one and do they have some experiences to share?

I have one and got the Aquatica zoom ring for it ( thanks Blake ), but have not had time to dive. It's still ski season.

Even topside I would be curious. Like a mountain scene...

Or a broken-leg rescue scene...:-)

Hey that's not nice. From my conversations with Herb I know he skis well. Been 2 years since I have been out. Tough to have that hobby and diving and fit that all into one budget and holiday time. Must love diving as I used to work in a ski shop.

I was joking of course. Anyone that's willing to drive 4 hrs to tahoe to ski on the weekends EVERY weekend is probably pretty good. It must have been the jealousy kicking in - I used to live in Berkeley and drive to Kirkwood when they had the $21 "young adult" passes back in the 90's

Cheers
James

Na I knew you were joking, I too am jealous!

Mountain pics with the 10-22 taken last weekend.

Wow, you change your card after every dive? Do you use a 512mb?

I use a 1 gb card and always can get at least 2 dives on a card shooting RAW (compressed D70 ~6Mb ea). I can't justify diving more than 2/day with my wife and kids there. As soon as I hit the dock I'm in full on sand-castle mode.

I agree that its a bad idea to open the housing on the boat. The way I work I don't open the housing except on land. I wouldn't want a solution that would require me to open the housing after every dive. If you want to switch lenses for a specific purpose, then you have to open the housing anyway.

I think the best solution would be to look into a larger card. Weather or not you have to open the front, back loosen screws etc. if you have to open the housing after every dive something is wrong. Unless you are on a liveaboard you don't want to deal with laptops or storage devices on the boat either. So going for a bigger card really isn't an expense over multiple smaller cards since the cost per megabyte is about the same.

Every housing has its pros and its cons--Ikelite is no different. I just think you get a lot of value out of Ikelite housings--price, TTL, security etc. I think to say that the port selection is limited is a misleading. Except for the 10D/Sigma 12-24mm, I don't think there is one critical lens missing. And even that may be corrected soon with either the Sigma 10-20 or the 8" dome port.

Besides the poster was asking about the 20D not the 10D. For this camera you have lots of choices with Ikelite ports. Sigma or Canon macro lenses 50-100mm, Sigma or Canon WA 15mm FE and Canon 10-22mm and a midrange zoom with the two Canon kit lenses. Ikelite has ports for much more, but I think that covers the critical UW list.

The eTTL2 of Canon 20D is a drastic improvement over eTTL of earlier models and works extremely well............

Hi Newbie,

Perhaps you don't understand the reasons for changing the card between dives. I'll try to explain my thinking and maybe you'll want to try this too:

1) Shooting Raw+Jpeg w/ a high megapixel camera, you can fill a big card on a single dive

2) View and download your photos in between dives.

3) Just switch out the cards. It's better to have at least 2 cards and pull one after a dive, and put in a fresh one. Then you can dl/backup the previous dive and get a fresh card in there.

Maybe it's a throwback to the film days, but I just don't like to make a dive - where ANYTHING can happen - with a card that is 2/3 full.

I think your perspective will change when you do a liveaboard trip with 4 or even 5 dives a day. Or worse (knock on wood) when you flood a camera and lose 4 dives worth of photos, especially that whale shark you saw in the morning...

Cheers
James

Obviously, two schools of thought on changing cards between dives. Personally, I like to use a high-capacity memory card and shoot with it all day. Once the housing is sealed, and proven secure, I'd prefer to keep it that way as long as possible. At the end of the day, when I have plenty of time, I swap out cards and batteries and carefully re-seal the housing for the next day. I feel like every time I open the housing and re-close it, I've created a new opportunity for error ... and a flood. So I prefer to minimize the opportunity for error. Of course, swapping lenses and ports from time to time during the day also injects a new opportunity, but it's just one seal. Today, it's easily possible to shoot through a day of 4-5 dives on a single memory card and camera/strobe batteries.

Dove with the Canon 10-22mm today in Aquatica 20D housing with dual Ike 125 strobes, marginal
conditions, but a heck of a lot warmer than those snow scenes on this thread!

Jury is still out, first time I've used this lens. I'm not convinced that on the 20D it's as wide in
coverage as the Nikor 16mm. on film. Intend to try them both side by side.

Tom Stack

http://www.tomstackphoto.com

Tom,
Maybe we need to know actual focal lengths to the nearest 0.1 mm? The marked FL’s are generally a rounded value. 1 mm makes a bigger difference now with such short FL's in use for the newer smaller formats.
Tom

Tom,

Good point, but my thinking is that it has to do with the sensor. I'm sure that someone
more knowledgeable on this subject will shortly fill us in!

The Nikor 10.5 sure looks a heck of a lot wider on a D-70!

Tom

Tom.

Read the Topic title "Fisheye for Canon" on page 2 of this forum.

As I thought, it is Canon's "cropped sensor" that apparently makes the difference.

Just as we're switching from Nikon back to Canon after 15 years of shooting!

No wonder our UW Photo Workshop participant Don Kincaid's work with the Nikor 10.5mm.
was so impressive and we cannot match it with Canon lenses!

Tom

Yup, if you want the full 180 degrees you will need a lens specifically designed for camera's sensing area. Therefore Canon needs to develop FE's for for both the 1.3 AND for the 1.6 crop factor cams if they want to keep everyone happy! Probably ain't going to happen. I understand the 15mm Canon FE works rather well with the FF sensor unlike their prime or zoom rectilinear WA lenses.

I would think that while the camera would be toast, the CF memory would survive the saltwater bath. I checked the Internet and found the CF memory module surviving washing machines and an incoming tide. No reports of what happened if the memory was in powered camera at the time of submersion. Maybe someone could perform a little experiment for us ...

Hey, I have an old 16mb card that came with my point and shoot, but I never used it because it holds only about 15 photos. I will try to give it a quick bath!

I had a CF card survive a flood. The camera was on with a sync attached. The camera is toast, of course.