Macro or Wide Angle at a New Dive Site

[@BrentDurand]

I usually default to wide-angle with my 16-35mm as mentioned in the video. What's your go-to lens combo?

[@sunnyskiesandgoodvibes7200]

Just found your channel! Thanks for this

[@BrentDurand]

Glad you found the tutorials. Enjoy!

[@tamataeo]

Thanks Brent for your video, it comes really handy at the right time as I’m going to Bonaire next week, a place I’ve never been before, and I’m thinking way in advance in which setup I will take for each dive. My current plan : wide angle for the morning truck dives, and macro for afternoon/night dives starting from the hotel deck ! What do you think ?

[@BrentDurand]

Hi Mathieu - This sounds like a great plan. One important thing that you thought of and I didn't mention in the video is that we want to avoid opening the housing in the field if possible. So you strategy below is great. The only adjustment might be to try a wide-angle dive during one of the late afternoon dives to see the difference in light, particularly in the shallows. Have fun in Bonaire!

[@AlevOzten]

Thank you for these great videos. Watched a number of them. My question is have you found a way to carry a wide angle wet lens AND a macro lens. I have both but the wide angle lens is super heavy, so I have to commit before the dive to only do that.

[@BrentDurand]

Hi - with a smaller wide angle dome lens you could mount it to a lens caddy attached to your strobe/light arm, however that doesn't work will with larger domes meant for interchangeable lens cameras like yours. Unfortunately I don't have a great solution to offer...

[@AlevOzten]

Thank you for your response. Yes, I guess I gotta commit to one or another... or beg my husband to carry it for me :) @@BrentDurand

[@Inthedark72]

Thank you for making a video on my question!! 🤗🙏

[@BrentDurand]

You're welcome Jonathan. Hopefully this shared some insight. Thanks for following!! 🤙

[@divingcostarica6119]

Hi Brent, I use an Olympus TG-6 that has great macro ability built in. I have been using the Olympus housing with a Kraken wide angle lens, and then zoom thru for the macro shots. I am considering buying a Nauticam TG-6 housing with a Nauticam WWL-C wide angle lens. Do you know if that lens has the zoom thru capability? Your thoughts on that set up? Thank you

[@BrentDurand]

Hi! The TG-6 is a great camera.The Nauticam WWL-C is indeed a zoom through and I expect it works well with the TG-6 in a Nauticam housing, but don't want to give you an opinion when I'm not out there shooting all these camera/housing/lens combinations anymore. Backscatter Photo knows the TG-6 better than anyone, so try asking them! Someone else asked your question in this video, but at that point they hadn't tested the lens yet: www.backscatter.com/videos/your-top-olympus-tg-questions-answered-live-recorded-live-may-19-2020?affiliate=U2FsdGVkX1+5HP8BlhLkagWnVwymT4hAXsf4ct8uMAM=

[@sinetwo]

Great answers. I like thinking about it as a tradeoff between Quality and Convenience. 17-70 will et you shots on every single dive but it won't necessarily have the same quality as the 105 for macro or 10-17 for wide. But the convenience factor can quite often weigh out the quality factor!

[@BrentDurand]

Thanks! That's a really good point. You can commit for high quality or keep that flexibility while sacrificing some quality. These new wide-angle conversion lenses fix that, although they can be more expensive than the camera itself!

[@sinetwo]

@@BrentDurand yeah they're insanely pricey. I'd rather then invest in a 17-70, dome and a zoom gear, which allows you to use the dome for other lenses. I almost fell off my chair when I saw the price for the nauticam one.

[@BrentDurand]

@@sinetwo Exactly. I do that with the 16-35mm, and can put the fisheye in that dome. Plus I use the 16-35 topside constantly. Nauticam obviously sells enough of those lenses to make them worth producing, but I've never seen one outside of DEMA and a few working pros.

[@sinetwo]

@@BrentDurand Hah fair point! Looking forward to more content, keep it up!

[@jayceebutler3145]

For someone considering purchasing a new full frame/APS-C/MFT camera/lens(es)/housing/port(s), what guidance can you give regarding getting set up for macro and wide angle? Assume someone has not already invested in lenses or ports. What are the benefits and tradeoffs between choosing between a macro lens + macro port and wide angle lens + wide angle port VS single lens + single port + wet wide angle lens + wet diopter? Thank you.

[@MrLycraCladChamp]

Clearly I'm not Brent, but I recently went through this decision myself. I chose the Olympus EPL10 for my camera (it came with a 14-45 kit lens), I went with an AOI housing that came with a flat port that fit the kit lens. The kit port has 67mm threads so it can accept either the screw on macro or wide angle lenses. I decided to purchase a Panasonic 8mm fisheye lens plus a 4" dome port for it, I then decided to purchase an Olympus 60mm macro lens + an extension ring (this ring allows me to use the kit flat port with my 60mm macro lens). I upgraded from a point and shoot camera with a macro lens and a borrowed wide angle lens I was always disappointed with my images because I was looking for any kind of image I could make. I decided to go with a dedicated lens and port set up because it helps me visualize my images by either choose to look for a macro or wide angle image instead of trying to find an image then changing out my lenses and trying to capture the image. I was usually better at scaring off the animals than I was a capturing their image with all the different lenses I was carrying. I know its long winded but I hope this helps.

[@BrentDurand]

@@MrLycraCladChamp This is a great answer Daniel, and I think shows how many choices there are in this process. I agree that sometimes there's too much to think about if you're trying to do everything at once, resulting in mediocre photo/video. Thanks for jumping in and sharing.

[@BrentDurand]

Hi Jaycee - Thanks for the question. Daniel has a great reply on his approach. There are so many different factors to think about here, including things like budget and investing in a system you'll keep even if upgrading camera and housing. Daniel's comment about wanting to focus on macro or wide during a dive really does help. Another thought would be the type of diving you want to do. For example, if you want to do a lot of snorkeling for dolphins, whales, and sailfish, you'd be best served with a small dome port vs a wide-angle conversion lens. For split shots I would go for a large traditional dome port. In short, there are many different combinations to explore here and I've been avoiding a video on this topic since I can't provide a concrete recommendation. Also, cameras, lenses and water contact optics are changing fast, so a video with recommendations will get outdated quickly! A lot will come down to the type of diving you do, photo subjects, budget vs level of image quality. These days I recommend researching the things above and the camera system you think you'll want, then call your local u/w camera retailer and ask them for advice. They talk through all these various options daily and can offer much better advice than I can. If you haven't yet, check out my video How to Choose a Camera: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZzPZmSjfbhsZ8U Hope this helps!

[@jayceebutler3145]

@@BrentDurand Hi Brent, Daniel’s reply is solid advice from my perspective. When I first moved from a compact to ILC system, I went dedicated lenses+ports. I really enjoyed the quality of the photos, but lamented the loss of flexibility of a shoot anything setup that you get with a compact camera. My next phase went to a single kit lens + single short port and pricey wet wide angle + wet macro lens. I figured I would have the best of all worlds with this setup. What I didn’t consider, was the effort required to switch back and forth between wide and and macro underwater. Some of the wide angle offerings are extremely heavy, so it’s a task swapping lenses back and forth underwater (If you are diving in a guided group, keep this in mind because you don’t always have the luxury of a lot of time on a subject). In practice, I tend to dedicate the main purpose for a dive as either wide angle or macro. If I choose wide angle, I bring my wet macro lens along ‘just in case’. If I happen upon a rare nudi, I have the option to shoot it, but I definitely am not swapping lenses back and forth throughout the dive. In practice, I find myself pulling out the wet macro about 1 in every 3 dives. If I choose a macro dive, I bring only my wet macro lens. If a wide angle opportunity occurs, I make do with the short port. Having a heavy wide angle mounted to a strobe arm while you’re trying to get finicky macro shots is inconvenient. One other observation I’ve had with my wet macro lens versus dedicated macro port + macro lens, is working distance. The dedicated macro port + macro lens I had previously had a much larger working distance between the lens port and subject. The short port + wet macro lens has a very, very narrow working distance (~1”), which makes lighting the subject difficult. I plan to get a dedicated macro lens and port in the near future. I don’t have experience with every wet wide angle, wet macro and camera combination, but that’s my personal experience with how, what and where I shoot.

[@BrentDurand]

@@jayceebutler3145 Really good point about the heavy wide lens on your strobe arm weighing it down, plus the difficulty switching back and forth, focus distance, etc. This is why it's so hard to make a single recommendation! Thanks for adding this feedback to the thread. I can feel a Wet Lens Pros and Cons article coming to my website soon!

[@OrenNoah]

Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

[@BrentDurand]

Haha - always!