With the recently confirmed Tiger Beach dives in the Bahamas this coming February, I need to make sure I have a decent wide-angle option for an external wet lens. I already own two lenses, but did not have luck with either previously, at least with the Divevolk housing. I have a Divevolk 67mm wide angle conversion lens and an AOI 55mm wide angle dome lens. For the dives, I figured why not try something new there too, so I tried to get to the Landing Craft and Tank Turret from Maluaka Beach and then Z-Blocks from Keawakapu Beach. I failed on the first mission, but succeeded on the second.
On the first dive, I used the Divevolk 67mm wide angle conversion lens. I had tried it once before, but it did not work well with the main iPhone lens and 48 MP sensor; It couldn’t focus. So today I tried it with the Ultra-wide iPhone lens and that seems to work well, except you are then limited to the 12 MP sensor. As long as no, or very little, cropping is necessary, that may be fine. Also my light no where near covers the FOV, so two lights, or natural light only, will be necessary. Since the tiger shark dives are all shallow dives, natural light may be the way to go anyway.
I did not spend much time taking pictures as I was trying to find the Landing Craft and Tank Turret (didn’t find ’em, as I said) but I made sure to do the tests I wanted to do: focal distance, depth of field, yada yada yada.
On the 2nd dive, I used the AOI 55mm wide angle dome lens. I had used it before, with good results, on the Kraken housing, but when I tried it on the Divevolk housing one time, it had focusing issues as well. It worked with the main camera lens on the Kraken housing, so it should work on the Divevolk as well; Unless, of course, the distance between the lens and the flat port is way different? In any case, I gave it another shot today (pun intended) and it did not have focusing issues. It seems to work well, but I need to go somewhere closer to shore so I can spend more time shooting and less time scooting. Z-Blocks is about .45 miles off shore.
In any case, I think this lens will work with the tigers. Came across a turtle at the end of this dive that gave me a chance to see how close I can get and still get the bulk off the animal. I was able to get within a few inches, which is great!
