U/W PHOTO EQUIPMI iN l

Sea & Sea s 12™1 LensFull Frame Fisheye Offers aNew View of the U/W World

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK AND SUE DRAFAHL

A lthough Sea & Sea introduced it a lit-tle more than two years ago, the

12mm lens has been a sleeping giant.The first fisheye lens developed exclu-sively for the Nikonos camera, it offers awhole new view of the underwater world.

When you first see this lens, you'll wantto let out a "Tim 'the Tool Man' Taylor"grunt. It's really impressive! It offers 167degrees of coverage, nearly twice that ofthe 15mm! Before we give you the grandtour of this lens, we'll offer a brief expla-

SEA & SEA WIDE ANGLE LENS COMPARISON CHART

Compatible Focal Angle of Aperture Near RatedCamera Length Coverage Range Focus Weight DepthNikonosNikonosNikonosNikonosMotormarine II-EXMotor-marine II-EXSX-1000SX-1000SX-1000

12mm15mm20mm16WC16mm20mm

28 to 70mm14mm24mm

167°96°80°91°91°80°

56 to 26°110°81°

f/3.5to22f/3.5to22f/3.5to22f/5.6to22f/5.6to22f/5.6to22f/3.5to22f/3.5to22f/2.8to22

1 1 .8"12.0"15.0"12.0"12.0"16.0"19.7"7.1"7.1"

20.0 oz.12.0oz.9.5 oz.

14.0oz.13.6oz.9.2 oz.

10.9oz.15.2oz.8.4 oz.

200'200'200'150'150'150'200'200'200'

A Nikonos V and Sea & Sea's 12mm fullframe fisheye lens were used to take thisreef panorama. It includes not only theclownfish and their host anemone but amidwater background and the sun.

nation of the two types of fisheyes.Circular fisheyes basically take a pic-

ture of everything in front of the lens. Theresulting image is small, circular andabout 24mm in diameter. Most of theselenses cover an angle of about 180 de-grees. The images are spectacular andthe distortion unique but the circle effectbecomes tiresome.

Full frame fisheyes produce a flat, fullimage similar to that taken by a superwide angle lens. The angle of coverage isusually about 165 to 170 degrees. Be-cause the lens does not use the full circle,the resulting photo is sharp edge to

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16 SKIN DIVER MAY 1996

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BAYMAN BAY CLUB(Continued from Page 54)

occasional moray, turtle or Jewfish.Additional diversity can be found at the

eastern end of Guanaja. Shallow diveshere normally produce Nurse Sharks inshallow coral labyrinths. In deeper wateris a series of fish-crowded coral sea-mounts and ridges. There are nearly 50permanently moored reef sites aroundthe island. Occasionally, the Bayman BayClub schedules an all day picnic trip tothe wilderness island of Barbareta, 12miles away.

In addition to the normally scheduledresort functions, island and town tourscan be arranged. The Bay Islands aresome of the most convenient dive desti-nations in the world to combine excitingand adventurous above water travel. The

TACA has modern 767 and 737 aircraftand offers convenient flight schedules toSan Pedro Sula and Roatan, Honduras.

Honduras mainland is only a one-half hourflight away. An exciting opportunity existswith a Whitewater rafting tour on class II, IIIand even IV rapids near the coastal townof La Ceiba. You can be over and back inthe same day; the package includesround trip flight, transportation, rafting anda picnic lunch. It's one of the best daysyou'll ever spend above water. Day andovernight trips can also be planned to themainland before or after your island stay.One of the most popular is a visit to theMaya ruins of Copan, one of the finest an-cient sites in all the Americas.

The Bayman Bay Club is where thejungle meets the sea in beautiful Hon-duras. Call your travel agent or TerraFirma Adventures at (800) 524-1823,(954) 572-1902, fax (954) 572-1907. TheInternet address is http://bayman.lwm.com/bayman.

58 SKIN DIVER MAY 1996circle »142 on Reader Service Card

(Continued from Page 16)

edge, with minimum distortion. The Sea& Sea 12mm, with 167 degree coverage,is a full frame fisheye. Enough of the lec-tures, let's get on to the tour.

The 12mm has the same bayonetmount found on all Nikonos lenses.When it is twisted into position, two smallpins on the back of the lens lock it firmly

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in place. The 12mm features a built-inlens hood. The back of the lens mounthas the same spring loaded action foundon other Nikonos lenses, allowing con-stant focus as depths change.

As you look down on the top of thelens you will find the f/stop control on theright side and the focus control on theleft. A depth of field chart sits betweenthe two. The focus control has readingsin both feet (white) and meters (yellow).The minimum focus is one foot. The

The 12mm fisheye lens comes with itsown unique protective neoprene cover.

The 12mm lens viewfinder slides into thehot shoe on the top of the Nikonos V andis locked in place with a special fitting.

numbers are very easy to read and thecontrol is easy to turn, even with gloves.

The aperture control starts at f/3.5 andhas click stops at each full stop down tof/22. When you combine the best focusand the optimum f/stop you have incredi-ble depth of field. For example, the depthof field for f/8 at two feet is from one footto infinity. If you have enough light andwant to really push the lens, at f/22 every-thing from five inches to infinity is in focus.

An impressive part of the lens is thelarge acrylic resin port and its surroundinglens hood. This port is designed to pro-vide the lens optimum sharpness under-

water. The trade-off is that the lens doesnot work in air. The lens is TTL compatiblewith all Nikonos V functions. It comes witha unique neoprene lens cover and neo-prene carrying bag.

A special Sea & Sea viewfinder wasdesigned specifically for the 12mm lens.The angle of view equals about 90 per-cent frame coverage. The finder itself isabout half the size of the lens and mountsto the camera hot shoe. Sea & Sea has

developed a double lock mechanism soyou never lose your viewfinder. Once youslide the viewfinder into place, a piece ofmetal inside the base of the finder wrapsaround the front edge of the hot shoe asyou twist the lock knob. Of all the meth-ods we have seen for attaching aviewfinder, this seems sure fire. Once theknob is locked, there is no way the findercan come off underwater.

Effective use of the Sea & Sea 12mmlens will depend on your understandingof fisheye lenses. On land, these lenseshave problems with straight lines, whichusually end up curved and distorted. The

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underwater world consists of oddshapes, curves and animals, well suitedfor fisheye lens optics. This lens allowsyou to cut down the water density by be-ing able to move in close to your sub-jects. Water visibility of 15 feet will looklike 75 feet or more and 60 foot visibilitywill look like 200.

How many times have you tried toshow the folks at home the great ship-wreck you explored, only to find youcould get just the hull in the picture? Withthe 12mm fisheye you only have to be acouple of feet away to get the whole shipin the frame. This really comes in handywhen you encounter Mr. Big!

If you have tried other wide angle lens-es you may have encountered a recurringproblem: You have brightly colored coralin the foreground and your dive buddy ishovering just above in perfect form. Tomake the scene perfect, you need thesun in the picture. It seems no matterwhich way you angle the lens you eitherget the sun and diver, or coral and div-er—but not all three. With this 12mmwide angle lens you can have it all!Because of its extreme angle, you canhave the sun in any photo you want. Youare not limited to one angle that capturesall three photo elements, you can movearound and pick and choose. Just thinkof all the possibilities! Good photo com-position just got easier.

Tests showed us that the lens is verysharp from corner to corner, has an ex-cellent contrast range and has almost nolight falloff owing to the extreme angle ofcoverage. If you decide to use artificiallight with this lens, you will get best re-sults with two strobes. Each should be awide angle strobe, used at 45 degree an-gles from the camera lens.

Available light photography with thislens is ideal near the surface; weight anddrag are not a problem as the lensweighs only 14.7 ounces U/W. Imagineyourself just below the surface sur-rounded by a school of fish. The sun isbright and you are ready to producesome incredible images. You point thelens up and the circular feel of the lensadds to the motion of the school of fish.Feel the thrill!

Some underwater photographers lovecapturing close-ups, while others swearwide angle photos are the best. No mat-ter what type of underwater photogra-phy is your favorite, once you give theSea & Sea 12mm fisheye a try, we thinkthat the underwater world will take on anew view. The suggested retail price ofthe lens is $1,344; the viewfinder is anadditional $445.95.

For more information on the 12mm fish-eye lens please contact Sea & SeaUnderwater Photography USA, 2105-LCamino Vida Roble, Carlsbad, CA 92009;(619) 929-1909, fax (619) 929-0098.

62 SKIN DIVER MAY 1996