7 replies to this topic

[ChrigelKarrer]

Hi and thanks for reading!

I just received my new Hugyfot D800 housing.
Unfortunately - and against the dealers statement - the combination of the Athenas OPD-F170V Glass Dome and the Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye
vignettes badly because of the S&S -> Hugyfot Adaptor adding about 20mm more and that is too much.


A try with the original Hugyfot 172mm acrylic dome show only a slight vignetting, but soft corners and the grinded edge of the dome.



Does anybody uses the Hugyfot D800 housing with the Sigma15mm Diagonal Fisheye and a +/- 170mm 6" glass dome and no vignetting?

Chris

[Udo van Dongen]

Hi Chris,
I have a friend that uses the D700 in a Hugyfot housing with the 15 mm sigma and the original acrylic domeport and no issues at all. Topside you will see some 'vignetting' but underwater it will disappear because you lens will focus on the virtual image which is closer then the subject. Try it in a pool i'd recommend.
I use the new mineral glass minidome which is 4.5" in diameter. Recently they slightly redesigned it and now it's performing perfectly with the Sigma 15 mm FE, although topside you see still some of the shade. But underwater it's not visible when it's in focus.

Udo

[ChrigelKarrer]

Hi Udo,
thanks for the quick reply.
I will try the acrylic port under water to see how he performs, while i already tried the Athenas port and he still is vignetting (see attached image)
I bought the Athenas Glass Dome especially for the D800 and i am rather frustrated that i spent a lot of money for nothing.
Sure i can crop the immage and the resolution of the D800 will still mask that, but i will still loose some degrees FOV of the Sigma.
I maybe should go for the Minidome and shave the Sigma to fit it.

Thanks and best regards

Chris

Attached Images

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[Udo van Dongen]

Hi Udo,
thanks for the quick reply.
I will try the acrylic port under water to see how he performs, while i already tried the Athenas port and he still is vignetting (see attached image)
I bought the Athenas Glass Dome especially for the D800 and i am rather frustrated that i spent a lot of money for nothing.
Sure i can crop the immage and the resolution of the D800 will still mask that, but i will still loose some degrees FOV of the Sigma.
I maybe should go for the Minidome and shave the Sigma to fit it.

Thanks and best regards

Chris

Hi Chris,
I can understand your frustration, i had the same with the first minidome from Hugyfot i received: i had to shave the sunshades of the domeport. Not something you'd expect after spending € 950,-. But they replaced it now (kuddos for that) with a new one that has the glass a few mm closer to the lens and it's perfect now (underwater only).

I totally agree with you: cropping out the corners is not an option. Resolution-wise it's OK, but you loose too much angle.
I would return the Athena port and get the money back and try the 4.5 " minidome, which is good. They adviced you wrong and that's not your fault. Make sure they deliver you the most recent version of the minidome (with only 4 bolts that hold the sunshade, instead of 8). You don't have to shave the Sigma lens BTW with this dome.

best, udo

But you also have the big acrylic Hugy Dome i read, why not stick to that one? because of scratches? They can be removed quit easily. And i don't think you'll be able to notice the difference between acrylic an glass domeports in the photos. I did quit some cover shots with acrylic domeports..

[John Bantin]

I bought the D800 with the intention of using one lens (Sigma 15) and cropping to suit. I use both the Hugy acylic dome and the Sea & Sea (Athena) glass dome. I make the choice whether to clone in the corners of shots taken with the smaller glass dome (usually easy) or to crop depending on the subject matter or use the acrylic dome and polish it from time to time. It's difficult to see the difference but the (Athena) glass dome is so sharp it may be worth the sacrifice depending on what you are using the pictures for.
My pictures are usually cropped to an A-format (A4/A3) to suit magazines so the vignetting doesn't seem to matter. Having said all that, I recently found myself swimming with oceanic White-tips and wishing I had the glass dome because it was inevitable that I would be cropping in.
Too much choice sometimes doesn't help!

[ChrigelKarrer]

Thanks for your kind and quick answer,
i think that i will try to exchange the Athenas Dome with the Minidome and keep the acrylic dome for some experiments
with other medium WA Lenses.

I belive that the Athenas Glass Dome is of excellent build and optical quality and noticable better than the acrylic port,
i would be much cheaper to polish or change the port glass than a glass dome, but with a camera like the D800 i think
only the best is good enough.

Chris

[ChrigelKarrer]

Just a short update regarding the dome problem.
Finally i pulled the trigger and ordered the Hugyfot Minidome.
While the dome was ordered i received a test version of it, having with 8 screw to hold the sun shade and it still vignetted, showing all 4 tips of the sun shade.
Just a day before i left to Oman i received the new Hugyfot mini dome and it had - as Udo mentioned and suggested - only 4 screws to hold the sun shade.
Unfortunately the upper shade is still slightly visible in most of the pictures but it can cropped out without too much cropping and there are soft corners with
f-stops below 11.
But for the rest, the dome works flawless with the Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye and i can recommend the use of it with this lens.
Chris

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Edited by ChrigelKarrer, 21 November 2012 - 08:08 AM.

[John Bantin]

I find that cloning in the corners is not a problem in most cases (as per this example) although I always have the option of the acrylic dome that does not vignette.

Attached Images

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Edited by John Bantin, 02 December 2012 - 03:33 AM.