INON UFL-MR130 EFS60 Underwater Micro Semi-Fisheye Relay Lens in Action!

[adamhanlon 0]

Hey Jordi,

 

Those pictures are great!

 

Adam

[cho 0]

Hi, everybody. I have done some test again about inon Pinocchio lense and tokina 10-17. In this time I tried to do standardization of situations of shots.I put same meta data ( f 22 , 1/125 s , 400 ISO) in both croped sensor camera , cannon 50 D with Pinocchio lense and S5 pro Fuji with Tokina 10-17 and 1.4 teleconverter. I can get some conclusions again . not much differences from last time.I expected new inon pinocchio would show better background sharpeness than Tokina, but I could not show it.

 

50 D with Pinocchio

 

Tokina with 1.4 tele

Edited January 22, 2010 by cho

[Alex_Mustard 0]

I'd conclude from those two, that it is much easier to light the Inon lens, than with the fisheye TC combo. Certainly lighting the fisheye TC combo requires small strobes and small dome to really get the lighting on the subject with the housing in the way!

 

In any case the ease of lighting the Inon lens is a significant advantage.

 

The DOF looks better on the Tokina (the diver is sharper), but that may be a corner sharpness issue as the diver is more central on the Tokina shot.

 

Thanks for the tests. Looking forward to more.

 

Alex

[Drew 0]

We would love to see the pic Drew !

 

It's not a pic but a youtube video.

[Guest echeng]

Here are the photos of the lenses, which are on Koheisha's website:

 

 

[JACohen 0]

I have taken delivery of the Inon Semi-Fisheye with a Canon 7D in a Zillion Housing last week and have been testing it in Thailand. After trying to use AF and stubbornly refusing to switch to manual, it finally occurred to me that manual focus was the only way to achieve sharpness (It can take a while for simple concepts to sink into my thick skull). I am still not totally satisfied with the sharpness of the lens and I am unsure if it is due to the ISO setting creating some noise, I have been shooting from 200 to 1000, or the fact that I need reading glasses and although it is only slight, the correction is not dialed into the camera and so is throwing my focus off. It could also be due to some quite strong current and having to make micro adjustments hanging upside down with my head buried in a crack in the reef. Anyway, I will be doing some adjustments to the viewfinder to eliminate that problem, and will post again in a few days.

 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this lens and the things you can do with it. It produces photos that are not possible with any other combination. I am a great fan of the distortion of fish eye lenses and to get it from macro subjects is a real blast for me.

 

Here are a few shots that are uncorrected for sharpness. I will add some more to my flickr site in a day or so.

 

1/125 f32 ISO200

 

 

 

1/160 f32 ISO400

 

 

 

1/160 f29 ISO200

 

 

 

1/100 f32 ISO500

Edited January 25, 2010 by JACohen

[CheungyDiver 53]

I have taken delivery of the Inon Semi-Fisheye with a Canon 7D in a Zillion Housing last week and have been testing it in Thailand. After trying to use AF and stubbornly refusing to switch to manual, it finally occurred to me that manual focus was the only way to achieve sharpness (It can take a while for simple concepts to sink into my thick skull). I am still not totally satisfied with the sharpness of the lens and I am unsure if it is due to the ISO setting creating some noise, I have been shooting from 200 to 1000, or the fact that I need reading glasses and although it is only slight, the correction is not dialed into the camera and so is throwing my focus off. It could also be due to some quite strong current and having to make micro adjustments hanging upside down with my head buried in a crack in the reef. Anyway, I will be doing some adjustments to the viewfinder to eliminate that problem, and will post again in a few days.

 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this lens and the things you can do with it. It produces photos that are not possible with any other combination. I am a great fan of the distortion of fish eye lenses and to get it from macro subjects is a real blast for me.

 

Here are a few shots that are uncorrected for sharpness. I will add some more to my flickr site in a day or so.

 

1/125 f32 ISO200

 

 

 

1/160 f32 ISO400

 

 

 

1/160 f29 ISO200

 

 

 

1/100 f32 ISO500

 

 

Hey Julian

 

Great shots and great angle.

 

I like the "Mick Jagger" clown fish & the "salute" from the cuttlefish (Flickr site). You were right about the lack of sharpness especially near the edges. Looks like only the centre portion is sharp.

 

I tried using a zillion & 5D MII with the AF 100 macro with the buy eye lens. I got some interesting results. Centre is sharp enough but background is like a FE lens.

 

See attached:

 

 

David

[aboshoff 1]

A bit gimmicky - but intresting results possible. Drew was the footage taken with a 7D , do you use it often . Very expensive piece of kit !

[aboshoff 1]

It seems there are only 3 parts to the lens , a cctv lens a tube and a helix . How is focus obtained?

Edited January 26, 2010 by aboshoff

[nathanm 0]

Are they any updates from people using this lens? I have been on the verge of buying one, but I had no dive trips planned so there wasn't much motivation to seal the deal. That will change soon. I would probably get the Nauticam housing and Canon 7D. Let me know if anybody has more experience with it.

[Drew 0]

Nathan, do a search of the forums. There have been quite a few posts with image samples from the lens, esp Eric's Ambon trip.

[blueglass 3]

I've been using this lens quite a bit, and I like it very much. It's not easy to find subjects that let you get close enough to get the right effect. The micro fisheye effect is only good at very close distance, between 0 and 20 mm. You can see a sample image in the Maldives feature of last Sport Diver mag, a shot of a crinoid.

When you find a helpful subject it's very fun to use.

[cho 0]

Are they any updates from people using this lens? I have been on the verge of buying one, but I had no dive trips planned so there wasn't much motivation to seal the deal. That will change soon. I would probably get the Nauticam housing and Canon 7D. Let me know if anybody has more experience with it.

 

Those are my works that recently was taken in Anilao. I have enjoyed much with this relay lens. In my opinion , to get proper focusing in both of foreground and background, the exact focusing site should be compromised. But it would be not easy.

[Alex_Tattersall 90]

I used mine having sent it back to Japan to be recalibrated. Here are a couple of results, a bit cartoonie I thought.

 

 

[Alex_Tattersall 90]

Had another go with this in Egypt this week and am a bit more pleased with the results. I actually managed to get some focus in these shots! Used with the Canon 7D, 60mm macro. 2x S2000 on STTL.

 

 

and I found a very obliging Blue Spotted Ray who didn't seem too concerned about the end of the lens being very close to his eye.

 

[nathanm 0]

Well, it's 10 months since the last post to this thread. I still have not pulled the trigger on buying one of these, but I am thinking about it.

[Drew 0]

Nathan, Indecision 2011 is going to be Indecision 2012 soon!

[nathanm 0]

Nathan, Indecision 2011 is going to be Indecision 2012 soon!

Indeed you are right. The problem is that I basically only dive November-March (and sometimes less) due to being too busy. So if I miss the window for one year, I might as well wait until the next year, because the technology improves, new things come out. I have two dive trips coming up - a week in the Grenadines in late Jan, and 3 weeks in Belize. So I am trying to decide whether to get it for those trips - assuming that I can pull the stuff together in time.

[nathanm 0]

So I just ordered one.... I go to the Grenadines in mid January, we'll see how it does...

[scottleslie 0]

Anything more recent on this lens?

[nathanm 0]

My experience is like that of other people on the thread. The lens can do some amazing things that no other lens can do. But it is also pretty hard to use, and the optical quality is not great. The net result is that with some extra effort you can get some amazing pictures.

[Alex_Mustard 0]

I'd disagree slightly. I think it is easy to use, but limited by resolution. Great for video - limited optically for stills. Great for on screen, projection and online viewing. Limited for printed outputs - although useable because of the unique perspective.

 

I share some thoughts and images in this talk from a year ago:

 

Alex

[bvanant 195]

I'd disagree slightly. I think it is easy to use, but limited by resolution. Great for video - limited optically for stills. Great for on screen, projection and online viewing. Limited for printed outputs - although useable because of the unique perspective.

 

I share some thoughts and images in this talk from a year ago:

 

Alex

I have not yet got many keeper pictures with it but as Alex says for video it can be really neat.

http://www.blueviews.net/assets/videos/ind...eye_640x360.mov

shows some video from Lembeh, the tiny octopus at the end thougth it might be a good place to live, a little cleaner than his Sprite bottle.

Bill

[Alex_Tattersall 90]

That was a great video, really enjoyed it.

[gee13 4]

Has anyone been put off the fact it looks like a long proboscis sticking out of the housing?