The Nauticam EMWL for “Bugeye” Images

The creator want to thank Nauticam for supplying their NA-Z9 housing for the Nikon Z9 and the 160° goal lens for the Extended Macro Wide Lens (EMWL), and Nikon Australia for offering the Z9 mirrorless camera used on this overview.

 

Weedy seadragon (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 160° goal lens, f/20, 1/25s, ISO 800, 25% crop)

 

Do you favor macro or wide-angle pictures? My vote goes to shut focus broad angle (CFWA), a method that produces participating, color-rich pictures the place the principle topic seems massive and detailed. These are elements for beautiful pictures, which look nice on journal covers and frequently place in competitions.

As a CFWA shooter, you all the time need to get nearer to your topic, as a result of it will amplify all of the aforementioned benefits of that approach. For years, the limiting issue was the scale of your dome port, with one of the best CFWA setups counting on 100mm mini-domes (round 4 inches in diameter). Then, alongside got here the Nauticam Extended Macro Wide Lens, or EMWL, a brand new manner of pushing by means of the boundaries of CFWA, with a set of “bugeye” moist lenses.

On this article, I’ll briefly introduce the assorted parts that make up the EMWL, earlier than concentrating on the 2 entrance components that I’ve used extensively because of their larger bugeye potential—the 160° objective lens and the 100° objective lens. I’ll have a look at how these goal lenses differ, the number of pictures you possibly can create with them, and the constraints of the EMWL system as an entire when used with each DSLR and mirrorless cameras.

 

A “bugeye” picture of a sabertooth blenny, guarding its eggs in a discarded bottle (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/22, 1/250s, ISO 640, 15% crop)

 

So What Is a Bugeye Lens?

A bugeye lens permits your digital camera to see the world from the angle of a tiny creature—a bug, an anemonefish, a smurf—by combining a small entrance factor, a large subject of view, and shut focusing capabilities. In a nutshell, this can be a software for excessive CFWA.

For land pictures, the Laowa 24mm “probe lens” might be probably the most well-known bugeye possibility. That is the lens behind Karine Aigner’s now-famous bee mating ball photograph, which gained not solely the 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Yr contest, but additionally the Large Image 2022 grand prize.

Within the underwater realm, Inon has been providing bugeye lenses for greater than a decade, however these have remained area of interest, specialist instruments. I haven’t used these myself, however I’ve heard that picture high quality and focusing challenges have gotten in the way in which of a broader adoption.

 

Saddleback anemonefish, buzzing round their host anemone. That is most likely how you’d see the scene when you have been their measurement (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/80s, ISO 640, crop to 16/9 ratio)

 

If you happen to have been a kind of small anemonefish, that is how massive and intimidating this two-inch-long flamboyant cuttlefish would seem (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/250s, ISO 640, 10% crop)

 

The Nauticam EMWL System

When totally assembled, the EMWL system attaches in entrance of a flat port, utilizing a bayonet mount (by way of an adapter on the port’s 67mm thread). Behind the port sits your macro lens, whose slim subject of view might be transformed right into a a lot wider one by the EMWL.

The EMWL system is made up of three components:

• the focusing unit
• the relay lens
• the target lens

They’re all “moist optics” and join to at least one one other by way of bayonet mounts, so you possibly can assemble/disassemble them within the water.

 

The EMWL, seen from the critters’ perspective. The small goal lens is much less intimidating than an entire housing, making the method simpler

 

The main target unit is the bottom factor that mounts onto the flat port. Nauticam has three variations of this focus unit protecting Canon RF- and EF-mounts, Nikon F- and Z-mounts, Sony E-mount, Panasonic L-mount, Fujifilm G-mount, and the Micro 4 Thirds mount. Confer with the Nauticam port chart to search out out which one is suited to the macro lens that you simply intend on utilizing.

The relay lens is a 150mm (6in) tube, which is put in between the main target unit and the entrance lens. Its function is simply to invert the picture: With out it, the scene will seem upside-down on a DSLR viewfinder. In case you are a mirrorless consumer, you may be capable of invert the show in your digital camera menus, which provides you the choice of doing with out this part.

Lastly, there are 4 goal lenses to select from, providing totally different fields of view, focus distances and entrance factor diameters. My curiosity is creating probably the most excessive CFWA impact, so I’m going to deal with the entrance optics which I really feel serve that function greatest: the 100° and 160° goal lenses.

 

Juvenile sharks beneath a desk coral. The relay lens makes the EMWL longer, which is helpful for squeezing into tight areas the place a housing and a mini-dome can not match (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/14, 1/80s, ISO 640, 30% crop to 16/9 ratio)

 

There are two the reason why the 100° and 160° goal lenses are going to supply probably the most excessive bugeye impact: (i) They each focus proper on the entrance glass, and (ii) their entrance glass may be very small—respectively, 21mm and 20mm in diameter (about 0.8in). See the 100° lens subsequent to my son’s toy dinosaur? The toy is simply 70mm tall (2.75in), however the entrance optic is even smaller, making the dinosaur look large.

 

The 100° goal lens subsequent to a 7cm (2.75in) tall toy

 

Earlier than the EMWL appeared, my favourite CFWA setup was the Tokina 10–17mm fisheye zoom, producing diagonal fields of views from 100° to 180°, behind a Zen 100mm (4in) mini-dome port. The diameter of that dome is about 5 instances bigger than that of the 100° or 160° goal lens. To place it one other manner, with the EMWL, I can produce pictures that I may take with my Tokina/Zen setup if I used to be capable of shrink the entire housing 5 instances—whereas maintaining my strobes at their regular measurement. Fairly cool, eh?

 

This furry frogfish was about 15cm (6in), but it surely appears to be like 5 instances bigger when shot with the EMWL, in comparison with a CFWA fisheye setup (Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL 160°, f/20, 1/200s, ISO 640)

 

Picture High quality

Contemplating the small measurement of the entrance factor of the EMWL and the acute growth of the sector of view, I used to be not sure what to anticipate by way of picture high quality. Within the following, I’ll element my observations primarily based on greater than 70 hours of diving utilizing the EMWL with my Nikon D810 DSLR, and round 17 hours with the Nikon Z9 mirrorless digital camera. Additionally, I’ve owned the 100° goal lens for for much longer, which is why there are extra pictures shot with the 100° reasonably than 160° on this overview.

Gentle Transmission and Digital Noise

The very first thing I seen is how a lot mild the entire system cuts down. There are a number of lenses concerned within the EMWL, and as soon as I hooked up it onto the flat port, my DSLR viewfinder appeared noticeably darker. With the Z9, this wasn’t noticeable, because the digital viewfinder compensates by brightening the show.

In fact, this impacts ambient mild and strobe mild in the identical manner, so I handled this by working at larger ISO values. Below shiny daylight, I sometimes shot at ISO 400 or 500, and beneath darker situations, I discovered ISO 640 to 800 to be essential.

Utilizing a full-frame digital camera is unquestionably a bonus right here, as digital noise stays low at these reasonable ISO values. With my nine-year-old 36MP D810, I used to be joyful utilizing the EMWL at ISO 800. With the Z9’s extra fashionable sensor, I didn’t assume twice about working at ISO 1000 and even ISO 1250 when steady lights have been concerned.

 

A typical octopus displaying off in a sponge backyard. I needed to bump up the ISO to seize the small quantity of ambient mild that remained at nightfall (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 160° goal lens, f/16, 1/25s, ISO 1000, 10% crop)

 

A black frogfish on the sand is kind of a difficult topic by way of dynamic vary for any digital camera sensor. At ISO 640 on my venerable D810, I used to be nonetheless capable of get well shadows and many of the highlights (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 160° goal lens, f/16, 1/250s, ISO 640, 10% crop)

 

Colour

Apparently, the EMWL provides pictures a green-yellow shade forged. That is simply mounted in post-processing with a white stability adjustment, however I’ll state the plain: To get one of the best picture high quality out of the EMWL, that you must shoot in RAW format. I seen the Z9’s auto white stability handles that shade forged higher than the D810, however nonetheless, it deserves a last contact in modifying software program.

When I’m house and I’ve completed importing the RAW recordsdata into Adobe Lightroom, I take a white stability measurement, and apply it to all of the pictures from that final dive. Then I sit again, chill out, and watch the photographs come to life, with vibrant and contrasty colours revealing themselves. Total, I’m very happy with the colours I can get out of the EMWL, particularly when working near the topic—which is what the lens is supposed for.

 

Leafy seadragon in Fast Bay, South Australia. The colours look pretty much as good as one would count on from a fisheye lens (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/16, 1/250s, ISO 400)

 

Lens Flare

After dozens of dives with the 100° goal lens, I have to say it’s fairly liable to flare. Below daylight situations, be it beneath a jetty or within the open, whether or not or not the solar is within the body, I skilled flare as a rule.

To resolve this, I typically hooked up my lens hood over the entrance factor, however this restricted how shut I may get to the topic by an inch or so. In lots of instances, this didn’t restrict my photographic alternatives, besides when I discovered a small topic that tolerated the lens up shut. In such instances, to maximise the bugeye impact, I might take off the hood and flare would return. In these cases, I resolved the problem by chopping off the ambient mild fully: I elevated the shutter velocity till the background was black, which additionally masked the flare. That is why my most excessive CFWA photographs taken with the 100° goal lens are likely to have a black background.

Against this, with the 160° goal lens, I didn’t discover any flare, regardless of utilizing it for round 14 hours. I would want to dive that lens longer to confidently say that it by no means reveals flare, however I already developed the behavior of utilizing that lens and not using a hood.

 

To get the magnification I wished with this small coconut octopus, I needed to take off the lens hood, which resulted in seen flare (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/16, 1/20s, ISO 640)

 

Sharpness

I’ve to admit that I’m not a lot of a pixel peeper, so I haven’t photographed pool partitions to resolve if I appreciated the EMWL’s capability to resolve particulars. My qualitative opinion is that it’s glorious: When working at a detailed focus distance (lower than a foot or 30cm), which is what this technique is optimized for, I discovered the extent of element nearer to my macro lens than to my fisheye lens.

Once more, it’s a qualitative assertion, but it surely’s price mentioning that a few of my EMWL pictures have gained worldwide awards, have been printed in magazines, and look good when printed massive, so for me, they tick all the best containers with regard to picture high quality. This is applicable additionally after cropping: Not all critters allow you to get shut sufficient to fill the body, and I’ve cropped numerous my 36MP D810 recordsdata by as a lot as 33%, to 24MP. I’m very happy with the extent of element captured even with such substantial cropping.

 

The uncommon noticed handfish is tough to method, and I needed to crop this shot to fill the body. Nonetheless, the element within the resultant 27MP picture is spectacular (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/200s, ISO 640, 25% crop)

 

The sharpness of that crocodilefish’s eye feels just about “macro grade” to me (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/250s, ISO 640)

 

Depth of Subject

When the topic is a foot (30cm) or additional away from the entrance factor, I discovered that f/11 to f/14 gave me ample depth of subject on both of the full-frame cameras I used. As I get nearer to the topic, I sometimes labored between f/18 and f/22 when chasing probably the most excessive bugeye results.

 

A male weedy seadragon, whose lengthy snout begs for a critically stopped-down aperture! (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/20, 1/250s, ISO 500, 5% crop)

 

A caramel nudibranch practically touching the lens (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/25, 1/250s, ISO 640, 10% crop)

 

At larger magnification ratios, when your topic practically touches the entrance factor, the depth of subject actually shrinks and the background goes to be out of focus, even at stopped-down apertures. It is a key distinction with fisheye-based CFWA: On the highest magnification ratio, with the EMWL, you merely can not get a pointy background.

 

With this kind of magnification—the red-fingered anglerfish was about 2in (5cm) tall—the dive mannequin goes to be out of focus (Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL 160°, f/16, 1/80s, ISO 640, 10% crop)

 

Having a pointy dive mannequin is feasible, however you need to again off from the foreground and get the mannequin nearer (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/14, 1/60s, ISO 640, 10% crop)

 

Autofocus

When the EMWL was introduced, the pitch was an underwater bugeye lens with “usable” autofocus. Earlier than attempting the EMWL, I used to be anticipating the expertise to be much like utilizing a moist diopter for tremendous macro, which means having to make use of a robust focus mild to assist the digital camera and resorting to handbook focus regularly.

Nikon DSLR

In 2021, the day lastly got here once I took the EMWL for a primary dive, and I used to be blown away by the autofocus velocity and accuracy on my Nikon D810. This was surprising: I all the time thought of my D810 to be sluggish (for a DSLR), particularly when put next with my Nikon D500 and its cousin the D850.

 

The main target is tack-sharp on the attention, regardless of this 2in (5cm) toadfish swimming into the EMWL at evening, by some means mesmerized by the crimson mild (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/16, 1/200s, ISO 640)

 

These striped catfish have been purposefully swimming throughout the bay once I noticed them. I positioned myself on their path and will take simply a few photographs earlier than they turned away (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/250s, ISO 400, 25% crop)

 

The magic of physics and Nauticam’s intelligent design resulted within the overwhelming majority of my photographs being good and sharp, with the main target precisely the place I wished it. I estimate my success charge at about 90%, and that features swimming topics, daylight capturing in lower than 15 toes visibility (and not using a focus mild), and night-time capturing with a crimson dive mild. With out the EMWL, my D810/105mm mixture doesn’t get anyplace near that success charge!

I used to be mystified how an additional piece of glass could possibly be bettering autofocus efficiency, so I went to Nauticam for a proof. In layman phrases, the 105mm lens focuses quicker for 2 causes. First, the EMWL “compresses” the focusing distance vary, which means the lens doesn’t must “hunt” for focus anymore. Second, the EMWL is designed to enhance distinction underwater, which additionally helps the digital camera attain focus.

 

A furry frogfish swallows a fortescue at evening. When the motion hots up, I’m fairly assured that autofocus will get the job carried out (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/200s, ISO 400)

 

Nikon Mirrorless Digicam

Autofocus accuracy points have been reported when utilizing the EMWL on some mirrorless cameras. When utilizing the Nikon Z9 and the Z-mount 105mm lens, I’ve additionally skilled these difficulties—noticeable back-focus issues on my EMWL photographs.

With out getting too technical, mirrorless cameras autofocus in several methods to DSLRs, every digital camera model having its personal expertise. Cameras of various manufacturers will open up the aperture to varied ranges to assist focusing (the extra mild, the better the job), however this may occasionally end in a bodily phenomenon known as “focus shift,” with the chance of manufacturing back-focused pictures. Once more, totally different digital camera producers differ of their method, by way of the workarounds they use to mitigate that focus-shift drawback. These workarounds are designed for particular lens constructions, and sadly, a few of them don’t appear to carry when the optical formulation is modified by including the EMWL system into the equation.

The EMWL focus-shift state of affairs is understood to impression Nikon mirrorless cameras (which I may verify in my testing), whereas Canon mirrorless our bodies are basically unaffected on the stepped-down apertures that I really helpful earlier. Present Sony and Olympus mirrorless cameras look like unaffected too, however the difficulty was reported with older Sony our bodies (e.g., the Sony A7R III). Luckily, when capturing video with the EMWL on the Nikon Z9, I haven’t skilled any back-focus difficulty—which is smart, because the aperture stays mounted whereas recording a video.

As I’m writing these strains, Nauticam are conducting in depth testing to slim down the problem and are investigating options to reinforce the expertise on affected cameras.

Regardless of the back-focus drawback, I’ve taken some nonetheless pictures that I’m very pleased with utilizing the Nikon Z9 and EMWL mixture, however I needed to adapt the way in which I shoot the system.

 

Specializing in the underside jaw, versus the attention, received the aircraft of focus the place I wished it (Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL 160°, f/20, 1/200s, ISO 800, 20% crop)

 

When autofocusing repeatedly (AF-C 3D), I picked a spotlight level sightly in entrance of the place I wished the main target aircraft to be (sometimes the attention). Generally, I needed to disable animal recognition, as a result of the Z9 would cheekily acknowledge the attention and attempt to deal with it. When the topic wasn’t transferring a lot, I discovered that switching to handbook focus—with focus peaking turned on—was workable, too. If you considered utilizing back-button autofocus, be aware that focus peaking will show solely whenever you begin overriding the main target manually, by way of the lens’ focus ring.

Total, the expertise I had when capturing the EMWL with a mirrorless digital camera was nearer to what I used to be anticipating initially—having to be extra fingers on with the autofocus. It’s positively workable, and the picture high quality is great, when following the above suggestions. As compared, utilizing the EMWL on a Nikon DSLR is ridiculously straightforward (I haven’t tried with a Canon physique), and I hope Nauticam will discover a approach to increase the bar to that very same degree for all mirrorless shooters.

 

With focus pre-set (handbook focus), I relied on focus peaking to know when to press the shutter, because the porcupinefish was getting nearer (Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL 160°, f/20, 1/200s, ISO 640)

 

160° vs 100° Goal Lenses: Which One?

Each the 100° and 160° goal lenses are capable of produce excessive CFWA pictures which are merely unattainable to realize with a fisheye lens, with spectacular magnification ratios. Normal CFWA pictures are simpler to supply, too, as a result of the entrance factor of the EMWL is much less intimating than a mini-dome and housing to many marine creatures.

The 160° goal lens has turn into my go-to EMWL lens for day dives: It’s straightforward to fill the body with a 2–4in (5–10cm) topic, and at 160 levels, it could actually cowl bigger topics like turtles, gropers, and sharks. Additionally, its wider subject of view makes it a lot simpler to incorporate a mannequin behind your bugeye topic. Lastly, I like with the ability to work with out flare and let ambient mild brighten up my water backgrounds, even at excessive topic magnifications.

 

This angle could also be achievable with a fisheye lens, however there is no such thing as a probability this fiddler ray would have tolerated my mini-dome and housing so shut (Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL 160°, f/14, 1/125s, ISO 640, 10% crop)

 

This moray eel was fairly curious and adopted my EMWL entrance factor, even bumping into it now and again. The quick distance wide-angle provides this portrait its “T-Rex” really feel (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/25, 1/250s, ISO 500, 15% crop)

 

The 100° lens was too tight to supply an attention grabbing bugeye shot with out lacking components of this turtle (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/16, 1/20s, ISO 1000)

 

Regardless of my choice for the 160°, I nonetheless carry the 100° goal lens in a pocket and can swap as quickly as the topic is somewhat too skittish to realize a great magnification ratio with the 160°. Some topics are additionally too small for the broader lens: The “slim” 100° subject of view provides me a extra beneficiant working distance, which additionally makes lighting somewhat simpler—although, sure, we’re speaking a one-inch (2–3cm) distinction!

For evening dives, I desire the 100° goal lens, as a result of I’m not going so as to add a mannequin within the body, I do know that flare gained’t be an issue, and will probably be simpler to fill the body with smaller topics. I’ll take the 160° lens in a pocket in case an even bigger animal exhibits up.

 

This frogfish was about 1.5in (4cm) lengthy, and I believe it could not have tolerated the 160° goal lens shut sufficient to permit me to fill the body (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/250s, ISO 640)

 

Last Ideas

The EMWL system exceeded my expectations by way of picture high quality and ease of use. I now all the time have the EMWL clipped onto a D-ring every time I dive with my 105mm macro lens. To place it one other manner, once I go for a CFWA dive, I have a tendency to choose the EMWL as an alternative of my fisheye lens, realizing I’m able to swap to macro if the necessity arises. This provides me quite a lot of flexibility and leads to more-productive dives.

 

A traditional super-macro topic: an emperor shrimp sitting on a donut nudibranch (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam SMC-1, f/18, 1/250s, ISO 800, 15% crop)

 

The EMWL provides a unique perspective on the very same topic, telling a narrative in regards to the atmosphere it lives in (Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8, Nauticam EMWL with 100° goal lens, f/18, 1/250s, ISO 800, 15% crop)

 

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Concerning the Reviewer: Nicolas Remy is an Australia-based professional shooter and founding father of on-line underwater pictures faculty The Underwater Club. His pictures have been broadly printed in print and digital media, and have gained over 35 worldwide photograph awards. To see extra pictures that Nicolas and his spouse Lena have shot with the EMWL, go to their web site, www.nicolaslenaremy.com, and seek for “EMWL.”

 

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