David R. Kearnes

Does it eat cheeseburgers off the floor?

All around good lens for underwater. All around meaning pretty good macro, pretty good wide. I have shot nudibranchs and manta rays on the same dive with this lens. The reality is, it is not exceptional at either macro or wide. If you are taking this lens down, you are most likely using a dome port. You cannot get really impressive macro shots using a dome port. If you shoot it wide, it is pretty good. Just not real impressively wide. This lens is perfect if you are about to do a dive where you don't know what you are about to encounter.

GREAT lens. Very difficult to use underwater. The ultra-sonic focusing is way too fast. This lens is beautifully sharp and when shot wide open you can get real buttery bokeh. Probably better as a land lens where you are not dealing with all the chaos of the underwater world but if you are up for a challenge it can be a very powerful tool underwater too. You just need patience. There is a dedicated 1.4 teleconverter that is available and it renders images with very little degradation.

This lens is very sharp and the focusing is quick, silent and accurate. The rectilinear design renders square images but at 10mm the corners seem to be stretched out (accurately rendered but so extremely wide they seem distorted). If you like that effect then this lens holds a lot of creative opportunities for you. I personally prefer the distorted look of a fisheye lens as the corners seem to be more contained. Still, a very great lens.

Easily the best choice for macro photography. You must be capable of approaching subjects closely but the lack of water between the lens and subject, coupled with the depth of field possible make this the lens you are most likely to capture your best macro images with. In a pinch, you can also get medium sized ( up to maybe a foot long) subjects

If you want people to think you are capable of taking great underwater photos,....use this lens. It is sharp, perfectly contrasty and allows you to approach many subjects without scaring them away.

Extremely sharp with a large diameter dome. Very noticeable color fringing near the very outer edges if there are high contrast elements at the corners. I gave it 4 because there is no such thing as a ultra-wide digital camera/lens combo that wont produce fringing in the corners.....yet. Close focusing, great saturation and contrast. It out-performs my Nikkor 16mm fisheye.

I may have been the first person on my island to own one. My first test was to shoot my Nikon N90 with a Nikon lens side by side with my new D200 and compare the results. After scanning the film (Fujichrome Provia) on a high res scanner, 4000dpi (Nikon LS 4000) and bringing them both up to 400%, the D200 was superior in resolution. That's saying a lot going up against the most current version of Provia back then. The color on the Provia was slightly more in-gamut but just by a slight margin. I have nearly 70,000 actuations on the shutter and it still performs flawlessly. This is a classic.

This was an instant classic. When it was introduced it outperformed most strobes with guide number vs size/weight, recycle time, ttl capability, price, coverage angle. After the NiMh batteries came out it was even better. I was amazed on my first chance at using these strobes in a challenging situation in Fiji. I was shooting a very active group (15) of large bull sharks charging all around me. I had no chance of adjusting strobe settings manually for distance because of the speed at which the sharks were traveling. Setting the strobes on ttl gave me perfect results time and time again, even when shooting extreme wide angle lenses with blue water background. Color temp is also very pleasingly warm, perfect for wide angle where you are really needing it.

I have used Ikelite product for a long time and favor their housings and strobes. When the D200 housing was made available, the improvements over past housings was evident. Much thicker walls, solving the problem of flexing at depth. An improved dome system, finally getting serious about large diameter domes. The very best improvement was the ttl circuitry that is still superior over any other housing manufacturer. Their service is also known industry wide to be superior to any other company. I rated four instead of five only because the controls are not as precise as some of the aluminum cast housings. They work just fine but are a little sloppy compared to the very machined and precise cast housings.

Well, at least it sounds like we are dealing with intelligent people hear. Hope the phone trace works.

why is there an ad for shark jaws and teeth on ebay on this page?