Expanding the Nikonos V System

Expanding the Nikonos-V Lens System

The greatest amount of control a photographer has over creative expression is through the choice and use of interchangeable lenses. The Aqualens is a tool that will allow the Nikonos underwater camera system to further expand its wide-angle options and offer access to several different wide-angle topside Nikkor lenses for use underwater.

The Aqualens is a housing that keeps the topside lens inside it dry while it bayonets into the Nikonos camera body just as a regular Nikonos lens would. An aperture-ring gear and focus gear allow access for adjusting these settings. It accommodates the use of the 35mm, 28mm, 24mm, 20mm, 18mm and 16mm fisheye lenses. Of course, all these lenses must be used as manual-focus lenses on the Nikonos camera. The two most useful of these lenses is the 20mm and the 16mm fisheye.

The 20mm/2.8 Nikkor, behind the dome port of the Aqualens, retains its 94-degree angle of view. Therefore, it performs similar to a Nikonos 15mm lens underwater. This lens has a rectilinear design with close focusing ability and can be used for all wide-angle objectives underwater, including wrecks, reef panoramas and large marine animals.

The 20mm lens can double as an excellent topside wide-angle lens on any Nikon SLR camera body. When used with an autofocus Nikon camera, it offers fast and accurate AF ability. Any traveling photographer visiting the exotic diving destinations will appreciate having this lens do double duty for topside scenes, and thereby minimizing the amount of gear required for them to pack and haul around.

The 16mm/2.8 Fisheye Nikkor will also retain its full angle of view--180 degrees--behind the dome port of the Aqualens. With this lens, you can expand the Nikonos-V system to another dimension that can create new images. With its close focusing ability and extreme angle of view, the 16mm fisheye in the Aqualens can photograph very large subjects at point-blank range and still fully capture them within the frame. The forced perspective that results is very dramatic, and the reduced subject distance produces very sharp and colorful images.

Since this is a fisheye lens, there is a normal "barrel effect" that is revealed through the bending of straight lines. This effect becomes greater as objects are located farther away from the center of the frame and closer to the edge. But conveniently, there are no real straight lines on a coral reef and so it becomes a great tool for most underwater wide-angle situations. The only time a photographer should consider the barrel effect is when shooting a wreck, or some other structure, that is photogenic because of its straight lines.

The 16mm/2.8 AF Fisheye Nikkor is also a very useful topside lens for traveling and taking great panoramic shots of exotic locations.

The Aqualens is a wonderful accessory for the Nikonos underwater system that will improve the creative abilities of all photographers. It is recommended that its dedicated optical viewfinder is used with it for best results. The viewfinder includes a series of interchangeable masks for best use with different interchangeable lenses.

For purchasing or further technical information, contact Helix Camera at 1-800-33-Helix.

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