Pentax K-5 body
Pentax 10-17 fisheye
For many years I’ve been putting off shooting underwater. My Optio W60 is a great waterproof compact camera, but it doesn’t have the depth rating for scuba diving or the image quality for professional use.
I looked into an underwater housing for the 645D, but there were none available off the shelf and a custom built housing would be many thousands of dollars. (It would also be like scuba diving with a submarine.)
Ikelite, perhaps the biggest manufacturer of underwater housings, has however just released a housing for the Pentax K5/K7 cameras.
For many reasons (that I’ll explain in future posts) I decided to buy a K5, a 10-17mm fish-eye lens and the Ikelite housing. The housing is on its way from the States as we speak, while the K5 and lens arrived a couple of days ago.
Bear’s friend Ref posed for a few shoots so I could test out the fish-eye lens.
Fish-eye on Ref (K-5 with 10-17mm)
Fish-eye on Ref (K-5 with 10-17mm)
Underwater photography is going to be an exciting challenge. Already have plans to shoot a lost city, a few sharks, and the occasional mermaid.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 
Envious. I have that lens; it’s a lot of fun. And I want to start diving. Now there’s a housing for a camera fitting that lens. In a few years perhaps…
I don’t dive much, if at all, but I have a UW housing for my old C-8080, and one for my XZ-1, which also acts as that cameras all-weather housing. With the latter on my Olympus XZ-1 it is the size of a Pentax 645D, quite manageable! Costs just a few hundred bucks, and OK down to 40 meters!
The UV housing for the C-8080 is huge, but I hope that it can be converted to fit my K-5. Just need the shutter release, and room for my Tamron 10-24, or the DA15 – hmm, that fish-eye looks great!
A Happy New Year from a stormy Sweden!
Tord
Can’t wait to see what effect a fish-eye lens has on underwater photos.
Have fun trying it out!
I’m thinking about getting this one… It has a better ISO than the K7 and better video quality compared with the KR. Anyway it’s hard to find in second hand shops, maybe because it’s pretty new in the market.