Friday 23 March 2007

Tokina 10-17mm FishEye DX - Adaptation to use S&S Canon EF-S Ring system

As I mentioned previously, I got myself the Tokina 10-17 Fisheye DX lens for my Canon. The main advantages of this lens are, additionally to the obvious wide-angle produced, the sharpness of the corners underwater and the close focus capability.

Unfortunately, there is no ring system for this lens, at least for my housing (Sea & Sea). Thus, I tried several alternatives to use the zoom of this lens underwater.

My first test was using some kind of foam tape around the zoom in the lens and then put my S&S 60mm focus ring system on top. This seemed to work since the Tokina lens is only slightly thinner than the Canon EF-S 60. This system not only looked bad but also was not very stable. The zoom ring would tend to get out of the place and eventually fall out of the lens to the Dome port - Not such a good idea.

For my second test I used elastic bands (the ones you get for adjusting your clothes) and put it around the zoom. This seemed to work pretty well at the beginning - looks good and it is easily removable from the lens. For this one, I had the help of Rita, my mother-in-law, who generoulsy offered herself to teach me in the art of using an electric sewing machine (cool stuff, let me tell you guys!!!). The problem was that the zoom ring would still tend to fall out of the lens. The problem is that the o-ring inside the zoom ring is in the front of the ring and therefore it would not touch the elastic band.

Third test - final solution: I bought some velcro tape and "glued" it inside the zoom ring (in the oposite side of the existing o-rings). This mad the velcro tape "grab" the elastic band and the zoom ring feels now snug in the lens. I tried already several times and it works perfectly. Just be carefully to check whether the AF is still chosen since the elastic band might put it in MF when putting the zoom ring in the lens.

Since I glued the velcro tape in the lens I still had to make it work with the EF-S 60 lens when using this. For that, I slightly cut the velcro teeth so that they would not scratch in the 60mm lens.

Some pictures below of my solution:



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found you got a Canon 10-22. Have you ever tried to use its zoom gear on this Tokina 10-17 fisheye? Their sizes are almost same...

Nuno Sanches e Silva said...

Hi Limeugene.

Yes indeed I tried the Canon 10-22 zoom gear but the format of the ring is such that you have to put the ring from the back of the lens and there in the Tokina you have the manual/auto focus that does not let the zoom ring get in the lens.

Anonymous said...

well, you used the focus gear of 60 instead of zoom gear of 10-22.
So which dome port you are using with your tokina fisheye? Fisheye or compact dome? Which extention ring you are using with the dome?

Nuno Sanches e Silva said...

Hi. The Dome port I am using with the Tokina Fisheye is the Sea&Sea Glass Dome Port which is a size between the Fisheye and the Compact Dome. The extension ring I use is the S&S SX Extension ring which works perfectly.

In terms of 10-22 zoom gear, it is indeed possible to use it with the Tokina lens. I just did not get the right ring to put in between the lens and the zoom ring.

Anonymous said...

Do you think if compact dome is too small for tokina fisheye?

What does "not get the right ring to put in between the lens and the zoom ring" mean?

Thank you in advance for your further advices.

Nuno Sanches e Silva said...

I believe the compact dome is okay for the tokina fisheye but I do not use that port. I use the glass dome port.

The 10-22 zoom ring is slightly wider than the Tokina lens. I tried to put the elastic band between the lens and the 10-22 zoom ring but it is too tight. I need to find another material to use between the 10-22 zoom ring and the fisheye lens to make it snug.

Since the 60 zoom ring works very well I am not very worried about it for now but will be handy to have it since in a trip I could keep the 60mm zoom ring in the 60 lens and the 10-22 in the Fisheye.