The Underwater Club › Forums › Equipment and Techniques › EMWL- relays and objective lens, 160 or 130? › Reply To: EMWL- relays and objective lens, 160 or 130?
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Hey @DawnatLLS
Agreed with John, the straight relay really isn’t that of an issue to move around, as long as you’ve got your rig’s buoyancy sorted out. The EMWL itself is quite negative so you need floats near it. I can recommend the custom-made floats from E-Oceans, they’re turning the EMWL neutral and make aiming it in mid-water a breeze.
You could possibly start without a relay… but I am not sure your A7R IV has that option of flipping the view… Here it is on the A7R V menus:
https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP1000669420.html?search=flip
Also, it’s worth noting that this option works only on the rear monitor. So if your’e like me and always shoot through the EVF, that won’t be of too much help. If you happen to shoot via an external monitor then that would be a good alternative to the relay (most of these have their own invert function).
If you were to get only one lens at start, I’d edge towards the 100 degrees optic. It’s so versatile, and you can fill the frame with really small subjects (less than 1 inch). If you don’t like the bugeye effect, simply shoot from further away (30cm / 1 foot+) and it starts to look like a Tokina 10-17mm, zoomed in fully. See this seadragon photo for example of a CFWA shot without bugeye effect: https://www.underwatercompetition.com/Photos/View/311621672234584 I took it with the 100 degrees lens, uncropped, and the distorsion isn’t too strong.
For your second lens, absolutely the 160! Now that it’s here, the 130 has lost a lot of appeal. The 160 is very strong optically, no flare, and more versatile again: you can get bugeye if you want to, or give your photos a more WA look by keeping further away (I can post later a couple of examples to illustrate this). If you feel you’re not filling the frame enough with a subject/scene, then swap to your 100, I’d definitely take both on a dive.