Flat ports

FLAT ports are usually used with lenses between 35mm and 180mm, including some zooms and all macro lenses. They do not correct for refraction and so the focal length of your lens increases by about 25% underwater. They do not require correctors.

Ports for Nikon macro lenses

NIKON'S micro lenses are deservedly popular for macro and fish photography.

Both can focus on any point between 1:1 (lifesize) and infinity without adapters. However, the long focus travel of these lenses means that if the autofocus "misses" the subject, the lens takes a long time hunting between infinity and close-focus while it tries to find the correct point of focus.

Similarly a fast moving target, like a fish, may outpace the autofocus. In these situations it can be invaluable to be able to switch to manual focus.

Unfortunately, unlike most other lenses, where manual focus is simply selected via a switch on the camera body that is duplicated on Subal housings, Nikon micro lenses have a control ring around the lens barrel.

Subal, which are very much a solution driven design, have solved this problem ahead of the competition.

Specially developed ports now allow switching between autofocus and manual focus underwater. Special gearings enable the normal manual focus control on your housing to operate the AF/MF selector ring around the lens barrel.

The normal focus mode selector switch on the front of the housing allows you to choose Single or Continuous autofocus as appropriate at the time.

To allow you to manually focus your lens, the port incorporates it own focusing mechanism.

Subal lens gears

SUBAL make gears for most lenses by Nikon and Sigma to control aperture, focus and zoom. Gears are available for most lenses from 15mm full frame fisheye to 200mm tele macro lenses.

They are precision machined for each lens and push into place. Most underwater photographers leave these gears on the lens for ease of setting up.

The 90's have seen tremendous innovations in lens design, much of it based around autofocus, flash metering and other electronic functions which enhance the cameras performance.

Lens manufacturers are constantly introducing new lenses and refining existing ones. Sigma in particular often alter a lens slightly during its lifetime which can sometimes make fitting gears a problem . These improvements can mean that gears are not immediately available or may need to be customised at our workshop.

To ensure your choice of lenses will be fully compatible with your Subal system, please contact us for the most up to date information.

Ocean Optics tries to stock all available gearing for Nikon and Sigma lenses including ultra specialised versions. The option of using special application equipment is a major motivation for choosing Subal. However, please don't leave your decision until the last moment to avoid disappointment!