Sealife Micro Lenses - What and Why You Need Them

While the Sealife Micro 3.0 and Reefmaster 4K (RM4K) offer some great features for taking high quality photos and videos underwater, there are times that you may want to improve the quality of the focus, field of view, and angle of your subject matter. Here are the "what and why" of the optional external lenses that are available for the Micro series of cameras and the RM4K camera.

LENS COMPARISON CHART

Let's start with a few definitions for a better understanding of what the lenses are doing...

Field of View - Imagine you're on land trying to take a photo of a large group of people. You can't get them all in the shot, so you back up a bit in order to get them all into the camera's field of view. Under water it works the same way, except the further you are from your subject, the more water that is between your camera lens and the subject. More water equals more backscatter (those pesky particles in the water that show up in your photo/video) and less light on your subject. Increasing your field of view will allow you to get closer to your subject without cutting off the edge of your subject.

Focus Range - How close you can get to your subject before it gets out of focus. You may not notice it out of focus when taking the photo/video because the screen on your camera is so small. But once you look at it on a larger screen, such as a computer or TV, then you'll notice it out of focus. Adding the external lens will allow you to get closer to your subject and remain in focus.

Straight Line Distortion - Because the lens will focus more in the centre and lens on the edge, it can sometimes cause straight lines to appear "bent" or "curved". This may not be an issue with most underwater subjects, but it will be noticeable with the straight lines of the waterline, a shipwreck, the seabed, etc. Different lenses will have varying degrees of this distortion. 

MICRO 3.0 WITH & WITHOUT LENS

RM4K WITH & WITHOUT LENS