For my underwater images I am using the Canon PS A620 and WP-DC90. Now I think it’s time to put a strobe (or two) on it. I like macro photography so I think a large strobe is not necessary for me. Is the Epoque ES-150DS Alpha set a good choice? Has anyone experience with this type?

Furthermore I am wondering what kind of lens is needed to get good close-up macro shots. How many mm? Is a 67mm suitable? Has anyone image example of macro shots and what lens was used?

Hope somebody can help me.
Thanks.

Bart

Sorry, I can’t add anything regarding the strobe, apart from that more strobe power = more ability to use higher (smaller) aperture settings = greater depth of field, which is at a premium in macro photography.  Hopefully people who have used that strobe or similar ones will be able to tell you how it performs.

Re your question about macro lenses:  I think you may have confused the diameter of the adapter with its focal length.  67mm is a very common diameter, which fits housing ports with a 67mm diameter thread on them.  It does not, however, fit your WP-DC90, which has no thread on its port.  To use a macro adapter with your rig you will need a mount that fits on your housing and allows the attachment of the lens adapter in front of the port.  Such devices are supplied by Inon (among other manufacturers), but having had a quick look at their website (http://www.inonamerica.com), it does not appear that they offer a mount for the WP-DC90.  Again, someone else here may know of an option that suits your housing.

In general, macro adapters allow you to get closer to the subject.  The cost of this is reduced depth of field which results in increased difficulty focussing.

hope this helps

Thanks Graham. I indeed found the lens adapter (Dyron) which fits on the WP-DC90. And there are lenses available from Dyron, Inon or Epoque. However I am curious what lens would be perfect to get really close to the subject. And you were right about the 67mm, that is the treaded port ring. However, correct me if I am wrong but there are lenses like 150mm, 180mm, 50mm and so on. Can you tell me what the difference is?

I hadn’t seen the Dyron adapters before.  They add coverage of housing models not covered by Inon, which is good!  I’ve noticed that most close up adapter lenses are rated by their magnification e.g. 3x, 4x, 6x etc.  I’m not sure of the relationship between this magnification factor and how close they allow you to get.  I know the Inon macro lenses work by allowing you to get closer and still focus on the subject.  Perhaps there are magnifiying lenses that allow you be a little further back from the subject and via the magnification still get a ‘close up’ view of the subject.

You are correct that there are 150mm, 180mm lenses and so on.  These ratings are typically the focal length of the lens.  The focal length gives you a measure of where a lens sits on the continuum between wide angle and telephoto.  Wide angle is what you want for fitting a wide field of view into your shot whilst still being able to be close to your subject.  Telephoto is what you want for getting a close up shot without being close to the subject.

Underwater, the magnifying effect of the water means that any lens becomes more telephoto than it would be on land, so you will hear of people aiming for wide angle lenses much more than telephoto.  In fact, because you typically want to reduce the amount of water between you and your subject as much as possible, wide angle is the primary goal for underwater photographers.

Macro photography brings in a different criteria; that of how close you can focus.  In the world of dSLRs, you can get 60mm macro lenses, 100mm macro lenses etc.  These macro lenses behave differently to a non-macro 60mm or 100mm lens (principally the close focus aspect), so they are not the same thing.  Thus in the macro world, people tend to talk about magnification factors which are effectively a combination of how close the lens can focus as well as the focal length (these two measures are not the same!).

There are a few threads here on digideep, and some also on wetpixel relating to people’s experiences with macro adapters on point and shoot cameras.  These would be the best places to look for information on how good they are underwater.  The technical specs can only get you so far.  I have read a few comments from people who found that although the adapters allowed them to focus down to less than 1cm from the lens, the depth of field was so narrow that it was very difficult to achieve sharp focus - the camera was unable to auto-focus, or took a long time to find its focus.

I have always found the macro mode on canon cameras to be very effective, even underwater, so personally I have not felt the need for a macro adapter to enable me to get any closer than I can with just the camera and housing.

Good luck!