11/21/96 Monthly Meeting Presentation: I showed 30 slides to demonstrate the use of a Sea&Sea 12mm on a Nikonos V camera body -- for both side-angle close-focus and regular wide-angle shots. During my recent trip to the Philippines and Malaysia, I exposed over 30 rolls of Fuji Velvia film with this lens. I used two Sea&Sea YS120’s strobes on TTL on all shots. My findings are: (1) Despite its super wide angle of 167 degrees, the images appear more linear than I would expect with such a wide lens -- the “bending” distortion at the very edges appear to be quite acceptable to my taste.

In conclusion, I am sharing my new discovery of a very useful lens which seems to provide the capability beyond the width and depth-of-field of the 15mm Nikon. I based my evaluation on my non-scientific guts-feeling and the limited experience, and I would like to hear from other underwater photographers on their experience with this lens.

Robert Yin