Laowa 10mm Setting It Up // DL Ikelite Underwater Housing Assembly [VIDEO]

The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D Full Frame rectilinear is an affordable new option for super wide-angle underwater photography. Jean Rydberg shows you how to set it up in your Sony underwater housing with DL port mount.

Anti-Reflection Ring

The first thing I'm going to do is put an anti-reflection ring on the front of this lens and that's because the Laowa lens has some white lettering on the front which can reflect back into your image when it's used behind a dome port.

We want to put a small anti-reflection ring on that can be left in place, whether you're shooting underwater or on the surface, and will help cut down on those reflections.

I'm just going to peel the anti-reflection ring off the backing paper. I find that it works most easily when I align the center of the ring with the outer edge of the lens and then just kind of follow that around and press it down with my thumb to make sure it's all adhered properly.

It's not going to affect your shooting on the surface and I just leave mine attached always. You don't ever have to take it back off. If you were ever going to go sell this lens or something, it does pull off cleanly so you don't have to be worried about that.

Our simple, self-adhesive anti-reflection ring attaches to the front of your lens to cover the writing and details that can cause reflections inside of a dome port.

Extension & Dome Port

I can set my lens aside. Now I want to get my dome port ready to put on the lens. What I need for this lens is a large diameter 8-inch Dome Port and with that I need to use a 20mm Extension.

I'm going to attach my extension to the dome port before I get it attached to the housing. To do that, I'm going to loosen my thumbscrews on my dome until there's no threads protruding into the inside of the port diameter. I don't have to do this to attach it right now, but I'm going to go ahead and do that on my extension right now too. That'll make it easier for me later when I go to put the lens in the housing. Now everything's out and ready.

I'm going to take my lubricant, I only use the Ikelite brand lubricant. That's because this is something that we've tested with our materials and our o-rings and we know that it's not going to cause any incompatibility, which could include swelling of o-rings, cracking of plastics, and things like that. It's really important to use a compatible lubricant. So I recommend just sticking with the very affordable Ikelite lubricant that's included with all of these products.

I'm going to put a very small amount of lubricant on my fingers and then I'm going to run it around just the outer surface of that extension, around the sealing surface on the extension, and on the sealing surface of the dome port.

Then I'm going to take my extension, it's really important that I line up all of the thumbscrews on the extension so that they're in the same position as the thumbscrews on the port. That's going to ensure that they're going to go into the correct pockets on the dome port and you're going to get a good attachment point.

Then when I'm threading the thumbscrews, I can just use my fingers I don't have to use a tool. In fact, I don't recommend using a tool because that leads commonly to over-tightening. This could cause parts to become out of round, it could also damage the thumbscrews, or the parts of the port. It's enough to just use your fingers and just tighten them until they stop. If they're in the correct position, you're going to be good to go.

It's important to ensure the thumbscrews on your dome port and extensions are all aligned, as pictured here.

Removing the Dome Shade

Now for this lens, because it's so wide, I actually want to remove the dome shade from the dome port. I do that because if you leave the shade on, you're going to get some vignetting, which means you'll have dark shadowing in the corners of your image. I don't want that, so I'll take the shade off.

When I'm diving with no shade on my port, I want to be extremely careful. When I'm underwater, I don't want to be bumping into the reef or objects. I want to make sure that I'm very aware of where my port is in relation to everything I'm shooting. This lens focuses very closely, and you can shoot very close subjects. But you want to be aware that you're not bumping into stuff. You also want to be very careful when you hand it out of the water to your dive buddy, whether they're on the shore or on a boat. Be very careful how you're handing it so that the dome's not going to crash into anything. When you're on the surface, you want to be careful when you're putting it in a rinse tank. Always hold on to it. Don't let it hit things. And then put it in a very safe place once you're done rinsing it. Cover the dome with either the neoprene cover or a microfiber cloth. Just make sure it's protected especially when you don't have your dome shade attached.

To remove the dome shade, I've got to loosen the four allenhead screws. So I'm just going to use my hex key and loosen all four of those up. Once that's loose, I can just pop it off. Make sure you keep your screws inside of the shade when you store it, just so that you don't lose those. And I'm going to set that aside for when I want to reattach it at some future date.

Installing the Lens onto the Camera

Now we're ready to put this into our housing. I've got my housing and I've got a USB-C bulkhead installed, which is optional in this housing - that'll allow me actually to put all this together with the lens and port then I can leave it all set up for a day or for a week and still charge it and offload pictures through that USB bulkhead. Never have to take the camera out. It's an awesome feature if you're going to be doing a lot of shooting and don't want to be always breaking down your gear

So I've got my lens. I'm going to remove the rear lens cap and I'm going to remove the lens cap from the camera body. I've got a dot on the lens that's going to line up to a white dot on the camera body and then bayonet the lens on.

Line the thumbscrews on the extension and dome port with the pocket located at the top center of your housing.

Installing the Dome Port onto the Housing

Notice when I'm looking at my housing, I have three pockets for the thumbscrews of the dome port. It's really important that I'm getting my thumbscrews aligned with these pockets. If you don't, then that's going to potentially lead to it not sealing correctly or the port not being in the right position. So you want to be very, very aware that the thumbscrews need to be going into these pockets.

I will go ahead and put a little bit of lubricant around the outer visible surface of the o-ring on that port base and then I'll put the excess on the sealing surface of the extension. While I'm doing that, I can feel that these thumbscrews are not protruding into the inside diameter because we don't want to catch the o-ring when we put it on. Then I'm going to find one of my thumbscrews, it doesn't matter which one, and I'm going to line it up with pocket located on the top center of the housing. Push the dome port all the way down and then just use my fingers to tighten the thumbscrews. If I feel any resistance, that's usually a sign that it's not aligned correctly. It really should thread in easily, and you don't need to tighten it with a tool or anything like that. Just tighten it until it stops. When it stops, the head should be flush against the extension.

That's it. Everything's set up. Now what I would do is vacuum test this housing to check for leaks before I get in the water. And I'm ready to go. Good luck and let us know what you shoot with the Laowa 10mm lens.

Additional Viewing

Rectilinear vs Fisheye Lenses for Underwater Wide Angle Photography [VIDEO]

Laowa 10mm FIRST RESULTS Underwater with the Sony a7CR [VIDEO]

Sony a7C II & a7CR // DL vs DLM Ikelite Underwater Housing [VIDEO]

Choosing an Underwater Housing for the Sony a7C II or a7CR

Customizing the Dial Functions on a Sony Mirrorless Camera for Underwater Use [VIDEO]

Ikelite DS230 Strobe Features // The Perfect Wide Angle Strobe? [VIDEO]

Jean Rydberg is the President & CEO of Ikelite. She has lived her whole life in landlocked Indianapolis, Indiana, but is no stranger to the water as a daughter of Ikelite’s founder Ike Brigham. She has traveled around the world shooting and testing gear and enjoys new challenges in both photography and diving. Jean loves to learn about the creative ways photographers achieve their visions. More than anything she wants to show aspiring underwater photographers that excellence is attainable with any system. When she's not working she's spending time with her husband and two daughters.