May 27, 2009: Underwater housing specialist Fantasea has announced the Big Eye, a new wide angle adaptor lens for digital compact cameras.
The bubble-shaped conversion lens fits over the underwater housing lens port. Fantasea says it's “designed to be universal” (as opposed to actually being universal, I guess) and is compatible with most popular brands of underwater housing.
Inside the glass outer is an air cavity instead of glass elements, which does its magic when the lens is submerged in water, but has no effect on land. As air is cheaper than glass, the BigEye lens is relatively low cost (while prices haven't been announced, overseas prices indicate a local RRP of well over $500). The lens is also lighter and smaller than a conventional wide angle accessory lens.
Tasco Sales, distributor of Fantasea products in Australia, says the BigEye will be available in June. In other parts of the world Fantasea also markets a SharpEye - an underwater macro lens - and a RedEye, which doesn't eliminate redeye in Red Eye, but corrects for an absence of red light underwater. There's no word on local availability of these two from Tasco - but hey, in most people's books there's a few chilly months to go before we reach for the flippers again!
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