Lessons Learned
When buying new gear, I’m one of those people that has to research things to death. Even once I’ve put the item in my cart, it’s not uncommon for it to sit there for weeks or months before purchasing it. This is what happened with the Laowa Periprobe lens. I wanted it for my freshwater guts story as I needed something I could stick in tiny pools of water that a big camera housing couldn’t fit in.
As soon as I got home, I placed the lens in a sealed container with several desiccant packs. Over the next few days, it looked like it was clearing up, but not long after I removed it from the container, all the fog came back. I had to send out my brand new lens to a repair center, as I do not possess the skills to service lenses. The repair center told me it could take 12 weeks for the lens to be finished and cost $300 for the repairs. A costly mistake, not to mention the unnecessary delay in my project. Moving forward, I will be a lot more thoughtful with my gear.
The issue is that the Laowa probe lenses are only waterproof to a certain point. If you pass the waterproof line on the barrel, water can seep into the lens. I noticed after an hour or so of shooting, my images started looking very foggy. While I can’t pinpoint the exact moment it happened, I must have dipped it a little too deep when setting up one of my shots, and a slight amount of water got in. My initial feeling was a state of complete dread. How could I have been so careless?
Nerite snail reflection. In just over an inch of water, the periprobe is perfect for shots like this, where I couldn’t fit a macro lens and underwater housing unless I was angled downward.
