There are many types of lenses which are designed as per the requirements one needs underwater. Some lenses are designed keeping in mind the challenges one face in underwater photography.
The types of lenses are-
- Prime Lenses – A 20mm, 60mm and 100mm lenses are the examples of prime lenses. A lens which is directly attached to the body of the camera is known as prime lens. Prime lens are optically superior lenses. The only disadvantage of these lenses is that they cannot be removed during a dive.
- Zoom Lenses – A lens having two numbers like 18-55mm is a zoom lens. When the subject gets larger it is ‘zoom in’ and when the subject gets smaller it is ‘zoom out’. The smaller number like 18 in this case is the wide end of the zoom range and the larger number like 55 here is the telephoto end.
- Wide angle Lenses – These lenses enable you to take shots of big objects or wide area such as a large coral reef underwater. These lenses give high contrast and dense color effects. One can achieve high level of success with wide angle lenses.
- Telephoto Lenses – These lenses allow you to take photos of subject which are far away. These lenses are extremely useful underwater as many fishes or small creatures are scared of humans. These lenses help in capturing them from a distance.
- Mid-range Lenses - A lens that is in between telephoto and wide angle lens is known as mid-range lens.
- Rectilinear and Fisheye Lenses – Wide angle lenses are of two types – rectilinear wide-angle lenses and fisheye lenses. Fisheye lenses are wider than wide angle lenses. A 20mm fisheye lens will be wider than a 20mm rectilinear lens.
- Macro Lenses – Macro lenses help in capturing close ups of the subject. This is not at all related to wide angle or telephoto. They just help in getting closer to the object.