Why the Nauticam EMWL Isn’t for Everyone—But Might Be Perfect for You

There are a handful of moments in underwater photography when a new tool can create images that have never been seen before. Not in some vague “this lens is sharp” kind of way, but in a shift that alters your creative instincts and how you approach your shooting. For me, the Nauticam EMWL (Extended Macro Wide Lens) was one of those moments.

At first glance, the EMWL looks like something off a science fiction set — a long, almost surgical probe with interchangeable optics and a heavy price tag to match. But this odd-looking extension of my housing is a game changer. Over the last two years, I’ve dragged this lens through my travels around the world, I’ve loved it, hated it, cursed it, and ultimately, come to appreciate the images it offers, but the lens is not without its issues.

This is the story of how I use the EMWL — what it does brilliantly, where it drives me mad, how it can genuinely evolve your photographic portfolio, and whether it deserves a place in your dive bag.

A Brief History: From Concept to Reality

To understand the EMWL, you need to understand what problem it was designed to solve.

Traditionally, underwater photographers were forced into a binary decision: wide-angle or macro. You pick one, and you shoot the dive that way. Changing ports and lenses underwater? Not a chance. You’d shoot a macro nudibranch, swim 30 meters to a stunning reefscape, and curse the fact you had a 60mm lens on.

Now, enter wet lenses — the clever trick of placing an external lens in front of your port. For years, we’ve had diopters for macro and wide-angle converters like the WWL-1. These gave flexibility, but with compromise.

Nauticam looked at this and said: ‘what if we went further?’

The EMWL was first teased around 2019 and rolled out to real-world users in 2020–2021. The idea was deceptively simple but technically complex: a relay lens system that allowed you to attach a modular wide-angle objective in front of a standard macro lens. This meant you could shoot “wide-angle macro” — tiny subjects, massive backgrounds, with surreal perspective.

It was designed with pros in mind — people shooting full-frame systems like Nikon D850, Sony A1, or Canon R5, using proper macro glass (think Sony 90 or Nikon 105). But what made the EMWL fascinating was its modularity: three front optics (160°, 100°, and 130°) gave different fields of view, with different distortion characteristics. It could even be used on MFT and APS-C cameras with the right port setup.

This wasn’t a bolt-on gimmick. It was a full-on reimagining of what macro photography could be underwater.

What the EMWL Actually Does

Let’s get technical for a second, because understanding this lens system helps make sense of both its strengths and its quirks.

The EMWL is composed of three core parts:

• Focusing Unit – This component attaches directly to your macro lens and port. It is specific to the brand and model of your macro lens, ensuring proper focus and optical alignment.

• Relay Module – The long cylindrical mid-section of the system, the relay module transmits the image forward while allowing your camera housing to remain at a distance from the subject. It also inverts the image, correcting the upside-down orientation that would otherwise result.

• Front Optic – This is the final element at the end of the relay system and determines your field of view—typically 160°, 130°, or 100°. Any of these front optics can be used with your macro lens, as long as they are paired with the corresponding focusing unit.

The result is something like a periscope for your macro lens. Your camera thinks it’s shooting a nudibranch from six inches away, but the lens physically extends your focus plane much closer to the subject. And because the front optic is ultra-wide, you can capture a small creature with its entire environment in the frame.

Let me be crystal clear: this is not a toy. When everything is aligned, the EMWL produces images you simply can’t get with any other setup. You’re shooting a 2cm crab with a reef wall behind it. A seahorse in front of a diver. A blenny framed by sunbeams. The effect is surreal, but it can be hard to use

Do I need to buy all of the parts?

The focusing unit is essential—it’s specific to your macro lens and absolutely necessary for the system to work. The same goes for the front optic. You can choose between the 160°, 130°, or 100° versions, but most people opt for the 160° since it offers the most extreme perspective and produces the most unique images. I’ve used the others, but the 160° is definitely the go-to choice for the majority of shooters.

The relay module is the contentious part. Its only real function is to invert the image—without it, the view through your optical viewfinder would be upside down, which is nearly impossible to work with underwater. However, if you’re using an external monitor (which many underwater shooters do), you can simply flip the image in the monitor’s settings. These monitors are designed for tight and awkward shooting scenarios, and using one effectively removes the need for the relay. Skipping the relay not only simplifies the setup and makes it easier to manage underwater, but it’s also reported to improve image quality by reducing the number of optical elements in the path.

How I Use It (And Where It Shines)

The EMWL really shines for me during my annual Lembeh trips. I shoot with a Sony A7RV, a 90mm macro lens, and the 160° optic. At first, I struggled—the lens is long, awkward, and any bit of backscatter can wreck a shot. But with some practice, it begins to shine, and the images that start to roll off are truly unique.

I’ve photographed hundreds of frogfish, but the images this lens produces look like something out of a dream sequence. Not quite macro. Not quite wide-angle. Something else entirely. It was refreshing to see one of my favorite subjects in a completely new way.

What I love most is how the lens lets you capture macro scenes, not just macro subjects. It’s incredibly rewarding for behavioral photography. One of my favorite uses was photographing clownfish guarding their eggs—I could frame the entire scene: the anemone, the parent clownfish, the juveniles darting around, and the clutch of eggs all in one image.

Here’s where the EMWL shines:

• Behavioral Macro in Context
  Want to shoot a goby guarding its eggs inside a bottle, with the reef in the background? This lens eats that for breakfast.

• Subjects With Habitat
  Decorator crabs, skeleton shrimp, seahorses—anything that lives against textured, colorful backdrops becomes visually compelling.

• Shallow Water Magic
  Since you’re working close to the subject and the lens absorbs light, it performs beautifully in shallow water under bright ambient conditions.

The 100° optic is the sweet spot for most situations. It provides enough width to incorporate interesting backgrounds without introducing extreme distortion. The 130° is spectacular but more prone to flare and corner softness. The 60° is better suited for tighter environmental portraits, with a more compressed perspective.

Lighting is the real trick. The EMWL extends far in front of your strobes, so standard arm setups often fall short. I use longer arms with ball-jointed snoots, and sometimes backlighting gels, to shape the light around the front optic. It’s fiddly—but when it works, it’s worth it.

Expanding the Reach of Your Portfolio

Here’s where the EMWL goes beyond just being a cool tool — it gives your portfolio an entirely new layer. If you shoot commercially or for editorial publication, you’ll understand how important it is to offer visual diversity. Everyone has tight nudibranch shots. Everyone has reefscapes. But wide-angle macro is still a niche. It’s fresh, it stops the scroll, and it opens creative doors.

Adding the EMWL to your kit means you can tell fuller stories. You’re no longer photographing a subject in isolation — you’re putting it in its environment, in relationship with the diver, the reef, the light. It’s not only artistic, it’s ecological. These images communicate scale, habitat, and context in ways that pure macro just can’t.

If you’re building a portfolio for competitions, exhibits, or conservation messaging, the EMWL gives you shots that stand apart.

Pitfalls, Frustrations, and Learning Curves

This wouldn’t be an honest review without covering the parts that drive me mad. And believe me, the EMWL isn’t all sunshine and seahorses.

1. It’s front heavy and clumsy

Once the relay and optic are on, the system becomes nose-heavy. Buoyancy floats are essential, and it is best to add the flotation as far forward as possible. When using this lens I need an additional two carbon float arms to get close to being neutral

2. The lens absorbs light and has shallow depth of field

There’s little point in using this lens to shoot macro subjects against black backgrounds—its strength lies in showcasing the environment. To do that, you need to let in ambient light and burn blue into the background. But the EMWL is a real light sucker, which often forces you to shoot at very slow shutter speeds to achieve that blue water look. On top of that, the lens has extremely shallow depth of field, so you'll typically be shooting at f/18 or smaller just to get acceptable focus. Combine the need for small apertures with slow shutter speeds, and your images can start to look soft. For this reason, prioritize using the EMWL on shallow macro dives when the sun is out in full force—bright natural light will make it much easier to bring out the blue background without compromising sharpness.

3. Water clarity is everything

This lens exaggerates every bit of backscatter. Even minor particulate becomes a swirling mess in your frame. You need pristine water or excellent lighting technique in order to prevent a large amount of backscatter in the image.

4. Maintenance and setup time

The relay must be carefully aligned and also “burped” underwater. It can be a little tricky to do this burping process as you have to detach and re-attach each part separately to remove any air bubbles. The lens does have a built in burp feature, but in my experience it doesn’t work well. Also you need to be careful that you do this in clear water and not when you have just crash landed on the bottom or you will trap backscatter in between the lens pieces.

5. It’s expensive. Really expensive.

Fully kitted with three optics, focusing unit, and relay, you’re looking at over $7,000. Add in floats, arms, and dedicated trays, and this becomes a system for serious shooters only.

6. It’s not a versatile all-rounder

This isn’t a lens you casually slap on for a reef dive—it’s a specialty tool. If you're expecting it to replace your WWL-1 or standard macro lens, it won’t. It’s likely the most expensive lens in your kit and also the one you'll use the least. Accept that early. The EMWL is a niche lens for specific creative opportunities, not something for constant use. I’ve seen many photographers invest in this lens and then overuse it just to justify the cost, often producing subpar images in the process. Be selective. Wait for the right conditions and subjects—when the opportunity is right, this lens can produce images like nothing else.

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?

So, after all this — the cost, the bulk, the light sucking power — is it worth it?

Yes, without doubt, the lens creates new and unique images. The EMWL has given me some of the most unique underwater images I’ve ever created. It forces me to think differently, compose more carefully, and connect my subject to its environment. It’s not about technical perfection. It’s about storytelling. Context. Presence.

That said, I’ve recently sold the lens. After two years of shooting with it, I feel I’ve gotten what I wanted—images that genuinely stand out in my portfolio and that I wouldn’t have captured with any other setup. But this is a significant investment, and with the lens sitting on the shelf after just three Lembeh trips, it didn’t make sense to keep it. It was time to move it on and put that money toward a different piece of gear—something that can help me explore new creative directions and add fresh variety to my portfolio.

If you’re a casual shooter, the EMWL probably isn’t for you. But if you’re serious about underwater photography — if you already love macro and want to push into new creative territory — then yes, this lens is worth every penny and every dropped swear word.

Have you tried the EMWL? Got questions about lighting, buoyancy, or focus tricks? Drop me a message. I love hearing from fellow underwater storytellers.