Saga Magic Ball Macro Wide Lens

A kaleidoscope, drop of water, and a lens walk into a bar...

The result is something that will open new doors for your underwater photography. The SAGA Magic Ball is possibly the most fun lens you will ever use. It produces a circular fisheye image in the center and a water drop effect on the edges. It might be a one trick pony for underwater photography contests, but it makes images that will capture the eye and it’s a heck of a lot of fun!

How It Works

The Magic Ball consists of two parts—a part in which the lens is inside a sealed air compartment with two panes to maintain the air bubble effect, and the other to adapt to the front a macro lens or lens port. The images have a circular fisheye effect in the center with a clear, sharp picture, and the same image is shown defocused in the background. It has a threaded front lens element which enables focus and adjusts the size of the ball in the image.

When using the recommended close-up lens setups, the focus can be made right up on the subject, allowing for some really dramatic close focus, wide angle macro shots.

A note on shooting technique. The Magic Ball air bubble inverts the image that is in the circular fisheye area, making framing the image tricky at first, but you’ll quickly get used to framing your shots upside-down.

The Magic Ball also works best with using a high aperture for the most amount of depth of field.

Compatible with Compact, Mirrorless, and SLR

For Olympus Tough cameras from Olympus TG-1 to Olympus TG-5, no additional macro lens is necessary to use the Magic Ball, but a 52mm to 67mm stepping ring is needed to have it attach to the front of the Olympus housing. Just put the camera in microscope mode, zoom all the way in, and fire away. The Olympus TG-5 focused on this image very quickly, with no hunting.

For compact camera shooters using a Sony RX100 series, Canon G7X series, or Panasonic LX10, the Saga Magic Ball, requires either a SAGA +15 Diopter Achromatic Close-Up Macro Lens or a Nauticam CMC-1 Compact Super Macro Converter. This will allow the lens to focus up close to the circular image of the Magic Ball.

For Panasonic and Olympus mirrorless shooters the Magic Ball is compatible with the Olympus 60mm Lens and Olympus 14-42mm lens. The Olympus 60mm Lens requires either the SAGA +5 or SAGA +10 Diopter Achromatic Close-Up Macro Lens. The Olympus 14-42mm lens works with either the SAGA +10 Diopter Achromatic Close-Up Macro Lens or Nauticam CMC-1 Compact Super Macro Converter.

For Canon and Nikon SLR shooters, the 60mm macro lens is the best option. It will need either the SAGA +5 or SAGA +10 Diopter Achromatic Close-Up Macro Lens, or the Nauticam SMC-1 Super Macro Converter Lens. The Magic Ball is not compatible with the Nikon 105 or Canon 100 and will not focus with these lenses.

Conclusion

If you’re stuck in a rut with your underwater photography, the Magic Ball will definitely get you inspired again and give you a new perspective. It’s great for a fresh look at subjects you may already have in your image collection. We’ve even been playing around with it at the office with topside subjects too!