under water
Contributor
I bought the Oly E-PL1 a few months back and then purchased the Oly 9-18 lens, the Oly housing with a Zen dome, 2 Inon s2000 strobes and a Light & Motion Sola 600 focus/video light. I was ready to check it all out and ready to move up from the Canon G series (G9). I was eagerly anticipating taking it to Sipadan in Borneo to try it out.
Just back from the trip, I am happy to report that it performed for the most part as expected with a few grumbles and a lot of kudos.
The bad:
I did it. I forgot on one dive to flip up the flash, so no pix on that dive. It is a serious shortcoming that the Oly housing does not have a way to put up the flash after it is closed. When you forget, and you will, it's a drag!
The Sola 600 light, recommended highly, but it died after the first dive. I might have liked it had I got to use it, but I can't recommend something that supposedly is sealed and yet still apparently floods. I emailed Light & Motion from Mabul (SeaVentures) and they never replied to my email. Thanks to the folks at Reef for getting back to me. I eventually got hold of L&M after I returned, but only after having to leave a voicemail at their support # ??
The Zen dome seems to create some significant blurring on the edges in some situations. Perhaps it is a focus issue. I'm not sure. You can see what I mean in one of the pictures I will post below. Sharp in the middle, fuzzy on the edges. Not what I expected. I was glad to have it to get to 100% FOV, but I have to say, I kinda missed my UWL-100 wet lens for convenience and flexibility.
Focusing while taking video. especially without a working focus/video light... forgetaboutit! Even with the "silent and quick" 9-18 lens it still takes too long to find a target and focus when shooting video. Never a problem with strobe photos though. As reported on this board and elsewhere. Video UW relies on getting a good manual setting and pre-focusing. Easier to say than do, especially on the first trip with the camera. I'll put up a link to a 5 minute video in a few days.
The good:
Given the less than perfect viz we had ,the pictures came out pretty good. I ended up using the 9-18 lens with the Zen dome for everything. Changing out ports to use the 14–42mm lens for macro didn't seem worth it as I figured I could just get closer with the 9-18 mm or crop afterwards. Some examples below. If I was doing shore diving there (we didn't do much of that, since we got to Sipadan on each day we wanted) I would have used macro much much more.
The Inon s2000 strobes worked perfectly in sTTL mode. Although rated the same as the Ike DS125, they didn't really seem to put out as much light though. But they were so much easier to use and transport. No cables, easier to move around for controlling lighting.
All in all , I was very pleased with the camera, lens, housing and strobes. I should have practiced more before I went on a trip on the other side of the planet, but hey.. I only got the 9-18mm lens 2 days before we left!
Some pix below: most have has some kind of processing in Lightroom (cropping, reduction in size, etc)
All comments welcome.
Just back from the trip, I am happy to report that it performed for the most part as expected with a few grumbles and a lot of kudos.
The bad:
I did it. I forgot on one dive to flip up the flash, so no pix on that dive. It is a serious shortcoming that the Oly housing does not have a way to put up the flash after it is closed. When you forget, and you will, it's a drag!
The Sola 600 light, recommended highly, but it died after the first dive. I might have liked it had I got to use it, but I can't recommend something that supposedly is sealed and yet still apparently floods. I emailed Light & Motion from Mabul (SeaVentures) and they never replied to my email. Thanks to the folks at Reef for getting back to me. I eventually got hold of L&M after I returned, but only after having to leave a voicemail at their support # ??
The Zen dome seems to create some significant blurring on the edges in some situations. Perhaps it is a focus issue. I'm not sure. You can see what I mean in one of the pictures I will post below. Sharp in the middle, fuzzy on the edges. Not what I expected. I was glad to have it to get to 100% FOV, but I have to say, I kinda missed my UWL-100 wet lens for convenience and flexibility.
Focusing while taking video. especially without a working focus/video light... forgetaboutit! Even with the "silent and quick" 9-18 lens it still takes too long to find a target and focus when shooting video. Never a problem with strobe photos though. As reported on this board and elsewhere. Video UW relies on getting a good manual setting and pre-focusing. Easier to say than do, especially on the first trip with the camera. I'll put up a link to a 5 minute video in a few days.
The good:
Given the less than perfect viz we had ,the pictures came out pretty good. I ended up using the 9-18 lens with the Zen dome for everything. Changing out ports to use the 14–42mm lens for macro didn't seem worth it as I figured I could just get closer with the 9-18 mm or crop afterwards. Some examples below. If I was doing shore diving there (we didn't do much of that, since we got to Sipadan on each day we wanted) I would have used macro much much more.
The Inon s2000 strobes worked perfectly in sTTL mode. Although rated the same as the Ike DS125, they didn't really seem to put out as much light though. But they were so much easier to use and transport. No cables, easier to move around for controlling lighting.
All in all , I was very pleased with the camera, lens, housing and strobes. I should have practiced more before I went on a trip on the other side of the planet, but hey.. I only got the 9-18mm lens 2 days before we left!
Some pix below: most have has some kind of processing in Lightroom (cropping, reduction in size, etc)
All comments welcome.