12-40 Dome port possibility for OMD housings
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Hi- The 7-14 was pretty good underwater, but I wanted more range on the long end and the ability to use filters topside so I upgraded to the Panasonic 8-18. It worked great with the Inon 170mm dome. Within the last couple of years I upgraded from the M1mkI to the M1mkIII and then to the OM-1, the last two were in AOI housings with the PEN port system. They sell an adapter for the OMD port system, so I used that with the Inon dome and the 12-40. The adapter adds length, so I had to switch out the 2" extension to a 1". However, the 8-18 doesn't fit through the PEN port, so I bought the Olympus 8-25. Unfortunately (for my wallet), the 8-25 does not work well with the 170mm dome so I had to go with an 8" dome from AOI. My own take is that I like both the 8-18 and 8-25 better than the 7-14 and would feel comfortable with either in the right dome. If I needed a low drag option to keep up with big swimmers I would go with the Oly 8mm fisheye in a smaller dome.
Speaking of, my go to set up now with the AOI housing is an Inon dome meant for the the 8mm in PEN ports. With a 34mm extension from AOI, it works great with the Oly 12-45. It's a nice, compact package just as good underwater as the 170mm/12-40 combo. This Inon dome appears to be slightly larger than most domes sold for the 8mm, so your results may vary if you try another brand. The Inon dome is discontinued, and I scratched mine badly a few months ago; I had to buy the same dome intended for OMD ports and have Backscatter switch the glass- I went through the hassle because I felt that the results were worth it.
Long answer, but there's lots of hard-earned info in this thread so I figured I would add to it.
Speaking of, my go to set up now with the AOI housing is an Inon dome meant for the the 8mm in PEN ports. With a 34mm extension from AOI, it works great with the Oly 12-45. It's a nice, compact package just as good underwater as the 170mm/12-40 combo. This Inon dome appears to be slightly larger than most domes sold for the 8mm, so your results may vary if you try another brand. The Inon dome is discontinued, and I scratched mine badly a few months ago; I had to buy the same dome intended for OMD ports and have Backscatter switch the glass- I went through the hassle because I felt that the results were worth it.
Long answer, but there's lots of hard-earned info in this thread so I figured I would add to it.
sillyrabbit
Registered
Thanks for such a detailed answer to share your experiences after all these years! I'm still a noob so navigating the best lens (and port) for my needs is still a huge learning curve for me. I'm now thinking the Oly 8-25 would be best for my humpback whale shooting. I would love the 8 fisheye but not sure I can get close enough to take advantage of it... I have an old Pen EPL6 with the old Oly PTEP10 housing, and have the 9-18mm, but now thinking the 8-25 would be nice to give me more wide angle. Not sure though, which port I would now need for that!
As I understand it, the 8-25mm is one of those lenses that are too wide to fit through the PEN port opening. In order to use it, you must fit your housing with a PEN to OMD port adapter without a port, place the camera body without the lens into the housing, attach the lens to the camera through the open front, then mount the port and seal the housing. Aside from being annoying, this also requires you to detach the lens every time you want to remove your camera from the housing, and this requires an externally accessible lens release button. As far as I can tell, the PT-EP10 housing doesn't have one.
Correct; for the old Oly Pen housings, you're stuck with either the Panasonic 7-14 or the Olympus 9-18 if you want a zoom lenses. The alternative would be to get one of the kit 14-42 lenses and a wet lens. If you're shooting whales with ambient light, a big downside to all of those options is the slow aperture; you may need to bump up your ISO quite a bit to keep a decent shutter speed. The 8mm fisheye would be a good alternative if not for the distance to the subject.
Just noting that this is also true of Nauticam housings, not just with the 8-25, but also with the 12-40; it’s also easier to put the lens on after the body’s mounted with the 90 macro. Those two (12-40 and 90) 85-90% of my usage these days, and the 12-40 has been my non-macro go-to for 10 or 11 years. It’s a pain, but worth it for the results with those lenses (I can’t use the 8-25 because I have the Zen dome with the built-in extension, but would like to). I can wiggle the camera with lenses out of the housing enough to do battery and SD card changes, which mitigates the issue considerably, and otherwise, it’s just part of the drill.
One note re the fisheyes. I use the Panasonic 8mm fisheye with the small Nauticam dome—tiny lens, small dome. I’m not convinced there’s any material advantage to the pricier and heavier Olympus fisheye, FWIW. (Cindysoo, for the whales, I agree the 8-25 will be terrific if you can work out the kit. Just for grins, I ran the numbers on Nauticam's bits to use the 8-25: N120 180mm dome $1546, N85 to N120 adapter $685, 60mm N120 extension $492 = $2723.)
sillyrabbit
Registered
Ah ha! I see... So the 8-25mm may be too much of a hassle then...
I was speaking to the nice staff at Bluewater and they were recommending the Oly 8mm fisheye instead of another zoom lens as I already have the 9-18mm. I've never tried the fisheye so I'm curious. Does anyone have experience shooting Humpbacks or Whalesharks with the Oly 8mm fisheye?
Apparently there is a Zen port that will fit on my PT-EP10? It's the Zen DP-100-EP Pro package (not sure what's in the package though...).
It's worse than a hassle - you can put it together, but you literally cannot take it apart; people have gotten stuck that way, since there is no easy way to push the lens release button on the camera while it's in the housing. You have to get a thin, long and stiff piece of metal, bend it in just the right way and use it to reach around the camera body and hunt around blindly for the lens release button.
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