E-M5, Nauticam Housing, Lenses and Ports

[denniscloutier]

I shot both the Olympus 12mm F/2 and Panasonic 8mm Fisheye for a review in Underwater Photography magazine (UWPMAG.com) using the Nauticam 4.33 inch dome. Both are great lenses with the Olympus 12 F/2 and 75mm F1.8 being the best Olympus M43 lenses to date. I like the angle of view for the 12 and it will focus very close. If you own the lens you should give it a try.

Phil Rudin

If you were starting from scratch which wide angle option would you choose to go with the Nauticam housing? It seems like there are the wide angle zooms from Panasonic and Olympus, the 8 mm Panasonic, or the 12 mm Olympus. But to me the 12mm seems like it would be too narrow if it were my only option. Since you've used these, what would you choose if you didn't already own any?

Thanks,

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I think the Panasonic 8mm because the port can be used for several lenses, 8, 12, pancake lenses. That said the 7-14 is still my favored W/A lens because of the zoom range and because it is a rectilinear lens.

Phil Rudin

 

[calicant]

I just ordered the Olympus 12mm/f2 now that I know it fits the fisheye port. The 7-14mm WA zoom has great reviews and it will be high on my list of next lenses after a macro.

 

[Alex Solich]

I have myself confused with the enormous options for micro 4/3 systems. Maybe it is the lack of experience.
My setup looks as follows
8mm FE in 4.33" Port (with a possibility of a later 12 F2 purchase)
7-14 in 6" Nauticam port or a 9-18 in 4" port with the possibility of using a midrange zoom (12-35, 14-45 etc) - a question here - can a 9-18 Oly M43 lens be used in the 6" port??
45mm macro - port with the Pana 45mm macro.

Mainly I have concerns in my WA rectilinear setup, as my main preference here are wrecks and large/medium sized pelagics. 9-18 was a great lens for WA UW use, but still wider angles would be great, on the other hand I do not know about longer end of 14mms, would it be enough? (Ok I have my fins on )

Cheers
And thanks for the wonderful imput here @ olympus outlet

Alex

 

[rmorgan]

I'm new to u/w (but old to both diving and photography), and am thinking hard about the OM-D/Nauticam kit for an upcoming trip to the GBR. Hard to imagine doing it without macro, though. It'd help a ton to have your thoughts on these questions: Are the Kenko extension tubes with the #36121 port a viable alternative, understanding that long focus will be eliminated in that configuration? Is the 25mm Panasonic/Leica macro an option with this port, and given that the Panny lens is so much shorter than the 12-50 Zuiko, would an extension tube be a viable "super-macro" solution coupled with the 25mm macro? Apologies in advance for tyro questions, and thanks for your help. This seems like a terrific forum and I'm really glad I found it!

--Rick

 

[Prop Joe]

FWIW I use the same 4" port and gear for both the 14-42 Olympus and 9-18 Olympus lens's on my E-PL3 rig.
Here is the Nauticam lens to dome chart:
http://www.nauticam.com/images/product/pdf_121_2.jpg
I'm gonna try the 8mm Panasonic next as that seems the closest to my old 5050 with screw on, Inon WA lens and dome. The 12-50 interests me but I'd like to try the 8mm Panasonic lens 1st.

 

[rmorgan]

Thanks, Joe. Any ideas on the extension tubes?

 

[Mel Moncrieff]

I have been using the Panasonic 45 macro lens with the E-M5 and Nauticam housing for over fifty dives now. I use S-AF and the EVF for macro and the results have already paid for the lens. I intend to buy the Olympus 60 macro when it comes and I think based on past macro lenses from Olympus that it should be very good. I would like to see a 25 or 30 macro now for a wider range of close up subjects. I have turned off the IS on the 45 macro and found that the 5 axis IS works quite well, that being said I do not do much video so will leave that to others for comment. I do feel that a true macro lens is a better choice than the 12-50 in macro mode if your shoot lots of macro/close up.

The only time I have turned off the IS on the E-M5 has been shooting the 8mm fisheye.

On another note, while I have heard good things about the S&S YS-D1 strobes that are working. I have heard that many new strobes have been returned to S&S with problems. On the Nauticam Demo Days event I assisted with this month I met a dive shop owner from the mid-west who said he had returned all twelve of the YS-D1's they had reviewed because of problems. I am sure this will be a fine product after the bugs are worked out but I would have a hard time making the switch from Inon after over twenty years without a problem from my original two Z-220's.


Phil Rudin

I recently purchased the E-M5 camera and Nauticam housing and have been shooting with the Panny 45 mm macro and 8 mm fisheye. I did some comparisons against my old camera system which is a Canon 50D with Canon 60 mm macro lens and Tokina 10-17 fisheye. I thought that the Olympus camera with 45 mm macro was at least as sharp as the Canon 60mm and rendered better colory, particularly at higher ISO's.
The Panny 8 mm fisheye was also comparable, but lacked the Tokina 10-17 zoom, which I really like. I also purchased the Sea and Sea YS-D1 strobes and am returning both of them to S&S, as they are consistenly malfunctioning, refusing to fire and indicating low battery, even with freshly charged new batteries.. I will have a followup report on how that whole exchange works out. I agree that the D1 strobes have great statistics, but S&S needs to get this problem fixed or they are worthless.