Help with upgrade from EPL6 to OM1 mark ii (what to sell, what to keep)

[sillyrabbit]

Hello looking for advice what to keep and sell as I would like to upgrade from my EPL6 to the OM1 mark ii.

I only like to shoot
1) diving for MACRO (boxfish, nudies, shrimp, shawn the sheep, maybe the odd cute fish, etc) and
2) snorkelling / swimming with whale sharks and humpback whales

If I get a chance, maybe it would be cool to shoot a whole school (? is that the right word?) of mantas in the future...

Right now I am shooting stills but would love to fiddle with / play with video. I also only dive once a year at best, but of course hoping to dive more if I can get away from work.

Current gear
Olympus PT-EP10 Housing
Olympus 9-18mm wide angle lens and Zoom gear
Zen PEN Dome for 9-18mm
Olympus 40-150mm
Olympus 60mm macro
Nauticam Flextray II Wide
Strobe: 1 x Sea&Sea YS-D1

I also have a Canon 6D with kit lens which I think I'll sell as I'm loving how small the M4/3 is and no longer want to carry my 6D, so that will go on the market soon.

My questions:
1. What should I keep or sell?
2. If I get the OM1 mark ii, do I get it with the kit lens? If so, which one? The 12-40mm or the 12-45mm? or neither? Do I really need this lens?
3. Should I sell the 60mm and buy the 90mm macro instead?
4. If I keep the 60mm macro, should I get a diopter? If so, which one?
5. What are the pros and cons of having a diopter?
6. Does anyone have opinions about the housing (ikelite, vs AOI, vs Isotta, vs Nauticam)?
7. And what port and / or dome do I need?

If upgrading up to OM1 mii is just too expensive all around, what's the next level down from the OM1 mii?

I have a trip coming up so would love to know what to get pretty soon...

Thank you kindly!

Cindy, still the NOOB

 

[bvanant]

If you have the 60 then adding a CMC-1 will get you to where the 90 gets you natively and saves a bunch of money on lenses and ports. The CMC-1 with the 60 is brilliant but not trivial to use (lots of magnification). For shooting humpbacks I would go the wet lens route rather than the linear wide angle and dome port but that's just me. The AOI housing works well with all this.
Bill

 

[js1221]

Cindy,

Let's see if I can help you out here. This is just my opinion so keep that in mind. I currently shoot an Olympus E-M1 Mark III, after moving up from an E-PL10. My housings and ports are AOI.

You said you only like to shoot macro, but also whale sharks and humpbacks (and schools of mantas), so that is both ends of the spectrum. You will need different lenses and ports.

The Olympus cameras shoot video but they are not the best video cameras, just FYI.

As for your questions:

1. You can keep the EPL6 camera as a backup, or a loaner or just sell it. Not sure what the market is for it. Keep the 9-18mm and the 60mm. I don't think there is a port for the 40-150mm, so you won't using it underwater.
2. You can get the OM-1 Mark II with either the 12-40m or the 12-45mm, or you can just buy the body by itself. The determining factor will be how much you want to spend. You also need to consider what housing you are going to get because if you look at the Olympus housing the 12-40mm requires an OM-D adapter and port, while the 12-45mm uses the PEN port. I don't think it matter with Nauticam and I don't know about Ikelite/Isotta.
3. Do not sell the 60mm for a 90mm. The 60mm is much more useful, especially for the amount of underwater photography you do. The 90mm is a much more specialized lens.
4. Personally, use the 60mm until you are happy with your photos and then think about a diopter. You're going to get great macro with the 60mm.
5. Pros of the diopter are that it allows you to take super macro, you can easily remove it to go back to your primary lens. Cons are that your focal distance is now a lot smaller.
6. As far as housings, since you already have a the ZEN port and the 9-18mm zoom gear for your Olympus, I'd stick with an AOI housing. While I like Nauticam, the housing along for the OM-1 costs as much as the camera, and that is without ports or zoom/focus gears.
7. You already have the port for the 9-18mm (which can also be used for the 14-42mm lens), so you'd need a flat port for the 60mm. You can get the dedicated 60mm flat port, or you could get a shorter port and an extension ring for a bit more versatility.

Hope that helps.