Macro with an EPL-9 / EPL-10?

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Chris_D

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Location
Hong Kong
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Does anyone have experience shooting macro with an EPL-9 or EPL-10?

I'm using (and happy with) a TG-5 with an Oly strobe and housing.

I'd like to upgrade to a larger sensor and more manual control, and have been offered an EPL-9 and AOI housing at an attractive price.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hi Chris,

My experience is with the EPL-3 and EPL-5, with the 60mm Olympus macro lens.
The combo is a joy to use and you will have all the manual control.

I've seen photos from TG-5 and TG-6 from others divers in my club, they good quite good.

For me the main reason for the EPL and now OMD is the freedom to do other kind of photos, diving and on land.
The TG line is very small and quite good for macro and casual photos, the EPL is bit larger and more adaptable to other (non-macro) photos.

Hope this helps.
Pedro
 
Hi Chris,

My experience is with the EPL-3 and EPL-5, with the 60mm Olympus macro lens.
The combo is a joy to use and you will have all the manual control.

I've seen photos from TG-5 and TG-6 from others divers in my club, they good quite good.

For me the main reason for the EPL and now OMD is the freedom to do other kind of photos, diving and on land.
The TG line is very small and quite good for macro and casual photos, the EPL is bit larger and more adaptable to other (non-macro) photos.

Hope this helps.
Pedro
Thanks, Pedro
 
Does anyone have experience shooting macro with an EPL-9 or EPL-10?

I'm using (and happy with) a TG-5 with an Oly strobe and housing.

I'd like to upgrade to a larger sensor and more manual control, and have been offered an EPL-9 and AOI housing at an attractive price.

Thanks in advance!

My reply may be too late (Have you already decided? What did you choose?), but having used an E-PL5 with the 60mm macro lens for many years, I would say that for general underwater macro the TG-5 is a better shooter, despite the smaller sensor. A smaller sensor brings a crop factor that effectively increases macro capability, and the TG-5 "Microscope" mode is outstanding for a compact camera. Additionally, the variable zoom of the TG-5 makes it more versatile underwater. With the E-PL5, invariably you'll fit the 60mm macro lens to go shooting nudibranchs, and then run into a big shark or ray and about all you can photograph is its eyeball. Exaggerating, but you get the picture. The TG-5 at least lets you vary between wide-angle and macro on the one dive, though its wide angle image quality is not so great. Plus it's smaller and more portable for travel.

If all you're going to do with the photos is put them up on Facebook, then I say stick with the TG-5. Use the money that you might have spent on the E-PL9 and buy yourself a diopter/wet lens and make the TG-5 even more flexible underwater.

On the other hand, if you want to maybe make some prints from your photos, or you want a good wide-angle experience (with an additional lens), or you want proper manual control over your photos, then the E-PL9 and the AOI housing is a fantastic option for the money! There are some great high-end features in the camera, and interchangeable lenses does bring a lot of scope for different types of photography. (It's just a pity you can't change lenses underwater - wet lenses aside). Do note that the AOI housing uses inbuilt LEDs to trigger strobes, not your camera flash. The battery that powers the LEDs and the moisture detection circuit is an inbuilt rechargeable LiON battery, which may not be user-replaceable. Those may or may not be drawbacks to you.
 
My reply may be too late (Have you already decided? What did you choose?), but having used an E-PL5 with the 60mm macro lens for many years, I would say that for general underwater macro the TG-5 is a better shooter, despite the smaller sensor. A smaller sensor brings a crop factor that effectively increases macro capability, and the TG-5 "Microscope" mode is outstanding for a compact camera. Additionally, the variable zoom of the TG-5 makes it more versatile underwater. With the E-PL5, invariably you'll fit the 60mm macro lens to go shooting nudibranchs, and then run into a big shark or ray and about all you can photograph is its eyeball. Exaggerating, but you get the picture. The TG-5 at least lets you vary between wide-angle and macro on the one dive, though its wide angle image quality is not so great. Plus it's smaller and more portable for travel.

If all you're going to do with the photos is put them up on Facebook, then I say stick with the TG-5. Use the money that you might have spent on the E-PL9 and buy yourself a diopter/wet lens and make the TG-5 even more flexible underwater.

On the other hand, if you want to maybe make some prints from your photos, or you want a good wide-angle experience (with an additional lens), or you want proper manual control over your photos, then the E-PL9 and the AOI housing is a fantastic option for the money! There are some great high-end features in the camera, and interchangeable lenses does bring a lot of scope for different types of photography. (It's just a pity you can't change lenses underwater - wet lenses aside). Do note that the AOI housing uses inbuilt LEDs to trigger strobes, not your camera flash. The battery that powers the LEDs and the moisture detection circuit is an inbuilt rechargeable LiON battery, which may not be user-replaceable. Those may or may not be drawbacks to you.
I have ordered the epl10/aoi housing. I still plan to throw my tg6 in the bc for supermacro
 
My reply may be too late (Have you already decided? What did you choose?), but having used an E-PL5 with the 60mm macro lens for many years, I would say that for general underwater macro the TG-5 is a better shooter, despite the smaller sensor. A smaller sensor brings a crop factor that effectively increases macro capability, and the TG-5 "Microscope" mode is outstanding for a compact camera. Additionally, the variable zoom of the TG-5 makes it more versatile underwater. With the E-PL5, invariably you'll fit the 60mm macro lens to go shooting nudibranchs, and then run into a big shark or ray and about all you can photograph is its eyeball. Exaggerating, but you get the picture. The TG-5 at least lets you vary between wide-angle and macro on the one dive, though its wide angle image quality is not so great. Plus it's smaller and more portable for travel.

If all you're going to do with the photos is put them up on Facebook, then I say stick with the TG-5. Use the money that you might have spent on the E-PL9 and buy yourself a diopter/wet lens and make the TG-5 even more flexible underwater.

On the other hand, if you want to maybe make some prints from your photos, or you want a good wide-angle experience (with an additional lens), or you want proper manual control over your photos, then the E-PL9 and the AOI housing is a fantastic option for the money! There are some great high-end features in the camera, and interchangeable lenses does bring a lot of scope for different types of photography. (It's just a pity you can't change lenses underwater - wet lenses aside). Do note that the AOI housing uses inbuilt LEDs to trigger strobes, not your camera flash. The battery that powers the LEDs and the moisture detection circuit is an inbuilt rechargeable LiON battery, which may not be user-replaceable. Those may or may not be drawbacks to you.
I asked the guys at Backscatter about replacing the battery in the moisture sensor/LED unit and while they agreed that you can't replace the battery the whole unit is easily replaceable by the owner and not much more expensive than a battery would be. I didn't ask about a price.
 
I wanted to opt for some versatility so I went with the 14-42 zoom and a +12.5 diopter wet lens. I've yet to try it out since I'm sorting out my tray, arms, strobe situation. I did read you can stack the wet lenses but I'm not sure if that's more of a help than a hindrance as far as DOF goes.
 
I wanted to opt for some versatility so I went with the 14-42 zoom and a +12.5 diopter wet lens. I've yet to try it out since I'm sorting out my tray, arms, strobe situation. I did read you can stack the wet lenses but I'm not sure if that's more of a help than a hindrance as far as DOF goes.
I have so many diopters I collected but with this wind my new system is gathering dust!
 

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