Question Need decent mid-range coverage; thoughts?

[Audsred]

Reading your posts - I think you should focus on what you want to shoot and what lenses will work best. Just know if you shoot wide angle and you want a lens with some zoom range the port will be bigger, if that is that a deal breaker - then stay with the Oly 8mm and small port.

So here is my experience from using Olympus Pens w/Olympus housing and now I have Nauticam with OMD1.

I have the panasonic 8mm and love the fisheye and small dome port. Great for traveling but, like you said, it is only 8mm - no zooming.

I have the 9-18 but rarely used as it doesn't have the sharpness I want. I got this lens when first starting to shooting with Olympus Pens, it was ok then but there are better options now. Mine is gathering dust - if you really want a 9-18 - would love to trade you for the Oly 8mm and some extra $$(the Oly 8mm was not out when I bought the pany).

I have the 12-40 Pro with a Zen dome, which I really love underwater when I am not going to shoot only macro - but the dome is big and you have to put the lens 12-40 on after the camera is in the housing - to big (for me) to travel with unless I am only going to shoot big stuff, but locally I love to use it. This dome works with 7-14,9-18 and Oly 8mm.

I have an 12-50 lens I got with my first OMD camera, and if I want the whole range I can use this lens, but I have the port that allows for switching to macro. This lens is not as sharp as the 12-40 but you get the extra range. I don't use this much unless I travel and think I might want a WA lens for a day.

When traveling I will take my 60mm for macro, and my 12-50 for wide angle (they use the same port) and if I have room, the 8mm and dome (just because it's so small). If I'm shooting really big stuff (mantas, sharks) I would use the 12-40, but I wouldn't be taking most of my other ports/lens. I have 2 strobes, focus light, housing, arms, batteries, in addition to camera and housing and the above. For 1 person this gets to be a lot. So depending where I travel, I try and pack for the critters I expect to photograph.

 

[Mike_4635]

I agree that the 12-40 is a great lens, but you need the clunky OMD adapter. While it's not as horrible of a pain as you would think, it's still one more thing. I currently use the 12-45 in my AOI OM-1 housing. It works great with my Inon dome intended for the Oly 8mm FE and the AOI 34mm extension. Long story, but I ended up doing a bunch research on this; the Inon dome is slightly larger than most domes meant for the 8mm, but my guess is that the lens would still work fine in an AOI, Zen, or other dome. Probably. The 12-45 is great value in and of itself as it was commonly sold as a kit lens with a few different bodies- meaning it's available second hand for cheap. The port charts call for the same dome meant for the 9-18, so I'm tempted to pick one up and give it a shot- it's just that having as few ports as possible for travel is a bonus. With my Inon dome and the macro port meant for the 30mm, you can mix and match extension rings to use the 8mm, 12-45, 30, and 60 lenses.

All that said, I'm interested in the Tokina if the AF performance is decent; M43 really needs a native fisheye zoom.

So I have the Olympus OMD-E5 II camera in the Olympus PT-EP13 housing and AOI DLP04 port. I mainly use the Olympus 14-42 and have had good luck with this configuration for both medium wide angle to close ups of seahorses. Attached are some of the pictures.