New to UW Photography with the E-PM1

[KneeDeep]

Thanks to Santa, this year I received a new camera to help with my diving addiction. (Thanks Santa!!!)

Haven't been diving all that long (July will be 2yrs with about 180 dives to date ), but I am really excited to start taking pictures, so will be combing the threads on others experience with this set up.

So there's the setup I have:

• Olympus PT-EP06 Housing
• Olympus E-PM1 camera & 14-42mkII lens
• Olympus 14-42mkII lens zoom gear
• 1x Sea & Sea YS-D1 Strobe
• Big Blue AL 1x5MAFO Focus Light

To be honest, I don't have much Photography experience, though I also own a D7000, that I haven't fully utilized to it's full potential. But I do like using it.

I have taken out for a test dive, and out of the box, in auto, I'm pretty impressed!!! Took about 30 pics, mostly playing with strobe positioning, but had about 6 that actually came out pretty good.

My objective for now, is to use the setup as is, and get used to the camera and strobe placement, and camera task loading. So I'm open to any suggestions on tutorials and tips to take betters pics, so fire away.

As there is already be a significant investment, and not see any new additions to the rig, what are some lens/port suggested for this rig? I see me more of a macro shooter then wide. Is there any 3rd party items (lenses, ports... etc?) out there that will work? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but some Panasonic lenses will work on this camera (but are they worth it?)?

Any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!

If it matters, I dive in the Seattle area.

Let the addiction begin

 

[PEDiamond]

check out bluewaterphoto store website…they have a number of excellent tutorials linked….,also underwaterphotographyguide….not sure of URL…couple good books available on amazon also….I started a few months ago after passing 70 dives as what I felt to be a minimum to get the diving competence…OTOH, the photography technical stuff is second nature to me, so task loading not as bad……it still has been a difficult learning curve but very rewarding……aloha….peter

 

[Gdog]

Col, this camera takes pretty good 1080p video as well.

 

[PatW]

I would recommend getting underwater Photography by Martin Edge. It is the best treatment on the subject that I have seen.

i am not familiar with your rig. I hope it is macro capable. Macro shooting is very photographer friendly. Many of the macro subjects are very cooperative giving you plenty of shots to get things just right. Also, you can often get a wet diopter lens to increase the macro capabilities.

 

[John Gulliver]

Like you, I mainly shoot macro and close-up and am not particularly interested in wide angle. I previously shot a DX dSLR and changed in order to reduce the weight on land and during travel. It took me some time to work out the best settings but I finally decided the following are optimal: ISO 200, shutter speed 1/125, aperture f8-11, depending on the light, and strobe set to TTL (I presume you have a fibre-optic cable). I use dual YS-01's, by the way. Contrary to what some people say, the 14-42mm lens is very useful. I also have the 60mm macro lens, which is great for stills, but I found it to be very difficult to use for video as you have to remain absolutely still or the camera will be unable to focus. While it is not difficult to remain still long enough to take stills, it is nigh on imposible to do so for 20 sec or so if there is the slightest current, for example. The optics of the 14-42mm lens are so good that you can crop your images hard so as to fill the frame with tiny creatures. If you check out my photos from my trip to Aqaba, in the Red Sea, in October 2013 (see link below), you will see an example of this. The fireworm was less than 2 inches long so it only took up a small part of the frame in the original image and if you zoom in on it, you will see that I could have cropped much harder if I'd wanted to. All stills in this gallery were taken with the 14-42mm lens, as was the video. By the way, please let me know if you are unable to open the file as I suspect you may need a very fast Internet connection to do so.

 

[KneeDeep]

Thanks all for the replies... I'll be doing some night reading on those link over the weekend.

Gdog, I did use the movie at 3 Tree... not sure if it was lighting or what, but it did have a difficult time focusing on my wife, as she wanted a vid so she could see your trim and kicking.

 

[Karloss]

Thanks to Santa, this year I received a new camera to help with my diving addiction. (Thanks Santa!!!)

Haven't been diving all that long (July will be 2yrs with about 180 dives to date ), but I am really excited to start taking pictures, so will be combing the threads on others experience with this set up.

So there's the setup I have:

• Olympus PT-EP06 Housing
• Olympus E-PM1 camera & 14-42mkII lens
• Olympus 14-42mkII lens zoom gear
• 1x Sea & Sea YS-D1 Strobe
• Big Blue AL 1x5MAFO Focus Light

To be honest, I don't have much Photography experience, though I also own a D7000, that I haven't fully utilized to it's full potential. But I do like using it.

I have taken out for a test dive, and out of the box, in auto, I'm pretty impressed!!! Took about 30 pics, mostly playing with strobe positioning, but had about 6 that actually came out pretty good.

My objective for now, is to use the setup as is, and get used to the camera and strobe placement, and camera task loading. So I'm open to any suggestions on tutorials and tips to take betters pics, so fire away.

As there is already be a significant investment, and not see any new additions to the rig, what are some lens/port suggested for this rig? I see me more of a macro shooter then wide. Is there any 3rd party items (lenses, ports... etc?) out there that will work? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but some Panasonic lenses will work on this camera (but are they worth it?)?

Any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!

If it matters, I dive in the Seattle area.

Let the addiction begin

I'm in the same boat your in as far as your new camera rig. From what I have seen and read so far is that most folks with similar rigs like to use the 60mm macro, unless of course they go the other way with fisheye and port for wide angle.

 

[John Gulliver]

As stated above, the 60mm macro lens is great for stills but less useful for video unless conditions are optimal, in my experience. So, if you think you may want to take stills and video during the same dive, I would suggest the 14-42mm lens is the better choice. But that's just my opinion. But bear in mind that the optics of the zoom lens are so good that you can crop stills of tiny creatures so as almost to produce macro images, again in my limited experience of the E-PM1 and lenses.

 

[Gdog]

You may need more light. I went to a focus light with 800 lumens and it seems to work great.

 

[John Gulliver]

You may need more light. I went to a focus light with 800 lumens and it seems to work great.

I agree. A light giving 800 lumens is great as a focus light and two such lights would probably be fine for video at night but would not suffice during the daytime. My 3600 lumen video light worked fine during the day in the Red Sea, with 25-30 metre visibility and bright sunshine most of the time.