Oly 9-18 vs Pana 7-14mm in a Nautilus OM-D?

[nudibranco]

The M16 port can be used with some pump to check for leaks... That is what I think Akimbo meant. It is a good way to check nothing can leak prior to jumping in the water.

BTW... in terms of getting the system to be neutral: be prepared to use a lot of floaters. Just the 2 s2000 inon strobes on ULCS 8" arms which I often use are slightly negative with 4 Jumbo Stix floats (1.6lbs of lift!). The Sea&Sea maybe are better than the tiny Inons but the housing, handles, and tray are aluminum and compact making it quite negative also. To counteract that you need a Float belt or get used to a slightly negative rig unless you want lots of floats everywhere... I wished I could find tray and handles that are positive to counteract the camera and housing weight.

 

[Akimbo]

The Sea & Sea YS-D1 “claims” to be 0.5g/.02oz with batteries, presumably in salt water. The Nauticam NA-EM5 claims to be “about neutral”. Since most of their ports are about 4" versus 6" I am hoping that the housing is a little positive. The results will determine if it makes sense to use buoyancy arms or not. I will also depend on what I do for handles. I may build them to my personal biases which would give me a change to seal them up for added displacement.

Syntactic foam is inherently less cost and volume efficient at shallow depths than other ways of achieving displacement and weight reduction. Since we are on the subject, what arms and handles do you all like?

 

[watboy]

I use OMD5, nauticam housing and nauticam tray (the one with the fixed left handle and the adjustable right handle). For arms i have i-das ULCS knock offs, 2x5" and 2x3", 2x Inon Z240's and a idas video pro4 mounted to a ball adaptor on the nauticam hot shoe and a clamp. In addition, i have 4x stix large floats. System overall is slightly negative. I would guesstimate that 2 more floats would make it neutral. I can't really notice a difference in bouyancy between the 4" dome port for the 9-18mm vs the 60mm macro.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Akimbo

Here is how I have my system set up.

As for the lens choice, I went with the 7-14mm with the 6" port. I wanted "ultimate" wide angle capability without going fisheye, which I don't care for so much. This lens certainly delivers, both above and below water! However, that was my choice in creating a "no compromise" system.

With my prior e-pl2 system, I used the 9-18mm lens in a smaller 4" semi-dome port. I thought the results were outstanding as well. Optical quality very nearly as good as the 7-14, and really only lacking the fixed aperture and wider angle of view. If you have the 9-18 you will be very fine with that set-up and the smaller dome port. There is no "need" to buy the 7-14 if you already have a 9-18.

The 9-18 has advantages for land photography as well. It takes filters, is very tiny and super lightweight. I was going to sell mine when I got the 7-14, but instead I am keeping it for my land travel photo kit (9-18 and 14-150).

For flashes, I bought 2 of the YS-D1s. So far I find them to be outstanding in every way. With the 9-18 you will need to use the 100 degree diffusers. I use the DS-TTL fibe optic exposure, with a fiber cable run from each flash separately to the camera housing, and each flash on TTL. I do not use the "slave" set-up. This system is excellent for using lighting ratios, coupled with the flashes' excellent exposure adjustments even in TTL mode.

I mount the flashes on ball mounts, with 5" and 8" arms, same setup on each tray handle. I use 2 of the large Stix floats on each 8" arm. With the 7-14 in the big port the whole rig is slightly negative, just about perfect. With the 12-50 port/gear, is is quite negative but manageable. I too am looking for some solutions and am going to try the INON "Popeye" 8" float arms which are very big and should give lots of bouyancy. If anyone else here has experience with this or other solutions, please post.

 

[Akimbo]

…For flashes, I bought 2 of the YS-D1s. So far I find them to be outstanding in every way. With the 9-18 you will need to use the 100 degree diffusers. I use the DS-TTL fibe optic exposure, with a fiber cable run from each flash separately to the camera housing, and each flash on TTL. I do not use the "slave" set-up. This system is excellent for using lighting ratios, coupled with the flashes' excellent exposure adjustments even in TTL mode….

That sync cord arrangement appeals to me over the Nauticam NA-EM5 <--- Fiber-optic sync cable ---> YS-D1 (#1) <--- Fiber-optic sync cable ---> YS-D1 (#2) arrangement because the cables are the same for spares. It isn’t clear that this configuration works in the YS-D1 downloaded manual. Thanks.

What batteries do you use in the strobes? The manual lists the Sanyo Eneloop cells as delivering the most flashes, but it doesn’t list the milliamp consumption rate. I “have read” that the Eneloop cells are fussier about the charger’s capability than other Lithium cells. Has anyone seen a good thread on Lithium Ion AA cells?

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

I use Powerex Imedion (or something like that, dont want to confuse with a laxative). They are a slow-discharge battery similar to the Eneloops (hold 85% charge after a year). 2400ma hours. I bought the smart charger that charges up to 8 at a time and "conditions" them, etc.

Very pleased with them so far. Manage to get a couple of hundred flashes before needing to swap, and I shoot a lot of small apertures and macro so the flashes are pretty high intensity.

On thing, however, and this is true no matter what brand. These type of slow-discharge batteries hold their voltage very consistently right up to the end, and then run out suddenly. This is great for fast recycling and high intensity as the strobes do not "slow down" at all. They just quick working when the batteries are exhausted. That presents an issue for monitoring the status of the batteries.

The strobe has a very good system for monitoring battery charge, but even the best monitoring system does not account for this fairly rapid discharge. Thus, you need to keep rough track or your # of shots, or swap out batteries between dives to be sure (I bought 4 sets of 4, and plan to buy 2 more sets of 4 so I have three fully charged sets--essential on a liveaboard trip). Otherwise, you might start your dive with the "full charge" light showing, but within a dozen or two dozen shots, have the "warning" light show, and then a dozen shots later, the batteries run out of juice. This happened to me, once. Now, I either switch out at 100 shots or so, or just switch out every dive, just to be sure.

That being said on some of my 2.5 hour macro dives, I have shot well over 200 shots, even having the aiming lights on during night dives, and have not run out of juice yet, so you have a considerable cushion.

 

[BoltSnap]

Here are the number of shots I get with these different types of batteries based on setting the strobe on "FULL" power (S&S YS-110):

Amazon.com: Ansmann 5035092 AA of 2850mAh Rechargeable Batteries (4-Pack): Electronics

310 Shots


Amazon.com: Sanyo 2,700 mAh AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries-4-Pack: Electronics

350 Shots



Amazon.com: Powerex AA 2700mAh NiMH Rechargeable Batteries with holder- 4 Batteries Per Pack: Camera & Photo

390 Shots




Amazon.com: La Crosse Technology Alpha Power Battery Charger, BC1000: Home & Kitchen

350 Shots (these are the batteries that were included with the charger. They don't seem to be available by themselves)




Amazon.com: Energizer AA Rechargeable NiMH Battery Retail Pack, 2450mAh - 4 Pack: Electronics

252 Shots (I don't use them with strobes anymore)


I have "conditioned" and charged all of the batteries using the La Crosse Technology Alpha Power Battery Charger, BC1000



I have the Amazon.com: Sanyo New Version Sanyo XX Eneloop 2500 mAh Low Discharge AA Batteries: Electronics but I haven't tested them yet.



So far, the Powerex AA 2700mAh NiMH Rechargeable Batteries seem to give the most shots. The Sanyo 2,700 mAh AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries come second.

---------- Post added January 29th, 2013 at 01:26 AM ----------

That sync cord arrangement appeals to me over the Nauticam NA-EM5 <--- Fiber-optic sync cable ---> YS-D1 (#1) <--- Fiber-optic sync cable ---> YS-D1 (#2) arrangement because the cables are the same for spares. It isn&#8217;t clear that this configuration works in the YS-D1 downloaded manual. Thanks.

What batteries do you use in the strobes? The manual lists the Sanyo Eneloop cells as delivering the most flashes, but it doesn&#8217;t list the milliamp consumption rate. I &#8220;have read&#8221; that the Eneloop cells are fussier about the charger&#8217;s capability than other Lithium cells. Has anyone seen a good thread on Lithium Ion AA cells?

Akimbo,

I am confused with the terminology you use to describe the connection of the strobes. When you use the fiber optic cables, the strobes are ALWAYS set in the "slave" mode regardless of your connecting them to the camera housing directly (each one of them) or connecting on to the camera housing and the other to the strobe connected to the housing.

If you have two fiber optic cables, I don't see the point at all of connecting one strobe to the housing only and the other to the the first strobe. Why would anyone do this?


In regards to strobe cable terminology, I have noticed that when one uses fiber optic cable, they use the term "cable" not "sync cord" but when talking about the electronic cable, they use the term "sync cord"

This is fiber optic cable:

Sea & Sea Fiber Optic Cable SS-50107 | Bluewater Photo & Video


This is "sync cord":

Single sync cord:

Sea & Sea Single Sync Cord (SS-17100) | Bluewater Photo & Video

Dual sync cord:

Sea & Sea Dual Sync Cord (SS-03470) | Bluewater Photo & Video

 

[Akimbo]

Great battery data, thanks. It probably deserves a separate post!

My understanding is a “sync cord” is any physical connection that synchronizes strobes to the camera. “Fiber-optic sync” differentiates it from electrical (hardwire), optical, or radio frequency strobe sync.

I try to qualify photographic fiber optical interfaces as “sync” to differentiate them from “data” used in tethered underwater ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) and computers… though TTL is technically data because a logic circuit interprets it. Maybe that is why a lot of ROV techs call all of them FOIs (Fiber Optic Interface)? I finally had to ask: “What the hell is a foy?”

 

[BoltSnap]

Perhaps is is just a "habit" in the U/W photo circles to use "cable" for the fiber optic type and "sync cord" for the electronic type. That's why I initially thought you were talking about the electronic type and went on and on about it