Sounds like good advice. A separate focus light may be worth a shot; I bought a weefine light for around $100 that is _much_ brighter than the built in focus lights on my strobes. Back button focus is also a good suggestion. In any case, I can understand being frustrated with the focus speed on the 60mm. You might like the 30mm; it should work in the same port, and if you can get close to the subject can do some nice work as well. It is much faster to focus than the 60mm, and works well in low light. Several of us on scubaboard use it as our goto lens at night.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 IV vs OM-D E-M1 Mark I
- Thread starter 49COE
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Gdog
Contributor
+1 on the focus light suggestion. I wouldnt know how to live without one!
bvanant
Contributor
Well the 30 will work in the port for the 60 but it will not get anywhere near 1:1, it will be so far from the port.
Bill
Bill
bvanant
Contributor
That seems about right. The 30 port is way more shorter.
Bill
Bill
I have a 29mm port for my 14-42EZ, and use that port plus a 17mm extender ring for my 30mm macro lens; The combo is 46mm, just one mm longer than the 45mm recommended for the 30mm lens. I use a separate 65mm port for my 60mm macro. For travel, I'll often take just take the 14-42EZ and the 30mm, plus the 29mm port and the 17mm extender.
ADDED: This is all for Nauticam housing and ports/rings. Other housings may be different.
ADDED: This is all for Nauticam housing and ports/rings. Other housings may be different.
I guess I'll see how much I use the 30mm versus the 60mm. I was pretty happy with the 30mm in the 60mm port for a few years. AOI suggests a 24mm extension ring + the 30mm port would work for the 60mm. Or I can try the 60mm in the semi-dome housing. I think there is some loss of working distance (since the dome sticks out a bit), but i don't know if there are other effects.
+2, with the Olympus/OMD cameras that only have contrast focusing (E-M10 all mks, E-M5 mk1&2, all the PEN's) a focus light is really a must, not a want or nice to have. It changes the whole game. Using a strobes focus light can work but then your strobe(s) are actually not ideally positioned for shooting and you'll be dealing with more backscatter generally.
A 1000 lumen or higher focus light with the auto off when the strobe fires (has a sensor) and a red light option is the trick. They cost $150-200 (I like the Kraken WSR focus lights currently) . So, if buying a new system for shooting underwater I would really factor that into the prices of the system and if looking for a small system at the lower end price wise in MFT look more closely at the E-M5 mk 3 or OM-5 that has contrast and phase focusing and you won't get nearly as frustrated if you aren't using a dedicated focus light. That said, I tend to have and use a dedicated focus light no matter what I am shooting camera wise unless wide angle reef shots on a sunny day..
My advice from a guy that has literally 7 MFT underwater setups from over the years, currently using the E-M1 mk 2 and a O-M1 mostly and sometimes grabbing old faithful E-M5 first gen when travelling and more worried about loss/breakage.
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