Olympus OMD EM-1 MKII - Open Discussion

[Furnari]

The camera/lens combo can be removed from my Oly E-M1 housing without disassembly; the new mkII housing uses the same port system so I can't imagine that's changed.

 

[WS007]

Thank you for the response, Phil and Funari...

@Funari: What lenses are you using?
And could you give an estimate for the optical quality of the lens in connection with that dome (e.g. sharpness in the corners)?

Wolfgang

 

[JackConnick]

Well, I'm here in Bali for a few days before going onto Komodo. I am going to shoot the new Oly PT14 housing along with the 60mm in their new macro port, and the 8mmFE in the small dome. One lens that did intrigue me for video is the 12mm f/2.0 as it has a silent wave motor and has very good sharpness and speed. That small lens can also be shot behind the small dome.

I used to sell Athena and their quality was quite good, and yes they did make OEM ports for Olympus. But they are hard to communicate with and very expensive, especially now. I am looking into another supplier, but haven't had the time yet to pursue this option. I've asked Oly for some clarification on their older chart; but that port is definitely not being made any more.

Nauticam and Subal are exhibiting prototype housings at the Boot Show in Germany. I've re-shared a few photos of the new housings on the OOS Facebook page: Optical Ocean Sales | Facebook

 

[Furnari]

@WS007: The link below goes to a post from last year on Wetpixel that goes into more detail about my experience, and it includes a test shot with the 7-14 that gives a good example of what you can expect as far as corner sharpness. Almost a year later, I'm still very happy with this set up.

Inon 170mm dome for Olympus lenses - Mirrorless Cameras/Housings

 

[WS007]

Very interesting Funari - so the 170mm Inon domeport is another alternative for OMD housings...

Wolfgang

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

The Nauticam offering for E-M1 II has now been announced, see Nauticanuas.com for further details.

 

[Kent Dukes]

I bit the bullet and tried the E04 housing as listed on the Olympus website with my E-M1 and PT-EP11 housing.

With the Oly 8mm FE, you use no extension ring. It produced good results.

WIth the Oly 7-14mm PRO and extension ring, the perimeter of the image is very (horribly) soft. 14mm is moderately more tolerable than 7mm which was bad.

I've since purchased the small dome that Oly has made especially for the 8mm FE. I liked Jack's result with that dome and the 12mm as well, so I've decided to abandon using the 7-14mm underwater.

FWIW

Kent

 

[Furnari]

I had decent luck with the 7-14 and my Inon 170mm dome, which should be similar to the Oly dome. What aperture were you using? I had to stop down a fair amount, but that's to be expected with any rectilinear WA and dome port. For what it's worth, I sold my 7-14 and picked up the Panasonic-Leica 8-18. I took it underwater this weekend (tried for some eclipse shots since Oregon's Clear Lake was in the totality) and was pleased with the results- corner performance was better than the 7-14- not surprising since it's not as wide. Still, I'm glad I made the switch.

 

[Kent Dukes]

After using the 8mm FE, I'll never go back to the Oly 7-14 PRO for UW. the 8 mm is noticeably superior.

When using the Oly 7-14 PRO, I used f/8 and around 1/160 depending on depth and sunny/cloudy weather.

Cheers

 

[Diver2fun]

I had decent luck with the 7-14 and my Inon 170mm dome, which should be similar to the Oly dome. What aperture were you using? I had to stop down a fair amount, but that's to be expected with any rectilinear WA and dome port. For what it's worth, I sold my 7-14 and picked up the Panasonic-Leica 8-18. I took it underwater this weekend (tried for some eclipse shots since Oregon's Clear Lake was in the totality) and was pleased with the results- corner performance was better than the 7-14- not surprising since it's not as wide. Still, I'm glad I made the switch.

Do you have some sample pictures of the 8-18? I'm not expecting quality to be similar the 8mm FE, but I'm interested in getting it underwater along with the 12-40 pro, might work out for video too (only if I can get white balance to work)