Olympus OMD EM1 First Housing

[guinsu]

Hi, I tried skimming the boards for a faq or guide before posting what is probably a repeat thread. I have an Olympus EM1 that I want to finally take underwater after working with some point and shoots for a few years. Right now I have the Olympus 12, 25, 45 and 60mm lenses. I am a bit confused on what I should get for a housing. The Olympus one is the right price but I don't know if it is compatible with all of my lenses (or if that matters). Also, the array of accessories and options for any of the possible housings is a little overwhelming.

This page was helpful but not enough:

Overview of 4 Underwater Housing Choices for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mirrorless Camera

So if someone could help me out, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[YankBoffin]

I can't speak to the 12, 25, and 45, but the 60mm macro is VERY popular of UW use and I'm pretty sure any housing will have a port available to use it. For the others, it may be as simple as measuring their diameter and length and comparing to other lenses known to fit ports, like the Oly 9-18, 14-45, etc.

Of course one thing to to also keep in mind is that things get trickier if you want to have manual focus control. Olympus does make a focus gear ring for the 60mm, but probably not the others.

This place has a nice "port finder" tool to see what lenses work with what housings, though I suspect it is limited to the most common lenses used in underwater photography: Shop for underwater camera housings from Nauticam, Aquatica, Ikelite, Olympus and others

 

[Furnari]

Hi- this thread from Enoshima includes a link to spreadsheets he made showing interchangeability of various m43 ports and housings:
The complete Olympus / Nauticam m43 housing port charts.
It was pretty useful to me in figuring out what ports I wanted to go with, since there's a lot of flexibility with the OMD housing.
This link goes to an Olympus port chart showing lens compatibility with the Oly E-M1 housing:
http://www.olympus.com.au/Olympus/media/!!-UPP/000019166.pdf
The standard Olympus flat port be ok with the 25, 45, and 60mm lenses, but I don't think the 12mm will work (I think Enoshima's port chart is incorrect about that, but I could be wrong).

 

[jmartel]

To be honest, the 12, 25, and 45 generally are very rarely used underwater. The 60mm macro is a fantastic underwater lens, however.

I would pick up a 14-42 kit lens as it's actually not that bad when stopped down. You will need a $50 zoom gear, but it will work with the flat port that the Olympus housing comes with. It will benefit from a dome port, however. The 9-18mm fits as well, though it really needs the dome port. The corners are horrible in the flat port, and acceptable (but still not great) in the dome.

Make sure you budget for at least one strobe and a focus light as well. The YS-01 is a good beginner strobe to use.