Olympus TG-5 Lenses

[ystrout]

Hi,

My fiancé and I are new to underwater photography (and photography in general). We have always carried a GoPro 4 around with us on our dives but the photo quality isn't very good.

We always want better pictures when we look at what we snapped photos of while diving. So I bought her an Olympus TG-5 with the underwater housing for Christmas. It has great reviews and it sounds like all we need in addition to the camera/housing is a mount for a light.

I was reading more though and it seems like the lens is comes with is very good for macro photography and tiny subjects. Most of the photography I see us doing is of larger fish like calico bass and California sheephead. Not super close ups, but not super wide angle shots either. Really just "portrait" pictures if that makes sense.

Would the standard lens it comes with be good for this? We normally take photos of fish that are within 10 feet of us.

I really don't know much about photography and we'll learn a lot on the way. But I'm just worried this lens will only be good for tiny macro photos rather than the medium sized fish photos we're looking to take.

As you can probably tell I have no idea about photography haha. I'm hoping we learn a lot on the way and can come home with some great pictures.

 

[JackConnick]

Hi;

A wide angle lens will allow you to get closer and fill the frame so you get better color and sharpness.

You can take a look at our free Handbooks. There's good info to get you started.

 

[krukster86]

The standard built-in lens is OK for those purposes. When you get to something bigger like sharks, manatees, dolphins, etc, you will want to invest in a wide angle lens because you will need to get close to have your lights illuminate the subject, but still have the whole animal in frame.

 

[tursiops]

As implied in the msgs above, the issue is not really your lens but rather is your light. If you are using ambient light, your lens is fine for those bigger subjects. If you are supplying the light (strobe or video light) then you need to be just a few feet away, not ten. and if you are just a few feet away, then the bigger subjects won't fit into your field of view, hence the suggestion for a wide-angle lens.

 

[DavidFL]

Here's a quick illustration about the point other posters have made about getting close because of light. The link below is a 12 second clip of a shark encounter off Jupiter, FL, captured with a TG-5 in the Olympus housing, using the 4K video and the standard built in lens at its widest angle. I know it's a video and not a still, but you will see that the shark is only "lit" for about a second when he/she is right in front of the camera. My rig has two very bright video lights.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

I have the TG-5 in the Olympus housing and I just recently purchased the Backscatter wide angle lens for the housing. The lens works great and I took lots of great photos and video on recent trips to Roatan and Cozumel. The biggest problem I have is the how to switch from wide angle to macro.

 

[seaseadee]

As implied in the msgs above, the issue is not really your lens but rather is your light. If you are using ambient light, your lens is fine for those bigger subjects. If you are supplying the light (strobe or video light) then you need to be just a few feet away, not ten. and if you are just a few feet away, then the bigger subjects won't fit into your field of view, hence the suggestion for a wide-angle lens.

If you do go the route of a wide angle lens, is vignetting a problem?

 

[tursiops]

If you do go the route of a wide angle lens, is vignetting a problem?

The wrong lens on some cameras might vignette. I dont think this an issue witb the TG5, but someone like @JackConnick will have a more definitive answer.

 

[JackConnick]

You need to have a 52mm mount (for the Oly Housing) that works with the native 24mm camera lens. Many older lenses only work with 28mm lenses. The Kraken KRL-02 is a great lens and is wider that the Backscatter model.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

I haven't had any issues with vignetting with the Backscatter lens. Here are a few shots I took of sharks at Anthony's Key on our recent Roatan trip. I was close enough that I could touch the sharks, and the lens captured them very well.