Olympus Wide Angle Choices

[bmchugh]

I have an Olympus E-520 with the 14-54 lens in the flat port and duel YS110a strobes. I also have a 50mm lens on order. I'm thinking about which wide angle option to go with. I'm down to considering the 9-18 or the 8mm fish eye. Which would be a better option, I don't see having the funds to spring for the 7-14. Any recommendations for lens and which dome?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[RTRski]

Which housing do you have? Olympus or Ikelite? I'm guessing Oly from the indication you're using the 14-54 in a flat port, but not sure.

I don't have experience with the Olympus housings, but if I'm wrong and you're using Ikelite re-ping me and I can give you some impressions, although I got lucky and got the 7-14 for a steal. ce4jesus also on this board is a recent 9-18 purchaser.

But outside of housing/port questions, there's really not much effective "loss" in wide angle terms between 8mm and 9mm, so the question is do you really want the rectilinear correction and range from the 9-18, or not? Some people say fisheyes work really well underwater as coral vistas are naturally 'organic' and the distortion isn't too disconcerting. I personally take the opposite view - if you ever do take pictures that are supposed to be straight e.g. legs on an oil rig, downlines, dock pilings, etc. the curvature really disturbs me. But there are some really neat things you can do artistically with a fisheye you can't do with rectilinear correction like straight-down shots or some over/unders. Once you know which side of the 'aesthetic' fence you'd prefer to play on, the rest is just port mechanics.

 

[AndyT]

I used the 8mm fisheye on a Red Sea trip last year - it was the only lens I could use at the time as the airline decided that I didn't really need my strobes and port extensions. It can be a difficult lens to master, you have to be really close to smaller subjects otherwise they "dissapear" into the shot. I really wished that I had the use of my 12-60. I also imagine that the 8mm is a difficult lens to use with strobes - i don't think you will get full frame coverage even with two.

The Red Sea stuff is here, all natural light Red Sea August 2008 - a set on Flickr

Personally I would love a 7-14 but I think I'm gonna end up with a 9-18 initially.

Hopefully Phil will be along to put things in perspective, he is a great source of knowlege !

 

[bmchugh]

I have the Oly housing. I'm leaning to the 9-18 for some flexibility while shooting. The distortion of the fisheye does not bother me as I don't shoot wreaks or oil rigs but am more interested in shooting reef scenes. Really would like to see some results of underwater shots taken with the 9-18 especially in temperate waters as I live in CA and most of my diving is local. I would love to dive some of the exotic tropical places but that is probably a few years out.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[ce4jesus]

I did just purchase the 9-18 lens and haven't had a great deal of time to play with it topside. I've been toying with the idea of the port purchase before my trip in July...but that's a ways off. Reef photo says there's a new 4" dome port for it for around 600. Athena 100mm Dome Port for Olympus 9-18 [ath.opd.wz9-18-pte] - $599.00 : Reef Photo & Video!, The Underwater Photo Pros I've yet to ask if that includes the zoom gear. That would be ideal due to its size. 100mm .... Sure sounds small for a dome port but if it renders a decent photo, it'll be a joy to travel with.

 

[bmchugh]

The Athena 100mm dome port sounds like a great deal if the image quality is good. Seems kind of small but that would make traveling with it much easier. Hopefully someone will give it a try soon. I'm leaning to the 9-18 lens to complete my set up.

Brian