Pt-ep11 (omd em1) housing question. Is anyone using one ?

[Nickbell]

I have just purchased the pt- ep11 housing and have a question about loading the camera into the housing. When I first received it, I eagerly loaded it in and it all fitted perfectly. Upon reading the instruction booklet it said I have to remove the rubber eyecup prior to use. I have done some tests to see if it is binding with the eyepiece upon closing the back (placed soft blue tack / putty around eyepiece) and their seems to be around 1 mm of space still available when the rubber eyepiece is left in place. Have olympus changed their design of the em-s eye piece and their is no need to remove it or are they erring on the side of caution and allowing for compression of the housing back and don't want any contact at all. I know most people have gone for the nauticam housing but I have had a great run from all of my previous olympus housings and this one was available in Australia for under au$1000 new. Hope someone else can help.

 

[Enoshima]

Your post is from well over half a year ago, but maybe someone else (like me) will stumble upon the question and wonder the same.

I recently bought the olympus E-M1 and due to cost and good experience with the PT-EP01 I bought the PT-EP11.
The first time installing I did not remove the eyecup and it seemed to fit just fine.
Since the manual clearly states to remove it, I will just do it.
Once you get the trick (kind of twisting it off, read the E-M1 manual on the eyecup) it is not that difficult.
I'd rather replace a 15$ eyepiece than a 1300$ camera, 300$ lens and 700$ housing.

 

[Nickbell]

Hi Enoshin,
six months later I still don't have an answer.
A representative from Olympus suggested that you remove the eye cup so that it does not obscure the view through the housing magnifier. Sounded feasible at the time. Experimentation with and without the eyecup did not show any difference, so we are back to square one. I have not removed it for the last 6 uses and have not had any problems so far. Hopefully someone has an answer..

 

[Enoshima]

I have been finally able to take my E-M1 underwater.
During the first dive (after snorkeling several times) I took it to 30 meters, when I got back up there was some water in it.
Luckily the E-M1 is weatherproof and so is the 12-50mm lens and there was no damage done.

But what did I see when I opened up the housing, I forgot to take off the eyecup.
The water seemed to have gotten in at the hinge of the housing, making the eyecup a possible cause.
I found no hairs on the o-ring, although I did remove it, cleaned it and after applying some grease put it back in.

In the next 5 dives it preformed just fine (withouth the eyecup!).
Although still nothing definitive, I will definitly double check the eyecup from now on.

 

[bvanant]

I am confused. If Olympus says to remove the eyecup, why don't you just do what they suggest?
Bill

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I agree with Bill, this is an issue that has gone back as far as the Olympus housing for E-410. That housing had some leak problems which were in part because of the eye cap and Olympus has said that it should be removed with every housing since. It also allows the pickup finder to work better because the camera and finder are a bit closer to each other. I see people do the same thing by stacking a thick filter on the lens which hits the glass on the inside of the port. The lens front optic is not going to be damaged inside the housing and you can just screw the filter on when you remove the camera. I take the little triangle shoulder strap things off as well because with some housings the camera can be misaligned if they hit something going in.