Wet Wide Angle Lenses do Not work with 4/3 or DSLR systems, Example Photos*

[mjh]

A couple different threads about people wanting to use Wet Wide Angle lenses with 4/3, interchangeable lens systems. In general this does NOT work or the DSLR crowd would have it figured out by now. These posts often are refering to the Olympus 4/3 housings using the Lens Holder ring. The Lens Holder is really meant to hold Diopters for Macro shooting. You can get very good results with diopters for your Macro shooting.

For those who may be wondering the following is the Olympus Lens Holder. It presses over the standard flat port that most Oly housings employ.
Lenses & Filters :: Lens Holders & Adapters :: Olympus Macro Lens Adapter -

To take advantage of the 4/3 camera's picture quality you should pair them with some of the quality wide angle lenses like the Oly 9-18mm, Panasonic 7-14mm or Panisonic 8mm fisheye. Yes, you will have to purchase a wide angle port to compliment the lens. Each lens has their supporters.

The following where clearly, or not so clearly as you can see, taken in our shop just to give you a rough idea. As you can see the Oly 14-42mm kit lens works best without a Wet Wide angle lens attached. The following shots were taken with the Olympus E-PM1, EPO6 Housing and Olympus Lens Holder.

14-42 Lens without a Wide Angle Wet Lens


14-42 Lens with Lens Holder, Sea & Sea M67 Wide Angle Wet Lens, 100 degrees (this would be similar to the Ike W-30 and Inon H100)


14-42mm Lens at 14mm with Lens Holder and UWL28 144 degree Fisheye Wet Lens


PM1, Olympus 9-18mm Lens & Zen Pen Dome
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[Ardy]

Seems like they won't get too many takers for that option. I have not read a good article about wet wide angle lenses and I assumed they were not for sale anymore.

Is there anyone out there using a wet wide lens?

 

[mjh]

Wet Wide Angle lenses are, in general, meant for fixed lens, compact cameras. The right pairing can work very well.

Sony RX100, Nauticam Housing, Inon H100 Wet Wide Angle Lens
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[kkfok]

Thanks. Will there be any difference if the test was done underwater? After all those wet lens were designed to work underwater.

 

[mjh]

Wet lenses should give you sharper corners/edges underwater, the amount of blurring should be much less, as seen in the last photo. Edge sharpness is what separates the good wet lenses from the less well made. But again this is the advantage of a good wide angle Camera lens vs. a wet lens. A good wide angle interchangeable camera lens, behind a good port should give better results than a wet lens, on a fixed lens camera.

Olympus OMDEM5/Nauticam Housing/Nauticam 4.33 Dome/Lumix 8mm Fisheye lens.