Why isn't the OM-D E-M10 used underwater often?

[Shortsonfire79]

The 12-40mm is a great lens, but which housing do you have? If I recall correctly the EM-5 II Oly housing has the Pen port system (smaller) and you can't use the 12-40mm with it in the olympus system of ports. You would need to use with after market ports like this one:

Athena Optical Dome Port WZ7-14II (Olympus EP Mount)

I use the 12-40 2.8 pro with the Meikon housing:

Olympus E-M5 II 40m/130ft Meikon Underwater Camera Housing with Dry dome port V.4

I have the Olympus housing; you're correct in thinking that the 12-40mm won't fit. According to this chart I'd need a port PPO-E02 for the 12-40mm. I see now that it's been discontinued but still available from third party retailers. That Athena port is way out of my budget, wow!

I didn't have any immediate plans to bring the 12-40mm underwater, but that Meikon housing is pretty reasonably priced. I might make the effort to sell the oly housing and pick that one up!

 

[stuartv]

I have the Olympus housing; you're correct in thinking that the 12-40mm won't fit. According to this chart I'd need a port PPO-E02 for the 12-40mm. I see now that it's been discontinued but still available from third party retailers. That Athena port is way out of my budget, wow!

I didn't have any immediate plans to bring the 12-40mm underwater, but that Meikon housing is pretty reasonably priced. I might make the effort to sell the oly housing and pick that one up!

If you want the Meikon housing, don't hesitate too long on grabbing it. They seem to stop making housings for specific cameras not too long after that camera drops out of "latest and greatest" status. They haven't had a listing for the housing for my E-M10 for quite a while now.

 

[Shortsonfire79]

Wow good to know, thanks! I expect the E-M5 mkiii sometime soon so I'd better act quickly!

 

[npole]

One warn on the Meikon case: I had an issue with one with the M5 not sitting correctly (no matter what I do) and the "movie" function not working (not because the movie button wouldn't be pressed, but because I'm sure that due to the pressure a combination of keys that i'm not able to replicate out of the water won't let the videos start). This drive me crazy for some time, because all the other functions worked without any issue at any depth.
Other people have this housing and they have no issue at all, so i'm sure that I have been unlucky with mine. I contacted Meikon they didn't resolved my issue so far.
On the other side the RX100 housing (that still Meikon but SeaFrogs branded) is much better in both material and assembly.

 

[tursiops]

I have the Olympus housing; you're correct in thinking that the 12-40mm won't fit. According to this chart I'd need a port PPO-E02 for the 12-40mm. I see now that it's been discontinued but still available from third party retailers. That Athena port is way out of my budget, wow!

I didn't have any immediate plans to bring the 12-40mm underwater, but that Meikon housing is pretty reasonably priced. I might make the effort to sell the oly housing and pick that one up!

One reason i went with the M10 was I could save some money and put it into the Nauticam housing. Since the housing is between me and the camera, I have found from earlier systems I had that the best housing was more important to me than the best camera. Also, I did not want to be frustrated downstream by my housing not having the right port or whatever. I've been very happy with this decision.

 

[Chris Ross]

I have the Olympus housing; you're correct in thinking that the 12-40mm won't fit. According to this chart I'd need a port PPO-E02 for the 12-40mm. I see now that it's been discontinued but still available from third party retailers. That Athena port is way out of my budget, wow!

I didn't have any immediate plans to bring the 12-40mm underwater, but that Meikon housing is pretty reasonably priced. I might make the effort to sell the oly housing and pick that one up!

Do you have the EM-5 or the EM-5 MkII?. The chart you linked is for the EM-5, the housing for this camera uses the larger port system, while the EM-5 MkII uses the smaller PEN port system for some reason. The PPO-E02 is available from BHphoto but price is close to that of the Athena dome. But again I believe that doesn't fit the housing for the EM-5 II.

There is a confusing array of ports available for the olympus housings from Athen, INON and possibly others, it may pay to contact one of the dealers selling them to see what your options are. I suspect you could use the 9-18 Oly and 7-14 Pany as well as the Oly 12-50 with the ports I could see at a more reasonable price. For example here is an Athena EP port chart (same mount as EM-5 MkII housing):

http://www.athena-opt.com/english/img/PT-EP05L_06L-2013-01-24.pdf

Before you rush in and buy the Meikon, do your homework, I believe there is no option for a zoom gear which entirely defeats the purpose if you want to take your 12-40 underwater IMO.

 

[Ardy]

Thanks a bunch for the replies guys. I ended up grabbing the EM5 when I was down in Monterey that weekend. I love it above surface but there's a lot to learn for underwater.

Npole is totally right when you say that there's a wide variety of things to shoot underwater (wide vs macro). Because I'm in Monterey where 5-20' vis is the norm, I usually aim for macro (with GoPro +10/+15) but I can't see myself getting the Oly 60mm macro for just UW photography. Seems very limiting for the dive. I've only used a 25mm f/1.8 prime so far and I really enjoyed it. You're terribly right about how hard it is to get the shot with a small bit of surge. I'm working to familiarize myself with the function buttons to make my uw experience smooth.

Chris Ross. I'm definitely working with the additional function buttons. The multiple MySets are helpful too; I can have my surface and uw settings separate on the fly. As I mentioned above, I think 60mm macro for dedicated is a bit out of what I want from this camera. I just ordered the 12-40mm f/2.8 so I'll need to get a new port for that; DHL says it'll be here tomorrow. I'll try to pick up the oly port for it sometime down the road hoping that this lens will be my daily shooter.

And you're totally right about video. I used to mess with it both on surface and uw but it was always mediocre at best; this was my internal argument about not needing 4k. My friend was also promoting Panasonic if I was really interested in video, but I think I really liked the Olympus environment the most. Olympus Outlet is ten times more active than Panasonic Planet!

First pics with a non-phone, non-gopro camera. I'm pretty happy!

Hi - if you go Oly then get yourself the 30mm macro and forget the 60 unless you go into macro in a bigger way. The 30 has excellent optics and for most stuff is a lot easier to use than the 60mm. See my post.

 

[Germie]

I bought the EM5 mk2 a month ago. People said it is better than the 10. AND: the housings for the EM5 are cheaper. I need a housing for over 330ft, so went to Isotta. The price of the housing without ports was 1200 euro, for the 10 it was 1700 euro. Portprices are further same.
Till now I only made fisheye pictures, but wait for a port for the 12-50 kitlens.
So I think the price of the housing is important also for the choice of which OMD camera.

Meikon seems to have a lot of leaks (only 40m rated, so most of my dives it will go too deep) and I believe you cannot use zoomgear. And you cannot use a fisheye and dome on a Meikon housing. So cheap, but really limited. Make a good choice of what you want.

 

[Shortsonfire79]

So I ended up going with the Meikon housing. Last weekend was my last opportunity to dive before my Hawaii trip next month so I expedited it from Hong Kong. Lack of zoom is a real kick in the butt, but for Monterey I was able to manage. Did two night dives at 25mm and a day dive at 40mm. So far, the only time I wish I had the zoom function was to widen out to 12mm to try one of those above/below surface shots of my dad, but that was really all. I think for Hawaii I'll do the first dive or two at 12mm and then progressively increase zoom between dives (in AC environment).

There is a confusing array of ports available for the olympus housings from Athen, INON and possibly others, it may pay to contact one of the dealers selling them to see what your options are. I suspect you could use the 9-18 Oly and 7-14 Pany as well as the Oly 12-50 with the ports I could see at a more reasonable price. For example here is an Athena EP port chart (same mount as EM-5 MkII housing):

http://www.athena-opt.com/english/img/PT-EP05L_06L-2013-01-24.pdf

Before you rush in and buy the Meikon, do your homework, I believe there is no option for a zoom gear which entirely defeats the purpose if you want to take your 12-40 underwater IMO.

Good to know that the mkII uses the PEN port system. The Athena port was way over my budget so I was forced to go with the Meikon. Not having zoom is pretty wasted on the lens for sure, but the security of having weather sealing for land use is way up there. If I look at it as if I'm just using a prime lens underwater, I don't feel as bad about the decision. hahaha.

To be honest, I picked the 12-40 2.8 mostly for above water shooting. I was planning to use my friend's 25mm f/1.8 underwater in the Oly housing.

Hi - if you go Oly then get yourself the 30mm macro and forget the 60 unless you go into macro in a bigger way. The 30 has excellent optics and for most stuff is a lot easier to use than the 60mm. See my post.

I think you're right. My friend was really pushing the 60mm but after messing around with the 12-40mm I don't think I can pull off 60mm. Maybe with practice, but that's a lotta macro!

I bought the EM5 mk2 a month ago. People said it is better than the 10. AND: the housings for the EM5 are cheaper. I need a housing for over 330ft, so went to Isotta. The price of the housing without ports was 1200 euro, for the 10 it was 1700 euro. Portprices are further same.
Till now I only made fisheye pictures, but wait for a port for the 12-50 kitlens.
So I think the price of the housing is important also for the choice of which OMD camera.

Meikon seems to have a lot of leaks (only 40m rated, so most of my dives it will go too deep) and I believe you cannot use zoomgear. And you cannot use a fisheye and dome on a Meikon housing. So cheap, but really limited. Make a good choice of what you want.

I've been really happy with the EM-5 mkII above and below the surface so far. I ended up picking up the Meikon housing. The double o-ring and leak alarm are a great step up compared to the Oly housing. I've only been to 100' twice so I don't think that'll be an issue in the near future. I'd say hopefully but I'd be jazzed to hit triple digits again soon.

I hope these images attach correctly and not in giant fashion.

 

[Germie]

For me Meikon was not an option as too depthlimited (Olympus also), and I needed fisheye. But your pics are not bad. So for you it works.