Getting the most out of Olympus 12mm 2.0

[Andrzej Czyżyk]

Olympus 12mm 2.0 seems like a great companion to the Panasonic 8mm FE (sharing the same Nauticam 4.33" port and being so tiny).

I took some snorkelling snapshots with it and there are two issues that annoy me:

 

#1 The edge softness.

Wide open the edges are very soft. I found an old tread on Wetpixel with suggestion to use B+W 46mm NL5. Supposedly it gives sharp corners even wide open (the sample images from that thread are not available anymore).

I could not get hold of the B+W 46mm NL5. I tried Hoya 46mm +4 instead. It helped but I'm not fully happy. 

Should I keep trying to get the NL5 instead? Would it work better?

Is there anything else I could try (other than shooting it stopped down to f8)?

 

#2 Lens flare

Since I shot it at the surface and directly into the sun I got a lot of lens flare (as expected). It seems there is enough space between the dome port and the lens to fit some lens hood. Did anybody try that? Which lens hood fits the best?

[Davide DB]

@Chris Ross is way more technical than me... In the meantime 😉

 

Are you sure that sharp corners @F2 underwater do exist? (photo not video)

Looking at the Nauticam Port Chart I find:

 

null

 

 

Asterisk indicates the best option which is the 140mm dome (5,5"). This is 1" more than your dome and there is an extension ring. Probably this depends on dome length.

On my Pana 12-35 I have the suggested 6" dome. Even larger. At F2.8 I get a nice out of focus in video.

 

 

 

 

[Andrzej Czyżyk]

14 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Are you sure that sharp corners @F2 underwater do exist?

On the contrary, I was surprised to read in a thread that B+W NL5 could achieve that. Since I don't have one to try I was hoping that someone tested it and could share their opinion.

 

Nauticam's recommended option is quite expensive. I would be interested to hear from somebody who actually used it (140mm optical) and could compare to 4.33" acrylic, before I even consider that option.

Edited September 5 by Andrzej Czyżyk

[Davide DB]

I would be curious to see it inside the cheap 6" polycarbonate dome. I'm afraid it will vignettes. The lens is only 43mm long while the 12-35mm is 74mm. The 6" dome has a long collar.

I have the dome but IDK anyone with that lens.

 

 

 

 

[Chris Ross]

13 hours ago, Andrzej Czyżyk said:

On the contrary, I was surprised to read in a thread that B+W NL5 could achieve that. Since I don't have one to try I was hoping that someone tested it and could share their opinion.

 

Nauticam's recommended option is quite expensive. I would be interested to hear from somebody who actually used it (140mm optical) and could compare to 4.33" acrylic, before I even consider that option.

The issue may well be different ideas about what acceptable corners look like, but realistically no matter the lens f2 in a small dome is going to be hard on the corners.