TimG

There's a lot of interest in the OM system cameras, especially the OM-1ii model which is used by a good number of long-term Waterpixels' members. As a result I thought it worth starting an seperate thread for OM Systems. So by all means post here issues, questions, thoughts, ideas, knowledge on how to get the best out of these cameras underwater. God knows I need some help..... 😝

One thing I didn’t mention, which although relatively obvious is important: I’m comparing a D500/60mm (90mm FF equivalent) combination with a OM-1ii/60mm - a 120mm FF equivalent. Perhaps a fairer comparison would be the OM/60 combination and a D500/105 combination (150mm equivalent). That was also pretty difficult to capture a mid-water swimming subject! I don’t think the D500/105mm combination hunted as much as the OM.

Subjectively, yes. Bear in mid that I have never used these OM camera or lenses before and, despite very helpful pre-match advice, I was not entirely sure what settings were available or which to use. The OM-1ii is capable of all sorts of tech bells and whistles way beyond (for me) a 2017 D500. I just tried to keep it simple. Not surprisingly the Panasonic 8mm was fine. No problem at all. Easy to focus. The Zuiko 60mm was more problematic and very prone to hunting in turbid water - much more so, I thought, than the D500/Nikkor 60mm. I've never used any kind of focus tracking on my old system and continued to use C-AF for focussing. Subject Detection was set to Off. I did miss a lot of shots initially. Switching to the 0.19-0.4m setting helped a bit. Yes, I started on 0.19m to infinity. Trying to catch a subject swimming in mid-water was something I could do easily with the D500/60mm. Not so with the settings I was using with the OM/60mm. The AF could be distracted by stuff in the water with AF/ Release combined on the shutter release control. Separating out AF and Release will be something I try next time set up on its own Custom group. So, say, C1 for AF/Release combined; C2 for AF/Release separated out to different controls. The other features I want to try out is reducing the C-AF Auto Sensitivity. The Default is 0 but, I read -2 should help distractions. But then, I'm assuming, so should separating out focussing and release buttons. So, bottom line, subjectively, the D500 with a Nikkor 60mm was easier and seemed more reliable for focussing. But, as I say, very early days and it was an accumulation of using the OM for 19 dives as compared to almost a 1000 with the D500. The OM-1ii is clearly highly capable, flexible and customisable. It will take time to fine-tune and get the best of it. As I wrote, I came away happy I was not frustrated to death with a new system. But I did miss shots I would have taken with the D500 so it is a work in progress.

It was still appreciated!

Yep, it’s exactly that, Dave. The spotting light is indeed on most of the time. And a small mask aperture calls for a lot of power. If you’re reading, Oskar, one thing I’d love to see on the Retras is an indicator that the spotting light is indeed on. I often forget to turn it off and it’s not always visible against the reef. I sometimes check by just putting my hand in front of the snoot. But an indicator light would be terrific.

Hi Greg Were delighted to have you on board. A warm welcome to Waterpixels. We hope you really enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Interesting. Could be just habit from my D500 days! I do find though that using the Retra LSD snoot I turn the strobes power up a fair bit. A 100 images sounds about what I’d do over 3 dives. I’ll try going Boosterless on my next trip and see how it goes.

Let us know what you need, Jurgen.....

Totally agree, Larry. You were a brilliant guest! So sad that KBR has gone. I heard Mark died.

Really good points from Kristin. Shooting up you can sometimes isolate a critter against a neutral and uncluttered background. Sometimes! Nice pics, Kristin.

Hi Jurgen! Great to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels. We hope you really enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Larry Jackson! You old rascal. So good to see your name. I hope you’re in top form. A very warm welcome to Waterpixels, mate!

Yep, totally possible with a snoot. Then as @Grantmac sets out, low ISO, high shutter speed to cut out ambient light - and whatever macro aperture setting you need. A snoot is the way to go: great fun, massively frustrating to start with - but sheer brilliance when you get it bang-on. There's an article about snooting in the, err Articles section. Hang on a minute! I wrote it.....

I've just done a dunk test in a tank full of fresh water. I used the Zuiko 60mm with Nauticam 65 port, the 45-degree finder and two Retras with the Boosters (my normal GoTo), so 16 batteries in total. This weighed 6.5 kgs in air. In the dunk tank it was 1.88 kgs negatively buoyant. I make that to be just over 10 Jumbo Stix! 😆

Hehe, a big A-Men to that, Chip! 🤣

So… back from my first M43/Nauticam dive trip. Horribly heavy though it was, I was amazed all my gear, except strobe arms and the Retra LSD, would fit into a Pelican 1510 refitted with Pelican’s TrekPak dividers. They are much neater than the padded dividers I’ve been using for decades and free-up valuable space. We were boat diving in Sulawesi from a resort on Saronde Island. I took the OM-1ii with the Olympus 60mm and Panasonic 8mm, Nauticam’s flatport 65 and a Zen 100mm domeport. Over 7 days of diving, macro shots on five days and FE for two. I shot just over 1300 RAW file images over 20 dives. I found the system easy to use. My partner said she was dreading me emerging at the end of a dive cursing and swearing in frustration over a new system. IT NEVER HAPPENED. I used fairly simple camera settings, the Retra LSD for macro and happily shot away. The 60mm hunted a bit in some fairly turbid water and I tried various tweaks which helped. The Panasonic 8mm was a joy to use and focussing, not surprisingly, was easy. The Zen 100 port is very neat - but you do need to be careful not to smash into the reef using the 8mm! Everything is WAY closer than it looks. I had the UWT trigger in the housing which was excellent and worked without a hitch. I switched often to HSS on the Retras with high shutter speeds when shooting wide-angle into the sun. The system coped perfectly. The USB port was brilliant and over the course of 7 days I never opened the housing back! Plugging the housing into a USB charger for a couple of hours in the evenings resulted in a full battery for next day’s dives. I’d like to say I did the same with downloading images (ie through the USB port). However my lack of familiarity with the Files app on my iPad led me to stuff up the first download attempt - and I didn’t want to risk it. Back home now I have it figured out and will certainly use that in the future. No need to open the housing to download or battery charge. What a bonus! Other bits and bobs: the Nauticam vacuum system is easy to operate and offers a nice feeling of comfort. It is integrated into the housing very neatly. I was surprised by the system being significantly negatively buoyant. I was using two sets of arms comprising 5” plus 8” arms fitted with Stix Jumbo floats. If I let go, the whole lot plummeted down. I’m looking into adding a cross bar with additional Stix - which is what I had on my D500/Subal system and liked it. I plan a rinse tank test this week with travel scales to find out how much additional buoyancy is needed. I struggled a bit to find the sweet spot on the shutter release - something which was quite easy on the Subal housing with a D500. I did miss shots by a millisecond. Next time I’ll use the AF button to focus and the shutter lever just to fire the shutter. And I struggled to find the aperture and shutter dials on the housing without looking. They are smaller than Subals and my fingers didn’t fall easily onto them. But this is just familiarity and practice. And the images? The key factor! Yep, I’m happy especially considering this was first time out with a new setup. Most images are sharp. If they are not it’s mainly my fault. I’m left with 130 keepers which, for me, is about the right ratio: 1 keeper for 10 deletes. Looking at them at 100% in Lightroom, they don’t look any different to the Nikon D500 RAW files. So if you’re thinking of an M43 system using an OM-1, it works nicely. Phew…..

Beautifully put into words what, I’m sure, many of us have felt on dives.

Falconthrust, eh? Now there's an interesting user name! Welcome! Great to have you with us on Waterpixels. We hope you really enjoy the forum. Best wishes

Chris, you’re using it on an M43 system with the Zuiko 60mm, right?

Hi Kyle! Welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum. Yep, stock up on gear…. It’s what we do best, right?! Best wishes