Housing Setup Maps and Options

HI All

after several weeks of suffering and searching I have decided to buy an Olympus E410 and PT-E03 housing.

Does anyone out there know of a system chart or a layout of what options for ports, flashes, arms, wet lenses etc etc are available and what works with what.

Ideally I need a port for the 14-42 and a wet lens for macro 1:1 or better.

I am sure this is a difficult issue for many of you as you try to decide what to put in your set up and what is essential and what is nice to have. I am surprised at how difficult this is.

How do you guys do it?

regards

Ardy

Hi Ardy,

If you already have Nikon lenses and aquatica ports why don't you consider

the D40X or the new D60 from Nikon? Both are quality cameras and if you

want a new plastic housing, you can always get one of Ike's units...

If you are sold on the E410 then you might like to know that it has just been

superseeded by the E420 so there may be some new 'bargains' around.

If, as said, you are into the E410, then do a search because there has been a lot

discussed about this camera here at Wetpixel. The best bloke to 'pick his brains'

would be TROPICAL1, he hangs around here quite a lot and his knowledge on

the Olympus gear is second to none. Phil is his name and if you do your search,

I am sure that his name will be linked to the camera of your dreams...

HTH,

Bruce...

after several weeks of suffering and searching ... I am surprised at how difficult this is.

How do you guys do it?

Hi Ardy. I was surprised too. I just went through the same issues trying to discover my new system. I finally figured out the problem was with my attitude. Here is what I posted last Dec.

"OK guys I'm starting to get the idea. Underwater digital photography is like a treasure hunt. You get little clues from people all around the world about equipment and then you put your best guess together and see if it works to get the magical image. Of course the equipment changes all the time and someone will figure out a new way to use some old piece of gear so you have to read Wetpixel everyday just to have a chance to get the treasure. Every once in a while someone will print a map to the treasure to give everyone hope. Then they immediately change everything so it's out of date. This digital stuff is more fun than I thought it would be!"

I'm now convinced that the only way to remain sane thoughout the process is to treat it like a voyage of discovery. Take pleasure in the journey. Ask lots of questions after reviewing the heck out of existing posts. You'll meet lots of new friends. Enjoy the ride! Good luck finding your treasure.

Steve

Hi Ardy,

I have purchased the E410. I've been going through the same struggle trying to find a good 1:1 macro. Here's what I've learned from Tropical1 (Phil Rudin) and others who say the same thing.

Macro - Best to buy the 50mm macro lens and the port. You can screw wet diopters to the front 67mm threads if you like. You can also add a teleconverter 1.4 or 2.0 that will increase its macro ability. If I were starting all over again I would buy the lens and the Inon Port with the magnetic manual focus rings. Most people that I see usually have a macro port and a dome port.

Here are some alternatives I ran into during my search that appealed more to me based on my pocket book, the need to purchase another Inon Z240 and the fact I already owned the 14-42 port and lens.

1. Buy the 50mm macro lens, use it in the 14-42 Port. It'll work in the port so this is the route I've chose to go.

A. You can add a wet diopter to the front of the port and here are the ways you can do it.

a. Woody's diopter..simply cut your port cover for the PPO-E05 and slide the diopter in the opening. Currently the diopter only comes in sizes too small to cover the Oly port but I have it from a reputable source that you can do this. My only worry here is keeping it in place and storage when its not attached.

b. You can use an Inon or Athena setup which basically puts a 67mm mount on a small arm you can move in front of the port when you need to. This seems a lot more stable than option A but the setups also cost about triple of option A.

I'm pretty much set on giving the Woody's Diopter a go. I've never been one to shy away from experimentation.

The E-420 is intriguing and due to the fact that it is the same size of the E-410 a housing should be easy to make. There's a preview on fourthirdsphoto.com The ingriguing part is will have the same sensor as the E3 and live view might be a tad faster...but still not as fast as the E-330.

PS..if you're interested in the range of the 14-42 I've taken some photos here, nothing good, but it does show the range of the lens.

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgall...cat/2785/page/2

I'm now convinced that the only way to remain sane thoughout the process is to treat it like a voyage of discovery. Take pleasure in the journey. Ask lots of questions after reviewing the heck out of existing posts. You'll meet lots of new friends. Enjoy the ride! Good luck finding your treasure.

and don't be afraid to be a pioneer!

FYI Olympus announced the successor to the E-410 yesterday, so you may want to keep that in mind. You can always be chasing things but figured I should mention this..

HI All

 

after several weeks of suffering and searching I have decided to buy an Olympus E410 and PT-E03 housing.

 

Does anyone out there know of a system chart or a layout of what options for ports, flashes, arms, wet lenses etc etc are available and what works with what.

 

Ideally I need a port for the 14-42 and a wet lens for macro 1:1 or better.

 

I am sure this is a difficult issue for many of you as you try to decide what to put in your set up and what is essential and what is nice to have. I am surprised at how difficult this is.

 

How do you guys do it?

 

regards

 

Ardy

Hi Ardy,

I have had this setup for a while so i'll help as much as I can.

Here is the link for olympus ports and compatible lenses http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/dsl...ystem_Chart.htm If you click on the link underneath, you can download the PDF. Although you can use the 50mm macro in the PPO-E05 (14-42) port with no problems optically, I find the port is physically so large that I have problems getting into tight spaces with it.

Another 2 options for ports and accesories are Inon and Athena. In Australia there are no distributors of Athena, but you can contact them through their website http://athena-opt.com/english.htm and buy straight from them. Our Inon distributor here has poor customer service and pricing so the best place I've found to buy from is someone named Yuzo at http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com/index.php Both of these places have given me great customer service.

If you want to get the 14-42mm, I would recommend the OPD-SZ14-42 port from athena. It's a dome port and if you add their M67 lens adapter arm, you can add a M67 wet macro lens i.e. UN PCU-01 And you'll have an extrememy versatile system. Although you'll get good results with this I would still recommend the 50mm macro if you're only planning on close ups, small critters. The reason I say this is because this lens is second to none as far as picture quality, sharpness, speed is concerned. I'd recommend the Inon port for this because you can purchase it with or without the magnetic focus ring so if you decide later down the track you want it, well you get the idea. Without the focus ring it's cheaper then the olympus too.

As for strobes you can add any of the new inons and have TTL via fibre optics. Theres also a Sea and Sea one too but I have no experience with this. You can get either Inon or Athena mount for the fibre optic cable. Athenas one is more expensve but it has a mount on top if you want to add focus lights etc. I have been using Inon's D2000s for a while now and have got very accurate results.

I hope this helps and hopefully Tropical1 (Phil) has some more suggestions for you. I've searched his posts and he is extremely knowlegable about Olympus systems.

Happy shooting, Greg

Hi Ardy,

I have had this setup for a while so i'll help as much as I can.

 

I hope this helps and hopefully Tropical1 (Phil) has some more suggestions for you. I've searched his posts and he is extremely knowlegable about Olympus systems.

Happy shooting, Greg

Hi All

Greg this is great stuff and thanks to all of you for your help and advice. Phil (Tropical1) gave me some earlier advice which was the turning point for me in this search. Also the quality of the 14-42 lens did it for me. Regarding the Olympus 50mm macro lens I may buy one of these but I am on a strict budget and as I dive only about 20-30 times a year and most of that on a live aboard for 7-10 days I cant justify spending a lot of money on a set up that will only get wet that often.

Regarding buying a Nikon setup and using my lenses as suggested by Bruce Terrill. I looked closely at that option but the problem was the only camera in my price range after the housing was considered was the D50 because the D40/60 doesnt work with my lenses. The D80 was cheap enough to buy but the housing wasn't, also the standard lens Nikons come with didnt impress me when compared to the Olympus.

I would have loved to have a real live view as I am short sighted and looking through a small hole with limited light isnt great for short sighted people. Still I have done it before and I will do it again.

The fact that there is a e420 announced is interesting but not mind changing unless the live view works for diving. First to hear about this please let us all know.

The point and shoot market where I thought I would end up is a dead end for the unwary with shutter lag and often poor image quality. In talking to some of the P&S guys they end up spending almost the same amount of money and sometimes more. There are some exceptions ie the Nikon 5000 shots an Aussie has on this site (sorry Mike? dont have your reply to my earlier mail) and the shots from the Panasonic TZ3.

With the 14-42 and a wet macro I should have a system that isnt perfect ie a lens that goes from 1:1 macro to 300mm but it covers most of what I want. My first set up in the 80's was an Olympus OM1 with a 50mm macro 1:2 in a (Aussie) Seatite housing with a seatite flash.

regards from Down Under

Bob