This is an email I sent to Phil Rudin and his reply. I thought some of the information Phil sent me may be of use to others here.
Hi Phil
I have just bought the E-520 and I'm expecting the E05 in the next week. In terms of ports the Olympus PPO-E05 14-42 is the cheapest in Australia at $A430 the Athena has to be imported at approx $A900. I havent got a local quote on the Inon. I am moving from a Nikon/Aquatica film set up.
Q's are:
1. If I am mainly doing macro and fish with the 14-42 (later the 50mm macro)and macro adaptor, will the Olympus port provide good edge definition? Athena claims it is better in this area and I am assuming they are comparing to PPO-E05. Also what is edge definition like at the 14mm end?
2. Which manufacturer of external macro adaptors would you recommend?
3. If I buy the 50mm macro lens later will this port be good for that?
4. If you were starting out, as I am doing, with E-520 and Olympus housing what set up would you buy?
5. Haven't made my mind up about flashes yet as I own 4 flashes but they are all nikonos manual and 1 is Nik TTL. Can I use my manual flashes as a slave flash or should I sell all these and buy an Inon or some other flash?
Answer:
Domes in general have better corner sharpness than flat ports regardless on the lens being used, the Athena 14 to 42 dome is a great piece of equipment but the cost is high v. the flat port from Olympus. The Athena port DOES NOT come with a gear to zoom the lens so that is an additional expense. I have tested both ports and the Athena is better but not by much. The big upside is the lens angle of view remains as it is on land while shooting from behind a flat port reduces the angle of view. This will work to your advantage when shooting close-up at the 42 mm end of the lens and be a disadvantage at the wide end. I would go with the Olympus port because it can be used in a pinch with the 50 and 35 mm macro lenses. Keep in mind that with the 35 macro at the closest focus the lens will be focusing inside the port and therefore be useless.
Regarding external macro lenses for the 35 or 50 mm macro I would go with the Inon 50 mm macro port first or the 35 or 50 mm macro ports from Athena second. All these ports have the 67 mm thread in the end of the port which makes adding the Inon UCL 165 M67C/U lens easy to install and remove. The 50 mm macro is my first choice, but if cost is an issue the 35 mm macro will also work but is less useful close-up because of the very close focus to the front of the macro port.
Regarding question #4, I would want the 50 macro with the Inon port and the 9 to 18 mm zoom with the Olympus/Athena dome port. Once again if cost is an issue the 8 mm fisheye and the Inon fisheye dome work very well. I like the zoom better than the fisheye and feel that the fisheye is a harder lens to master.
Regarding question #5 sell your Nikonos strobes and move on. They will not slave well because digital cameras send out a pre-flash which will trigger the slave before the main flash goes off. Once again I recommend the Inon strobes that work with the Olympus cameras in S-TTL using fiber optic cords. The fiber optics work better than anything else I have tried. I have tested the Z-240's which I own and the D-2000 (less money) strobes and both are excellent. The D-2000 is a stop of light or so slower (weaker) than the Z240s'. Inon also have a new and very compact 2000 series strobe coming which I handled at DEMA, this strobe looks very promising and should be a great travel strobe.
Good luck with your new system, you can read my review on the E-520/PT-E05 system at, divechronicles,com in the latest issue which can be downloaded from this site and soon at underwaterjournal.com
Phil Rudin
