To upgrade or not?

I first started playing around with underwater photography about 3 years ago. I purchased my future brother in laws old Olympus 5050 with the Olympus underwater housing and an Epoque ES 150 DS strobe. As I take more and more pictures, I'm finding that I really like taking macro photos. My trip to Bonaire a few months back showed the short coming of my setup. I can't get the small critters the fill the frame. The best I can seem to do is get a decent shot then crop it to get the picture I envisioned while taking the shot. Is it worth it to get wet lenses to attach to my housing? That's assuming that there's still something being made that I can attach to it.

My other option would be going the DSLR route. I like what I've seen with the new Olympus 620 so far and I like the fact that they make a housing for it as well. If not that one, then one of the other entry level dslrs out there. I'd probably keep the old camera for my wife because she's showing some interest in taking photos too.

I think it is a case of are you prepared to spend thousands on a new rig. A new dslr plus a spare. a selection of lenses together with the appropriate ports and gears. A pair of strobes, arms, filters the list goes on. Then of course you have all the added weight and the decision of what lens to take on a particular dive. If that doesnt put you off then go for it. Having said that, when you get 5 minutes have a look at wetpixel member BrianM flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianmayes/sets/ and see what this guy achieves with a canon G9 and a couple of wet lenses and NO strobes. You will be able to fill the frane with a set up pretty similar to his.

Hope this helps

Stew

Thanks Stew, those are some great pictures that he took with his g9. I hope to get shots like that one of these days. I'm fairly certain that my uw case is threaded for 67mm lenses. I guess I need to start looking around to see what it would cost to get a lens or two, I guess one for macro and one for wide angle and figure out if it's worth the cost. I'll probably pick up a dslr at some point this year for top side photo's if nothing else. If I can spend a couple hundred bucks on lenses and get the shots I want instead of spending big bucks on a case and ports for a dslr I know that'd make the wife happy.

Thanks Stew, those are some great pictures that he took with his g9. I hope to get shots like that one of these days. I'm fairly certain that my uw case is threaded for 67mm lenses. I guess I need to start looking around to see what it would cost to get a lens or two, I guess one for macro and one for wide angle and figure out if it's worth the cost. I'll probably pick up a dslr at some point this year for top side photo's if nothing else. If I can spend a couple hundred bucks on lenses and get the shots I want instead of spending big bucks on a case and ports for a dslr I know that'd make the wife happy.

You can probably use a pair of these: http://reefphoto.com/index.php?main_page=p...;products_id=44

Not sure what the WA options are with that housing, though.

Thanks for the link. That was a big help. So it looks like around $300 give or take for two of the macro lenses. Then another $350 for this Inon wide angle lense .That's still about half of what I'd pay for a housing and ports for the dslr I was looking at, so I guess it's a bargain in someones book.

Thanks for the link. That was a big help. So it looks like around $300 give or take for two of the macro lenses. Then another $350 for this Inon wide angle lense .That's still about half of what I'd pay for a housing and ports for the dslr I was looking at, so I guess it's a bargain in someones book.

$650 is a drop in the bucket compared to what it would cost to move to a DSLR. That gives WA AND Macro for a fraction of the cost of the housing for a DSLR, not mention the camera itself, the lenses, ports, domes, etc. to accomplish the same thing.

Ya, it's cheaper but I thought the olympus housing for 620 was right around 1k plus another couple hundred for a port. I know I would eventually need more than one port, but you have to start somewhere. I'll probably go with the wet lenses though and continue to work on my "skills" until I get to the point where my camera either stops working or I've reached the limits of it's capabilities. Thanks again for all the information given in this thread, it's been helpful.

Ya, it's cheaper but I thought the olympus housing for 620 was right around 1k plus another couple hundred for a port. I know I would eventually need more than one port, but you have to start somewhere. I'll probably go with the wet lenses though and continue to work on my "skills" until I get to the point where my camera either stops working or I've reached the limits of it's capabilities. Thanks again for all the information given in this thread, it's been helpful.

I went through the process of pricing a variety of Olympus E-620/PT-E06 configurations and listed below are the prices I came up. Even though the Olympus system is about the least expensive, it adds up fast. If you want I can provide the pricing details for these systems.

50mm macro, Inon macro port, Inon D-2000 $2970

+ Olympus 1.4x, Olympus ext ring $3510

+ 14-42, Athena small dome $4360

50mm macro, Inon macro port, Inon D-2000 $2970

+ Olympus 1.4x, Olympus ext ring $3510

+ 9-18 WA, Athena small dome, dual Inon D-2000 $5370

50mm macro, Inon macro port, Inon D-2000 $2970

+ Olympus 1.4x, Olympus ext ring $3510

+ 9-18 WA, 170mm glass dome, dual Inon D-2000 $5670

50mm macro, Inon macro port, Inon Z-240 $3180

+ Olympus 1.4x, Olympus ext ring $3720

+ 9-18 WA, 170mm glass dome, dual Inon Z-240 $6090

Ultimately I concluded that the Inon 45 degree viewfinder was a requirement and this knocked the Olympus PT-E0X system out of contention.