Olympus OM-D E-M5

Thanks Bill..

Most of the current FLAT ports are to short, the 12-50 port which is coming will be a little long and they have a port for the Sony 30 mm macro Alpha mount lens and adapter which may be long enough. The zoom gear for Panasonic 7-14 would be about the closest gear with a large enough inside diameter for the lens. I think it may also work inside the six inch 7-14 dome port but would want to test it first to be sure.

 

Next issue is at 12mm will you be happy with the results behind a flat port.

 

Phil Rudin

Already been thinking along those lines about the dome vs. flat at 12mm. Is this an issue with the 12-50? Are they getting around the issue of flat port at wide mm somehow?

The zoom ring for the 7-14 does not quite fit the Pany 12-35- close, but no cigar. Nauticam is now listing a zoom ring for the 12-35 in the lens/ring/dome "matrix" (it is new) on the Nauticam website. I contacted Nauticam, and they are not producing the zoom ring yet, instead focusing on the 12-50 set. It is evidently not on the dealers price list at this date. The matrix says the Pany 12-35 works with both the 6 inch dome and the 4 inch dome. WIll be interesting to see once it comes out.

On a separate topic....

I was in the pool last night for a first test of the Nauti housing- it is a delight to use, and the buttons are easier to use than directly on the camera. TTL worked fine. I was not having success with Manual Flash. Could no get the flashes to fire. The flashes I set to non-preflash manual (single lightening bolt). I likewise set the camera to Manual- F/8. What I don't remember is if the speed was greater than the flash sync speed of 1/250, but I don't believe it was. Also tried Aperture priority and Shutter priority- no success. Then I changed it back to Aperture priority and TTL, and then no flash. Before going to work this morning, tried it again on TTL- worked about half the time. Plenty of juice in the camera and flashes. Tonight after work I'll take the camera out and check out some things, making sure I didn't change one of the multitude of settings. I do have about 3k photos taken with the camera (land) to date, so I am pretty familiar with it........ I thought.

Do I have this completely wrong? I am used to electronic flash control on a DSLR, so some of this is new to me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I've bought a OM-D too. Although it did not arrive in time for my current trip. This thread is full of loads of useful suggestions for the budding M4/3 shooter.

Alex

On a separate topic....

 

I was in the pool last night for a first test of the Nauti housing- it is a delight to use, and the buttons are easier to use than directly on the camera. TTL worked fine. I was not having success with Manual Flash. Could no get the flashes to fire. The flashes I set to non-preflash manual (single lightening bolt). I likewise set the camera to Manual- F/8. What I don't remember is if the speed was greater than the flash sync speed of 1/250, but I don't believe it was. Also tried Aperture priority and Shutter priority- no success. Then I changed it back to Aperture priority and TTL, and then no flash. Before going to work this morning, tried it again on TTL- worked about half the time. Plenty of juice in the camera and flashes. Tonight after work I'll take the camera out and check out some things, making sure I didn't change one of the multitude of settings. I do have about 3k photos taken with the camera (land) to date, so I am pretty familiar with it........ I thought.

 

Do I have this completely wrong? I am used to electronic flash control on a DSLR, so some of this is new to me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

All is working fairly well tonight after playing and experimenting. Not as fast or reliable as electronic TTL, but very workable. Still do not understand why the flashes just stopped working in any mode. At this point, I am tallying it up to User error.

One question: it appears the strobe level cannot be well controlled from the flash level control on the Super Control Panel. I experimented, and received very erratic results. Whereas, changing the levels on the strobes worked rather well. Obviously, if you want to change emphasis on one side or the other, you would adjust the strobes, but it would be nice to quickly change the overall level of illumination through the camera.

Any feedback is appreciated. Headed to Cape Ann in MA next weekend, and can't wait to give this housing a go. At this point, only have the 7-14, but that will do for now.

Hi Terry,

Did you say which strobes you are having a problem with?

Phil

Hi Terry,

 

Did you say which strobes you are having a problem with?

 

Phil

Sea & Sea YS-D1s.

I previously used Ikelite 160s with electronic control on a D700 in an Ikelite housing.

Last night I took about 200 photos before taking the batteries out to recharge (just picked up a spare battery for the OM-D..... YEAH! finally). Up to that point I methodically went through settings in different scenarios to see the effects on the pictures. While the mis-steps may have been user error (like the entire image blown out or very dark), I was very carefully making sure focus was locked and the flash was ready to go on the camera. On a number of the mis-step, which would occur between good images, one of the strobes would not display the green TTL light after the exposure. I also varied which flash. This happened probably every 7-10 exposures, with probably 15 seconds between each exposure.

Had the same issues when I switched to Manual exposure, with the pre flash (double lighting bolt). The strobes would not fire without the pre-flash (single lighting bolt), and I suppose this was correct, because the camera must be sending out a pre-flash. By the way, the OM-D manual only mentions pre-flash twice- under red eye settings, and in the spec chart in the back associated with TTL Exposure.

I can say my Ikelites were close to 100% on TTL, only needing tweaking on the back dial to accommodate for macro, WA or CFWA. And I have not had issues with the flash for land-based photos.

Thanks,

Terry

I just ordered one of those OM-D + the Nauticam housing my self.

Do you suggest the Panasonic 8mm or the Olympus 8mm ED Zuiko Lens for Fisheye photo?

Tobbe

I just ordered one of those OM-D + the Nauticam housing my self.

Do you suggest the Panasonic 8mm or the Olympus 8mm ED Zuiko Lens for Fisheye photo?

 

Tobbe

Our dome is designed for the Panasonic 8mm. To use the Oly 8mm ED, you'd need to use an 4/3 to m4/3 lens adapter, and I don't think that setup would fit behind our dome.

Cheers,

Cp

I have used the Olympus 8mm fisheye for 43 DSLR's and the Panasonic 8mm fisheye for M43, both are excellent lenses but the Panasonic lens is much more well suited for the E-M5/ Nauticam housing system. A much smaller port is used with the Panasonic lens which allows you to get much closer to your subject when shooting CFWA.

Phil Rudin

Any idea when the 12-50 is shipping out??

First batch arrived with me this week.

I finally decided to upgrade from my Panasonic LX3 in a 10bar housing to an OM-D with the Nauticam.

Anyways, I pretty much decided on the 8mm fisheye lens with the dome port but I don't really know what to get in addition to that. I could buy the Panasonic 45mm Macro with a flat port or I could order the port and gear for the 12-50 that I already got with the camera. Given the relatively high price of the 12-50 port, both alternatives are about the same price.

To compliment the 8mm fisheye lense, would you prefer a dedicated macro lense or would you choose the more versatile 12-50 that has macro mode as well (and could take an addtional diopter as well)?

These pictures were taken with the Panasonic 45mm macro. I would highly recommand this lens for Macro and the port take an M67 diopter as well.

If you don't mind manual focus underwater, you can use the 45mm macro zoom gear onto Voitglander M43 17.5mm f0.95 for manual focus,

together with Nauticam 6" dome port.

See if I can test it in pool this weekend.

Edmond

For me, the pana 7-14 fisheye, would be a better wide angle solution. Many folks have been using it, with great results. It is as wide as the 8mm, but allows you to zoom in a bit, for big things that won't let you get too close.

Much like the ever popular tokina 10-17 on apcs DLSRs.

Don,

I think you've got your lenses mixed up a bit. The 8mm is a fisheye with the associated distortion and a 180 degrees angle of view. The 7-14mm, whilst getting excellent reviews, is a rectilnear lens with a max angle of around 114 degrees.

The tokina does a bit of both

Mike

Dang! I was hoping...

If you don't mind manual focus underwater, you can use the 45mm macro zoom gear onto Voitglander M43 17.5mm f0.95 for manual focus,

together with Nauticam 6" dome port.

See if I can test it in pool this weekend.

 

Edmond

Wicked combo Edmond!

I finally got the camera and played with it on land. Seems to be really nice.

Anyways, for those of you who are alreading using it underwater: Did you try the video mode underwater yet? What setting are you using, especially with respect to AF? Were you satisfied with the results?

I plan to use it mostly for stills but a good video once in a while would be very nicht too. I tried the video mode above water and saw some very noticeable focus hunting. Therefore some recommendations for settings would be awesome.

Thanks!

I was able to take the OM-D and the Nauticam housing to Cape Ann for the weekend, and could not be more pleased for a first outing. Light, responsive, makes hard shore entries easier, etc.

I took the 14-42 (although I would much prefer the 12-50 or the 12-35), and was not expecting much, but have been very pleased, especially because the visibility was poor. Very few compromises considering the advantages. The level of detail in the original really surprised me.

This was in surging current, fairly low light, 14mm, ISO800, 1/125 and f8. Focus was not a problem.

Terry