Wet wide-angle lenses on OM-D+12-50?

Hello Wetpixel!

I thought I would post a dedicated thread for this discussion, rather than getting it lost in existing OM-D threads.

In those threads I've read that image quality was good when using wet dioptres (Subsee) on top of the Olympus 12-50mm lens underwater (as the nauticam 60mm port has a 67mm thread).

This brings a lot of versatility on this 12-50mm setup, and I was wondering why wouldn't size-conscious photographers use wide angle wet lenses on top of this setup?

I must say I've never used any wet lens, so I may miss something, that's why I'm asking.

I think it was Dr Mustard who said optical quality remained good with a wet complement like Subsee diopters, what about the wide angle complements?

thanks for your advice,

cheers

Nicolas

I am thinking the exact same thing. Wonder what WA lens works best..

The 12-50mm will surely vignette at 12mm with a 77mm to 67mm converter and subsequent wide angle lens. There might be a WA combination that allows somewhat a wider angle by zooming in maybe to 14mm or so...

AFAIK Subsee is only for macro. Maybe I miss something but all messages I have read in the OM-D thread about wet lenses concern rather macro issues .

Mario V posted some interesting pics taken with the OM-D, 12-50mm in the Nauticam 65 flat port and an Inon UWL-100 wet wide angle lens. Seems like the lens works fine at 14mm.

Images can be found here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/olympus-outlet/452260-wa-wet-lens-oly-12-50-a.html#post6728880

What do you guys think, add it to the rig and get more versatility on the WA side?

I recently picked up an OM-D EM-1 (I have the 12-50 zoom/gear/port) and I have been shooting with a Canon S95 in a FIX housing. Looking forward to my "new" camera.

For my old camera I have an Fix UWL-28 Fisheye wet mount lens, so I purchased a step-down ring from 77 to 57 so that it will attach to my flat port just for the heck of it... we'll see what happens, why not? The step down-ring was $4 CDN from China, so definitely worth a shot. Likely some vignetting but I'm not a professional photographer and I have Lightroom, so perhaps with some cropping I may have a WA lens to use for occasional use (I don't shoot WA all that often) in the meantime while I save up for a 8mm dome and suitable lens.

I did something very similar and the results were... bad vignetting.. I had an Inon WA+dome from my old S95 Ikelite, replaced the Olympus PPO-EP01 port's front with a new front end with a 67mm thread.... Looks fine in the viewfinder but looking in Olympus Viewer you can see that the jpg has been heavily cropped because of the vignetting, almost better without! Happened with the 12-50 and 14-42.

I tried it with the Inon Micro Fisheye Lens UFL-M150 ZM80, which is decent but takes a lot of skills to get it right. Auto-focus is pretty poor, but the effect is very interesting. I'd definitely consider it a niche lens.

I tried it with the Inon Micro Fisheye Lens UFL-M150 ZM80, which is decent but takes a lot of skills to get it right. Auto-focus is pretty poor, but the effect is very interesting. I'd definitely consider it a niche lens.

Yes, I have it, and it takes time... And Quality image it's not their best characteristic...

In my Flickr gallery, I have some examples, like this:

PB240208 by Jose Arteaga Tauroni, en Flickr

PB160268 by Jose Arteaga Tauroni, en Flickr

PB160092 by Jose Arteaga Tauroni, en Flickr

PB160164 by Jose Arteaga Tauroni, en Flickr

Well, beauty of it is it's tiny! So taking it with me it's really a no brainer, whether I use it or not...