9-18 with omd

I've seen information that the 9-18 lens is soft in the corners with the nauticam or zen ports. My understanding is that a larger dome port may help reduce this.

Since the olympus housing is compatible with sea and sea ports could one of their ports with this housing be the best combination?

Zen WA-100-EP uses a small 4" segment of a nearly 9" sphere, so assuming we have it placed correctly, it will have the same corner sharpness as a 9" hemisphere. Radius of curvature is the number that matters...

What about macro setups with the rdx ports? is there a port compatible with the 60mmm macro lens but has 67mm threads?

Becks,

I don't know of any adapter that allows S&S ports to be mounted to the Olympus housing for the EM5. Zen has an adapter for some of the ZEN Pen ports and Olympus has an adapter for the old DSLR ports for Olympus DSLR lenses with the M43 adapter. Who make an adapter for S&S Rex ports?

Phil

This is confusing because the PT-EP08 port mount looks a lot like the Sea & Sea RDX mount, and there are adapters for Sea & Sea ports to that mount. I've just tried an RDX Port Base L and RDX Port Base S from inventory and neither can be mounted, so there is some geometric difference causing interference.

Thanks. BTW I've ordered the 9-18 zen port and adapter from you guys.

 

 

 

A 4" segment from a 9" sphere (4.5" radius) for a lens with a 62 degree viewing angle will vignette quite a bit so I suspect that the dome is not in the proper place and this is why you are getting soft corners. See the attached drawing.

I believe it is a 9" RADIUS sphere. What happens if you redo the geometry problem with a 9" radius?

hi there,

I don't understand why anyone going for a new Nauticam OM-D system with 9-18mm lens would buy the Zen dome instead of the dedicated Nautiscam 4" dome (which also works with the 12-50mm).

Plus the first post of this thread also say that they suffer from the same corness sharpness limitations.

Any clue?

How well does the Nautiscam 4" dome preform and is tit really in the right place for sharp edges using both lenses?

I had it wrong in my initial email. The problem was with the 10bar ports on their housings.

Also there are benefits to the olympus housing. The nauticam was going to be around $1700. There's not many local vendors for this gear and if you order it online you get hit with import taxes when it goes through customs. The cost of the olympus housing was under $1000. Also my brother has the Epm1 and housing so being able to share ports is another plus.

I know one is aluminium and the other plastic but I've had the zx1 housing for 2 years and it's been fine and I reckon the omd housing will hold up at least as well.

I appears from some of the above posts that you have a few misunderstandings about the port systems for the 9-18mm Olympus M43 zoom lens.

Nauticam only has one port recommended for this lens, the four inch Nautican port.

Regarding ZEN Underwater ports, NO adapter is made for mounting the ZEN PEN ports to the Nauticam Mini housings. A ZEN adapter is made for Subal type III ports like the 100mm for use with the Panasonic 8mm fisheye on the OMD and other Nauticam housings. These are coated optical glass ports and that it the reason someone might want to pay more. ZEN also makes a 170mm glass port for the Nauticam Mini mount for use with lenses like the Panasonic 7-14,12-35 and Olympus 12 F/2.

ZEN also makes an adapter for mounting the ZEN PEN PORTS to the Olympus housing for the EM5 and a 100mm port that mounts direct to the housing for the 8mm fisheye and all are glass.

Regarding the ZEN ports on the Olympus housings the 9-18zoom port works quite well and does not vignette even at 9mm. The port charts above are wrong, first the lens is 100 degrees on the wide end not 62 degrees and lens placement is not correct and acts like a flat port not a dome.

For more info. Regarding the ZEN PORTS I suggest you go to ZENunderwater.com and do some research. Also checkout my photos in the gallery all of which were taken with the 9-18 zoom and the zen-100 port most at the 9mm end of the lens.

Phil Rudin

Well Roger,

The Olympus site is half right, the Olympus 9-18mm lens is a zoom lens which means that it has more than one angle of view. It is 100 degrees at the 9mm end and 62 degrees at the 18mm end. I am guessing that if you did not grasp that that you need to do more research in regard to domes. The dome port does not widen the angle of view of the lens it just won't reduce it like a flat port will.

I am sure that Nauticam and ZEN know more about how a dome port works than most and these ports both from Nauticam and Zen are not incorrect for the 9-18mm lens.

You really need to go back to the drawing board Roger because by your own drawing at 100 degrees about a third of the frame would be blacked out (vignetted) and that is clearly not the case in the thousands of images taken with these ports.

I can't speak for the 10-bar ports but I don't think they are as well designed and that they are more likely to have had problems.

Phil Rudin

Focal Length 9-18mm Angle of View 62 Degree

 

Are you saying that there is a mistake on the manufactures web site regarding the lens. Where is this documented ?

 

 

62 degrees is for 18mm lens position.

For 9mm zoom position is 100 degreees

Olympus USA site information for 9-18mm lens is not completed. It's only indicating 62º angle of view for 18mm...

Read this:

• Lens sheet from Olympus UK --> Look for Angle of view under Lens Construction paragraph: http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/c/cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_lenses_adapters/m_zuiko_digital_ed_9_18mm_1/index.pdf

• Lens sheet from Olympus Spain -->Look for Angulo de visión under Construcción del objetivo paragraph: http://www.olympus.es/site/es/c/cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_lenses_adapters/m_zuiko_digital_ed_9_18mm_1/index.pdf

Obviously, I'm not Phil, but that is an interesting thing you point on the Olympus site. It's obviously a misprint. Notice that it only gives a view of 62 degrees for a multi focal lens. It should obviously be a range. If you look at dpreview of that lens it list it as 62-100 degrees.

On the olympus site look at the 17mm. It is listed at 65 degrees. The 12mm is 84 degrees.

Obviously a misprint on the 9-18.

While I think the WWW. is a great tool, this thread was started without any support for the claim that the ZEN four inch port for the 9-18 lens had soft corners. Soft corners are common with almost ALL wide lenses regardless of dome size. So the issue should have been how bad are the corners.

Even worse is the fact that in post #12 becks0079 recanted his original post and said that his reference to soft corners should have been directed towards the 10-Bar port and housing system not the ZEN port.

Third no matter how much dome theory is presented the real test is how well the lens/port combo work in the field. The port in question has been used in the field for several years now by hundreds with the 9-18, 14-42 and 60 macro lenses with great results.

I am far more interested in the reviews of those how have actually used the equipment than I am in how the equipment was designed.

My review of the ZEN 170mm optical glass dome port will appear in the next issue of UWPMAG.com and it includes photos using the Panasonic 7-14mm M43 zoom at 7mm with the Olympus E-M5 camera in the NA-EM5 Nauticam housing. At 7mm the lens has an AOV of 114 degrees. Zen also makes a port for the lens which uses the same four inch glass dome as the 9-18 port. Perhaps someone will be able to explain to me how the corners using the 170mm dome are better than the corners on full frame cameras using the 12-24 lenses at 12mm which have the same 114 AOV and are matched with nine inch+ domes.

Phil Rudin

Nik,

First I have no clue what you mean by "generic dome ports" Each housing manufacture has one or more propriety port mount and while the port glass/ acrylic may be shared by some the mounting plates are not the same. Athena, Inon, Zen Underwater and others all make ports for several different housing manufactures products. Once you have spent some time on this and other U/W photos sites you should come to discover that Zen is one of the most well respected port makers in the business.

If you also do some additional research on the Olympus housings for PEN and OMD cameras you will discover that Olympus does not offer quality ports for many of its lenses and that several the ones it does offer are left overs from Olympus DSLR housings. Zen and Athena have filled this void with quality ports for many of the usefulOlympus lenses for U/W use. Zen also make the only optical glass ports for the Nauticam Mini housings. Since I use an Olympus E-M5 in a Nauticam NA-EM5 housing I find the Zen ports fill my needs quite well.

I have also test ports and other products from many other equipment makers so I think I know a quality port when I see one.

I don't own a part of any company.

Among other things I teach U/W photography workshops for Reef Photo, Digital Fiesta, Hasselblad excursions and others several times a year.

I also get the same discounts as all of the other photographers I know that are in the business.

Phil Rudin