OM-D EM-1

In the proto design, the stainless steel handle brackets tie in to the top of the housing with m5 screws. Strobe mounting balls could certainly go there, providing one on each side, and more options than some of the smaller housings have. A crafty user could also come up with a nice wrist strap mount tying in to that top m5 hole, and one of the bottom handle mounts.

My take on this is that more advanced users tend to (statistically speaking) want handles on both sides, and this supports that more cleanly than an optional tray system. They could certainly be removed for special configurations.

The inverted trigger style release has worked well in in the past on some housings where handles were optional, namely the old Olympus PT-E series. Given the similar form factor that may hold true here.

Just found this

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Knobbage - great word. What is the price on the Olympus housing?

Looks like basic housing will start at $1260.00 in the US. The basic port is $400.00.

Knobbage - great word. What is the price on the Olympus housing?

In the UK Olympus online store it is £1049. That US price Phil has converts to £775 (no sales tax in much of the US I understand).

I'll need a PER-E01(£130) and a PAD-EP08 (£130) to get the full usage out of my earlier Olympus ports and domes - little tubes of metal cost sooo much. Economics (especially if I buy stateside) will take me down this route over the Nauticam as it would easily cost me £3000+ to switch housing system and all the ports.

Just noticed something in the product sheet pdf about the Oly housing:

Backscatter have a price on the basic Nauticam NA-EM1 housing of $1850. This is pretty keen at only $400 more than the NA-EM5. I guess the UK price might be £1300. So I reckon I could revise my estimate of switching to £2000 compared with £1000 to stay in Olympus land.

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Three things you get with the Nauticam NA-EM1 that you don't get with the Olympus housing or the Nauticam NA-EM5 housing.

#1-Vertical shutter release which may not seem like a big deal until you hold the housing and move the shutter release.

#2-The housing comes with the electronics for the vacuum system (on/off switch, sensors and warning lights) built in. This is about a $220.00 retro-fit with annual service for the EM5 housing. NOT INCLUDED is the valve and pump for the system. More than one type of valve is available so it can be added at anytime.

#3-Two removable hand grips. These grips fit to the bottom of the housing and can be removed if you want to use a wrist strap which will be an option. The Nauticam Flex-tray and second grip would run around $190.00 for the EM5 housing or Olympus housing.

The housing also has more controls for the camera.

If the Backscatter $1850.00 price is correct it would be a bargain to me. With the Nauticam housing for the Panasonic GH3 at around $2250.00 I would have expected a price over $2000.00 for NA-EM1 housing.

For those of you that are going to consider the Olympus housing for EM1, some of the ports you may want from the older Olympus DSLR housings for 43 lenses are for sale in the used equipment section with the PT-E06 housing.

Phil Rudin

Simon, let me see if we can get a port adapter made up for existing Oly ports onto a Nauticam EPL1 housing.

Simon, let me see if we can get a port adapter made up for existing Oly ports onto a Nauticam EPL1 housing.

Yes that would open up the options - I was wondering about a port adapter earlier in this thread. Phil had some helpful comments on page 1 about fitting the 43 lenses through the smaller aperture of the Nauticam. However he thought the 50mm and 8mm would fit, which are the priority lenses. Any kind of control gear for zoom lenses (or for manual focus during video ...) would be a struggle, though that may be a struggle on the Oly one too.

I assume you mention the EPL1 since that is the standard Nauticam size? It would be great not to have to ditch the lovely PPO-E04 and dinky PPO-E03 http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/c/cameras_accessories/digital_slr_cameras_accessories/dslr_underwater/ppo_e03/index.html

Simon

News flash, Nauticam has just E-mailed me to say that they will now be developing a port adapter for the old Olympus ports for Olympus 43 lenses like the 7-14 & 11-22 zooms and the Olympus 8mm fisheye. This means that all of the Olympus style threaded ports from Athena, Inon, Olympus and others will be adaptable to the Nauticam Mini housings.

This is especially good news for those moving to the Olympus EM-1 and Nauticam NA-EM1 housing. The EM-1 has the best auto focus support for the 43 line of lenses. Keep in mind that these ports and adapter will not work with the M43 lenses.

Phil Rudin

All sounds very promising. Alex/Phil do you know if such an adaptor would include a gear knob to interface with the legacy gearing that Olympus made for the 43 lenses. Perhaps the extension isn't all that long and there is not enough room. Would be a bit more icing on the cake if it did.

So looks like UK price for NA-EM1 is £1389 (and if you take off the VAT this supports the $1850 price at backscatter). So if the adaptor is even £200 this is an affordable way into the system for me and my old bits and pieces. Very happy camper!

Simon

Phil,

Out of interest why would a m43 lens not work behind an adapted 43 port?

In the simplest case the 60mm m43 lens would fit behind the 50mm 43 port. As long as the vision was not obscured and you don't want to manual focus then what would be the issue? If vision was obscured then there are other larger flat ports in the 43 range.

Now granted positioning a wide angle m43 lens at the right place in the big Oly dome might prove impossible but is it not even worth a try to see what image you get?

Simon

Hi Simon.

Nauticam designes ports and gears to get the very best optical solution for the lens. In the case of the 43 lenses most are much larger and they all sit on an adapter that pushes the lens even further from the camera. So while the 60mm macro may fit into the Olympus 50mm macro port it may not necessarily sit as close to the port glass as you would want it to be for best results. I use a ZEN 170mm optical glass port for the 7-14 zoom and it requires a 20mm extension. If the Olympus adapter pushes the Olympus dome which is also 170mm out around 20mm it may work with the Panasonic 7-14 lens but if it did then it would not be nearly far enough out for the Olympus 7-14 zoom. It remains to be seen what may be interchangeable perhaps the Athena 35mm macro port for the 43 may work with shorter M43 macro lenses.

Regarding Olympus gears I don't know if they will be supported in the Nauticam port adapter.

Thanks Phil,

There is of course the PER-01 and PER-02 for pushing the big oly dome far enough away.

My thoughts on the adapter are thus:

The ideal Nautican/Oly adapter for 43 lens would take into account the size of the MMF-3 and any difference between the Nauticam housing and an Oly one. (I should do a diagram to describe what I mean)

i.e. The position of the front of the housing with respect to the front of an MMF-3 (on an EM-1) should be identical in a PT-EP11 case with PAD-08 and a NA-EM1 with a Nauti-Oly adaptor.

Even better would be an shallow adapter that achieves the above when an Oly PER-01 is also added. Then we would get the choice to close mount the old Oly ports for m43 lenses OR position them correctly for 43 lenses.

If anybody from Nauticam is wondering what I am on about (my terminology in describing this is probably lacking) please ask me to clarify.

EDIT: As I don't know dimensions and positions of anything other than an E-520 in a PT-E05 case what I have written above may be not be possible. If anybody can let me know how deep the m43 flange of a lensless EM-5 sits behind the opening of an NA-EM5 I would be grateful.

EDIT AGAIN: I just remember that on the PT-EP11 system chart it requires a PER-01 on a PAD-08 so perhaps the flexible shallow adapter is feasible.

Simon

Red Sea, Egypt

Hello,

for those who could touch the NA-EM1, could you tell me which type of threads are in the bottom of the housing ? Are they 1/4" or metric type (M8, M10) ? I'd like to attach some stuff there (T-Plate or ball).

Thanks

The Nauticam flex tray II has 1/4 X 20 threads which I think will be the size.

Hey guys, very good news!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=596711887048523&set=a.596711833715195.1073741871.340089596044088&type=1&permPage=1

Nauticam NA-EM1 is announced http://www.nauticamusa.com and whilst most of this is known there is a snippet in the the press release just for me ;-)

"supports all of the major m4/3 lenses from Olympus and Panasonic that are relevant for underwater. 

Lenses from previous Olympus four-thirds DSLR cameras are also now supported with the optional extension ring. The gearing in the focus/zoom knob mates with the original gears from Olympus."

How cool is that! 

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Photos from todays dive at the BHB using the new Olympus E-M1 with the 60mm macro lens in the Nauticam NA-EM1 housing, two Inon Z-240 strobes.