Temperate water photography lenses

For those of us who dive in cooler and more temperate climes, or simply arent disappearing to warm waters a few times a year, what lenses do you find the most used in the darker and more particulated waters? Asking as i'm considering my first lens purchase (apart from the kit lens obviously). I wont be heading abroad for a while, so want to buy a lens which I'll get the most/best use out of in the meantime, before eventually extending my lens collection. Options im looking at are

Olympus 60mm macro

Olympus 45mm

Panasonic 8mm fisheye

Olympus 9-18mm WA

Panasonic 7-14mm WA.

I like shooting both wide angle and macro, but can only afford 1 extra lens/port at the moment...

Thoughts?

A lot depends of course on the subject matter you expect to encounter or prefer to focus on. I like the 60mm Olympus as it works well with wet close up lenses.

Fisheye is excellent but very specific to the subject matter.

I prefer the wider macro option in the UK, as I find the 60mm too long in murky UK waters, as it forces you to shoot through too much murk and also harder to aim and hold still because of the narrow angle view, when diving in a drysuit.

So the 45mm macro offers better possibilities in UK water as you have to get closer? I currently am using the 14-42mm lens that came with the camera (EM-10), would the extra 3mm and 2 f-stops be worth it, and is the 45mm classed as a dedicated macro lens?

The only issue with the 45 macro (the Panasonic/Leica) is that focus speed is not comparable to the 60. Here in LA, I mostly use the 60 for local macro stuff; and the 8 mm for what little WA I do shoot.

Bill

Note that there are two lenses with a 45mm focal length in the micro 4/3s line up. There's the Panasonic/Leica f/2.8 one which is a true macro lens that focuses down to a 1:1 representation. There's also the Olympus f/1.8 one. It's a great lens but does not focus close enough to be useful underwater (only down to 50cm for a 0.1x magnification).

I've had good luck with the 60mm in the temperate waters of Puget Sound, although I prefer the photos I get from a 100mm lens over a 60mm lens on my Canon crop sensor DSLR too. 60mm on a 2x crop factor of m43 gives an angle of view somewhere between a 60mm and 100mm on 1.6x crop, but the minimum focusing distance of the 60mm lenses on both cameras is the same. So you can get just as close with the 60mm on m43 as a 60mm on a Nikon or Canon crop sensor DSLR. The tradeoff is that whatever you're shooting will fill the frame more, which can work for or against you depending on what you're trying to compose.

For a first lens, I would definitely vote for macro. Locally, I can get good macro shots on pretty much any dive no matter how poor the visibility is. For good wide angle, there are just fewer subjects and getting an interesting background usually requires better visibility. I also wouldn't consider the kit lens to be a no brainer. I actually owned the 12-50 lens before I bought my E-M1 for a new underwater setup (got it with the E-M5 kit I was using above water), but bypassed the port and gear for it. Instead I just went straight to separate macro and wide angle lenses and ports.

The 12-50 will actually fit in the Nauticam port for the 60mm, although you need an aftermarket gear if you want to zoom. I've taken it underwater a couple times set a fixed focal length just to mess around and wasn't very impressed with the photos. Its value is really in the ability to shoot ok macro and okish wide angle on a single dive. At least in the Nauticam system, the port and gear for the 12-50 is fairly expensive. You might be able to spend the same and get both dedicated macro and wide angle by skipping the kit lens or using the 12-50 in the 60mm macro port with the aftermarket focus gear and a wet diopter for macro.

I dive a lot in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia where on a good day the vis is 4m and an exceptional day it is 6m but on average it is <4m and green with lots of silt and floaty bits.

On my EM-5 I have the 60mm macro and the 12 - 50mm and I use the 12 - 50mm almost entirely all the time in these waters with it locked into the macro mode (43mm).

The 60mm is a fantastic lens but you have to be too far back from some subjects that you are shooting through too much water and crud whereas the 12-50mm (in macro) allows you to reduce that water column and get close to the subject.

If you can't use the 12-50mm lens then the Panasonic 45mm would fit the bill for you.

Karl

Hmm. Gives me something to think about. Ive read the reviews of both the 45mm and 60mm lenses and both look excellent, with the 60mm giving a bit more distance to work with but the 45mm giving a slighly larger area (27degrees vs 20degrees). Regards cost, the 45mm is about £549 vs £365 for the 60mm. I have the 35mm macro port already for use with the 14-42mm, so could just by the extension ring. Nauticam dont do a 10mm extension for m4/3 do they, so id have to buy the dedicated port?

Looks like the decision has been made for me as such.. off to italy (not diving) in September including visits to Pompeii etc. As such a wide angle lens is needed topside - after a bit of agonising, decided to invest in the 9-18mm. Small, light and compact (plus for travel), plus the smaller dome when underwater will mean I can get slightly closer to subjects more easily (although I need to get that still!) Cheaper than the 7-14 also which helps!