New Olympus lenses 7-14 and 8mm vs 9-18

Does anyone have any experience with these lenses? Im shooting with the 9-18mm. I usually use it at 9mm. Are the two new lenses good enough to justify the expense? The 9-18 is pretty sharp in the centre but drops off dramatically on the edges and I could do with something a touch wider for the Mantas. What ports are people using?

The Olympus 8mm FE and 7-14mm have their counterparts from Panasonic. While the Olympus lenses are new on the market, the Panasonics have been here for a while, and there are well proven port options for them. Good lenses, both of them. Also, the Pana 8 is quite a bit smaller than Oly's, and it works very well in Nauticam's 4.33" dome.

You might want to research those options as well

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Ps: a quick hack to improve corner sharpness in the 9-18 is to mount a +2 dry diopter, preferably achromatic, on the lens inside the dome. Canon makes one, and the price isn't too bad.

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The 9-18mm is a cheaper alternative to the 7-14mm but as storker said the Panasonic lenses have been around a while and I have both. The fisheye lens is not really a comparable for the 9-18mm the 7-14mm is. I have used the 7-14mm Panasonic for wreck interiors as I lie straight lines and for split shots

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And

https://flic.kr/p/uECbhH

For example. The pana 7-14mm is a bit soft at 7mm but so is the Olympus do the best performance is at 8mm for f/5.6 and at 7mm you need f/8

For large fish it depends how close they get 7-14mm is usually fine unless you are really close

I found a comparison of the 7-14mm on camera labs. It would appear that at 7mm the Olympus is sharper in the corners at 10mm they are very similar and at 14mm the Panasonic slightly better. In UK the Olympus lens is 25% more expensive and underwater it requires more parts. I think on land the Olympus is appealing due to the one fstop improvement however underwater the aperture is predominantly influenced by the dome optics so the benefit of the bright lens is reduced or eliminated. I found the Panasonic to work very well at f/8 at close range and ok at f/5.6 in blue water where there is nothing in the corners with the nauticam 6" port

ORCA, any suggestions for shooting the Oly 8mm FE behind the Zen FE specific housing re: f/stop.

Am I to understand right that one just lets the autofocuse grab a subject? I mean does the FE have that great a range of focus?

Depth of field is plentiful in most cases. Generally the widest aperture is whatever still gives you sharp corners. The micro four third lenses are generally best around f/4 or f/5.6 but with the Olympus you can go lower if you are desperate another two stops. Fisheye lenses are very easy to shoot

Ps: a quick hack to improve corner sharpness in the 9-18 is to mount a +2 dry diopter, preferably achromatic, on the lens inside the dome. Canon makes one, and the price isn't too bad.

 

 

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Nice tip. Does this work inside the Zen dome or is there not enough room?

Don't know the Zen dome, so I can't tell. The Canon closeup lens is some 5-7mm thick, a non-achromatic lens is about half of that. There's plenty of room in my Nauticam port for that.

If you have or can borrow a 52mm filter - or preferably two that you stack - try to mount them on the lens and check.

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