PT-EP08 housing, compatible lenses

There seem to be some sellers on amazon.ca with pretty good deals on these housings, and the corresponding bodies (OMD EM-5) are also available pretty cheaply. What I don't understand is what lenses this is compatible with out of the box, i.e. without buying an add-on port). Or maybe the housing doesn't include even a flat port?

Disclaimer: UW photography beginner here.

I think some of the best deals youll find right now would be on an Olympus E-M5 mkII with the PT-EP13 housing and 14-42 kit lens.... For about $1300USD you could have a useable basic camera rig and a pretty solid foundation to build upon.

Never mind. Everything I wrote is wrong.

The EM5-II / PT-EP13 deal is tempting, although I'm not sure how much more it will set me back in Canada; customs estimates about USD200 in taxes and customs [EDIT: most of this is provincial taxes, which I'll ahve to pay on Canadian purchases also]. The PT-EP08 is going for less than CAD400, so it could work out quite a bit cheaper, if not too good to be true.

Is this PT-EP13 rig going to be usable without an external strobe? My original motivation for cheaping out on the housing / body was to try to squeeze a strobe into the budget.

Yes, it does have a clear window for the pop-up flash, but that will be pretty weak underwater. If the subject is very close, its doable, but bigger scenes or mid distance subjects would require an external strobe.

$400CAD is a good price for the PT-EP08. If I recall correctly, the port was usually sold separately. That would, however, allow you a bit of choice in directions - flat port for macro or fish potraits, or a dome for wide angle shooting, if you can find a correspondingly good deal on the port of your choice. To your original point, heres a link to the Olympus system chart for the E-M5 and PT-EP08 housing that gives the recommended port/lens/gear combinations.

https://www.olympus.com.au/Olympus/media/Products/Underwater%20Housings/Compact%20system%20cameras/PT-EP08/PT-EP08_EN.pdf

The only thing about it is that it doesnt include any domes. If youre wanting to go wide angle, checkout Zen Undewaters offerings for Olympus housings.

www.zenunderwater.com

HTH

If you're diving relatively shallow in clear-ish water you can get away without a strobe, but I wouldn't advise it (the onboard flash isn't useful for anything other than triggering strobes in pretty much all Oly housings). To answer your original question about the PT-EP08, assuming it comes with the flat port you can use the following lenses:

14-42

60mm macro

9-18 (doable, but not the best)

12-50

various Olympus primes like the 25, 30, 45, 75, and probably some Panasonic primes, too

Here's a link to a port chart for the new E-M1II. It uses the same port system, so pretty much everything there applies to the EP08:

http://asia.olympus-imaging.com/content/000085635.pdf

For strictly underwater use, I would prefer the original M5 over the M5II just on the basis of the better port system (assuming you're sticking with Oly housings). For example, I use an Inon 170mm dome intended for the old 4/3 system. With that, I can shoot the Oly 12-40 and 7-14 Pro zooms, plus the Panasonic 8-18- all three are too wide to fit in the EP13 housing. In addition, I can also use that dome with the Oly 8mm and the 60mm macro (if I couldn't travel with a flat port).

Off the top of my head, the only underwater advantage of the M5II is better image stabilization, and maybe a slightly better jpeg processor (not an issue if you're shooting RAW). If this is also going to be a topside camera, I might rethink that, but man- those bigger lenses (especially the 12-40) are pretty nice underwater. In my case, i shoot the original M1 underwater, and primarily use my M5II topside. If the housing you're looking at doesn't come with a flat port, you can probably find a used one pretty cheap (I'd probably sell mine for 250 if someone wanted it).

The back story is that I have a modest investment in m4/3 already. I have an OMD E-M10 body and few lenses, so another option that occurs is picking up an ikelite 6950.10 housing. Those are mostly expensive enough to make other options more attractive, but I just spotted one for USD499 at divervision.com. Any words of wisdom on investing in ikelite vs. olympus housings? I guess after a port that's still going to set me back USD700, about the same as the best EP08 deals i see currently.