Lens choice RA + Lembeh (E-m1 II)

I'll be travelling to Indonesia for some muck diving in Lembeh, afterwards I have a liveaboard in Raja Ampat (South&north).

I'm not really sure what lenses to bring, especially for wide angle.

I have:

Olympus 30 & 60mm for macro, I will probably bring both. Should I also buy a wet macro diopter for the 60mm? It seems the lens can focus pretty close without one already, does a diopter make a big difference?

Olympus 8mm, I really like IQ so will be bringing it most likely

I also have the 12-40 and 8-18, and the Nauticam 7" acrylic dome. It's very bulky though, also I think IQ is worse compared to the fisheye. Should I bring it?

I'll be travelling to Indonesia for some muck diving in Lembeh, afterwards I have a liveaboard in Raja Ampat (South&north).

I'm not really sure what lenses to bring, especially for wide angle.

I have:

Olympus 30 & 60mm for macro, I will probably bring both. Should I also buy a wet macro diopter for the 60mm? It seems the lens can focus pretty close without one already, does a diopter make a big difference?

Olympus 8mm, I really like IQ so will be bringing it most likely

I also have the 12-40 and 8-18, and the Nauticam 7" acrylic dome. It's very bulky though, also I think IQ is worse compared to the fisheye. Should I bring it?

 

 

 

Hi,

Lemheh: Macro.

Raja Ampat: Wide angle. Recommend bringing 8 pro/7-14/8-18

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There are a couple of good wide-angle sites in Lembeh: Nudi Falls and Angel’s Window.

Hi,
yes i would add an plus 5 or better a plus 10 lens.
The 60mm is a great lens, but there is as well real tiny stuff....

And as Tim said,
there are wide angle places like Angels Window as well.

Enjoy it ;-))

Regards,
Wolfgang

The only one you may not use is the 12-40mm. Having said that if you wanted to do a portrait within a school that would be an option but it will be 1-2 dives max

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Thanks all, I guess I will look into diopters for the 60mm.

I'm still not really sold on bringing the dome, it's really big. I will be bringing a lot of stuff besides diving gear, do I really miss out a lot by not bringing it with me? How useful is the fisheye for mantas?

Fisheye is for schooling fish

Manta come close but in my opinion wide angle is better as they are midwater in the blue

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I'm going to Lembeh in November, (also booked for Halmahera) and I will take both macros I think as well as 7-14 and 12-40 which both fit in same dome. I have ports for both the 30 and 60 but may get the 20mm extension so I can just take to 45 port for the 30mm.

I found this guide to where to find critters: http://www.lembehresort.com/critters.php

which was interesting to go through, also gives sizes for some of them for example a mimic octopus can be up to 60cm across, rhinopias up to 20cm. For critters like that I would probably use my 12-40 because it will fill the frame with something around 80mm across at a pinch and also be good for large critters.

I spoke to someone who has dived there a few times and apparently you can work with your guide to target specific critters so you could do a big critter dive followed by a tiny critter dive, the visibility is not the greatest in Lembeh so getting in close to bigger stuff if it of interest to you is probably important and even the 30mm macro might put too much water column in between me and the target. The guy I spoke to told me the guide asked him what he wanted to find, so to put him to the test he asked about a purple paddle flap rhinopia, a few phone calls later he had a location and was able to find it later that day.

For rhinopias I have used both 60mm and 30mm. Generally I find that for medium size subject a zoom lens works best except in my last trip I did not have one with me!

Having been in Lembeh 60mm and a zoom lens with wet diopters would be my choice 30mm would not bother

Some of the stuff is tiny so you may want a few wet lenses

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I'm going to Lembeh in November, (also booked for Halmahera) and I will take both macros I think as well as 7-14 and 12-40 which both fit in same dome. I have ports for both the 30 and 60 but may get the 20mm extension so I can just take to 45 port for the 30mm.

 

I found this guide to where to find critters: http://www.lembehresort.com/critters.php

 

which was interesting to go through, also gives sizes for some of them for example a mimic octopus can be up to 60cm across, rhinopias up to 20cm. For critters like that I would probably use my 12-40 because it will fill the frame with something around 80mm across at a pinch and also be good for large critters.

 

I spoke to someone who has dived there a few times and apparently you can work with your guide to target specific critters so you could do a big critter dive followed by a tiny critter dive, the visibility is not the greatest in Lembeh so getting in close to bigger stuff if it of interest to you is probably important and even the 30mm macro might put too much water column in between me and the target. The guy I spoke to told me the guide asked him what he wanted to find, so to put him to the test he asked about a purple paddle flap rhinopia, a few phone calls later he had a location and was able to find it later that day.

There are indeed some fantastic dive guides in Lembeh.

Many of the operations there will let you have your own guide and/or your own guide and boat. Normally boat dives are something like 2 guests with one guide.

But if there are specific things you want to photograph it'd be worth talking to the resort about the cost of your own boat and own guide. That way the guide can really go after the things you want and not be worried about the other guest with him. If you have your own boat - not ridiculously expensive - the world, or at least the Straits, is your oyster and you can come and go as you please rather than be tied to the resort's timetable: usually two morning dives, one afternoon dive, one night dive.