Zen WA-100-EP714 for Panny 7-14 on PT EP13 Housing

I'm looking for reviews from anyone who has used the Zen dome port (WA-100) on the Olympus PT EP13 housing for the OMD EM5 Mk2. I'm considering buying this housing, but only if I can use my Panasonic 7-14mm lens and get decent corner sharpness. I'm also wondering if there is a zoom gear available for this port as I'd like to be able to adjust the angle of coverage while underwater.

My copy of this lens is killer sharp on land and I'm hoping that with this port it might serve me well underwater.

Thanks for any opinions offered.

I've not used the 7-14 underwater, but considered this option. Everything I've read sounds like even the 170mm dome might actually be on the small side for this lens. I severely doubt you will have decent corners in the 100mm port. Of course this is no first hand opinion, but it's really unlikely to perform well considering the performance in the Nauticam 6inch dome.

I have the 8-18 in the 7inch dome and the corners are decent, but nothing to write home about. The 100mm domes are really only for fisheyes I believe.

I've not used the 7-14 underwater, but considered this option. Everything I've read sounds like even the 170mm dome might actually be on the small side for this lens. I severely doubt you will have decent corners in the 100mm port. Of course this is no first hand opinion, but it's really unlikely to perform well considering the performance in the Nauticam 6inch dome.

 

I have the 8-18 in the 7inch dome and the corners are decent, but nothing to write home about. The 100mm domes are really only for fisheyes I believe.

I'm looking for reviews from anyone who has used the Zen dome port (WA-100) on the Olympus PT EP13 housing for the OMD EM5 Mk2. I'm considering buying this housing, but only if I can use my Panasonic 7-14mm lens and get decent corner sharpness. I'm also wondering if there is a zoom gear available for this port as I'd like to be able to adjust the angle of coverage while underwater.

My copy of this lens is killer sharp on land and I'm hoping that with this port it might serve me well underwater.

Thanks for any opinions offered.

Is the flare as bad as how all the reviewer said? Thanks.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

I think the purple flare is really exaggerated, Tim. I've never personally seen it and I use the 7-14 a lot. At the same time, I don't shoot into the sun so that may color my opinion somewhat.

You should be aware this housing uses the smaller Pen port system, so restricts the lenses you can use, for example the 12-40 and Oly 7-14 can't be used as the' re too large for the port internal diameter. Larger port options are not readily available.

I agree the 100mm dome will be poor in the corners, the 170mm dome corners are a bit soft, but zooming in to 8 or 9mm improves things.

This just in from Phil Burghard at Zen in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.:

"Thank you for reaching out to us. The WA-100-EP714 was designed specifically for use with the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 lens and it performs very well underwater. With that being said, it is still a rectilinear wide angle lens behind a dome port so some corner softness will be present. This is true even with large DSLR systems and 9" dome ports. This can be greatly reduced by shooting around f/8 and if needed you can also bump in the zoom to 8 or 9mm for when your subject enters the extreme corners."

One issue is the fact that the zoom gear has been discontinued by Olympus. I'm not seeing one available anywhere so far.

Deepshots makes a zoom gear for use with this lens. I bought a different gear from them, and I'm happy with the product.

https://www.deepshots.co.uk/collections/gears-for-olympus-and-panasonic/products/deepshots-panasonic-7-14-zoom-gear

Thank you for that info, Wapiti. That's great news!

I have this lens and use it with the Nauticam 150mm dome port. As others have said, the corners are not acceptable at (guessing) the 7-9 or 7-10 mm range. I find it hard to believe that would improve behind a smaller dome.

The purple fringing on Olympus bodies is definitely an issue on land. It is most significant with situations that can cause flare but also in other bright scenes. I’ve seen it on both my EM-1 mk II and EM-5

Answer to your question"

I'm looking for reviews from anyone who has used the Zen dome port (WA-100) on the Olympus PT EP13 housing for the OMD EM5 Mk2. I'm considering buying this housing, but only if I can use my Panasonic 7-14mm lens and get decent corner sharpness.

The 7-14mm lens on land used for landscapes and other outdoor shots performs great however this is not the use you will do in water where you will get much closer

If you try your 7-14mm at close range in your house you will see that the blurred corners and image pull at the edges is there this then gets even aggravated by dome port optics

in terms of 100mm dome with the 7-14mm it will work the lens will focus however the performance will be even worse than other larger domes, I have tried the 7-14 with the 4.33 dome and an extension on my old rig and despite the fact that the field of view is better the corners are even more blurry you need to stop at f/11 to get anything workable whilst with the larger dome f/8 would do fine and sometimes even f/5.6

You need to ask yourself what kind of photos you are planning to take, for bluewater fish shots, people, wrecks exteriors will do ok at close range will not do well and the corner sharpness will be poor

I have Panasonic 7-14mm and use it with Zen DP170 on Oly bodies (EM5II and EM1II). As the others already say, corner sharpness is mediocre. In addition @7mm "rectilinear pincushion distortion" is often unpleasant - unless you have only blue water in the corners, where you do'nt see it. I have no experience with the smaller Zen DP100, but as the others say I also would expect the corner sharpness to become even worse - so no good solution I guess.

Three years ago I was in the same situation, which housing to purchase for my EM5II. I am glad that I decided against the plastic housings and decided to go with Nauticam: all extensions and ports remained compatible, when I switched last year to EM1II (my wife is now using my old Nauticam EM5II, after she flooded her old plastic (non vacuum protected) Oly EP-PT10 housing last year (total loss of camera plus lens - good reason for me to go for EM1II )). Both housings (NA-EM5II and NA-EM1II) I purchased second hand in Wetpixel classified, each for little more than 1000 $: I guess the Oly housings are similarily priced, when you buy them new (but Oly has already three different and non-compatible types of plastic housings for their different cameras, not to speak about other third party housings, where every model is potentially unique and incompatible with others). The life time of housings is normally much longer than the time people want to use them, because of technical progress and new camera models - investing in "better" housing like Nauticam is not only more pleasant UW-photography but also an investment into the future...

The purple fringing is a phenomenon that is arising from the lens, not from the body. The Panasonic body's software compensate for lens errors automatically, while Oly body's do'nt (only relevant to JPEGs). Therefore this issue is relevant only, when you work with out of the camera jpegs. In case you postprocess raws (e.g. with LR) it is not relevant, since LR's built in corrections compensate for the lens errors, no matter which body was used...

Wolfgang