OM-D E-M5 macro lens choice(s)?

Hello everyone,,

There seem to be at least several macro lenses available for the OM-D E-M5: a 60mm f2.8, a 45mm 1.8 Zuiko and a 45mm f2.8 Panasonic. There may be other choices.

I'm thinking about giving one of them to kfish for Christmas.

She has the Nauticam E-M5 housing. Will I need to get another port, or will her port for the 12-50mm zoom work?

Anyone have any factual advice to offer about lens choice?

Thanks,.

Nauticam manufactures an extensive line of compact ports to accommodate many of the best lenses for m4/3. Lenses that are particularly well suited for underwater use include the Panasonic 8mm fisheye, Panasonic 7-14mm, Olympus 9-18mm, Panasonic 14mm, Olympus 14-42, Panasonic 14-42mm, Panasonic 45mm macro, 60mm macro (upcoming), new Olympus 12-50 w/ macro (Supported by a special new Nauticam port for power zoom and macro switch).

Buy the Olympus 60mm as a priority

The 30mm is wide for many situations and the 45mm Panasonic is slow to focus

1 hour ago, Ressler said:

Hello everyone,,

There seem to be at least several macro lenses available for the OM-D E-M5: a 60mm f2.8, a 45mm 1.8 Zuiko and a 45mm f2.8 Panasonic. There may be other choices.

I'm thinking about giving one of them to kfish for Christmas.

She has the Nauticam E-M5 housing. Will I need to get another port, or will her port for the 12-50mm zoom work?

Anyone have any factual advice to offer about lens choice?

Thanks,.

I've owned the 12-50 zoom with its special port, the 60mm macro and the 30mm macro.

They all serve their purpose, but the 60mm macro is VERY nice! It will fit in the 12-50 port...new new port needed. It is the lens of choice for small stuff, like in Anilao and Lembeh.

If the 60mm is too much power, the 30mm is very nice, and focusses really quickly, but will need a different port.

For macro, I think both the dedicated macro lens are sharper than the 43mm macro setting on the 12-50 zoom, but that 43 is a very useful power.

+1 for the 60

Hi Ressler,

I have both Pana 45mm Macro and Zuiko 60 mm Macro (o.k., in fact my wife has the 60mm (a Christmas gift), but I am allowed to use it from time to time together with CMC-1 (another Christmas gift...).

In case kfish wants to shoot serious Macro, go for 60mm Zuiko. This is an outstanding lens and really worthily to be a Christmas gift...

Pana 45mm is ALMOST as good (on EM1II body AF is as slow as with Zuiko 60mm (on EM5II the 45mm was worse than 60mm, but slow AF is common feature to all Macro photography - nothing to worry about)). In case you do not know what to expect, it is substantially better for fishportait than 60mm (I used it a lot this August in Zakynthos, when the diving base did not tell us in advance where the ship was going (great caves (no use for 45mm), big grouper (o.k. with 45mm (but 12-40mm with domeport would have been much better) or snails etc. (o.k. 45mm, but 60mm better))). For this purpose (both Fishportrait and Macro), people like also the 30mm Macro from Zuiko and Pana. My (very personal) opinion is 45mm and 30mm are Jacks of all trades, but (some) people with system cameras want the very best for a special task ( thumbs up for 60mm Zuiko from my side)...

I cannot comment on the Zuiko 45mm, but probably it is not the optimum for macro and neither for fishportrait (in case you are very generous and kfish likes fishportraits, give her the Zuiko 12-40mm with Zen DP170 and extension (I posess this combination, but seldom I can use it, because my wife likes the combination a lot...)).

I also cannot say much about ports (we use 45mm Pana and 60mm Zuiko with 45-Macroport (for 45mm) plus 20mm extension (for 60mm Zuiko), but you can look in the portchards by you rown or ask at the dealer...

Wolfgang

I have all three lenses (the 45 mm Zuiko 1.8 is not a macro lens, max magnification is only 0.11) and I think the IQ of the leica is the  best but lately have been putting a lot of mileage on the 30 macro. Fast focus and nice Bokeh. I use the 60 if I am shooting small stuff where the diopter is most useful.

Bill

Another vote for the Olympus 60.  Great IQ, and with a +5 diopter you can capture really tiny subjects like anemone fish eggs.  It works just fine in the port designed for the 12-50 zoom.  

Hello everyone,,

There seem to be at least several macro lenses available for the OM-D E-M5: a 60mm f2.8, a 45mm 1.8 Zuiko and a 45mm f2.8 Panasonic. There may be other choices.

I'm thinking about giving one of them to kfish for Christmas.

She has the Nauticam E-M5 housing. Will I need to get another port, or will her port for the 12-50mm zoom work?

Anyone have any factual advice to offer about lens choice?

Thanks,.

I haven't even thought about taking my 60mm underwater since I got the Olympus 30mm; it's much more flexible for dives with varying sizes of critters.  If you know you're going for super macro, the 60 is the only way to go but otherwise I find the 30mm much easier to use. 

One other thought- the Olympus 12-40 has close focus capabilities, and it's a great generalist lens that does pretty darn good for smaller things.  I currently shoot it behind a 170mm dome to take advantage of the wide end, but I initially shot it behind the Olympus PPO-E02 flat port from the old 4/3 system. While cheaper than anything similar from Nauticam, it is still adaptable to their housings.  The 60mm works well in that port, and Reef Wreck and Critter can sell you a swing away diopter holder as well.  I didn't do a whole lot of shooting with a diopter, but I did do enough to know that the 12-40 works great in that port at the long end with a diopter (see example slug photo).

The CMC-2 on the 60mm provides no magnification as the camera working distance does not improve materially

The 60mm needs the cmc-1 and then captures an area of 9mm width

The cmc-2 on other lenses does not provide the same magnification of the 60mm but is definitely much easier to use especially for video

Even with the 12-50 I would go for the cmc-1 if a macro lens is not required

Regarding the 30mm it is good for larger subject but makes it very hard to isolate them so not good for small things on sand rocks

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I also wanted to add the fact that while the best focal length is 45mm both the Panasonic 30 and Olympus 60 are sharper than the leica 45 despite lower cost so you can buy both lenses
For portrait a zoom lens 14-42mm works fine if working distance is a problem you get a diopter
So the priority list for me has been
Olympus 60
Panasonic 14-42 for video
And there have been some rare occasions where the 30mm would have been useful as the 14-42 covers that focal length fine and you can add a diopter
To date I have not bought it
If you start with a 30mm you will need the 60 the moment you go to a super macro destination and if you get the 45 port you will need the 65 or 20 extension however the 45 does not work with the 14-42
If you start from the 14-42 you get the 35 port than 30 extension for the 60 and 17 for the 30mm


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i use oly 60mm and also oly 30mm... love both… i use the macro port 45+ 20mm ring and i can use both lenses with one port… the 20mm ring is the same that i use with 4.33dome and oly fisheye….

the 60mm is my favorite for supermacro(great lens)… and with cmc1 it's perfect….  but the 30mm is really good for snoot photography(easier) and murky waters... its also mandatory for blackwater dives… doing blackwater with 60mm is a real nightmare….  this year i try many config and find that the 30mm with cmc1 give  a little magnification too... and cmc1  it's also easier to use with the 30(little more DOF and working distance )... but only the cmc1... in the past i try less powerful diopters and all are useless…

someone that love macro need both lenses… IMHO…  

25 minutes ago, boletus said:

i use oly 60mm and also oly 30mm... love both… i use the macro port 45+ 20mm ring and i can use both lenses with one port… the 20mm ring is the same that i use with 4.33dome and oly fisheye….

the 60mm is my favorite for supermacro(great lens)… and with cmc1 it's perfect….  but the 30mm is really good for snoot photography(easier) and murky waters... its also mandatory for blackwater dives… doing blackwater with 60mm is a real nightmare….  this year i try many config and find that the 30mm with cmc1 give  a little magnification too... and cmc1  it's also easier to use with the 30(little more DOF and working distance )... but only the cmc1... in the past i try less powerful diopters and all are useless…

someone that love macro need both lenses… IMHO…  

As far as I recall from Nauticam the CMC-1 or no diopter can bring more magnification to the 30mm as the minimum working distance of the lens is shorter than the CMC-1 on its own. I would like to run some tests to confirm but generally nauticam is correct and they do field test

The 30mm minimum working distance is 10.5cm - length of the lens 6.35 cm - 2cm to focal point on the camera this lens focusses at 2 cm from the port so the benefit of the cmc-1 would be really minimal to none

In terms of depth of field once you reach the same level of magnification there are no difference on focal length so 30-45-60 are all the same once you get to the same size subject in the frame

59 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

As far as I recall from Nauticam the CMC-1 or no diopter can bring more magnification to the 30mm as the minimum working distance of the lens is shorter than the CMC-1 on its own. I would like to run some tests to confirm but generally nauticam is correct and they do field test

The 30mm minimum working distance is 10.5cm - length of the lens 6.35 cm - 2cm to focal point on the camera this lens focusses at 2 cm from the port so the benefit of the cmc-1 would be really minimal to none

In terms of depth of field once you reach the same level of magnification there are no difference on focal length so 30-45-60 are all the same once you get to the same size subject in the frame

i think the same as you… like 3 years ago i run some maximum magnification test with my old diopter +6 and that is correct…. totally useless(also with CMC1)… but this summer after one month of diving in a fucking murky water i leave the flip with the cmc1 on the port and  find that there is something interesting…  i never take the minimum distance with the 30mm because it' focus really on the glass of the 45 macro port(difficult to light properly the subject)… same with cmc1 on that port.... at the minimum working distance there is no magnification advantage using the CMC1 with the 30mm!!  but if you work at a distance of 4 or 5 cm from the port/lens glass(is what i do usually), with cmc1 you get more magnification than the 30mm alone at the same distance….  the main  difference is that with 60 macro and cmc1 you have really shallow working distance… you can only get the focus in an almost fixed position… with the 30 and cmc1 you can get focus  from the glass to almost 5cm distance… at between 3-5cm from the glass  you get a little more magnification with the cmc installed….  under that distance is totally useless

i agree that isn't a big advantage… but sometimes is useful… 

i do some dry test now at home and i confirm that…. :-P 

This thread inspired me to write a post

https://interceptor121.com/2019/09/14/which-macro-lens-to-pick-for-your-gh5-or-micro-four-third/

On 9/11/2019 at 8:08 PM, Ressler said:

Hello everyone,,

There seem to be at least several macro lenses available for the OM-D E-M5: a 60mm f2.8, a 45mm 1.8 Zuiko and a 45mm f2.8 Panasonic. There may be other choices.online casino games

I'm thinking about giving one of them to kfish for Christmas.

She has the Nauticam E-M5 housing. Will I need to get another port, or will her port for the 12-50mm zoom work?

Anyone have any factual advice to offer about lens choice?

Thanks,.

Thank you my issue has been solved,...