I have an olympus 12-50 EZ that I somewhat prefer to the 14-42, mainly for the extra range. Unfortunately olympus doesn't sell a zoom ring for it. I can use it in electronic zoom, but this is a bit fiddly using the buttons on the camera instead of the dedicated zoom dial on the housing, and does use more battery. Does anyone have any experience with any of the third-party zoom gears for this lens/housing?
The Deepshots one is a bit cheaper, but comes with a warning about not really fitting in the PT-EP13 well, and working best with the lens in electronic zoom mode (I guess still using the same amount of battery). The Athena ZG/12-50-no-m1 seems kindof expensive (maybe because it's machined aluminium instead of 3D printed plastic), but I guess if it works well in the PT-EP13 I could stomach spending as much on the zoom gear as I did on the lens.
Another couple, for other housings. Not sure if there is any chance of them working, but I guess I could order the cheap one on a lark.
I've ordered the AOI gear from BH photo (shipping to Canada was more sensible for a low value item than what Backscatter proposed). I will report to the many interested people how it works out.
So far so good. I've tried it in the housing on land and it seems to smoothly zoom in manual zoom mode.
I did a shallow dive with it and it seems fine, much better than the electronic zoom.
