GH5-WWL-1 IN CAVE-LENSE PORT OPTIONS?

Hi I currently use the GH5 in the Nauticam Housing. 

I moved from theOlympus M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f/2.8 Pro lens with Nauticam N120 180mm Optical Glass Wide Angle Port  ---   Pros: Wide angle with  very good quality sharp image.  Did not have the best luck bringing my f-stop below 11   without getting really soft corners due to dome port optics focusing on the virtual image i assume.  This fact alone making it all but impossible to get results in the cave. ( Talking video here not pictures)   This lens is great for shallow water with plenty of light if........  you don't need to get close to your subject.  The working distance with this set up i can't remember but you need to be a little bit away from your subject to keep focus.   

I now use the Panasonic LUMIX G X Vario Power Zoom Lens, 14-42mm
f/3.5-5.6 ASPH., Micro Four Thirds, POWER Optical I.S. with the WWL-1   wet lens.  This allows me to lower the F stop while still keeping the corner sharpness and i can shoot different scenes with the zoom.  Also I can get up close and personnel with my subject  as you can focus almost right up to the lens.   Still having challenges with white balance and focus to be honest but when i get everything right i am happy with the results.

However in a cave even with my G18 18,000 lumen lights F9 and 3200 ISO my blacks are really grainy!!!  click on link to see example of my shots.   Cave in Mexico

I asked basically  the same questing on the GH5 page on facebook but got a lot of people perplexed why so high   f stop.  I now know that after seeing some of interceptors post I could bring that down to about 5.6 possibly with the WWL-1 and lens combo?

Still I am thinking a cave specific lens port combo might be worth investing in maybe even a GH5S body if i can find one cheap.  So I would like to bring my f-stop and iso down as practically as possible.  

Below is one answer i got from a poster on the GH5 forum on Facebook.  Would you guys agree?....

 F9? On a m4/3 camera you can easily go much lower and have no issues with depth of field. You dont use a dome port so I guess you are using a WWL1 which has no problems with soft corners. For such conditions the 15mm f1.7 pana works much much better. Also consider shooting 24fps it will give you some more light at 180d. My 2c

Following this topic as I have the same challenges diving recently discovered glass sponge reefs (bioherms)

They prefer turbid water and my local waters are green and gunky most of the year anyway.

The shallower reefs I am filming at recreational depths are dark enough, but not as bad as the 250 to 350foot depths a technical dive team in our project explores

I rented a GH5s to see the difference in low-light performance and was impressed, even without using faster cards and higher data rates. The challenge is decent wide optics for capturing video to share with the government bodies helping protect these reefs. Seeing is believing when it comes to trying to protect something special.

My rig is GH5 in Nauticam with 180mm dome and either Olympus 12-40mm which is relatively sharp with medium field of view, or 7-14mm which offers wide and warped field of view.

F2.8 one the 12-40mm lets in alot of light and for distance shots is decent

When using it in a dome the Oly 7-14mm is an extreme disappointment as I had hoped to utilize the low Fstop to capture wide images in low-light. The only reason ai have sold it off is how great it is for wide-angle landscape photography and time-lapse.

Seriously considering the WWL to provide better optics and deeper depth so the technical dive team can get something more than GoPro footage on the deeper reefs.

To my point:

Anyone used the WWL with Olympus 12-50mm in 77mm port? Am wondering if I can use my macro rig for now and save $ by not purchasing the 14-42mm Pany lens and flat port?

Nauticam port charts show its possible with some vignetting at either 14 or 16mm

Is it worth trying with the 12-50mm or should I just bite the bullet and go with the 14-42mm as well?

Thanks in advance,


Adam

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Mike asking people on facebook on a generic group is not a good idea

For caves you have two options

WWL-1 you can use f/5.6 and even wider in some cases

Panasonic 8-18mm in 180mm glass dome, this lens does not have the warping issue of 7mm lenses but it will require f/8 because of field of curvature of the dome.

Narrower lenses will be too narrow for smaller caves. Generally domes will bring all sorts of issue of focus that you really want to avoid.

I also want to add that

1. Power zoom lens does not work with Dual IS and is limited to lens stabiliser that is pool. Consider changing to 14-42 MKII and 35 macro port

2. GH5s has no IBIS though as you are working with PZ it would be the same as you are not using it

With WWL-1 you will be able to shoot at ISO 1600 and lower and this will be adequate the supposed better noise of the GH5s is not worth the other ergonomics and lack of stabilisation.

In terms of shooting settings I agree that 24p will give you another stop however you need to fin slowly or the edges will move too quick even for the WWL-1

Gearbow and Adam,

This isn't probably what you want to hear, - but hear me out

I've been there, done that, spent a fortune, and I'm still forever chasing optimal image quality (from newer cameras, more powerful lights, more lights, filters, to external recorders to raw enabled BM cameras) and in the end, it's all back down content - some of the best video I've taken was with my Hero 7 a couple of years back if I"m honest.

I just watched your cave video on my 13" MacBook and for interest I also watched it on my LG 4K SuperUHD TV (note: not a OLED) and I think it looks amazing - could have been NatGeo.

I was really getting hung up on video quality when it all just gets watched in a video on YouTube or on a mobile device.

Agreed the WWL-1 combined with the 14-42mm II is the best combo for the GH5, I would even ride the aperture at let it go to f3.5 (that's f7 DoF eqv - if not greater with the WWL-1) Intercepter wrote about the WWL-1 being afocal also. I'm sure Wet lenses increase the DoF also.

But in the end - it looked great from here, would love to dive caves myself one day.

You have good equipment and doubt that it is lens or camera. You mentioned the "virtual image". You are on the right track. Wide angle and ports are HUGELY impacted by the Nodal point created by the port. The lens MUST match that. My source is a person that designs port/lens combinations. You likely cannot or do not want to spend that kind of money. However, Nauticam or your lens mfg. should be able to guide you.

Good luck.

F4 on and 1/50 with the WWL-1 will allow you to shoot the same sequence at Iso 400 instead of 3200, which is clean enough. Not that the quality of what you posted is bad by any means. A touch of noise reduction and you'd have clean blacks also.

Rather I'd pay a bit more attention to the positioning of the lights and the light intensity so they blend together more seamlessly. From that video, it seems the light on the left is noticeably stronger than the one on the right. And they're turned in too much.