Downsizing to micro 4 third system

I currently have a canon 7d mk2 in a ikelite housing and looking to downsize to a smaller system (4 thirds system?)due to weight concerns on flights when diving overseas ,I mainly prefer macro and am looking at a system that has a optical viewfinder that I can attach my nauticam 45 degree as I prefer to use my eye for getting focus on the subject is there any smaller systems out there that would fit my requirements any info most appreciated

20 minutes ago, scuba-s said:

I currently have a canon 7d mk2 in a ikelite housing and looking to downsize to a smaller system (4 thirds system?)due to weight concerns on flights when diving overseas ,I mainly prefer macro and am looking at a system that has a optical viewfinder that I can attach my nauticam 45 degree as I prefer to use my eye for getting focus on the subject is there any smaller systems out there that would fit my requirements any info most appreciated

 

 

 

The nauticam MILC housing have their own viewfinder. In order to benefit from a good view is recommended to go for a camera that has an EVF with high resolution. This pretty much limits you to two models at present from Panasonic as Olympus only makes 2K viewfinder cameras.

Panasonic G9 would probably be your best option for photos however it is relatively rare to find second hand housing but there are some great offers on the camera itself. The GH5 also has a high resolution viewfinder. Olympus cameras can be found cheap and the housing costs less and is smaller. EM1MKII is discounted heavily and will work fine however the EVF is average at 2160 dots vs 3680 of Panasonic

Lens wise you have a choice of 30,45,60 mm depending on what you shoot plus additional wet lenses to get you closer

I have written a lot about many thing for MFT on my blog http://interceptor121.com

"Optical Viewfinders" can only be found on DSLRs. However Electronic Viewfinders ("EVF) have become pretty good, to the point that I feel it's a preference question (personally I prefer EVFs). Most Nauticam housings for MFT allow the attachment of the 45° VF. The best Viewfinders are available on the GH5 and G9. I think the Olympus EM1mkII or mkIII housings are a lot cheaper and I think their viewfinders are pretty good too. I think for Macro AF will likely be better on the Olympus cameras, but I have no first hand experience here.

30 minutes ago, hyp said:

"Optical Viewfinders" can only be found on DSLRs. However Electronic Viewfinders ("EVF) have become pretty good, to the point that I feel it's a preference question (personally I prefer EVFs). Most Nauticam housings for MFT allow the attachment of the 45° VF. The best Viewfinders are available on the GH5 and G9. I think the Olympus EM1mkII or mkIII housings are a lot cheaper and I think their viewfinders are pretty good too. I think for Macro AF will likely be better on the Olympus cameras, but I have no first hand experience here.

I guess he meant to use the nauticam viewfinder on the housing as a tool. Obviously there is no OVF and for macro is not such a good idea either as it would be pitch black most people switch to live view on dslr so they can see something

The Nauticam DSLR viewfinder will fit the the mirrorless housings - it's the same viewfinder just uses a different extension that goes through the back of the housing.  I found the part number for the conversion kit - it is 90157 - viewfinder collar for mirrorless housing.

I use the EM-1 MkII with the 60mm macro, and I find the EVF on that fine, not that I've used any of the better ones.  The AF on Olympus is pretty good most of the time and  reported to be best of the m43 cameras.  I use it in C-AF with the back button which will allow you to get close with AF and then rock back and forth to get the focus just right.  You can also turn on focus peaking which illuminates to show the areas in sharpest focus.  In this size there are no optical viewfinders all mirrorless but the EVFs are pretty good.

The 60mm is the lens of choice for the most part - but MF doesn't really work that well on it purely because it takes lots of turns on the focus ring to do anything and the gearing on the housing slows it down even more.  You can see there's plenty of space and if you are not carryoing the 170mm dome I have even more room in the bag.

As for packing here is my rig packed into a domestic size spinner carry-on: 

View archived post in: packing and transporting my rig

Where abouts in Oz are you Steve?

To echo off of what ChrisRoss is saying I recently purchased the Olympus E-PL10 and the 60mm Macro (and AOI housing from Backscatter).  I really really like the camera and its compactness.  its no where near as nice as the EM1mkii or mkiii but it was within my budget and has allowed me to continue to practice my photography.

The camera body is no bigger than the Olympus TG6 camera.