OM system 90mm macro announced

43 minutes ago, rickmorgan said:

That's for sure.  Especially given that the switch-equipped port for the 12-50 (with a zoom gear) is still almost $1k US. 

I own that one (bought it used extremely cheaply). It's a marvel of engineering. Really like it for dives where I don't know what to expect. Would be even better if it merged with the 4" semidome.

This looks really cool and I would love to try this lens out underwater for super macro.  Unfortunately I doubt Isotta will make a port similar to the Nauticam one for this lens with the focus switch.

You would need to get a port adapter. I know it’s possible because Isotta ports are longer than Nauticam for the same lenses meaning there is space for an adapter with proper alignment. I guess one could 3d print some kind of zoomgear adapter too but I haven’t looked into that. 

Yeah I'll have to look into a port adapter. I remember seeing one on a German website I think

Backscatter has posted a review of the lens and comparisons to the Olympus 60mm, Sony 90mm, and TG-6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOviXdxB2u0

(no UW images yet but they will add those later)

On 3/26/2023 at 10:47 AM, Whiskeyjack said:

Yeah I'll have to look into a port adapter. I remember seeing one on a German website I think

I looked into this an remember the Isotta->Nauticam ports only work on the Nauticam n100 ports, so not useful for m4/3.

I also asked Isotta about this lens and they stated they have no current plans to make a port specifically for it or to adapt the Nauticam port, though they may in the future.

They did say their macro port 67 h66 plus the 60mm  would work, though obviously you'll need to choose a position on the focus switch pre-dive.  I would probably use it for exclusively super macro at that point. in the s-macro position.

Unterwasserkamera.at custom makes an N85 to B102 Adapter.  The Zoom gear would need to be adapted as well though. You need to enquire by email though. I don’t think they advertise it. 

Edit: should be unterwasserkamera.at

16 hours ago, hyp said:

Unterwasserkamera.at custom makes an N85 to B102 Adapter.  The Zoom gear would need to be adapted as well though. You need to enquire by email though. I don’t think they advertise it. 

 

Edit: should be unterwasserkamera.at

Thanks for the tip I'll reach out to them.

Just to provide the information here, they got back to me an recommended to just use the Isotta port+extensions and lose the focus switch functionality.

With the added 20-30mm of the adapter they thought the Nauticam port switch would no longer line up with the lens correctly, though they said I could try. Buying the port + adapter is a bit pricey for an experiment at the moment.

As I read this thread, I think of the many opportunities missed by housing manufacturers. Except for Nauticam, which now seems to have channels that allow them to have equipment before marketing, the others seem to be in great difficulty in following the market.

Yet one need only peek at this forum or have a chat with the big retailers to find out what to design in a hurry.

Aquatica wrote me a year ago that they were thinking about making an adapter for WWL-1. I think they thought about it so hard that they fell asleep. Isotta does it but you don't know!

Regarding Oly 90mm, it didn't take a scientist to realize that this lens would be a big hit given its uniqueness and the prominence given to it immediately in the media. Responding to a customer that you are not planning a dedicated port is commercial suicide.

Yet another one.

I have an Isotta Olympus OM-D E-M-1 ii housing and love it. If I wanted to use the 90mm presumably I could use the B102 to B120 adaptor plus a Nauticam adapter then the Nuticam port... but since the switch would be unlikely to line up anyway presumably I could just stick with Isotta parts and add a 50mm or 60mm port extension and use the macro port from the 60mm. 

I imagine design and tooling to suit the latest new lens or camera is very difficult. Great that Nauticam and Ikelite are fast but also good to have diversity. 

I wonder if some of you technical experts can help with 2:1 macro with micro four thirds. This 90mm lens looks a great option but I was wondering about the wet lens alternative. I see the Nauticam CMC-1 does 2:1 and is well proven on the Olympus 60mm. It looks like a +15 converter. For various reasons I am looking at the Inon UCL-67 which is also a +15 macro converter but Inon documents advise "Only usable when the focal length is between 60mm and 100mm range at 35mm film equivalent. Beyond this range, there will be vignetting at the wide side and deteriorated image quality at the telephoto side". So it looks like this is not suitable for the Olympus 60mm, but apart from that it looks so similar to the CMC-1. 

10 hours ago, John E said:

I wonder if some of you technical experts can help with 2:1 macro with micro four thirds. This 90mm lens looks a great option but I was wondering about the wet lens alternative. I see the Nauticam CMC-1 does 2:1 and is well proven on the Olympus 60mm. It looks like a +15 converter. For various reasons I am looking at the Inon UCL-67 which is also a +15 macro converter but Inon documents advise "Only usable when the focal length is between 60mm and 100mm range at 35mm film equivalent. Beyond this range, there will be vignetting at the wide side and deteriorated image quality at the telephoto side". So it looks like this is not suitable for the Olympus 60mm, but apart from that it looks so similar to the CMC-1. 

If you look at the port chart, the 60mm plus CMC-1 will get 2x and focuses between 22 and 70mm  from the port, so at 2x you have 22mm of working distance.  The INON lens might give you a little more but in the same ballpark.    The 90mm provides 58mm working distance from the lens so probably about 50mm from the port surface so it would be more usable at higher magnification.

If you want to achieve 2x though you want the port to fit well with the end of the lens right up close to the port glass, if it is not up close to the glass you lose that additional working distance. 

I was very interested in this lens once the Nauticam port was released, and received the lens earlier this week. Unfortunately, it seems to be unusable with Panasonic bodies at the moment  I have a GH5ii, and while the lens works properly when the focus clutch on the lens is in AF and the body is in AF-C, in every other combination the autofocus seems to pulse back and forth at a regular and rapid interval. This leaves no ability to focus manually, which I see as a requirement for such small-scale operation. Given that Olympus released some camera body firmware updates ahead of this lens release, I suspect that Panasonic may need to do similar for compatibility with their bodies. I contacted Olympus and while I don't think the person who helped me was certain, she did suspect incompatibility with Panasonic. I have also contacted Panasonic but with no response.

Not sure if many others here were excited for this lens, but I just wanted to share my experience with it on a Panasonic body as a caution to others.

I just saw on WetPixel group on FB a photo that shows what this lens can achieve:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wetpixeluw/posts/10158868336166017

Allow me to post here without the author's permission

Author: Atim Lau

"M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO"
"MC-20 M.Zuiko Digital 2x tele converter "
Super Macro Mode
No crop
No diopter
.
OM1 with Nauticam NA-OM1
RetraFlashPro,
Weefine WF088 Solar Zoom 1500
F14,1/160,ISO200,
Philippines
Anilao photo academy

I have been shooting it on the OM-1 in an AOI housing. Make the choice for super or regular macro before the dive. Supposedly the AOI boys will be making a port that allows for moving the switch, but I am not holding my breath. Off to Anilao in a few hours, we will see how it goes there.

Bill

Yep, I'm planning on picking this lens up later this month and just committing before the dive.

I've been using this lens and quite like it. Aside from not having access to the focus limiter switch, my only complaint is that I can't get it to work with "Preset MF".  On my E5 mk III  with my 30mm and 60mm macro lenses I use the FN lever to set one mode to Preset MF with the minimum focus distance, while the other mode is set to CAF or SAF.  When I switch the lever back to Preset MF the lens should automatically revert to that focus distance.

This works fine with the 30mm and 60mm, however with the new 90mm lens it just stays at the same focus it was at and does not change to the minimum focus distance as expected.  I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this functionality with the lens?  Maybe it won't work with my older camera body?

1 hour ago, Whiskeyjack said:

I've been using this lens and quite like it. Aside from not having access to the focus limiter switch, my only complaint is that I can't get it to work with "Preset MF".  On my E5 mk III  with my 30mm and 60mm macro lenses I use the FN lever to set one mode to Preset MF with the minimum focus distance, while the other mode is set to CAF or SAF.  When I switch the lever back to Preset MF the lens should automatically revert to that focus distance.

This works fine with the 30mm and 60mm, however with the new 90mm lens it just stays at the same focus it was at and does not change to the minimum focus distance as expected.  I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this functionality with the lens?  Maybe it won't work with my older camera body?

Have you checked the firmware for updates?  My OM-1 had a firmware update which mentioned the 90mm macro lens.  It might be worth trying that out.

I did update my firmware to the one that mentioned image stabilization for the 90mm macro lens but still no dice unfortunately.