Olympus OMD EM5 III Housing options

Hello everyone! Im a new member here and have started to create a rig around the Olympus OMD EM5 III

Im currently looking for a housing for it and based on my research i have 2 options.

1. AOI Housing

2. Ikelite housing

I like how the ikelite housing looks like because its more compact, but it is manual hotshoe to electric sync cord only, which limits my strobe options. I havent read any reviews on this housing so id like to hear the community’s thoughts on it. It would be cool if there was a converter that could allow the use of fiber optic connection for this housing, but I havent found any as of the moment.

The AOI housing is bigger but allows the use of fiber optic connection for TTL strobes (like the Backscatter MF2). It’s also a little cheaper relative to what features its offering compared to the ikelite.

Any thoughts appreciated. Thank you!
 

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Isotta also produces a housing for the em5 iii

2 hours ago, hyp said:

Isotta also produces a housing for the em5 iii

Hi hyp! Thank you for the recommendation, but Isotta at $1590 is a little over my budget of $1000 for a housing. 

Have you considered the AOI for EM1 or OM1 ? they are much smaller..

I would suggest first step is to look at what lenses you might like to use with the camera and confirm if they are supported and if it's a good solution,  For example you can use various wide zooms with ikelite but are limited to a 6" dome port if you wish to zoom.   You could also keep your eye on the classifieds here to see if a Nauticam or Isotta housing come up for sale.

Retra make an optical converter which can convert an electrical strobe signal to fibre optic. 
 

https://www.retra-uwt.com/products/e-opto-converter

6 hours ago, LeftyMD said:

Hi hyp! Thank you for the recommendation, but Isotta at $1590 is a little over my budget of $1000 for a housing. 

Someone just recently had an Isotta EM5 III housing up for sale in the classifieds here. Not sure if it's still available. @ChrisRoss suggestion of looking at the classifieds is a good one in any case. You can often get much better deals on higher quality housings like Nauticam/Isotta/etc... Sometimes it helps to be open to other cameras in the same system. A lot of people are jumping on the FF train right now and are upgrading from EM1mkII or GH5.

And a lot not. Why start about FF if he's on a budget?

I think hyp was suggesting that as there are lots of folks moving to FF, it could be a good time to find a second hand EM5iii housing. At least that was the way I read it.

1 hour ago, TimG said:

I think hyp was suggesting that as there are lots of folks moving to FF, it could be a good time to find a second hand EM5iii housing. At least that was the way I read it.

 

That was what I said. I’m quite happy with my mu43 camera and in fact just upgraded from my original Em5 to a GX8 housing. I still believe mu43 is the best system for the travelling, budget-friendly amateur. I also believe that buying used you can often get housings that are barely used for very little money. My GX8 housing that I bought for less than 1k (including port, camera and lens) looks like it’s maybe been in the water for 20 times if even that…

15 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

I would suggest first step is to look at what lenses you might like to use with the camera and confirm if they are supported and if it's a good solution,  For example you can use various wide zooms with ikelite but are limited to a 6" dome port if you wish to zoom.   You could also keep your eye on the classifieds here to see if a Nauticam or Isotta housing come up for sale.

Thanks Chris! I already have the 60mm macro lens, and will buy the oly 8mm fisheye down the line. I’m probably going to stick to these two lenses for the next few years. Going to keep an eye out in the classifieds section as well

I think one difference is that in Ikelite you need to use a 6 or 8" dome and some vignette while in AOI they have a 4" dome which is better for CFWA and streamlining/travel.