Intended to be a quick review that ended up getting LONG! Sorry. Recently had the urge to upgrade after unsatisfying results on a Cayman trip last year with my Oly SP-350. So I sold my D300 and all lenses (too expensive to house and get proper lenses, plus no video), and the SP-350 and housing. Kept my D2000 strobe and ULCS arm/tray. Took the proceeds and dumped that into everything below came within $25 of what I sold the old gear for (not counting the 20mm & 45-200)!! Bought everything but camera and housing at REEF who were awesome throughout all my questions.
My new kit consists of:
e-pl1
14-42 kit lens & zoom gear
UCL-165M67 macro lens
7-14mm Panny WA
Oly PT-EP01 housing
PMLA-EP01 macro adapter
Zen 7-14 dome
ULCS double arm tray
Inon D2000 strobe
L&M Sola 600 focus / video light
Spare battery
two Transcend 16GB class 10 SDHC cards
For above water only also have:
Panny 20mm f1.7
Panny 45-200 f4-5.6
Got it all wet for the first time 3/5-13 on the Belize Aggressor III trip reviewed here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/li.../375709-belize-aggressor-iii-trip-report.html
Had almost 700 pictures to go through when I got home! Best 100 or so are linked at the end.
Quick highlights:
LOVE LOVE LOVE this setup. Everything from the ease of use, small form factor (compared to dSLR) and quality of results I'm seeing thus far, really impressed with how it handles underwater, how easy it is to do semi-wide all the way to macro with the kit lens and macro adapter w/ Inon wet macro lens.
Didn't get the zoom gear shim for the 7-14 in time so I used a thin wrist sized flat rubber band around the zoom ring of the panny 7-14 instead of Reef recommended gaffers tape with the 14-42 zoom gear. Worked flawlessly and is MUCH cheaper than the actual zoom gear.
14-42 lens work just fine in the Zen port! Note - really want to pay more attention next time to softness/distortion on the edges when using this lens pulled back to 14mm in the Oly port v the Zen port. Now that I'm running through workflow on the pictures I'm seeing some softness/distortion when shooting the 14mm full wide in the Oly port. That may or may not go away in the Zen port. However, since this port doesn't allow macro I won't really ever use it. Shot my first every macro shots and really enjoyed it!
It was tough getting used to the 7-14 underwater. You REALLY have to get close to fill up the frame when you're shooting 7mm. Which means you can't be nearly as ham handed in approaching fish/critters. But the results were very nice.
I did forget to pop the flash up before one dive and didn't notice until I couldn't figure out why my strobe wasn't firing. Dammit. I knew I would and I think it's a HUGE design flaw that there is no way to pop the flash once in the housing.
I shot in manual mode the whole trip, usually f6 to f8 depending on time of day and available light. Shutter speed either 160 or 125 depending on time of day and light. Really nice to be able to do HD video with this as well.
I was the envy of the boat with the Sola 600. That red light feature is fantastic. If you've done night diving with Tarpon around you know how they love to follow you and attack the poor varmints in your white light beam from over your shoulder, generally scaring the hell out of you in the process. Using the red light, I had no such issues. It did still spook some critters but others were totally unaware of it or me. Squid, octopus and crustations most notably were unaware. At 600 lumens white light it's bright enough to help fill in spots for aiding the flash and for video during the day. For night dives in clear water 600 is FAR too much. The red light is perfect and I don't see any need to have that adjustable. Was fine and when using a strobe you can't tell in stills that the red light is on at all. I used red light exclusively and a separate 600 lumen hand held light with tight beam pattern but big spill area for long reach critter spotting.
Haven't had a chance to get through the video yet. However, I think the results on the stills are far better than my old Oly SP-350. Looking forward to using it again and have to say that after spending a week underwater with it I'm a huge fan. Once the price comes down on the e-pl2 and housing I MAY "upgrade" to that if the housing allows for popping the flash once the camera is in there - only if in time it turns I keep forgetting!
Link to the lot of them, I took all except the ones I'm in!
Message
Here are my favorites:
And a picture of the gear.
My new kit consists of:
e-pl1
14-42 kit lens & zoom gear
UCL-165M67 macro lens
7-14mm Panny WA
Oly PT-EP01 housing
PMLA-EP01 macro adapter
Zen 7-14 dome
ULCS double arm tray
Inon D2000 strobe
L&M Sola 600 focus / video light
Spare battery
two Transcend 16GB class 10 SDHC cards
For above water only also have:
Panny 20mm f1.7
Panny 45-200 f4-5.6
Got it all wet for the first time 3/5-13 on the Belize Aggressor III trip reviewed here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/li.../375709-belize-aggressor-iii-trip-report.html
Had almost 700 pictures to go through when I got home! Best 100 or so are linked at the end.
Quick highlights:
LOVE LOVE LOVE this setup. Everything from the ease of use, small form factor (compared to dSLR) and quality of results I'm seeing thus far, really impressed with how it handles underwater, how easy it is to do semi-wide all the way to macro with the kit lens and macro adapter w/ Inon wet macro lens.
Didn't get the zoom gear shim for the 7-14 in time so I used a thin wrist sized flat rubber band around the zoom ring of the panny 7-14 instead of Reef recommended gaffers tape with the 14-42 zoom gear. Worked flawlessly and is MUCH cheaper than the actual zoom gear.
14-42 lens work just fine in the Zen port! Note - really want to pay more attention next time to softness/distortion on the edges when using this lens pulled back to 14mm in the Oly port v the Zen port. Now that I'm running through workflow on the pictures I'm seeing some softness/distortion when shooting the 14mm full wide in the Oly port. That may or may not go away in the Zen port. However, since this port doesn't allow macro I won't really ever use it. Shot my first every macro shots and really enjoyed it!
It was tough getting used to the 7-14 underwater. You REALLY have to get close to fill up the frame when you're shooting 7mm. Which means you can't be nearly as ham handed in approaching fish/critters. But the results were very nice.
I did forget to pop the flash up before one dive and didn't notice until I couldn't figure out why my strobe wasn't firing. Dammit. I knew I would and I think it's a HUGE design flaw that there is no way to pop the flash once in the housing.
I shot in manual mode the whole trip, usually f6 to f8 depending on time of day and available light. Shutter speed either 160 or 125 depending on time of day and light. Really nice to be able to do HD video with this as well.
I was the envy of the boat with the Sola 600. That red light feature is fantastic. If you've done night diving with Tarpon around you know how they love to follow you and attack the poor varmints in your white light beam from over your shoulder, generally scaring the hell out of you in the process. Using the red light, I had no such issues. It did still spook some critters but others were totally unaware of it or me. Squid, octopus and crustations most notably were unaware. At 600 lumens white light it's bright enough to help fill in spots for aiding the flash and for video during the day. For night dives in clear water 600 is FAR too much. The red light is perfect and I don't see any need to have that adjustable. Was fine and when using a strobe you can't tell in stills that the red light is on at all. I used red light exclusively and a separate 600 lumen hand held light with tight beam pattern but big spill area for long reach critter spotting.
Haven't had a chance to get through the video yet. However, I think the results on the stills are far better than my old Oly SP-350. Looking forward to using it again and have to say that after spending a week underwater with it I'm a huge fan. Once the price comes down on the e-pl2 and housing I MAY "upgrade" to that if the housing allows for popping the flash once the camera is in there - only if in time it turns I keep forgetting!
Link to the lot of them, I took all except the ones I'm in!
Message
Here are my favorites:
And a picture of the gear.
