How to use wide angle wet lens for Olympus E-PM1 camera with Oly housing

[Ben Prusinski]

Thanks folks for your help. Since I did not care for the user interface of the Olympus, I decided to return it and go with a Nikon for a bit more money.

 

[LeeParrish]

I've been shooting with the 14-42mm lens and standard flat port since I got my setup. I tried a wide angle wet lens but wasn't very happy with it, and I've also tried a macro wet lens, but the camera is just will not focus on the macro subjects with the lens completely zoomed out to 42mm, so I've been shooting without the macro lens.

I recently got the Zen dome port for the 14-42/9-18 lenses, and I've been using that with the 14-42mm. I just scored a 9-18mm lens at a good price from ebay. Hopefully I'll get it before the weekend since I'm doing a boat dive in Carmel this weekend.

What macro lens are you using? I am using the 14-42 II R kit lens on my e-pm1 with a Inon UCL165M67 and it worked pretty well for me. With the macro adapter and UCL165 I almost always had the lens at the full 42mm setting, otherwise it will vingnette badly if too far toward the wide side. I really didn't have any problems with the focus and found it was quick and reliable, but I pretty much had my focus light on all the time since visibility on this trip was variable, so at times lighting was pretty low at even 45 to 60 feet even though it was a sunny day. And I did notice that in lower lighting it had a harder time focusing.

 

[Jak Crow]

What macro lens are you using? I am using the 14-42 II R kit lens on my e-pm1 with a Inon UCL165M67 and it worked pretty well for me. With the macro adapter and UCL165 I almost always had the lens at the full 42mm setting, otherwise it will vingnette badly if too far toward the wide side. I really didn't have any problems with the focus and found it was quick and reliable, but I pretty much had my focus light on all the time since visibility on this trip was variable, so at times lighting was pretty low at even 45 to 60 feet even though it was a sunny day. And I did notice that in lower lighting it had a harder time focusing.

I have a Subsee +5. I've used a Solar 1200 for light. When I've used the lens, and zoom to 42mm, the camera just keeps hunting for a focus so I end up backing it off till it does, which reduced the effectiveness of the macro lens.

 

[LeeParrish]

Interesting, I'm not sure where a UCL165 is compared to a SubSee +5 in relative diopter power, but I'd expect that if one had a problem the other would as well. And you are using the E-PM1? What focus mode do you have set? I'm using Single AF (S-AF) with a single block on the 35 point focus grid. Do you have the first generation lens or the second "II R" version?

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

Jack - sorry to hear you are having problems.

There is no problem with the Subsee or other macro lenses with the PEN cameras. There are some tricks to using a macro lens correctly, for sure you want to have your dealer discuss proper usage with you after your purchase, we do this with all our customers. - Scott

 

[cardog]

Epl-2 with kit lens and Dyron +7 diopter.....

 

[Jak Crow]

Interesting, I'm not sure where a UCL165 is compared to a SubSee +5 in relative diopter power, but I'd expect that if one had a problem the other would as well. And you are using the E-PM1? What focus mode do you have set? I'm using Single AF (S-AF) with a single block on the 35 point focus grid. Do you have the first generation lens or the second "II R" version?

I have an E-PL3. I've used both the 1st gen and the IIR to see what results I could get from both, S-AF and center block on the focus grid. If someone has actual suggestions on resolving this, I'm all for it.

---------- Post Merged at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:11 AM ----------

Epl-2 with kit lens and Dyron +7 diopter.....

What were your settings?

 

[cardog]

I have an E-PL3. I've used both the 1st gen and the IIR to see what results I could get from both, S-AF and center block on the focus grid. If someone has actual suggestions on resolving this, I'm all for it.

---------- Post Merged at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:11 AM ----------


What were your settings?

Full zoom, f16, 180 shutter speed.
The little nudi on the rock was about 3/8" long......

 

[Jak Crow]

Full zoom, f16, 180 shutter speed.
The little nudi on the rock was about 3/8" long......

So what does your camera do when using the macro lens? I have a bitch of a time getting it to focus completely zoomed in with a +5.

 

[cardog]

So what does your camera do when using the macro lens? I have a bitch of a time getting it to focus completely zoomed in with a +5.

Not following you.... All of the pic that I posted were with the +7 diopter and, while focus lock was slower, it did work.