Olympus E-PM2 announced for October; underwater housing?

[gert7to3]

Hania, I've owned eleven Olympus cameras, more than a dozen lenses, two underwater housings and four Olympus strobes since 1973. So I certainly don't harbor any negative opinions about the company nor their products.

You don't seem to understand my post and the information related in your post. Olympus said they were going to SUPPORT the E-PM1 camera and PT-EP06 u/w housing. That doesn't mean you will be able to buy one, much past the near term.

The PT-EP06 housing is probably out of production; stocks are being sold off and you will probably not be able to buy a new Oly PT-EP06 housing for much longer. If anyone puts off buying a PT-EP06 housing, because they're thinking the E-PM2 will be housed, they will be disappointed.

 

[Hania]

Sorry Tamas, must be a translation issue but I don't get what you are aiming at with your comment and quoting mine.

I will quote part of the email I was referring to exactly as I received it from Olympus

"I can confirm that we do supply the underwater housing and accessories for around 5 years after the camera has been discontinued."

So as they discontinued it in October it would be from that start date until sometime during 2017

For me personally, I know my brother would buy me something better but has limited his budget, the same as he limited my other brother's budget for his 40th, as an accountant he is more than capable of affording something better but I would never take the piss out of him and am over the moon that he is willing to buy me a camera and basic housing that is as good as the epm1.

I also don't dive beyond 30m so there is no need for me to have a housing that by the time you add the ports is going to cost around £800 (or more) and then the camera ontop, another reason I won't take the piss out of my brother getting something I don't need.

I joined to make the post to clear up mis-information about the support Olympus has for the epm1 and the housing that supports it, as well as any other cameras and housings they have that are discontinued so do not see why bringing another housing manufacturer into the discussion while quoting my post has any relevance.

---------- Post added December 2nd, 2012 at 11:34 PM ----------

Hania, I've owned eleven Olympus cameras, more than a dozen lenses, two underwater housings and four Olympus strobes since 1973. So I certainly don't harbor any negative opinions about the company nor their products.

You don't seem to understand my post and the information related in your post. Olympus said they were going to SUPPORT the E-PM1 camera and PT-EP06 u/w housing. That doesn't mean you will be able to buy one, much past the near term.

The PT-EP06 housing is probably out of production; stocks are being sold off and you will probably not be able to buy a new Oly PT-EP06 housing for much longer. If anyone puts off buying a PT-EP06 housing, because they're thinking the E-PM2 will be housed, they will be disappointed.

Of course, but read my previous post as to the quote from the email from Olympus, I am not including the whole email as is things I discussed with the guy personally. Once the current stock of any product is sold off once it is discontinued the manufacturer would be mad to continue making it. The servicing and support of an item would include something as simple as the o-rings though, and as they are made in a simple mould and they know how many are out in end user hands they would still produce a quantity for them to be replaced.

 

[JackConnick]

As an Olympus dealer, I can tell you this:

PM-1s are on sale and as soon as stocks are gone through there will be no more, probably by the end of the month. Same with the PT-EP06 housing.

There will be no Oly housing for the PM-2. The PT-EP08 housing for the E-PL5 will be out here in the US in 2-3 weeks.
I seriously doubt there will be a Nauticam housing for the E-PL5. They are concentrating on the EM5.

10Bar has said they will look at the E-PL5 and "probably" do a housing. But it may be a bit. Not so sure about the PM-2, hard to say what they'll do, although I think he is moving towards doing more accessories and less housings.

 

[tamas970]

Hania, I don't have a decent housing yet - so take my comments with a pinch of salt. What I learned from the specs:

10bar/nauticam: double O-ring system, easy port changing, deeper depth rating (might mean more safety when diving just to 20m max)

Olympus: single O-ring, complicated port changing, rated until 45m.

If the price is essentially the same (10bar vs Olympus) of course I take the better spec-d one. (Support is of course also important - haven't heard anything bad from 10bar...)

@Jack:
As for 3rd party housing for my e-pl5 i am less worried, it fits to oly's epl3 housing - hopefully it will also fit into 10bar's epl3 solution...
Are there any more players offering housings for the pen-line? As last resort, I could order a custom BS kinetics housing but that's a bit pricey and I don't know anything about their ports/compatibility to other vendors' ports.

 

[Jak Crow]

The Olympus housing does not have a complicated port system. Unscrew the metal tab inside the housing, turn lens port counter-clockwise and remove. Yes, the others have a slick port locking system which often over shadows the Oly's "manual" setup, but I've never had a problem with switching ports. The only real disadvantage with the Oly case is the single o-ring on the door, but they're hardly alone doing that. Yet they used double o-rings on the port, so why not double up on the door too?

 

[Hania]

Can tell you one thing I am worried about, the slave flash, I know Fuji do one for £130ish and you don't need the sync cord but with that one or any flash other than oly would the oly sync cord work on them, are the fittings on the pt06 housing on the front a standard kind of plug in fitting that any sync cord would work with, ie the fuji one??


I only know what oly told me when I asked about them discontinuing the camera Jack and if they have said they will still be supplying the housing and accessories for the pm1 then that is what they have to do.