Oly C-8080 and WCON-08D wide angle Lens

[SCUBA-IAN]

I am currently using the Oly C-8080 with the Oly PT-23 housing and Inon Z-220 strobe.
I am considering adding the WCON-08D wide angle Converter Lens and PPO-05 Wide Port.
Has anyone tried this wide angle lens, and is it worth the extra money? :10:

[ReyeR]

I am considering adding the WCON-08D wide angle Converter Lens and PPO-05 Wide Port.

The biggest issue I see with this setup is that the PPO-05 is a wide flat port. Underwater, with the standard port and native lens of the C8080 you get 54° coverage. With the WCON-08 and PPO-05 you get about 62° - not a lot more when you consider that a C5060/C7070 with an Inon UWL-100 28AD gives you 100°, add the Inon dome and you get a whopping 150° coverage underwater.

Put it this way: underwater, the C8080 with just the native lens housed behind a dome port will give you more coverage (75°) than with the WCON-08 behind the PPO-05 wide flat port (62°)!

[ReyeR]

As batray explains in his post, he is using the Inon UWL-100 with the C5060, which has a 27mm focal length at its widest. The UWL-100 was designed for the C5050 which has a focal length of 35mm. Due to the wider lens and moving front element of the C5060 he has to zoom in to get rid of the vignetting. The severe distortion is because of this zooming in. That is why he is seeking an opinion on the new UN lens (PTWC-01) which, like the Inon UWL-100 28AD, was designed for the wider FOV of the C5060/7070.

[RonFrank]

Last time you *discussed* photography with me, you were rather against my not having a lot of UW experience (in fact I have none, which does not really make me less a photographer).

You OTOH had plans to take down your 8080 plus to F3, and maybe more.

I'm now curious what happened to all that? You are not (heaven forbid) giving advice on equipment you do not even own.. tell me it is not so...)

I'd love to see some of you work....Nikon F3....

[ReyeR]

The blurring of the edges, loss of sharpness and muted colors is totally unacceptable be it amateur or professional photography.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE: In this instance the blurring and loss of sharpness at the edges (crab picture) isn't caused because of adding more glass, it is because of adding glass that isn't designed for that particular system.

Look at the second picture in the post, the very same glass (Inon UWL-100) was used with the Olympus D40 (C40 in some countries), which has a 35mm focal length. To me, that looks very sharp and certainly no loss of colours there.

[ReyeR]

I am not a fan of "add-on" converter lens. I think it's just more pieces of glass to degrade the image quality....

Unless you can convince me that adding more glass on top of the primary lens (even the correct glass) will make my pictures sharper and colors brighter.

Interesting change in stand on add-on lenses....

[SCUBA-IAN]

Thanks for all the comments.

You've confirmed my original concerns regarding the loss of image quality. I was interested to hear Athena are planning to making a dome port for the Olympus PT-23 housing. I will probably wait for more details on the Anthena port before parting with any money. It may be the best compromise between image quality and increased angle of view.

[Wolverine]

I am not too certain about picture quality but I was using the Inon Wide Angle with my 7070 in this picture and I do not see any major loss of picture quality...



btw, the colors on the original 5mb file is a lot more vibrant. To be the colors are pretty good and there does not seem to be any distortion. I had to zoom in to remove the vignetting but the final products looks pretty good.

[justleesa]

This fish eye maybe worth looking into, coated lens and sharp edges (from what I read). Made in Japan from a company that has been making lenses for a very long time.

http://www.raynox.co.jp/english/dcr/...proindexeg.htm

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

Thanks for the link, they even have cool stuff for my 5050

[Wolverine]

Point taken. Its just that the angle will not be wide enuff to be able to take a shot like that. I guess between having to get a Oly Wide angle with an additional port and with an add-on lens which can be removed when other shot opportunity crops up (eg macro), I would prefer the flexibility of the latter. Its nice having the ability to switch between wide angle and macro during a dive. If the photo quality does not suffer too much ( or at all), I am quite happy to use the add-ons.