10bar dome and wet close-up lenses

[tamas970]

I decided to buy the 10bar housing for my E-PL5 and was wondering about macro options. I want to keep myself as flexible as possible, and I am ready to make some trade-off regarding quality. Being able to swich underwater is very appealing.

My gear is: E-PL5 with 9-18, 14-42 & 1.8/45 lenses. I intend to use the 9-18 as an allaround lens, also for macro.

How much IQ do I have to sacrifice if I put a wet lens in front of the 10bar semidome?

 

[nudibranco]

I have the 9-18mm lens and I wished it had the ability to focus closer than it does but practically you cant even by adding wet diopters because they will all vignette even at 18mm setting. But you may be able to add an add-on lens to the 14-42mm with the dome and do reasonable closeups! You may have to create your own wet lens adapter though. I was able to do just that on an older EPL1 with the macro adapter for the Olympus housing on the Zen dome port and it gave that versatility you are looking for...

 

[tamas970]

Regarding the lens, I have to see. As for adapter I would go with the 10Bar AR-D127-F67.

 

[Wisnu]

I use EPL-1 in 10bar housing with semi dome port. I don't have the 9-18mm but I think will be heavily vignet if you use the wet lens adapter.
I think the 12-39mm will be the best option if you really want to have one lens for. Not very wide for WA but reasonably good magnification and IQ for macro at 50mm + wet lens.

 

[tamas970]

Thanks for the feedback! Are you satisfied with the dome (especially regarding IQ on the edges)? Which lenses do you use it with? 14-42?

 

[Wisnu]

For EPL-1, I use the semidome port for 14-42, 12-50mm, 7-14, 35mm macro, and 60 mm macro. With the exception of 7-14mm I have no complaint for the IQ. Please note, I have OMD EM-5 in Nauticam housing with 4" and 6" dome port for 7-14mm. I do not see any significant quality difference.
For 7-14mm, the 10bar semi dome port produce very soft edges at 7 and 8mm. The 6" Nauticam also produce soft edges at 7mm but far better IQ than the 10bar dome port.
Please note I'm not a pro. My statement regarding IQ is just my subjective observation.
You can check the pics in my flickr album Flickr: Wisnu Purwanto Family's Photostream
where you can easily identify the camera and lens we used. If EPL-1 then it must be 10bar with semi dome port.
70% of 2013 album were taken with OMD EM-5 while the 2012 and earlier mostly taken with EPL-1

 

[tamas970]

Thank you, that's a great help. I am not a pro either (or rephrasing: I had a semipro gear, Nikon d7k, but give it up before buying an underwater gear for it. It is simply too heavy and I don't feel the weight justified by a little better IQ) There are many levels between useless crap and pixel-peeping edge-to-edge tack sharp images. I am fine with a few levels below the "maximum" to be able to pack my entire uw photo gear in a 7x10x12 size bag (camera in open housing, 1 extra lens, closeup lens and an Archon d32vr video light with arm)