Thanks for the information- this is really helpful. On my current budget, I am looking at the package that I probably cannot swing the Zen dome and the 9-18 lens right now. But I like the fact that I can upgrade this as my budget allows. If you had to prioritize, which of those would be more important? It also looks like you need to get a zoom ring even for the kit lens that comes with the camera.
You hit on one of the great attributes of the E-PL1 - incremental upgrades! Ocean Frontiers on the east end of Grand Cayman adopted the "basic" E-PL1 kit lens and Oly housing as it's rental and class camera gear, they've been getting some great images from students brand new to the setup. So, just right out of the box with the basic kit you can get fairly wide at 14mm and also do some fairly decent macro work at work42mm. With that basic setup you can then add the Macro adapter (snaps on the front of the Oly housing) for $50 and a 2:1 wet macro lens from Inon or Oly for about $170. Relatively cheap option to get a nice macro setup and we've not even really dealt with other lenses / ports yet.
I believe your question was which would be more important if you could only do one at once - the 9-18mm lens or the Zen dome port. Personally, although you CAN use the 9-18 without the dome port, I wouldn't. You can see why here -
Welcome to zenunderwater.com!
The lens is about $600 and the dome port is $499. If it were me I'd for sure buy the lens first because you can use that out of water - I hear it's a very nice walking around and landscape lens.
Other options for WA are the 8mm fisheye, however, the lens is quite pricey ($739) and not a very useful above water lens and the port for that is $799!
You can also go with the Panny 7-14mm WA lens ($900) and the Zen port for that lens is also $499. This is the option I went with because I felt the extra 2mm at the wide end and lens/PQ improvements over the 9-18 was worth the $300 (mainly the extra 2mm, PQ is very close). Also the 7-14 is a very good above water lens.
Also - yes you need a zoom gear no matter what lens you use in the housing. One other nice thing about opting for the 7-14mm Panny lens is that there is a shim available you add to the 14-42 zoom gear so you don't have to buy a separate zoom ring for the 7-14mm. I don't have it yet so can't comment on how well it works. I'm waiting on the Zen port now.
Hope this helps!
As for the OP's question - I grew unhappy with my Oly SP-350 / Oly housing, Inon D2000 and Inon wet WA lens. It probably was more user limitation than anything but I wanted something that would do better video as well. For above water use I had a Nikon D300 and handful of lenses. Cost, size and lack of video kept me from even considering housing that beast. Lastly I was tired of hauling ALL of the gear on vacation so the D300 generally sat home and wasn't getting much use. So I sold all of it, both kits (except the strobe and ULCS tray/arms). Turns out that netted me enough to pick up the E-PL1, Oly Housing, Panny 7-14mm, Zen dome, Inon Macro lens, Oly Macro adapter, Sola 600 video / focus light, add on parts to my ULCS tray, zoom gears, extra battery and a couple SDHC cards. I was also considering either the G12 or S95. I could have been happy with either underwater I'm sure, but not above. Once I did a bit of research on the E-PL1 it was a no-brainer for me. I've got a similarly sized kit as SP-350 setup (when you include the tray and strobe) that will do better underwater then SP-350, G12 or S95 and be worlds better and more versatile above water. Given that entry pricing for underwater is SO close in price between G12 and E-PL1, to me it's really not much of a comparison. E-PL1 hands down.
