CFWA with Olympus 9-18

[Mooseman1007]

Hey guys and girls.
Looking for a little first hand experience with the Olympus 9-18 WA lens on an EPL with the Zen Dome attached. I currently have the EPL-2 housing and dome, but only the Kit 14-42 lens, and was considering adding the 9-18 lens before my upcoming trip to Bunaken and Lembeh (guess it wont be used much in Lembeh !!)
Anyway would the 9-18 under the Zen Dome be useable for CFWA? I know CFWA us usually with a fisheye lens, but I cant afford to shell out for a new dome and the Pana 8mm fisheye, so wanted to know if I would be restricted to WA shots only, or whether this setup will allow for CFWA shots?
Mooseman

 

[smoore]

I have the Oly 9-18 and like the lens. The minimum focus distance according to dpreview is 0.25 (about 10 inches) metres for both lenses. The field of view is about 100 degrees. Depending on what you are looking for for CFWA, this may not be the right lens for you. I didn't try any real CFWA shooting with the lens but was usually about 18" away from my subjects and it worked fine for that type of situation. Hope that helps.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

The 8mm fisheye will focus to the dome glass and the 9-18 will get within four inches of the glass at mid range F/stops. How close is your idea of CFWA.

Phil Rudin

 

[Mooseman1007]

To be honest I havent really played with WA that much (coming from a standard compact in housing without wet lenses, Macro was so much more effective). But when I bought the EPL-2 I decided that getting the standard Zen dome made good sense as I could use it for the kit lens, or add the 9-18 in the future....the 7-14 plus dome is over £1500 combined which is getting on for silly on a camera/housing worth ~£1000. Similarly adding the 8mm and Dome is prohibitive, especially for this trip after everything else was factored in...but I could stretch to the 9-18 to see if I can improve my poor attempts at WA so far. I was thinking CFWA as I currently only have a single YS01 strobe so lighting anything needs to be close. I wondered whether a diopter on the front of the 9-18 would improve the focus distance without screwing up the WA too much, or at least what the 9-18 would be like as compared to the 14-42 (@14) for that type of shot. Saying that 4 inches isnt too bad on its own I suppose. All thoughts greatfully recieved
Cheers
Dave

 

[nudibranco]

My 2 cents: frankly with the 9-18mm I have not found the ability to do meaningful close focus WA (either the kit port or Zen port). A 30cm fish size might be ok for some close subject in front of it but less than that size it is just too small. On the 9-18 lens it is impossible to add just about any lens unless you zoom in without vignetting and ...the PMLA adapter is way too small with the 67mm diameter to add a wet lens that helps (it vignettes even at 18mm). I do not have the 8mm lens but if you want close CFWA you need to get that. However generally speaking the 9-18 is a really nice lens behind the Zen port.

 

[Mooseman1007]

My 2 cents: frankly with the 9-18mm I have not found the ability to do meaningful close focus WA (either the kit port or Zen port). A 30cm fish size might be ok for some close subject in front of it but less than that size it is just too small. On the 9-18 lens it is impossible to add just about any lens unless you zoom in without vignetting and ...the PMLA adapter is way too small with the 67mm diameter to add a wet lens that helps (it vignettes even at 18mm). I do not have the 8mm lens but if you want close CFWA you need to get that. However generally speaking the 9-18 is a really nice lens behind the Zen port.

I must admit I did use the PMLA adapter with a Inon 165 macro lens last trip out on the kit lens and Zen Dome (with velcro spacers!) and it did vignette badly. I was actually thinking about an internal diopter rather than a wet addon. Not sure if that would mess up the infinity focus too much though. Hell...I guess the highlight of this trip is going to be the macro in Lembeh, but I fancied trying some non macro in Bunaken too
Cheers for the advice.....as long as its a good lens and a definate improvement over the kit lens @14 under the dome, I doubt ill be disappointed
Dave

 

[JackConnick]

9-18 is crispy sharp for CF/WA

I dunno;

I think Phil had it right - the 9-18 with a dome is wonderful for CFWA. A subject less than 30cm is a macro shot.

Here's one shot with an "old" E-PL1, the 9-18 at 9mm and a 10Bar semi-dome port. Port was almost touching the anemone which is about 8" round



Jack

 

[Mooseman1007]

Well it looks like its a definate possiblilty given the above pic, will definately have to have a long hard look at it this weekend. One thing my fiance mentioned had me wondering though....
Seeing as we are going to Bunaken then Lembeh, would the dedicated panasonic macro lens (in the standard flat port) be a better aquisition for this trip than the 9-18 ??? This is one of those "trips of a lifetime" and the first thing people think of in Northern Sulawesi is MACRO, yes the walls/reefs of Bunaken are supposed to be nice, but Lembeh is the macro capital of the world......hmmmmm......your thoughts guys.....where would your £500 go?
I currently have the EPL-2 and 14-42 kit lens with standard flat port, 2x Inon165 wet diopters with adapter, the Zen Dome and a single YS01 strobe. Just a shame none of the converter lenses (MCON-P01 or FCON-P01) will work underwater in my current setup as that would be a compromise for the WA.! Similarly the 45mm F1.8 Olympus lens would have been great if it was any use for macro !

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I would be going with the kit lens, Inon close-up lenses along with the 9-18 zoom and the ZEN port for the 9-19/14-42.

While the Panasonic 45 macro is an excellent macro lens and has better magnification/image quality V. the 14-42 it does not work well in the stock Olympus port. The lens sits to far from the port glass which causes two issues. One the lens will try to focus on the glass and it will hunt and the distance to the subject is reduced to where you have no up side over the kit lens. Sop the 45 macro will work in the port but not well at all. You Need the custom 45 macro port for the lens to shine.

Regarding the Olympus 45 F/1.8 this is another outstanding Olympus lens but it is designed for portrait photography and will only focus to about 46cm (18 inches) not a very good working distance for U/W work.

Phil Rudin

 

[nudibranco]

I totally agree with Phil. The 14/42 and the 9/18 with the Zen Port and macro wet lenses is what I carry out 90% of my time. The macro wet lenses will not vignette at 40+mm focal length even when applied on the zen port and you can get very close to your subject!. Take the wet lens adapter and macro addon lens off and you can shoot true 28mm FOV...
So pretty versatile.
I actually do see an advantage with the 45mm macro even in the kit port or zen port but it is expensive and the advantage is minimal with a lot of extra work in focusing. The dedicated port can be found for a reasonable price though.