E-M5 and PT-E08 housing review

[PHIL RUDIN]

No Ardy that is a different port. Athena and Inon have ports for your housing with the 67mm thread.

Phil

 

[BlueDevil]

Olympus makes a cap with the 67mm thread that snaps onto the front of the stock port for use with close up lens.

Thanks for your help Phil.

There are just so many possible permutations and combinations of cameras, lenses, housings, ports, add on lenses, strobes etc that it all gets very confusing!

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

Thanks for the info Phil. The 1/250th sync speed will be a welcome change for micro-four thirds shooters who want to shoot wide-angle in very bright water. I really wish the OM-D did ISO 100 though. I'm looking forward to taking it underwater, and seeing the Nauticam housing - Scott

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I agree with Scott, I would much rather see ISO settings of 100 and 50 with ever better image quality than ISO settings above 6400. You can get better blacks and better sun rays in wide angle bright light.

Phil Rudin

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I had a chance to see the PT-E08 housing this week for a short period before it walked out the door for testing in Grand Cayman. Regarding size, it seemed just a bit larger than the PEN-1 housing with the viewfinder hump. The wonderful EVF will be hard to see with this housing and if like me you don't want to give up your EVF I would be waiting for the other housing which may resolve this issue with an add-on viewfinder. Was not Thrilled with the control layout on the Olympus housing but it is no worse than on many of the PEN housings. No news yet on when they will arrive in the US or what the price may be, I didn't ask and would be under an NDA if I had.

Phil Rudin

 

[terson]

Hi Phil,
Are the units that you're seeing 'final design' pre-production units, or is there a chance that Olympus may take on board all the critisim about the EVF access and reconfigure the unit and try again?
Coz I'm telling you/Olympus right now that if I can't use the EVF, I aint buying one of their EM-5s or a housing and I'm more likely to look at the new Panny. . .
Bruce

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

What I looked at is the finished product. It has a shade like all the Olympus housings for the EVF and LCD. It is very much like the PEN housings with additional controls for things like switching between the EVF and LCD.

The older PT-housings for the 43 DSLR housings had a small pickup finder which helped you look into the viewfinder and raised the cost above the $1000+ mark.

Olympus market is not in higher priced housings so I am not surprised to see EVF handled the same way it was with the Pen-1 housing.

By comparison the Nauticam housing for the NEX-7 with its pickup finder is around $1850.00 without ports. I would expect to see higher end housings for the camera soon.

If you go to an as yet unknown Panasonic with an EVF the situation will be the same price wise, the only difference will be that Panasonic won't offer any housing for the camera at all. Same same for Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc.

Olympus has found a price point that allows then to sell a very good quality entry level package but you still get what you pay for and I would not expect to see their business model change much going forward.

Phil Rudin

 

[denniscloutier]

Has anyone besides Olympus committed to making a housing for this camera, and if so, do we have any ideas as to when they might be available?

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Yes and fairly soon.

Phil Rudin

 

[jlyle]

Yes and fairly soon.

Phil Rudin

Nauticam's housing has appeared on some Asian websites, but hasn't started to ship yet.

http://www.fun-in.com.tw/oc/index.php?route=product/product&path=73_132_133&product_id=1338


I took the E-M5 on a road trip to Utah and never used my other cameras. Love it.