E-PL1 first pictures and review

[jdfmail]

I'd love a pic of the dome with adapter and velcro setup you mentioned above. This eliminates the issue of not being able to shot WA and Macro on the same dive. Very interesting.

 

[jdfmail]

Great pics btw. I've got an older Oly PCU-01 lens that's I believe x6. DigiFish - Olympus/UN Underwater Conversion Lenses

 

[ggibson]

Those shots you just posted with the wet macro lens were done with the 14-42mm lens & Zen port, right? Would the 9-18mm work well for any type of macro at the long end?

 

[nudibranco]

Those shots you just posted with the wet macro lens were done with the 14-42mm lens & Zen port, right? Would the 9-18mm work well for any type of macro at the long end?

Yes ... The 9-18mm will not work with any add-on lenses. Focal length needs to be 40mm or above not to vignette.

 

[jdfmail]

Actually, the Olympus macro lens that I have has a pretty big diameter. Doesn't that have something to do with vignetting?

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Most of the quality wet close-up lenses are 67 mm threaded and have more than one element which makes them quite thick. As a result the 14 to 42 lens will Vignette between 14 and about 35 with the flat port and even a narrower range behind a port.

The 9-18 is far to wide to put behind a 67 mm add-on lens.

Phil Rudin

 

[dna77054]

My new kit consists of:

Quick highlights:
LOVE LOVE LOVE this setup. Everything from the ease of use, small form factor (compared to dSLR) and quality of results I'm seeing thus far, really impressed with how it handles underwater, how easy it is to do semi-wide all the way to macro with the kit lens and macro adapter w/ Inon wet macro lens.

It was tough getting used to the 7-14 underwater. You REALLY have to get close to fill up the frame when you're shooting 7mm. Which means you can't be nearly as ham handed in approaching fish/critters. But the results were very nice.

I shot in manual mode the whole trip, usually f6 to f8 depending on time of day and available light. Shutter speed either 160 or 125 depending on time of day and light. Really nice to be able to do HD video with this as well.
I was the envy of the boat with the Sola 600. That red light feature is fantastic. If you've done night diving with Tarpon around you know how they love to follow you and attack the poor varmints in your white light beam from over your shoulder, generally scaring the hell out of you in the process. Using the red light, I had no such issues. It did still spook some critters but others were totally unaware of it or me. Squid, octopus and crustations most notably were unaware. At 600 lumens white light it's bright enough to help fill in spots for aiding the flash and for video during the day. For night dives in clear water 600 is FAR too much. The red light is perfect and I don't see any need to have that adjustable. Was fine and when using a strobe you can't tell in stills that the red light is on at all. I used red light exclusively and a separate 600 lumen hand held light with tight beam pattern but big spill area for long reach critter spotting.

Pictures are great. I am very close to committing to the epl2 with oly housing, zen dome, wa lens, wet mount macro, etc...

I have a few of questions.

Did the camera focus well using only the red focus light at night and during the day?

How was the continuous auto-focus and auto-focus tracking?

Did you shoot TTL on the strobe? If so, how does that work with a fiber optic sensor?

Was the Zen Dome you used the one that "goes" with the oly 9-18mm? Did you have enough field of view with Zen dome at 7mm.

Apparently these Oly cameras can only sync the shutter with the flash up to 1/180sec, did you ever have a problem with motion blur on faster moving subjects?

Thanks
Mike

 

[under water]

Mike,
I'm sure Brian will answer regarding his set-up, but let me give you my experience with a similar setup with the E-PL1 and it's slightly less capable lens than the E-PL2.

Did the camera focus well using only the red focus light at night and during the day?

The red Sola light works very well for focusing at night. Range is important of course. I thought the focus was quick & good during the day as well.

How was the continuous auto-focus and auto-focus tracking?

I would recommend turning continous focus off. For video it is horrible and I don't find it useful for stills. It may be better with the new lens, but it would have to be 1000% better to be really useful underwater.

Did you shoot TTL on the strobe? If so, how does that work with a fiber optic sensor?

I have INON S-2000's and used s-ttl using FO cable successfully. Firing and exposure was as expected. Brian's strobe has an additional ttl setting that he may have used.

Apparently these Oly cameras can only sync the shutter with the flash up to 1/180sec, did you ever have a problem with motion blur on faster moving subjects?

The strobe illuminates the subject in a very short time frame, much much less than 1/180th, something between 1/1000th and 1/5000th. So, if you are close to your subject and are using strobe illumination, you will not see any movement. Even though the lens is open for a relatively long time, the light from the strobe overwhelms the ambient light. If your subject is far away in a bright scene, then the strobe contributes a very small percentage of overall illumination and you will see whatever movement happens in 1/180th second. The best you can get with more expensive rigs is maybe 1/250th sec or if you buy the top end, 1/500th, so it's not a big deal.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Regarding the ZEN dome port for the 9-18 mm zoom it also works well with the 14-42 KIT lens. Since the 9-18 does not go to 7 mm the lens that does is the Panasonic 7-14 mm zoom. ZEN Underwater makes a different port for the 7-14 lens and the two lenses can not be interchanged into both ports.

Both ports work very well with the lenses they were designed for.

Phil Rudin

 

[chs8084]

Actually I was able to use the Olympus Macro adapter on the Zen Port. The adapter will fit over the dome port. You need to apply some 1" sticker or thick velcro (about 1mm thick) strategically on the top and bottom part of the dome. There is enough friction to hold the adapter there but to make sure it stays there I also use an elastic band around the smaller diameter of the port that will clip on 2 sides of the adapter (which I also use to keep the velcro protection of the dome out of the way when I am diving). I use the Epoque macro lens which is quite strong. When I dont use it I just put it in my BC pocket.

The Zen port brings back the initial FOV of the kit lens and you are also able to focus as close to 3 inches or so to the dome port. The results are as good as the original port (maybe better). You can do semi wide to macro this way. In some murky water this setup works better than the 9-18mm lens.

I hope Olympus will come out sooner or later with a longer focal length macro lens (around 60mm would be my choice). The Panasonic 45mm is also very good I hear.

I would love to see a picture of the DIY setup itself when you get a chance.