Oly C-8080 and WCON-08D wide angle Lens

[SCUBA-IAN]

I am currently using the Oly C-8080 with the Oly PT-23 housing and Inon Z-220 strobe.
I am considering adding the WCON-08D wide angle Converter Lens and PPO-05 Wide Port.
Has anyone tried this wide angle lens, and is it worth the extra money? :10:

 

[f3nikon]

I am currently using the Oly C-8080 with the Oly PT-23 housing and Inon Z-220 strobe.
I am considering adding the WCON-08D wide angle Converter Lens and PPO-05 Wide Port.
Has anyone tried this wide angle lens, and is it worth the extra money? :10:

I am not a fan of "add-on" converter lens. I think it's just more pieces of glass to degrade the image quality, that said I did try the WCON-08D on land, not bad some lost in sharpness but ok.

Then I seen some images of the WCON-08D in an Ikelite domeport, its was awful! The edges were very fuzzy with the center area ok. Its like the dome curvature or lens to port distances were way off.

I have a feeling that this is the reason Olympus made the PPO-05 a FLATPORT! Which almost cancels itself out, because what you gain in lens angle by adding the converter, you lose UW with the flat port. To top it off you will lose some image quality!

I am still going for the domeport, just without the WCON-08D. My problen is that Olympus does not make a domeport for the PT-23. I'll have to cut and machine an older Ikelite SLR domeport to fit a PT-23, this way I can at the very least,get my lens angle that I had on land, back.

Dive Safe

 

[ReyeR]

I am considering adding the WCON-08D wide angle Converter Lens and PPO-05 Wide Port.

The biggest issue I see with this setup is that the PPO-05 is a wide flat port. Underwater, with the standard port and native lens of the C8080 you get 54° coverage. With the WCON-08 and PPO-05 you get about 62° - not a lot more when you consider that a C5060/C7070 with an Inon UWL-100 28AD gives you 100°, add the Inon dome and you get a whopping 150° coverage underwater.

Put it this way: underwater, the C8080 with just the native lens housed behind a dome port will give you more coverage (75°) than with the WCON-08 behind the PPO-05 wide flat port (62°)!

 

[f3nikon]

I am currently using the Oly C-8080 with the Oly PT-23 housing and Inon Z-220 strobe.
I am considering adding the WCON-08D wide angle Converter Lens and PPO-05 Wide Port.
Has anyone tried this wide angle lens, and is it worth the extra money? :10:

This is very interesting:

http://www.digitaldiver.net/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=13704

I agree with the author.

Dive Safe

 

[ReyeR]

As batray explains in his post, he is using the Inon UWL-100 with the C5060, which has a 27mm focal length at its widest. The UWL-100 was designed for the C5050 which has a focal length of 35mm. Due to the wider lens and moving front element of the C5060 he has to zoom in to get rid of the vignetting. The severe distortion is because of this zooming in. That is why he is seeking an opinion on the new UN lens (PTWC-01) which, like the Inon UWL-100 28AD, was designed for the wider FOV of the C5060/7070.

 

[f3nikon]

As batray explains in his post, he is using the Inon UWL-100 with the C5060, which has a 27mm focal length at its widest. The UWL-100 was designed for the C5050 which has a focal length of 35mm. Due to the wider lens and moving front element of the C5060 he has to zoom in to get rid of the vignetting. The severe distortion is because of this zooming in. That is why he is seeking an opinion on the new UN lens (PTWC-01) which, like the Inon UWL-100 28AD, was designed for the wider FOV of the C5060/7070.

This is the same problem as the 8080 and that is why I am working on an “adjustable” dome port that will move in and out via a stainless steel bellows/rack system according to the position of the primary lens. The blurring of the edges, loss of sharpness and muted colors is totally unacceptable be it amateur or professional photography.

That is why I am against adding more glass on top of the primary lens. I like Inon’s macro “ring” strobe, but the UWL-100 28AD/UWL-100 is a very poor, band aid design. Just look at how many pieces of glass you will be shooting through and two different mediums. First it’s shooting through an air gap between primary lens and flat port (Olympus) then a water gap to the UWL-100 followed by an air gap on the way to the UWL-100 28AD. Too many connections and pieces of glass the odds of any one of those add on glass not sitting parallel with the CCD sensor is really high if not guaranteed.

Now the Athena Dome and the WCON-7C looks promising. I am still against adding on lenses but if I had to add one it I would try the Athena, if the picture quality is within reason (have not tested this product). The three main reasons why is because one, the WCON-7C is threaded to the camera body, two the dome port curvature (by the pictures only) looks like a better MATCH (Ikelite and Icons domes look too radical a curve) with the curvature of the WCON-7C and three the WCON-7C is made by Olympus or a least under Olympus’ control.

And now I hear the Athena is making a dome port for the 8080/WCON-8D Olympus PT-23!

http://translate.google.com/transla...c8080&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-13,GGLD:en

 

[RonFrank]

Last time you *discussed* photography with me, you were rather against my not having a lot of UW experience (in fact I have none, which does not really make me less a photographer).

You OTOH had plans to take down your 8080 plus to F3, and maybe more.

I'm now curious what happened to all that? You are not (heaven forbid) giving advice on equipment you do not even own.. tell me it is not so...)

I'd love to see some of you work....Nikon F3....

 

[ReyeR]

The blurring of the edges, loss of sharpness and muted colors is totally unacceptable be it amateur or professional photography.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE: In this instance the blurring and loss of sharpness at the edges (crab picture) isn't caused because of adding more glass, it is because of adding glass that isn't designed for that particular system.

Look at the second picture in the post, the very same glass (Inon UWL-100) was used with the Olympus D40 (C40 in some countries), which has a 35mm focal length. To me, that looks very sharp and certainly no loss of colours there.

 

[f3nikon]

Got your point, this was my answer to the post in the other forum:

"I tried the WCON-.7C on land but not underwater. Looks pretty good at the edges unlike your crab shot. Maybe another story U/W. I say leave the “add-ons” on land and keep the sharp focus and color saturation the camera was make for. Nice pictures."

Yes I did understand that using the correct add-on, the WCON-7C on a 5060 Olympus "Looks pretty good at the edges" that is why I made that statement, again it was a borrowed 5060, and on land only as I stated.

The blurring of the edges is also the cause of a poorly matched lens angle to dome port curvature and distance between the two. This is problem is present even in housed SLRs with prime wideangle lenses (no zoom). I understand that the 5050 and 5060 have different lens angles.
With all that was stated, I still would not use an "add-on" U/W, I would use the wideangle on my SLR or a Nikonos 15mm.

Unless you can convince me that adding more glass on top of the primary lens (even the correct glass) will make my pictures sharper and colors brighter.

For the others who may want to go the "add-on" way, any information on the Athena domeports? They seem (pictures) to be a much better design than the Inons.

 

[f3nikon]

Last time you *discussed* photography with me, you were rather against my not having a lot of UW experience (in fact I have none, which does not really make me less a photographer).

You OTOH had plans to take down your 8080 plus to F3, and maybe more.

I'm now curious what happened to all that? You are not (heaven forbid) giving advice on equipment you do not even own.. tell me it is not so...)

I'd love to see some of you work....Nikon F3....

I see you are still a bit sore? I really don't think we should go there Ron, I don't want to trouble these kind folks over seeing this website.

But in answer to your question, yes I still plan to use both cameras maybe more. Are you referring to my comments on an 5060? You mean I have to take ownership on the camera before I can make comment about that it? Borrowing the 5060 and the WCON-7D from a friend, and stating that I had only used this setup on land, does not count?

I posted some old pics some months ago in that "Sunball" Velvia thread that we were in, when you find it please tell me the location.

Dive Safe