OLY E-M1 New Camera

[PHIL RUDIN]

Hi Bob,

i have aver the Panasonic 100-300 and it works well with the IS turned off and the Olympus IS turned on. I used it during the summer to shoot my grandsons baseball games and for some other needs. Not as sharp as the 43 50-200 but not bad for the price.

i think the new 12-40 will be more well suited to a dome port rather than a flat port for best results. It appears to be the best M43 zoom ever made and may be one of the best zooms of any format made. Don't expect everyone to understand why I would pick this lens over the 12-50 with the macro feature but for me if I want to shoot macro I will use a macro lens.

For Scubanomad,

i understand why many of you love to buy from Amazon but the $1399.00 price is the set price everywhere and it can be had from places like ReefPhoto and OpticalOcean sales for the same price with free shipping. These are the guys that have all of the other equipment you will need and they need your support a lot more than Amazon. Also keep in mind that Jack from Optical Ocean is on SB all the time answering your questions. I teach for ReefPhoto among others and assist with questions here and at WetPixel, what does Amazon, BHPhoto and Adorama do to help you out. Just food for thought.

Phil Rudin

 

[cardog]

Hi Bob,

i have aver the Panasonic 100-300 and it works well with the IS turned off and the Olympus IS turned on. I used it during the summer to shoot my grandsons baseball games and for some other needs. Not as sharp as the 43 50-200 but not bad for the price.

i think the new 12-40 will be more well suited to a dome port rather than a flat port for best results. It appears to be the best M43 zoom ever made and may be one of the best zooms of any format made. Don't expect everyone to understand why I would pick this lens over the 12-50 with the macro feature but for me if I want to shoot macro I will use a macro lens.

For Scubanomad,

i understand why many of you love to buy from Amazon but the $1399.00 price is the set price everywhere and it can be had from places like ReefPhoto and OpticalOcean sales for the same price with free shipping. These are the guys that have all of the other equipment you will need and they need your support a lot more than Amazon. Also keep in mind that Jack from Optical Ocean is on SB all the time answering your questions. I teach for ReefPhoto among others and assist with questions here and at WetPixel, what does Amazon, BHPhoto and Adorama do to help you out. Just food for thought.

Phil Rudin

The 12-40 is on Amazon for 999.00 right now....

 

[Scubanomad]

For Scubanomad,

i understand why many of you love to buy from Amazon but the $1399.00 price is the set price everywhere and it can be had from places like ReefPhoto and OpticalOcean sales for the same price with free shipping. These are the guys that have all of the other equipment you will need and they need your support a lot more than Amazon. Also keep in mind that Jack from Optical Ocean is on SB all the time answering your questions. I teach for ReefPhoto among others and assist with questions here and at WetPixel, what does Amazon, BHPhoto and Adorama do to help you out. Just food for thought.

Phil Rudin

You have a great point, but if I like to try out a camera first, I rather deal with Amazon or B&H b/c of a simple no question asked return policy. Unfortunately none of the latest cameras are carried in your local Best Buy or Frys. So that leaves online retailers.
Once I settle on a camera I will still order the underwater equipment from Reef as I have in the past. I have ordered a Macro lens from Reef as well. But again sometimes if new equipment wants to be tried out, Amazon or B&H simple no question asked return policy makes it a LOT easier.

 

[ConchyJoe]

The 12-40 is on Amazon for 999.00 right now....

Yep. But it won't be available until November. Like Phil I prefer to deal with Ryan at Reef and Jack at Optical. I even pickup equipment from Kathy Church when I am in Cayman. I can't remember the last time I returned anything, and on top of that, Ryan/Jack/Kathy are a wealth of information, so I buy from them.

---------- Post added September 23rd, 2013 at 03:17 PM ----------

Hi Bob,

i have aver the Panasonic 100-300 and it works well with the IS turned off and the Olympus IS turned on. I used it during the summer to shoot my grandsons baseball games and for some other needs. Not as sharp as the 43 50-200 but not bad for the price.

i think the new 12-40 will be more well suited to a dome port rather than a flat port for best results. It appears to be the best M43 zoom ever made and may be one of the best zooms of any format made. Don't expect everyone to understand why I would pick this lens over the 12-50 with the macro feature but for me if I want to shoot macro I will use a macro lens.

I had heard the same on 100-300 about using the camera IS. Great feedback on the 12-40 with the dome. That would be my preference. Can't wait to try it out. Maybe I can make it down in December for a weekend...

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

It looks like a contender to become my main all-around and travel lens on land, but not underwater.

Still don't think I would replace the 12-50 set-up for underwater, my main reasons being (1) versatility in going instantly from wide to portrait to macro, the 12-40 is not going to match that. I understand using a dedicated macro lens (which I often do), but I love having true macro, semi-wide scenic, and fish portrait capability all there at the touch of a finger; (2) power zooming, this is invaluable for underwater video shooting.

There is another issue with the new zoom. It extends and retracts quite a bit when zooming Looks like it almost doubles in length. Getting this to work in any existing port is very questionable. I doubt it would work in the 12-50 port because of this issue (remember the 12-50 is internal zoom). There are a couple of lenses (14-45 or 9-18 that expand or retract and still work, but they expand and retract much less by comparison). It would probably require a dome, but what type of dome would accommodate the changing lens length and nodal position at different focal lengths? The advantages of the faster aperture, underwater, is less of a factor due to having to stop down anyway to overcome the opticial limitations of ports. The better optical quality, underwater, is not so decisive when factoring in ports and the water's degrading impact on the images and also that stopping down tends to reduce differences in performance compared to wide open.

If housing manufacturers can overcome the expanding lens issue, it seems to have very close focus and 1:3 magnification. Perhaps with the reefnet +5 or +10 it would give 1:1 at the long end. Maybe Phil could weigh in if it would work with a dome port and flip adapter. If that set up could get you to 1:1 that might be pretty sweet, with the full wide angle of the 12mm. But, neither of those options would be as convenient as the current 12-50 rig, and they would be a lot bulkier.

Sometimes, what is best on land is not best underwater, just look at the Nikon 14-24 . . .

 

[Mr_Pyro]

The E-M1 does in camera correction of Chromatic Aberration and resolution loss due to Diffraction.

CA is a problem when shooting WA.
Diffraction is a problem on high F-stops F11-F22. ie macro...

Cool stuff hope it'll work UW.

Read Robin wongs comparasion between the E-M5 and E-M1
Robin Wong: Olympus OMD-E-M1 Review: Comparison with E-M5

 

[BoltSnap]

The E-M1 does in camera correction of Chromatic Aberration and resolution loss due to Diffraction.

CA is a problem when shooting WA.
Diffraction is a problem on high F-stops F11-F22. ie macro...

Cool stuff hope it'll work UW.

Read Robin wongs comparasion between the E-M5 and E-M1
Robin Wong: Olympus OMD-E-M1 Review: Comparison with E-M5

The author says that: "I can get away with about 400-500 shots per battery"

This is WAY many more shots I am getting!!!!!! At the most (using electronic sync cord and not the camera flash), I can get around 300 shots (but more like 260)!!!!

 

[Jak Crow]

I'm leaning heavily toward getting the Olympus housing when I get the E-M1, since all housing needs is a single lens port to accommodate just about all the Oly lenses you'd use underwater; the 9-18mm wide, all versions of the 14-42mm, the 12-50mm, the 45mm, the 75mm, and the 60mm macro, plus the converter adapter cap for the lens port to add additional diopters if desired. Not sure going with the new 12-40mm would be that worth-while until the price comes down significantly. And who knows what the port situation would be with a Nauticam option.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I don't know which port you are referring to the stock Olympus flat port, the Olympus flat port for 4/3 lenses or the ZEN Underwater dome port. While all of the lenses you have listed will work with the flat ports the 9-18 will not work well.

Also Nauticam has like ports so you could use the same lenses with one port.

 

[ConchyJoe]

So according to this, http://asia.olympus-imaging.com/products/dslr/accessories/underwater/pdf/systemchart_ptep11.pdf the 12-40 2.8 will not work with the m4/3 port, but WILL work with the PAD-EP08 and a 4/3 port. I don't have that port but I do have the Athena equivalent.