510 replies to this topic

[Deep6]

Thanks Hugh (deepbluemd), the photos show the way i have the rig set up.

Yes, thanks for the effort; very helpful.
Bob

[Jock]

... I sometimes remove the right grip when shooting a lot of macro in portrait/vertical orientation. ...

Phil Rudin

What a shame that there is no such thing as the good old ULCS Pivot Tray (for the Nikonos RS) - THAT thing was/is convenient! Just rotate the camera, and no need to adjust the strobes... sigh... Wish some genius invents something like this tray that would not not block the rear screen - the Pivot (CP-Oly) looks ugly, and if something looks ugly, it will not work properly :-) (IMHO)
http://www.ulcs.com/gsrs.html and http://www.ulcs.com/gsdigital.html

Jock

[RogerC]

DeepBlueMD:
how did you tighten that ball? did you just bottom it out hard or did you somehow tighten the locking collar? Mine is loose and spins. I'm afraid to bottom it out so hard that it locks, and I cant get a wrench on the collar, so any strobe I put on it just swings around.

troporobo:
thanks for the macro shots! I dont normally use ttl but it would be nice to have the option.

Deep6:
Backscatter is a problem with a ring flash. Best to fill your frame with a subject that hides it. The bigger problem for me is that you need to use depth of field to separate your subject from the background. The wrong subject and big depth of field is you can wind up with a very flat dull image. Its a fun challenge and a very compact rig.

Jock:
Never had the RS tray, but I liked my pivot tray. You can get low with it since the main tray is on top, not on the bottom.

[ajay]

Thanks Alex, Phil (on the other thead), and Albert (on the other, other thread) for throwing more light on the various aspects of the Nex vs. OMD choice. Far as I can see, the OMD is better for UW due to better lens choices and superior AF; and perhaps Nex-7 has an edge with the sensor, and MF (focus peaking).
Although I still haven't pulled the trigger, it seems to me that either would be a huge step up from my current setup (Oly E-PL1).
I do hope to put my own data points into the question in a month, since we have a trip planned to Raja Ampat in Jan.

cheers,
Ajay.

[Alex_Mustard]

I use the Nauticam NA-EM5 without a tray or handles, and to me, holding directly only the housing, it does remind me a little of my RS. It is quite similar in size. I'll try and take a photo of them side by side. Maybe I should cable tie a big chunk of lead to the bottom of the housing, so it feels more like the RS in the water too!

Alex

[deepbluemd]

DeepBlueMD:
how did you tighten that ball? did you just bottom it out hard or did you somehow tighten the locking collar? Mine is loose and spins. I'm afraid to bottom it out so hard that it locks, and I cant get a wrench on the collar, so any strobe I put on it just swings around.

I just happened to grab one of the strobe ball mount adapters that I had for a lanyard attachment for a NA-D7000 system...so it has a hole through it where I can slip an allen key to crank it tight, but it has the sleeve/collar on it that you can adjust so it tightens up before bottoming out. I suspect though that the housing was designed to accept a pretty rigorous torque to tighten it without damage.

[tdtaylor]

how did you tighten that ball? did you just bottom it out hard or did you somehow tighten the locking collar? Mine is loose and spins. I'm afraid to bottom it out so hard that it locks, and I cant get a wrench on the collar, so any strobe I put on it just swings around

I have the same issue- can't get into the securing nut to tighten it up. I have Nauticam's version, which does not have the Allen wrench. I have not found that the issue, rather I need to turn the securing nut against the post. When I turn the post, it just keeps turning "through" the securing nut into the housing until it bottoms out. Hope I wrote this clearly enough to understand.

Terry

[guyharrisonphoto]

Off to Curacao for some work but also 3-4 days of diving. Will have the following when I return

Shots with the 12-50 in the dedicated port including macro

Shots with the 7-14 behind the Nauti dedicated dome

Shots with the 60mm macro in the 12-50 port.

See you in 10 days!

[girelle]

Back to Bohol , for 5 months , and only diving , no more work !!
Shot with the 12-50 in Nauticam port , which also fit my 60 mm , also with the Pana 8mm with Nauticam dome ..
Always very much happy with the OMD !!
See you before 5 months

Ps No trouble with the typhon for us , but tons of sand have covered the corals and everything under the sea , very sad ..

[girelle]

I am happy shooting it that way. I like holding the housing directly (like a camera) and like the strap, which is makes one handed shooting very simple.

However, I think the tray remains the better solution for most people, most of the time. Even though it greatly increases the size and weight of the rig,



Alex

What flashes do you use finally with the OMD , Alex ?
I've seen pictures of your rig where there is two Inon S2000 , good for the weight underwater vs two Inon Z 240

[Alex_Mustard]

If it was my main rig, I'd use Z240s, but the S2000 are great for macro and so far seem OK for the close focus wide angle I have been trying. I have 2 of each with me here in the Cayman Islands, although I will probably use the S2000 because I want to get a feel for what they are good for and where their limits are (also I want to test the new INON warming filters for the S2000 - if they arrive before the end of my trip).
Alex

[deepbluemd]

Alex, did your zoom ring from unterwasserkamera for the 12-50 in the Macro 65 port arrive before your trip to the Caymans? I'm interested to know if it will work, physically, that is. The 12-50 lens is just a tad wider (diameter) than the 60 macro, and with the zoom ring on, i'm hopeful that it will fit inside the port with enough clearance to function correctly. I'm also curious to know how it secures to the lens itself to allow both electronic and manual zoom, given that the ring position on the lens physically changes to configure each focus mode.

I haven't even received word that mine has shipped. I'm betting you took the last one!

Also, do you think the warming filters will provide a different result than the various "warming settings" available from the camera menu (ie. Custom Menu G- warming mode, Shooting menu 1-picture mode, or Custom Menu-WB A&G)?
I guess its filtering the actual light instead of filtering the light captured on the sensor, but I wonder how different the final images will be and if the setting adjustments would actually allow greater adjustability.

One last question-are you shooting your EM5 with Myset 1, 2 etc configured for Macro, WA, and so on. Seems like being able to set these Myset custom settings to a single button is useful, especially if switching quickly underwater to opposite ends of the focal length for a zoom lens (12-50)

[Alex_Mustard]

The zoom ring did arrive in the UK, but not in my hands. It will join me later in the week. I will be able to do some tests here soon.


I also had the chance to test the Oly 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens in the pool today. I bought this as a stealth lens for fish markets etc to make the camera seem as small and touristy as possible. But since looking at it behind the 4.3" fisheye Nauti-porty I had a feeling it would work well underwater.

Here is a CFWA pool shot taken with it (duck is about 2"/5cm and is one a 1lb/1kg weight - to give you an idea of size). This was at minimum focus I don't see it as a front line lens - but good to know it works and since it is tiny and light it is easy to take on trips. May come in useful for a certain subject at some point.



Felt it was worth mentioning.

Alex

[davichin]

That poor duck reminded to gangster victims when thrown in the water with their feet set in concrete.!

[chris_l]

The 17mm is an under appreciated lens.
I use it above water only as I don't have a port for it.

[Alex_Mustard]

Yeah, I know a few people who have it. That's why I wanted to show it works well with the fisheye 4.3" dome.

Alex

[Alex_Mustard]

I have also been testing the 8mm Panasonic fisheye with a smaller dome port than the 4.3" one. I know that the 4.3" dome is already considered a minidome. But I felt that you could get away with an even smaller one on 2x crop of M43.

I spoke with Edward from Nauticam and sent him my thoughts on what size of dome would be worth trying. This piqued his curiosity and he went to the Nauticam test tank and tried some. And by luck there is already a dome tucked away in the Nauticam arsenal that worked seemed ideal: the 3.5" for the Lumix 14mm.

I've had the chance to test this dome with the 8mm Panasonic fisheye here in Grand Cayman and it seems to perform very well. The small size of the dome allows you to move the lens closer to the subject and therefore fill more of the frame, and the smaller size of the dome helps you to light subjects right on the dome.

The smaller format of M43 also gives excellent depth of field. This has two consequence: better corner sharpness than you would get with such as small dome on larger sensors and also more depth of field, meaning distance subjects (e.g. models) remain in focus even when the main subject is very close (such as in CFWA and WAM images).

Here are a few examples:

Super close focus and chance to fill fisheye frame with small subjects :


Even small subjects, such as this small piece of coral can be a whole scene, and superior depth of field means model in distance is still sharp:


The tiny dome performs very well for more normal wide angle shooting too:


I intend to write this up in a bit more detail for Adam on the frontpage. Hopefully in the next day or so, where I can show some more of the tests and examples.

Alex

[coroander]

Amazing! I just wish i didn't feel compelled to buy another port now...

[bgfspeedy]

I have also been testing the 8mm Panasonic fisheye with a smaller dome port than the 4.3" one. I know that the 4.3" dome is already considered a minidome. But I felt that you could get away with an even smaller one on 2x crop of M43.

I spoke with Edward from Nauticam and sent him my thoughts on what size of dome would be worth trying. This piqued his curiosity and he went to the Nauticam test tank and tried some. And by luck there is already a dome tucked away in the Nauticam arsenal that worked seemed ideal: the 3.5" for the Lumix 14mm.

I've had the chance to test this dome with the 8mm Panasonic fisheye here in Grand Cayman and it seems to perform very well. The small size of the dome allows you to move the lens closer to the subject and therefore fill more of the frame, and the smaller size of the dome helps you to light subjects right on the dome.

The smaller format of M43 also gives excellent depth of field. This has two consequence: better corner sharpness than you would get with such as small dome on larger sensors and also more depth of field, meaning distance subjects (e.g. models) remain in focus even when the main subject is very close (such as in CFWA and WAM images).

I intend to write this up in a bit more detail for Adam on the frontpage. Hopefully in the next day or so, where I can show some more of the tests and examples.

Alex

Alex are you also suggesting that the 3.5 dome could work with the Pana 8mm? Because if you look at the Nauticam website, is says that you can use the Nikon 10 f2.8 in the 3.5 and the 4.3 dome, so could the Pana 8mm also work the 3.5?
Cheers,

[Alex_Mustard]

Yes, all those shots are with the Panasonic 8mm fisheye in the 3.5" dome. All are uncropped so you can see the corner sharpness.


My tests confirmed to Nauticam that this lens/port combination works for all their M43 housings. This is the port for the Lumix 14mm lens (it is the same size dome as for the Nikon lens, but I am not sure if the port is the same physical length). I am sure that their website will be updated soon to reflect this new info.

Alex