515 replies to this topic

[devildiver]

Here is the Google translation of the Olympus Jap website, it specifies a adapter that can be used for older 4/3 ports but no mention of the newer PEN housing ports.

http://www.olympus.c...0326ptep08j.cfm

Olympus Imaging Corporation is April 6, 2012 (Friday), the protector "PT-EP08" genuine dedicated waterproof camera "OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5" micro-SLR that conforms to the "Micro Four Thirds System" The celebration reference exhibit 8 (Sun), will be held at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, the world's oceans and resort to "Marine Diving Fair 20 th.""PT-EP08", announced simultaneously with the "OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5", is dedicated waterproof case and genuine aircraft. Underwater photography, yet full-fledged system of water depth breakdown voltage specification of 45m, utilizing the advantage of size and weight of the camera body, and has realized comfortable operability in water. "PT-EP08", a bayonet, you can replace the waterproof lens ports. Lens port "PPO-EP01" waterproof standard, "M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6II", "M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm F3.5-5.6IIR", "M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED corresponds to the 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 "※. By using the port adapter "PAD-EP08" waterproof (sold separately), you can wear waterproof lens ports that conform to the "Four Thirds System." Lens of the three "ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8mm F3.5 Fisheye" "ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 50mm F2.0 Macro" "35mm F3.5 Macro ZUIKO DIGITAL" is the ※ available.

Edited by devildiver, 02 June 2012 - 06:31 AM.

[Phil Rudin]

As a long time Olympus 43 DSLR user I can tell you that from Athena, Inon, Olympus and others their are more than twenty ports with the threaded Olympus mount along with many extension ports for TC, extension tubes and other use. These will all fit this housing via an adapter. The problem is that many would be more well suited to 43 lenses with adapter (slow AF) than they would be to the smaller M43 lenses.

Regarding the ZEN ports for the PEN housings, I sent an E-mail and they do NOT think that the ports will fit this housing. It remains to be seen if an adapter can be designed or if a new port mount will need to be developed. Again if this is the case Olympus PEN owners should be upset.

For further information on housings for this camera you may want to tune into the Google live video hangout, (see Wetpixel front page) coming 5 June noon EST.

Phil Rudin

Edited by Phil Rudin, 02 June 2012 - 06:50 AM.

[girelle]

I've found this on Olympus site :

[url="http://"%20&lt;a%20href="http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/pen-camera_pen_21693_accessory_ppo-ep01_25876.htm""%20target="_blank"&gt;http://www.olympus.c...ame...25876.htm"&lt;/a&gt;"] <a href="http://www.olympus.c...ep01_25876.htm" target="_blank">http://www.olympus.c...-ep01_25876.htm[/url]</a>

So it seems that the port for the 60mm will accept also the 14-42 and 9-18 , not the 12-50..And more of all , I can't see on the little picture any 67 mm thread to attach wet macro lense especially of course when using the 60 mm

But if I well understand the Nauticam port for the 14-42 ( port 56 , WITH A 67 MM THREAD )or 9-18 ( ???)should also suits the 60 mm , as the purpose of moving from a DSLR to a micro 43 is to carry less weight when travelling I think that this is a very important question , and more of all of course less change of port and more more of all less money to spend !!

Edited by girelle, 02 June 2012 - 07:02 AM.

[Phil Rudin]

Regarding the Olympus 60mm macro For M43 which is coming in the next few months, you may want to take a close look at photos of this lens on Google images and elsewhere. The lens has a focus scale on the barrel for macro and it has a limiting switch as well. This will be the only macro lens I know of that has four focus range settings. You can set the lens to focus from 1:1 out to infinity, from around 1:1 to around eighteen inches, from around1:4 to 1:1 and I believe from 1:1.1 to 1:1. If a port is made which allows access to this setting switch you will be able to limit how much the lens "hunts" by a large margin. At 1:1 the area in the frame is 17.3 X 13mm, quite small without a close up lens. If you are able to limit the lens to the 1:1.1 to1:1 range and add a +5 or +10 diopter AF will still work but only in that limited focus range where you want it to be. I see this as a big upside to any macro photography situation. I hope to see someone step up with a macro port that will take full advantage of this lens capability.

Regarding the Olympus port above, you may find better choices from Inon and Athena who both have dome ports in this size range and 67mm threaded ports for adding closeup lenses.

Phil Rudin

[bkkchriss4]

Cant wait! Hope it has a nice usable evf like on the NEX-7 housing!

Out very soon....

[Thormar]

The "non-japanese" system chart for the PT-EP08 housing is also available here PT-EP08 SYSTEM CHART, and on many other Olympus pages.

It is slightly simpler than the japanese one, which e.g. shows that the zoom ring for the old M43 14-42mm is PPZR-EP01 (PPZR-EP02 is for the newer 14-42II and 14-42IIR)

The system chart shows that there will be no mechanism to use the focus limiting switch of the 60mm, which I had not expected anyway.

However, several other combinations of lenses are possible using the Olympus stuff and e.g. older 4/3 lenses than shown on the chart.
How well they'll perform may depend on
1) whether the distance from the lens to the port glass will be the same as on the older 4/3 housings (for E-520, E-620, E-3 etc.) or if that is changed slightly by the port adapter (PAD-EP08)
2) how well the AF performs on these older lenses.
3) if the old zoom rings for the 7-14mm and 11-22mm will match with the new housing

E.g
4/3: 11-22mm + PAD-EP08 + PER-02 + PPO-E04 (Dome) + PPZR-E02
4/3: 7-14mm + PAD-EP08 + PER-02 + PPO-E04 (Dome) + PPZR-E03 - I would only do this if I already had this quite expensive (and good) lens
m4/3 12-50mm: Should be easy to house using the extension rings (PER-01 and PER-02) and some of the older flat ports (PPO-E01, PPO-E02, PPO-E05) or the dome (PPO-E04). But whether a zoom gear will fit is another question.
m4/3 60mm macro: If you already the old macro port (PPO-E03), consider using this as it has a very narrow front, something I like. Perhaps use it with a short port extension (PER-E01) if the space is needed to house the 60mm, or you would like to reduce the amount of water between lens and subject in murky waters. However - it has no 67mm threading.
If you do not have it, or would like to use wet lens diopters etc., the just use the PPO-EP01 and get the macro lens adapter (PMLA-EP01) which have have a 67mm threading so you can attach the Olympus macro conversion lens (PTMC-01) or e.g. a subsee diopter.

If using the old ports frequently I would consider buying several port adapters (PAD-EP08) and attach to each of the old ports, since the bayonet mount is likely faster for changing ports than the original screw-threaded ones of the Olympus (which have very narrow tolerances, and are therefore often tight to unscrew).

Another thing: Using m43 lenses behind the Olympus dome will make it work as if it was a much larger dome (compared to when it is used with old 4/3 lenses) with the pro's and cons of that. So this will now be the "megadome" for m43 underwater systems, and then we just use another dome for the CFWA shots. Since the old Athena ports fitted the 4/3 Olympus underwater housings, they should also fit now, using the PAD-EP08 adapter.

@Phil: do you know who actually make the Olympus Dome? Isn't it exactly the same as the Athena 170?
They also use the same "Doom" cover, although Olympus spell it differently :-)

Jonas

[girelle]

Hello

I'm new to the world of the micro 43 , so perhaps my question could be stupid , sorry for that .
But I want to know if I need an Adaptater ( MMF-3 the one I see on Olympus chart ) to use the Leica 45 mm macro or the 8 mm Panasonic with my brand new Olympus E-M5 .
By the way this camera is fantastic !!

[derway]

Hi Girelle. The adapter is not needed for any true micro 4/3 lens, which means the leica 45 macro will not need it.

The chart is not showing all the panasonic lenses, only olympus.

The adapter is only needed for old 4/3 legacy lenses.

[Phil Rudin]

Hi Girelle,

The adapter is to allow ports that were designed for past housings for Olympus DSLR cameras (both from Olympus, SeaTool and Nexus) to be fitted to the PT-E08 housing for the E-M5 camera. Over twenty different ports exist at this time as well as several extension ports to move the port out from the housing.

I would be waiting to see what else is offered for the much smaller M43 lenses if I were considering this housing. After market ports will be coming which will be more suited to the size of the lenses.

Other housings will also be coming that already have ports designed for the M43 lenses.

Phil Rudin

[dsbierman]

The adapter is only needed for old 4/3 legacy lenses.

Speaking of which, I would love to hear from anyone who has shot the E-M5 with the standard 4/3rds 50mm (and 1.4 TC if possible). For better or for worse I'm heavily invested in 4/3rds lenses, and completely switching systems is not an affordable option. I'm not that concerned with focus speed, as I shoot 95% of my macro in manual focus. I'm primarily interested in the quality of the image compared to my aging E-410. Phil, any thoughts?

-David

Edited by dsbierman, 06 June 2012 - 09:05 AM.

[derway]

There are lots of folks in the dpreview forums for olympus DSLR and micro 4/3 ,who are doing it dry. You might have a look around there.

[Phil Rudin]

Regarding the Olympus 50mm F2 macro for 43'rds DSLR's it is still one of the best macro lenses, image quality wise made. With the Olympus 1.4 tele converter it also holds up well. Some image quality fall-off starts with the 2 X TC. I see no image quality difference with an M43 body and excellent image quality with the E-M5.

So the issue is how to house the lens to make full use of its quality. When you add the adapter, TC and lens to the E-M5 you move the lens away from the camera body and further from the wheel that drives a gear. Since you will be using manual focus you have the choice of getting a custom gear made if the current gear you are using does not work or using the Inon macro port. The Inon port for the 50 macro has a magnetic ring which moves away from the housing and remains in-line with the gear as the port moves away from the housing when extension is added. It also has the 67mm thread for close-up lenses and I have used it to mount my 67mm ring-flash.

For others making the choice of macro lenses for the E-M5 I would not over look the Panasonic 45 macro which is full auto focus and the 60mm macro coming in the next few months from Olympus.

http://www.inon.jp/p...system/top.html

Phil Rudin

Edited by Phil Rudin, 07 June 2012 - 07:31 AM.

[ce4jesus]

I love the review, but the hard to see EVF has this macro photographer a little concerned. LCD's are great until you're trying to find a grain of rice in a salad. I hope someone recognizes this need and moves forward wtih a better housing with that in mind. Otherwise, what is not to like!

[nachogil]

First pictures of Nauticam NA-EM5 Housing for Olympus OM-D E-M5, via Fun-In

https://www.facebook...4...2368&type=1

Nice

Edited by nachogil, 25 June 2012 - 02:42 PM.

[Akoni]

Out very soon....

How soon?

[Deep6]

First pictures of Nauticam NA-EM5 Housing for Olympus OM-D E-M5, via Fun-In

https://www.facebook...4...2368&type=1

Nice

How come we see this on the FUN-IN before the Nauticam sites? Just guessing, I doubt the EVF will be much use w/o an added extension. A real shame Oly didn't put the EVF on the side like a range finder camera (NEX, FUJI, etc.) and housing manufacturers don't have a built in extension with sight magnification for the camera's VF. Otherwise looks great.

Nauti for EM5

Bob

[Kevster]

The "fun-in" website has the housing price listed as $1350!!!!
If this is correct it is an excellent deal!

My Nauticam GH2 housing (which i assume is a similar size) cost $2100.

[girelle]

My housing already order and even pay looks great !!
All the buttons of the camera seems to appear on the housing , fine !!
The choice of Nauticam seems clear when you think that they own housing and ports for almost all the existing micro 43 .So if in a probably near future another camera from Pana or perhaps a new OMD model very temptating appear , I will be able to use my ports with any new camera ..
Just a request to Nauticam , I think that in the future also there will be more lenses to come and I hope especially macro , could it be possible to built some port extension , so we might be able to use our existing macro port with the new lenses . It's a question of money of course , but also especilally of room in my luggages

[Phil Rudin]

Some of the things I like about this Nauticam housing is that they have moved the main O-ring to the rear door which will make it much eaiser to service over being on the main body. The housing, like all of the Nauticam DSLR housings comes with a pickup viewfinder for the EVF and the Option to add the 45 or 180 degree accessory finders. Nauticam supports all of the excellent lenses for the M4/3 system like the 8 ifsheye, 7-14 zoom and 45 macro. I also like that the video on/off is out of the way of the rear push controls where it won't be as easy to turn on by accident. Don't see a popup switch for the camera flash, a mistake I have made more than once using fiber optic systems.

Phil Rudin

Edited by Phil Rudin, 26 June 2012 - 09:43 AM.

[Deep6]

Some of the things I like about this Nauticam housing is that they have moved the main O-ring to the rear door which will make it much eaiser to service over being on the main body. The housing, like all of the Nauticam DSLR housings comes with a pickup viewfinder for the EVF and the Option to add the 45 or 180 degree accessory finders. Nauticam supports all of the excellent lenses for the M4/3 system like the 8 ifsheye, 7-14 zoom and 45 macro. I also like that the video on/off is out of the way of the rear push controls where it won't be as easy to turn on by accident. Don't see a popup switch for the camera flash, a mistake I have made more than once using fiber optic systems.

Phil Rudin

Thanks for your expert observations. The Nexus D80, inconveniently, does not have a pop up flash switch either. The flash for the D80 can be activated by setting the mode to A, aiming at a dark object, and then partially depressing the shutter button.

Is it too early to speculate about the EVF with a pick up finder? I have not used a EVF in a housing. Is VF eye relief a factor? What is the eye relief for the Oly EMD5 EVF?

Bob