waterboy

Hi All,

I am contemplating on getting a Fisheye lens for my E-M5 setup. I mainly shoot available light and always while FreeDiving. Most of the time I shoot either Whales and other large marine life or other freedivers.

 

I know the Panasonic 8mm is a great lens but the Samyang received great reviews in terms of image quality and sharpness. Will the fact that the lens is manual focus limit me too much? (Providing I can use the Zoom mechanism of the housing to Focus the lens). I can preset the aperture to F5.6-8 and only play with speed and iso...

 

Will the lens be sharp behind the 4.33 dome? I know it was designed for the Panasonic but the two lenses are very similar in terms or size (Pana is 61X52 and the Rokinon is 60X48.3).

 

Is the fact that the Pana has AF enough to justify the cost? Samyang- 260$, Panasonic-750$

 

Thank you very much,

Erez

 

Hi All,

I have recently bought the EM-5 and the Nauticam housing. I love the combo (I was using the G-12 for U/W before and the 5D Mk2 for land).
I shoot mainly natural light and always while FreeDiving.
I have bought the 9-18mm lens and the Nauticam 4inch port for it as a long awaited upgrade.
I have spent a month in Tonga and during that month shot hundreds of Whale and Freediving photos - all of them were not usable due to being super soft and not contrasty.

Most were shot on F5.6 on base ISO @1/160 and above.

After about two weeks I was told by Nauticam to use F8 and above but I know that past F5.6 on M43 you get diffraction and loose IQ... I tried anyway and the results were not much better. Corners were a bit better but center sharpness was not great any-more.

After the trip I have contacted the shop that sold me the lens and have received a new one.
This new lens seems much better but still - images are not really sharp or contrasty. DOF seems very shallow and only a tiny portion of the frame is actually in focus.
I shoot RAW (on the G12 as well) and the images actually look much better ooc from the G12 with a cheap Airdome...

I also tried shooting with a strobe and although it is slightly better - its not good (not for a 4K setup).
Anything that is not 100% in the middle of the frame is not sharp.
Zooming to 11mm results in slightly better sharpness but defeats the point of having a wide angle lens.

I am happy to post high Rez versions but just to show the general idea - the closer shot was on 9mm with the whale around 3m away in clear water.

What am I doing wrong?
I was Told to use a larger dome (to get better edge sharpness), told to buy a fisheye, told to buy the 7-14mm.....

As most of my work involves shooting Freedivers I wanted the zoom lens to allow a bit of flexibility..
I have seen some amazing shots with the EM-5. I love the camera but am very frustrated at the moment..

Thank you very much,
Erez