Draq

One more price reduction before it goes to an auction site.  Asking $1500.00 and will consider any reasonable offer.

mumliz:

I am not sure you will get a lot of responses on this thread.  FWIW, it is my opinion that the 14-45 is a slightly superior lens than the 14-42 but for underwater use, the differences would be minimal.  Either is okay as a general purpose lens, and you can do decent macro with either lens and an adapter and close up lens, but neither is ideal for macro or wide angle.  I would suggest deciding which you think is of more appeal (wide angle shots, including close focus wide angle, or macro shots of small things.  If the former, look at getting a 7-14, 9-18 or 12mm lens, or my favorite, the 8mm fisheye.  If macro, then get the 45 or 60mm macro lenses available for your system.  If money is tight, you can do decent macro with what you have now, so I would look at a wide angle lens (unless wide angle is just not your interest.  You will need to add a strobe fairly soon as well, although you can do a fair bit of natural light wide angle.

I would make this suggestion, though:  Wait until you have been diving for awhile before dealing with the photography.  Carrying a camera around complicates buoyancy and task loading at a time when you need to be focusing on diving skills. When you are feeling quite comfortable with your diving skills, then add a camera into the mix.  For some this happens fairly fast; for some it takes awhile.

Now a shameless plug:  I have a housing and ports for the GF-1 for sale in the classifieds and would be happy to make you a good deal on some or all of what I am selling.  

After a great deal of thought about the 12-50 lens, I have changed my original plan.  In the hope this may assist someone else, here is what I have done:

I purchased the Nauticam 12-50 port and gear.  I decided that even though I always have to travel to dive, I was placing too much emphasis on trying to get as many lenses as possible into 2 or 3 ports.  Also, macro is usually a pretty small part of my dive photography, and tends to come up at unexpected moments, so my basic setup (and for me, diving always means traveling) will be:

8mm in either 3.5 or 4.33 dome depending on destination

7-14 in 6” port

12-50 with Nauticam gear in the Nauti 12-50 port

If the destination and my goals warrant, I might add the 60 macro lens to the above and would use it in the 12-50 port.  For my typical use, I can’t really see a lot of value in taking the 45 macro and port in addition to the 12-50.

If space is critical, I would take only the 8mm and the 12-50 or perhaps substitute the 9-18 and 4” port for the 7-14 and take it as well.

I am very curious about the Zen 170mm dome and could see that perhaps changing the lineup in the future.  Looking forward to some more information on this port.

Added photo and price reduction.

Asking $1800.00 for housing, ports AND GF-1 body

I realize I also have the 67mm lens adapter for the 14-45 port, so one can add close up lenses diopters.  Will also include that.