Shortsonfire79

I watched one slip through my fingers at $450. Ideally hoping to not spend $1700 on a used one. eBay blows my mind. I've pinged a couple of sellers who had listings from early/late 2020 but haven't heard back. Will pay for shipping to California. I don't have many posts on Wetpixel but Shortsonfire79 goes back to like 2008. IG/iNat in my signature. My account on mu-43 forums. My account on Reddit. I'm much more active on those sites, so if I don't respond within a day or so (not counting weekends, usually camping) feel free to ping me there! Thank you!

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Thanks for the replies, guys. Yes I'm trying to move from my EM5ii. The bulk is manageable and slapping a TG on a tray with dual lights won't be all that much smaller anyways. I'm really happy with my new EM1ii on land but I can't stomach the cost of dragging it into the ocean when a TG system is ~$700. Man, lack of manual control was what I was afraid of. Thanks for reinforcing that. I guess next dive I'll ask my partner if I can fiddle with his tg5 a bit. It's too bad they don't have shutter priority; I tend to use that more than aperture priority. So if I'm understanding correctly, the tg aperture is always wide open? I think this should be fine as my m43 setup is usually around 1/125" at ISO 200 and f/2.8 on the 12-40mm or 60mm; yes I generally shoot wide open. Yes I plan on getting the oly TG housing. The TGs are rated for depth but I really only consider that as flood protection. My issues with my EM5ii setup are being committed to a focal length before I get in the water as I would have to change ports and don't have zoom rings. I don't think there are wet diopters for Meikon housings. Other issues are that I now shoot with an EM1ii on land and can't afford $2k+ to get the Oly/AOI or Nauticam setups for it, especially since I don't dive weekly like I used to. Used is cheaper but not by a whole lot. These setups would give me zoom ring capability which would be really nice, though. I'm really happy with my new EM1ii on land but I can't stomach the cost of dragging it into the ocean when a TG system is ~$700.

As the title suggests, I've been shooting macro/some wide angle with the 16mp M43 system for ~120 dives. This is on a cheap $300 Meikon housing+dome system. I recently got a body upgrade and frankly can't afford a new housing of any type. Similarly, where I dive (Monterey, California) the waters are best suited for macro with the odd wide angle opportunity here and there. The problem is that I don't live 5 minutes from the water anymore so I can't just hop in when it's good. Having to pick a lens before getting in the water is tough when I'm early enough that vis reports aren't in yet. So I'm looking at the TG system. My dive partner has the TG5 and when we compare our macro images, mine are only a small amount better at 100-200% crop. He can also shoot macro and go wide angle at the flip of a switch. I'm basically trading on par sensor quality for convenience. I don't print or have any plans to print. The main drawbacks beyond small sensor issues that I see are much less exposure control. I have a Light and Motion 3800 video and Sea & Sea YS-D2J that I use in tandem so I usually stay at ISO 100; 800+ for my M43 body is pretty bad anyways. Am I missing anything? There are better M43/Olympus forums but I figure asking divers is more sensible. I also plan to carry my Nikonos III with me too.

If you have any interest in doing wide angle, land, astrophotography, get the Oly 8mm. The wide aperture will really help your shots. I doubt you'll be doing any fast-wildlife photog with this lens, but as always, Oly lenses on Oly bodies work better than mixing. I rented the 8mm for a Hawaii trip last year. It's pretty nice but I had to crop due to cheap dome. I like it enough that I'd probably get it when I upgrade to em1.ii and Nauticam. In fact, I was just reading a thread on mu-43 about the 8mm or the 7-14mm.

For my rough (aka get tossed) shore entry setup I use a basic clip buckle on the left from a chest D ring to the housing. I use a clip with bungee and buckle on the right side in the same fashion. Example pic; I've since moved the smb to a hip D ring. My system is slightly positive, will float up very slowly when released, so it's not a stress on the system. I have used it with only the super positive housing and was scared that the bungee may snap. Yesterday I received a YS-D2J and Sola upgrade which are considerably more heavy than my original Gobe's. I'll probably upgrade to kdgonzalez's Cetacea coil for when I get an aluminum housing.

I shoot EM5ii with the 60mm all the time. I too find that it focuses like a slug, esp if you don't have a video light on. A suggestion for you to try: Try autofocusing on your hand at a distance you think you'll use, ie really close to the port if you want 1:1, then throw your camera in manual focus, and do the rocking technique at the subject. The em5ii doesn't have great c-af tracking so I don't bother. Another tip is to try the magnify setting. For underwater macro I usually don't have to go more than 5x to get good results. I have not yet adapted back button focus but I might. I prefer to use fn1 for MF/AF toggle. fn2 for magnify. These settings can get me nudi rhinophores.

Hiyo. I've been diving since 2010 and doing underwater photography since dive 15 or so, before Adv Open Water. I'm in the middle of transitioning my land photography from Micro 4/3 to full frame mirrorless and one of my main concerns is shifting my uw M43 setup to ff setup. Money and size mostly. I'm here to learn and share with a likeminded community. I primarily dive in Monterey, California, so majority of my photos are macro (15 foot vis, woo). I used to go to the university there so I was in the water 5 days a week. Now I live up in San Francisco which means I can't just drop everything and get in when the water looks good. I'd really like to gain experience with wide angle underwater photography. Here's my flickr album.