derway

I love them. Especially "tickets please"!

The image quality and auto focus speed are crucial, and they are the same in the elp5, as the em5. The only difference is view finder, and controls. Given you are happy with the composing on the LCD, (as I am too), the only difference is the controls! Making adjustments in manual mode is not so bad. Just requires 1 button press, to go to adjust mode, and then the up or down button to make the change. It is not bad, for such a big price difference.

Ikelite makes a housing for lx7 at a very reasonable price. Even includes hard wired strobes, which is ultra reliable, and extends the battery life, due to no need for using the onboard flash.

Cliff, if you are worried about flooding the em5, and that is the only reason for not housing it, get some good equipment insurance, such as from divers alert net, and you will be covered! No reason to put up with a second rate, and different camera, when you have the one you love, already!

Great pictures! At such a wide angle end, 24mm equiv, traditionally, one would want a dome port, to get good optical quality. Can you see any down side, of using the 12-50 behind a flat port? Full res, If you pixel peep at the corners, is there any chromatic aberration? Thanks!

My reading, of all the reviews and so on, is that the camera acts no differently with the EVF versus the LCD, since both are feed by the same hardware and software. So, selecting fast frame rate, will increase the AF speed, in both modes.

Which ports and lenses will you be using Alex?

Link not working.

This post refers to a commercial post that has now been deleted-Admin I would plunk down for the nauticam gear, if it supported manual zoom. But it is only motorized zoom. Does the new gear support manual zoom? For sure? What ports does it work in? What ports support the 12-50 in full wide angle mode, and full tele mode? Good news I hope.

After hopefully trying an oly tg-1, I found the pix above water are nice enough, but the pix underwater are far too often, underexposed, and really lacking contrast. Seems like they are still doing 18% grey card average metering, and calling it 'ESP'! There is no time, snorkeling, to adjust the exposure, to make up for brain dead 18th century metering. Great closing and sealing system though. Too bad. I sent it back. The imaging resource review hints at this problem, though they only test in a pool. http://www.imaging-r...waterproofA.HTM These lenstip underwater reviews are great. They test and comment on all aspects, of underwater photos and video, at snorkel depth, and a deeper. http://www.lenstip.c...2_-_part_I.html They haven't covered the tg-1 yet, but tg-820 had similar issues! Based on this review, the canon d20 is operable down to 30 meters! And works great IQ and WB wise, at greater depths, but has issues of too much contrast, at snorkel depth. And panasonic TS4, (FT4), only works to the rated depth +1m, but works better, IQ wise, at the snorkeling depths. I have both on the way, and will report back. And send back, the looser.

The oly epl3 is a huge step up from the others mentioned. It would be a fantastic starter system. The autofocus speed on the G15 is an order of magnitude slower than a current m43 camera. The sony nex system is more expensive to house, and has terribly limited lens selection for underwater. The lx7, by the time you get an ikelite housing for it, is as much or more than the epl3 with the panasonic housing. Go with your first choice, or wait for the elp5 and housing, which will run a couple of hundred more, with housing, and get you a state of the art sensor, (same one as the omd), and even faster auto focus lag. That would be my recommendation.

In a non zoom port, you can still use the 12-50 at 12 or at 50, by using the underwater modes, on the OMD. You have to upgrade the firmware on camera and lens to the latest, to get this to work.

The killer for the canon G series, has always been the terrible slow auto focus lag. With the g1x, it got even worse. I'll be surprised if the g15 suddenly turns the corner. I'd be happy as heck. But with bad slow AF, slowing down further, as it gets dim or low contrast, the G15 will be aggravatingly bad to use, in the underwater world, where little subjects move, and you move, and everything moves. The canon G series just is not up to snuff. The sony, panasonic, and now oly too, are all doing a great job with contrast detect AF. Don

The 14-42 will be way more affordable, to house, than the12-50. And you will be able to zoom it mechanically, like a normal lens. The 14-42 lens will work fine with the wet lenses you mention. The 12-50 won't need a wet lens for macro, if you use the $800 nauticam port - which lets you use macro mode, but forces you to use the motorized zoom. I don't know of anyone who has tried the 12-50 with a wet WA lens. Seems likely to vignette. The IQ of the 12-50 is somewhat better than the 14-42.. I own it, and use it on land, it is a pretty good kit zoom lens. I am not willing to pay the price for the port, to use it underwater.

Does the 12-50 port allow manual zoom? Or is it motorized zoom only?