Panasonic GF1

[devildiver 0]

Ryan,

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Altsaint,

 

Thanks for the photos. It appears there are still some soft edges but much better than the 10 Bar examples. I decided to go with the 8mm fisheye over the 7-14mm, I am hoping that this lens will have better results with the Inon Dome II or the Recsea 8mm dome.

 

I am leaning for the Inon system but still undecided over all. I have found the Recsea priced down to $1,800 US vs. the Inon still up around $2,200, If the pricing was even I feel I would go with the Inon.

 

We have a Dive show in town next month (Dallas, Tx) where I hope to get to see the Inon housing in person.

[devildiver 0]

Ryan,

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Altsaint,

 

Thanks for the photos. It appears there are still some soft edges but much better than the 10 Bar examples. I decided to go with the 8mm fisheye over the 7-14mm, I am hoping that this lens will have better results with the Inon Dome II or the Recsea 8mm dome.

 

I am leaning for the Inon system but still undecided over all. I have found the Recsea priced down to $1,800 US vs. the Inon still up around $2,200, If the pricing was even I feel I would go with the Inon.

 

We have a Dive show in town next month (Dallas, Tx) where I hope to get to see the Inon housing in person.

 

Well, I decided after much consideration to scrap my plans for housing the Pany GF-1. I have purchased the Oly EPL-2 with the 14-42mm kit lens and the Oly housing with the Zen Panasonic 8mm Fisheye dome port. If this works out the next purchase will be either the Zen 45mm macro port or the Athena 45mm macro port (they are claiming that the Oly 14-42mm lens can be used with the Athena port as well).

 

I really like my GF-1 and I will keep it for a topside camera but I just could not justify sinking that kind of cash into this system. The Inon housing with ports and gears would have run about $4k+ USD and the Recsea would have come in about $3.5-4k USD, so far with the Oly EPL-2 set-up I have right under $2k invested (camera, 14-42mm lens, housing, Zen 8mm Dome Port) and the only additional piece that I will need would be a 45mm macro port that should cost around $400-450 USD (plus the Pany 45mm lens that I would have bought anyway). So for $2.5K I got a complete system for almost what the Inon housing cost.

 

The other concern that I could not shake was if I invested in the Inon I was hoping that the ports/gears would transfer to future housings. My understanding from speaking to two of the suppliers here in the USA was that they had not sold hardly any of the Inon GF-1 housings and personally if that is the case I am suspicious if Inon will invest in future housings for this camera line. With the Oly product there are more manufactures producing housings and componets to support it and at a reasonable market price leading me to believe there should be a future for my lens investments which was one of the reasons for going M4/3 in the first place.

 

I still like the GF-1 and believe Panasonic has produced better lenses for the M4/3 standard, I just wish the GF-1 housing manufactures had a better marketing plan to support it.

Edited February 12, 2011 by devildiver

[M4rauder 0]

I still have my eye on a GF1 housing, but only 10bar is in my possible price range at the moment. For $1100 (2-port package) it is similarly priced to the E-PL2 housing + Zen dome port.

[altsaint 0]

I really like my GF-1 and I will keep it for a topside camera but I just could not justify sinking that kind of cash into this system.

I know another underwater photographer who also won't take his GF1 underwater, although I don't know his reasons.

 

In my situation I had already made the investment in body + lenses. My X-2 arrives on Tuesday, and the extra cost will sting. For the time being, no new strobes or macro port. But I had to have something to put the GF1 in before mid-March, as I'm off to Tiger Beach and my old Oly 7070 isn't up to the job of the wide angle shots I am after. Right now in the UK, it's 10-Bar, Inon or Recsea ( Recsea have only recently appeared, so too late for me to reconsider ).

 

Just to put my own experiences with 10-Bar into context, I should point out that the ( 10-Bar ) photos uploaded on this thread were the worst ones. I have recently processed some which were a bit better. The best were with the 20mm lens, but of course you are limited with what you can frame with that.

 

The photo here is with the 7-14mm behind the 10-Bar dome, and is probably a bit better than one I posted earlier that was referred to as a 'scandal':

 

[devildiver 0]

In my situation I had already made the investment in body + lenses. My X-2 arrives on Tuesday, and the extra cost will sting. For the time being, no new strobes or macro port. But I had to have something to put the GF1 in before mid-March, as I'm off to Tiger Beach and my old Oly 7070 isn't up to the job of the wide angle shots I am after. Right now in the UK, it's 10-Bar, Inon or Recsea ( Recsea have only recently appeared, so too late for me to reconsider ).

 

I was in pretty much the same situation, I had already purchased the camera body, the 14-45mm, the 20mm and the 8mm Fisheye Panasonic lenses also. I would have much rather gone with the Inon X-2 housing and ports because I suspect it is a great quality housing and I really like the port concept, after making the initial investment my thought was that the port system and lenses would transfer to future Inon M4/3 housings justifying the the upfront cost of the system, and this might still be the case.

 

Truthfully I still prefer the GF-1 as a camera and I believe the Panasonic lenses are better overall, I prefer the control layout of the Panasonic over Olympus as well.

 

One of the main reasons for my decision the switch to the Oly EPL-2 for my U/W set-up I was becoming concerned if Inon would continue to support the Panasonic M4/3 line in the future if the sales were not there. As far as I know they have not indicated any intention of producing a housing for the GF-2 but I know this does not indicate they would not produce housings for future cameras. Like I posted above though I spoke with the two big U/W photo stores here in the US and they said that they had basically no sales of the Inon GF-1 X-2 housing. So I became concerned that if Inon decided not to stick with this system down the road I would not have the option of reusing the port system in future set-up's. Usually camera bodies and housings are a small investment compared to the lenses and ports.

 

The other issue I struggled with was the fact that I could change to a Olympus set-up (still not my favorite compared to the Panasonic side by side) including the EPL-2 camera body, the 14-42mm lens, the Oly PT-EP03 housing, the Athena grip/base and the ZEN 8mm Fisheye dome and still get use of some of the lenses that I have invested in (Yea!! Micro 4/3's standard) for what I would have paid for just the Inon housing by itself without any ports or gears. This will make it easier to move forward and purchase either the Pany 45mm macro or the Oly 50mm macro plus either the Zen or Athena port and still be well under what I would have been with the Inon X-2 (or the Recsea) system.

 

I do believe the Inon X-2 is the best quality option for the GF-1 (with the Recsea a very close second) and I know a quality housing is not cheap to design and make and also a company has to make a profit so we will see how this develops for them down the road.

 

Either way I really look forward to seeing pics from your set-up and reading your post on the system. Deep down I wish the Inon system would have worked out for me...

Edited February 12, 2011 by devildiver

[altsaint 0]

Either way I really look forward to seeing pics from your set-up and reading your post on the system. Deep down I wish the Inon system would have worked out for me...

Deep down, my bank manager wished the 10-Bar system would have worked out for me

 

I think we may all be suffering from early adoption syndrome with M4/3. Hopefully in a year or two, this will all be a lot easier....surely?