OM-D EM-1

[RogerC 4]

oly page:

 

http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/e-m1.html?utm_content=introducing&utm_campaign=em1&utm_source=email_etprm&utm_medium=email

 

Good summary, interesting stuff on better focus with older lenses:

 

http://thedigitalstory.com/2013/09/new-olympus-om-d-e-m1-camera.html

 

looks too different to fit in the same housing.

 

Price drop on the EM-5 by $100 for body only right now. That sale ends 9/14, not sure if there will be a permanent price drop or if they're selling both cameras or what.

 

http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/digitalcameras/pen-omd/e-m5.html

 

 

 

 

 

[Thormar 0]

Images and details of the Olympus PT-EP11 underwater housing for the new E-M1 camera can be found at most Olympus pages

http://cameras.olympus.com/omd/gear?t=em1-underwater-gear

http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/c/cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_underwater/pt_ep11/index.html

 

A System chart can be found here: http://asia.olympus-imaging.com/products/dslr/accessories/underwater/pdf/systemchart_ptep11.pdf

 

For use of the new 12-40mm f2.8 in an Olympus housing, they suggest the old DSLR [PPO-E02] flat port and the port adapter PAD-EP08, and a new zoom gear (PPZR-EP04)

[Glasseye Snapper 47]

The EM-1 is not creating the same buzz as the EM-5, in general, but especially here on wet pixel. Part of the reason may be that it is hard to get excited before knowing if major housing manufacturers will support it and at what price. It will be interesting to see what happens. Many major manufacturers turned down the EM-5 as they were too busy developing housings for the Canon 5D III and Nikon D800. They may regret that decision as Nauticam must have done very good business on its excellent yet affordable EM-5 housing.

 

For the benefit of consumer choice I hope there are going to be housings for the EM-1 and the camera has a number of interesting improvements over its little brother. In particular, the first useful continuous autofocus on mFT, FF DSLR-like size and quality of the electronic viewfinder, 1/320 flash sync speed, lower noise, and (perhaps, if useful for ambient light shooting) curve-based control of color response. Personally I find the improvements sufficient to spend the extra cash on the body but I still think the EM-1 is not going to be a hit for UW photography, and here is why.

 

- Most divers interested in such a camera already bought the EM-5 (me included)

- Increased size/weight reduces one of the main benefits of mirrorless

- Anticipation that a housing comparable to the Nauticam for the EM-5 will be a lot more expensive

- Anticipation that the key improvements, EVF, C-AF will appear in the EM-5 successor in the not too distant future

 

In the end the new 12-40mm F2.8 lens is more exciting to me than the new body. It has the best close focus (20cm compared to 35cm for Oly 12-50mm kit zoom and 25cm for the Pana 12-35 F2.8), much better macro performance (0.3x) than the 12-35mm (0.17x) and close to the 12-50mm (0.36x), and first reports about build and optical quality indicate it is the best mFT zoom for that range. Moreover, it is only 1mm longer than the 12-50mm so I expect it will fit just fine in the 60mm Macro or 12-50 zoom ports that many of us already have. A 12-40mm plus 60mm macro would be a sweet set, combining superb quality with good portability and simplicity.

 

Bart

[simonknee 4]

As a long time Oly shooter this is the camera I was waiting for - I held out on an em-5 as I wanted to continue to use my 43 glass (8mm, 50mm particularly). I have one on pre-order and played with one at an Olympus event last Thursday. It is a brilliant piece of kit and for me worth waiting for. I will also get the Olympus uw case as soon as it becomes available (November hopefully). In pictures it looks like it might be a superior offering than the em-5 case as it has repositioned wheel controls and a proper viewfinder lens. I will keep you posted...

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Edited September 15, 2013 by simonknee

[Yako 8]

Nauticam will lauch a housing, two weeks after EM1 has been released by Olympus, as they answered me in my enquiry:

 

Dear Jose,

Thank you for the enquiries and interest in our product.


We are glade to inform you that we will support the new Olympus OMD E-M1. It's under design phase now.

As we are not so sure about when will the camera available, so the final date is still pending.

Normally, we will start the shipment of the housing 2 weeks after receiving the camera.

Please do not hesitate to let us know should you have any further questions.

Yours Sincerely

Nauticam International Ltd.
www.nauticam.com

t: 852 2690 2711

f: 852 2690 9778

 

Wow, that sounds good...

I hope if the price will be like EM5 housing, it will be a very good alternative. ....

Edited September 17, 2013 by Yako

[Alex_Mustard 0]

For me it will come down to size. If the housings grow too much, then my interest will diminish. What I love about mirrorless is small size and high quality.

 

Which is also why I like the 2x crop of the M43 - there are many advantages in the smaller format. The problem of full frame mirrorless is that you would need big domes - which would rather defeat the object of a small camera body for underwater use.

 

I like the look of the E-M1, but will only get one if the Nauticam housing is nice and compact.

 

Alex

[wydeangle 46]

Here's a review of the OM-D E-M1 giving direct comparison with the OM-D E-M5 dimensions & weight, among lots of other things: http://cameralabs.com/reviews/Olympus_OMD_EM1/

 

Tom

[girelle 19]

 

 

For the benefit of consumer choice I hope there are going to be housings for the EM-1 and the camera has a number of interesting improvements over its little brother. In particular, the first useful continuous autofocus on mFT, FF DSLR-like size and quality of the electronic viewfinder, 1/320 flash sync speed, lower noise, and (perhaps, if useful for ambient light shooting) curve-based control of color response. Personally I find the improvements sufficient to spend the extra cash on the body but I still think the EM-1 is not going to be a hit for UW photography, and here is why.

 

- Most divers interested in such a camera already bought the EM-5 (me included)

- Increased size/weight reduces one of the main benefits of mirrorless

- Anticipation that a housing comparable to the Nauticam for the EM-5 will be a lot more expensive

 

 

 

 

Bart

In France we say " il parle d'or " which means "his speech is precious like gold" .

 

 

 

For me it will come down to size. If the housings grow too much, then my interest will diminish. What I love about mirrorless is small size and high quality.

 

Which is also why I like the 2x crop of the M43 - there are many advantages in the smaller format. The problem of full frame mirrorless is that you would need big domes - which would rather defeat the object of a small camera body for underwater use.

 

I like the look of the E-M1, but will only get one if the Nauticam housing is nice and compact.

 

Alex

 

I've sell my D90 and Aquatica port and housing very cheap but without regret , but if now the M43 become bigger and bigger ... ):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a review of the OM-D E-M1 giving direct comparison with the OM-D E-M5 dimensions & weight, among lots of other things: http://cameralabs.com/reviews/Olympus_OMD_EM1/

 

Tom

Very interesting thank you

Edited September 17, 2013 by girelle

[RogerC 4]

some great points, thanks. It makes me take another look at the quality of the 60mm macro vs the 50mm macro. I never read any comparisons because I so love the 50mm, and the 60mm was the only choice for the OMD, that I didn't want to hear that the 60mm didn't stand up well to the 50. The 50 is such a great lens that if I were building a macro rig, and the 60 was not as pretty, I'd go for the EM-1 for a macro rig just to build a rig around the 50..

 

love the small size of the em-5 for wide angle. I swim a lot when I'm shooting wide.

[Edward Lai 36]

Nauticam will lauch a housing, two weeks after EM1 has been released by Olympus, as they answered me in my enquiry:

 

Dear Jose,

 

Thank you for the enquiries and interest in our product.

 

 

We are glade to inform you that we will support the new Olympus OMD E-M1. It's under design phase now.

As we are not so sure about when will the camera available, so the final date is still pending.

Normally, we will start the shipment of the housing 2 weeks after receiving the camera.

Please do not hesitate to let us know should you have any further questions.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Nauticam International Ltd.

www.nauticam.com

t: 852 2690 2711

f: 852 2690 9778

 

Wow, that sounds good...

I hope if the price will be like EM5 housing, it will be a very good alternative. ....

 

Hi Yako,

 

Sorry for the confusion. You got a reply from our inexperienced marketing stuff. There is no way we can ship a new housing that soon.

 

Edward

[Yako 8]

 

Hi Yako,

 

Sorry for the confusion. You got a reply from our inexperienced marketing stuff. There is no way we can ship a new housing that soon.

 

Edward

 

 

Hi Edward,

For me, the most important is that Nauticam will support the EM1, not the availability date. Obviously two weeks after camera availability I'm agree that is not realistic...

And other important thing is the housing price. If Nauticam maintains the EM1 housing price like EM5 housing, this could boost OM5 users to upgrade to the new toy (at least to me)....

Thanks for answering,

Jose

 

Edited September 18, 2013 by Yako

[denniscloutier 2]

FWIW, I have heard a rumour that Aquatica is working on a housing as well. I'm glad to see they have decided to support micro 4/3. I have a Nauticam housing for my EM-5 and I'm very happy with it, but competition never hurts.

[guyharrisonphoto 21]

A great camera, but no real incentive to upgrade. Same resolution, and, must unfortunately, same mediocre video codec, low bitrate, and poor framerate. I say unfortunately because the Oly image stabliizer is the most amazing thing I have ever seen for video shooting. They are making a big mistake by ignoring video quality (also, the phase detect continuous AF does not work with video, what's up with that??!!).

 

Very nice Incremental improvements in the viewfinder and AF system, but no big substantial improvements on any of those.

 

I am waiting for the next round: 24+ mp (the sony rx100 shows you can have high resolution and excellent higher ISO quality on an even smaller sensor), a good video codec with 24.30.60 framerates, and even better phase detect af that works on video also. In other words, real, substantial image quality improvements.

 

For anyone with 4/3 lenses from the prior Oly systems, this camera will be fantastic. Might have been tempting for DSLR users, but the price is close to Nikon and Canon full frame offerings and far more expensive than state-of-the art APS-C such as 70D and D7100.

 

For underwater, as an upgrade to the EM-5, not necessarily especially if the size and cost of housings are substantially more. For someone starting from scratch on M43 and underwater, I would consider this, but there might be substantial price drops on the EM-5 that would not make this as desirable.

[simonknee 4]

Hi Edward,

 

As the EM-1 supports 43 glass is there a chance that Nauticam will make the housing compatible with Olympus ports?

 

I have the zuiko 8mm, 11-22mm and 50mm plus the Olympus ports/dome to suit them all. I have held out for the EM-1 so I can continue to use these lenses. At present I will have to go with the Olympus PT- EP11 case. Love to have the choice to go Nuaticam whilst using my Olympus 43 ports.

 

Simon

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[Phil Rudin 459]

After taking a over a week to read the initial reviews and hype for this new camera these would be the upsides over the E-M5 I see so far for U/W photography. First let me say that I think the E-M5 is an excellent underwater camera and that the Nauticam NA-EM5 housing is one of the best values in the market for a quality camera/housing package.

So what do I see as the up sides for making a switch from a DSLR or other mirrorless to the E-M1. First the electronic viewfinder is the best in the market bar none and has features you just can not get with an OVF. It has a viewing area larger than just about any DSLR on the market except for the $6800.00 Canon EOS-1D, it is even larger than the $6000.00 Nikon D-4 according to reports. It now has excellent AF speed for both M43 and 43 lenses and much improved C-AF speed. Build quality including weather sealing and freeze proofing is even better than in the E-M5. The addition of a wider array of control buttons which are more spread apart and a built in guilty grip will make the camera easier to use both above and below water, i.e. I can better access the controls of the E-M5 inside my NA-EM5 housing than I can above water. Higher speed flash sync of 1/320th and lower ISO-100 both needed to get those black backgrounds in macro we all like and for using wider F/stops above water. At 1/320th with hard wired strobes this camera should give you 1/500th. The sweet new 12-40 F/2.8 Pro lens, I have used the Panasonic 12-35 and prefer it to the 12-50mm zoom this new lens is reported to be the best M43 zoom made and a real winner as my prime travel lens with minimum focus of about 7" across the full zoom range. A 40-150 F/2.8 Pro will be coming in 2014. With my first 43 and M43 cameras I never shot above ISO-400. With the E-M5 I have expanded to ISO-640 and if the reports are correct the E-M1 should allow me to shoot at ISO-800 or more and be happy with the results. With the removal of the low pass filter and the new processing engine image quality improvement over the E-M5 and sharpness have been reported. This is the first high end Olympus release I can remember where the body only option rather than the "kit" option is coming first so that those of us who already have lenses and can live without the 12-40 can have the camera at first release. I like the one touch white balance button on the front of the camera, I used it all the time starting with my E-DSLR cameras. Built in HDR and a host of other features will also interest many.

Who do I see buying this camera, I think we will see an even greater number of converts from the DSLR ranks to this camera which already has an excellent lens set for U/W photography. For those who are still using the LCD (much improved over E-M5) to compose and focus I don't expect to see a large exodus from E-M5. For those like me who religiously use the viewfinder I would expect along with the many other improvements to see some E-M5 owners making the switch. If you are using the 45 or 180 add-on viewfinders this camera should be amazing. Focus peaking has been added for stills and along with the large viewfinder critical focus should be greatly improved. Along with the Olympus housing and based on the great success of the Nauticam E-M5 housing I would expect that Nauticam is taking a very hard look at this camera.

Regarding Guy’s post, most who own the E-M5/Nauticam combo have purchased in the past year and I would not expect that they will all want to jump ship from such a excellent and reasonably priced system. Both cameras will deliver pro quality images, in fact most of the current mid priced camera offerings will do that and to me adding a few more MP’s doesn’t add all that much to the overall quality of the camera. What does is quality lenses and Olympus has an excellent reputation in that area.

Regarding size, yes we would expect to see a larger housing but not that much of a difference V. Nauticam NA-EM5 in fact I would expect to see something larger but still much smaller than the Panasonic GH3 housing size and that will use the same existing ports for current M43 lenses. Yes the housing will cost more but as so well pointed out in the first E-M1 thread by Coroander the camera has a number of new controls. I did not expect to see so many and they should all be accessible in a housing which will raise cost. Again I would not expect to see the housing cost as much as the GH3 housing and certainly not more.

Regarding video, this is Olympus M43 Pro entry camera and aimed at still shooters. As Guy pointed out cost differences compared to Some APS-C and even full-frame cameras should be considered. So consider this, if you believe DPReview the video quality for cameras like the D-7100, 6D, D600, D800 and more all have video quality of about the same level or worse than the E-M5 (do some comparisons in the E-M5 review). Canon 5D, the coming 70D, Panasonic GH3 and the soon to be released Black Magic Pocket Cine M43 cameras will all be better video cameras if that is your interest.

What will not change is that even if you make smaller APS-C and full frame cameras the optical viewfinders will also be smaller and the lenses will remain just as big as they always were. No matter how small you make the camera full frame lenses will still need 230mm domes for best rectilinear results, APS-C lenses will still need 200mm ports and M43 lenses will get excellent results with 170mm ports. As a result the E-M1 system will still be a very compelling travel system for both above and below water photography.

Phil Rudin

[dsbierman 0]

Hi Edward,

 

As the EM-1 supports 43 glass is there a chance that Nauticam will make the housing compatible with Olympus ports?

 

I have the zuiko 8mm, 11-22mm and 50mm plus the Olympus ports/dome to suit them all. I have held out for the EM-1 so I can continue to use these lenses. At present I will have to go with the Olympus PT- EP11 case. Love to have the choice to go Nuaticam whilst using my Olympus 43 ports.

 

Simon

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

We're in the same boat, Simon. I've stubbornly held onto my 43 glass. An adapter from Nauticam would be great.

[simonknee 4]

 

We're in the same boat, Simon. I've stubbornly held onto my 43 glass. An adapter from Nauticam would be great.

 

And it would not matter if it adapted to the earlier Oly thread of the PTE-05/06 etc or the newer lug-type on the PT-EP08/11 since there is the PAD-EP08. The less adaptors the better but a solution is a solution.

 

I think an issue might be if Nauticam make the housing to suit the smaller m43 glass then there may be a struggle getting the larger 43 lenses to poke through the hole and still allow access to zoom gears. They get pretty chunky on some of the larger 43 lenses.

 

It is nice to see that the images of the PT-EP11 (em-1) have what look like might be an improved view finder and better positioned rotary controls over the PT-EP08 (em-5). Perhaps the new Olympus brand case will improve on some of the short comings that Alex, Phil et al found with the earlier one.

 

So dsbierman, have you pre-ordered? :-)

[simonknee 4]

Hi Phil,

 

Picking up on the number of buttons you mentioned I noticed that the Oly case does not have a facility to use the two front ones (as far as the images show). However this is not as bad as all that since just about everything is mappable to any button. So you can move the one-touch white balance to either fn1, fn2, AEL/AFL, REC (EDIT as you can't assign 1TWB to one of the 4-way buttons or the top left ones)

 

And when it comes to white balance the EM-1 will accept my dark blue jeans as a white card! Not very scientific but my E520 will not do this - "WB Error" it says, thank you very much. I so hope I can go back to my happy Canon S1 IS days when I could set WB on my scribble slate at 30m and forgo the flash.

 

Simon

Edited September 22, 2013 by simonknee

[dsbierman 0]

So dsbierman, have you pre-ordered? :-)

 

 

Indeed. Pre-ordered through Amazon on the first day. Hopefully, the housing will be ready before my winter vacation.

[Phil Rudin 459]

Regarding auto WB I use it almost exclusively for stills and I think Olympus has one of the better implementations. The one touch WB would I think be more useful for video shooters who as always reseting WB.

 

Regarding port adapters, ZEN underwater has already made adapters for Subal type III and Sea&Sea ports for Nauticam Mini (mirrorless) housings. These adapters allow you to mount lenses like the excellent 12mm Zeiss for NEX cameras. The port adapter is mounted, the lens is mounted from the outside front of the housing and them the dome glass is mounted over the lens to the adapter.

 

The Olympus 43 lenses I see as being most useful would be the 50 macro which will fit the housing opening, the 8mm fisheye which should fit the housing opening and the 7-14 which will NOT fit through the housing opening and would need to be fitted from the front.

The problem is that these lenses will need extensions and a custom gear for the 7-14 at the very least. I have owned both the Olympus 7-14 zoom which I used with a 220mm port and the Panasonic 7-14 which I use with a 170mm port (same glass as the Olympus 170mm port). I can tell you that while I feel nostalgic about the Oly 7-14 the results are just as good or better with the much smaller Pana 7-14 and because of its size and back distance to the sensor I don't need the much larger port to get the same results. Keep in mind as well that I am using the lens on a 16MP camera V. The Oly lens I was using on 10 and 12 MP cameras.

 

Same for the 8 fisheye. I think the best lens in terms overall image quality may be the 50 F/2 over the 60F/2.8 but you still need to consider that the 60 is a 1:1 lens with focus limiting in the macro range.

[simonknee 4]

I can confirm that the 50mm works great on the EM1. Much better than on my E520. AF is faster and much less hunting. IQ is amazing.

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[Phil Rudin 459]

I sold all my 43 lenses, still have an E-3 for sale but if I were buying a lens back the 50 macro would be my first choice. Owning the M43 lenses that I do I would not see much upside for any of the other lenses for U/W use. I would like to have the 300 F/2.8 or the 90-250 F/2.8 for wildlife.

 

Phil Rudin

[Markosixty6 8]

Just saw a review in a German photographic mag not that i can read German but the OMD EM1 scored very high in all aspects. Will be interesting to see what path it gos when the housings start coming out for it

Edited November 3, 2013 by Markosixty6

[Phil Rudin 459]

Reviews have now been posted at DPReview.com and DXO as well, both very positive.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Phil Rudin

[simonknee 4]

I've had mine a month and it is fabulous. Of course coming from the 4 year old tech of an E520 it was always going to be a treat but it really does surpass expectations. I only have 43 glass (8, 11-22, 25, 50, 50-200) yet now have the choice of all the m43 lens too. Fyi the extra battery grip is very good with lenses like the 50-200.

 

Now for the case. Pretty sure I will buy a pt-ep11 to start with some I have a hefty investment in Olympus domes and a limited budget (I expect the oly case alone to be half the price of a nauticam). Additionally it appears from the images like Olympus have taken on some of the criticism regarding the view finder and knob positions.

 

Looking forward to hearing first hand about any cases, anybody seen one yet?

 

Simon

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Edited November 9, 2013 by simonknee