Northwest Dive Club

I think we should start an E-PL1 Users Group -- so I'm starting one.

Rules:

a. Must use an Olympus E-PL1 to be a full member.

b. Any user of an Olympus E-PL2 - 5 - x can be an associate member!

c. Any housing is permitted -- use of the Olympus Housing is "preferred" !!!

OK, first tip:

a. IF you have the 14-42 mm ver.2 lens, you will need to get the zoom ring that fits the 9 - 18 mm lens (xxx02) NOT the 14-42 mm zoom ring (xxx01)

b. If using the optical firing of a flash do NOT forget to raise the camera's flash before you put it in the housing -- you will probably make that mistake once (at least you will if you are me!!!).

I guess I'll be an associate member as I own the "big brother" the Pl-2. Good tip about the flash- I did that already- I was so mad at myself!

Thank you thank you thank you Peter. Will be making a trip to Optical Ocean tomorrow for the 'bare necessities'.

Peter Guy wrote:
a. IF you have the 14-42 mm ver.2 lens, you will need to get the zoom ring that fits the 9 - 18 mm lens (xxx02) NOT the 14-42 mm zoom ring (xxx01)

How do you ascertain that? No where does mine say ver2. On the side there is a [1:3.5-5.6 II R MSC]
Does the II mean ver. 2?

Does the zoom ring actually add a lot of extra or desireable flexibility? I don't think I've ever used my zoom function in 2 years of PnS UW use. But this maybe is a different camera and I don't 'get it' yet. I'm sure that what I don't get is a huge area.

Just received mine and have only done a test dive for the housing plus some messing with the camera itself topside to get familiar with it.

The housing sure is BIG!

fmerkel wrote:How do you ascertain that? No where does mine say ver2. On the side there is a [1:3.5-5.6 II R MSC]
Does the II mean ver. 2?

Yes.

Using the zoom lets you fill the screen with small animals like nudibranchs -- that way, when you get home, you don't have to crop the picture a ton. Cropping aggressively leads to detail loss in the photograph, and if you don't crop, you have a little nudibranch in the middle of a whole lot of "dead space".

My tip of the week is that, if you can't get the camera to take a picture or change exposure settings, check your "mode" control. Although the camera will take video in any mode (an annoying fact, because I'm always bumping the video button on the way into the water, and discovering that I have several minutes of unwanted video on the chip) it has a dedicated video MODE, and it won't do stills in that mode. Lost an entire Point Hudson dive's worth of photos that way . . .

Does the zoom ring actually add a lot of extra or desireable flexibility?

Yes, it does add a lot of extra [desirable] flexibility.

Simply put, at 14 mm (widest) you have a much wider view, at 42 mm (zoomed) you have a much tighter view:

Wide (14mm):




Zoomed (38mm):



I couldn't tell you why I only zoomed out to 38 mm instead of 42 -- perhaps because, given the cold water and dry gloves, I just didn't get it all the way out. While I'm sure I was a little farther away when I took the wide angle picture, I wouldn't have been much farther away -- maybe 12 - 18 inches.

Great info! You guys are awesome! This is SO helpful....

Headed to Optical Oceans today...

Pick up the macro adapter for the standard port while you're up there, Tom. You wont be able to get good macro shots without the adapter and a 67mm diopter.......

cardiver wrote:Pick up the macro adapter for the standard port while you're up there, Tom. You wont be able to get good macro shots without the adapter and a 67mm diopter.......

Thanks Ron

I confess I have the macro adaptor, PTMC-01, and never use it. I'm just happy with the basic system:

Small fish are fine with the kit lens but if you're trying to shoot the really small stuff you need at least a +7 diopter, IMHO.....

Hell, I can't SEE the really small stuff!

I see, literally....
The change in camera also of necessity will mean a change to using strobes. So far I've gotten by with macro shots and hand held lighting with on-board strobes. Zooming was just not an option that would yield good results with that package.

Thanks for the opinions, Peter, Ron, and others. VERY helpful.

Spending money at Optical Ocean Sales - this is gonna cost a lot more before we are done, but it is the nature of the beast!

Tom Nic wrote:Spending money at Optical Ocean Sales - this is gonna cost a lot more before we are done, but it is the nature of the beast!

Wait until you buy the Zen dome and the 9-18 lens and another strobe...........

Hey! I thought this was suppose to be a cheap package......

cardiver wrote:

Tom Nic wrote:Spending money at Optical Ocean Sales - this is gonna cost a lot more before we are done, but it is the nature of the beast!

Wait until you buy the Zen dome and the 9-18 lens and another strobe...........

Trust me, I've been making those calculations

I was really mad at Scott on Saturday, because I could see at the very least another strobe coming down the pike, and I don't want to spend the money AND I don't want to deal with the complexity of the gear, either!

Perhaps we should talk to Scott about a "new" user work shop for this?
This might be a bigger learning curve.
Kirsten

Well.... Ahem.... It just so happens I missed the last strobe workshop Scott did last weekend, and I would like to do a strobe class with Scott but no fun by myself.. I can come up 2/9, is anyone else interested? I have an Oly too, so if we all went in at least we would all be shooting the same system? What do you folks think?

I cannot do a workshop till later in the month.
Finally received the correct zoom lens and am anxious to get it in the water.
Hopefully I will dive in the next couple of days in the morning.
Kirsten

Got a loaner strobe (Sea&Sea YS-27) that fires and seems to synch OK on the bench.
Does anyone have any basic manual starter settings for a first outing?
Going to work on macro to start since that is almost all my experience.
Stock 14-42 lens, no zoom ring (yet).

Peter shoots most of the time on f10 1/60. He uses TTL. I've been using my strobe on manual because Scott encourages that.

Pay close attention to where the focus box is showing up, and watch for the solid green light in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to know the focus has locked. I had a lot of trouble at the beginning with either thinking the focus was locked when it wasn't, or not realizing the camera had not focused on the part of the animal I wanted.