Northwest Dive Club

That is sharp.
Doing some review reading on the lens. Based on size, I'm assuming it fits in the stock UW case?
There is also a switch on the lens barrel that seems to set it up for various focal ranges. That would have to be set before the dive and then you are locked into that focal range?

I have the 5 and it fits in the stock housing just fine .

I just picked up the Zen Pen 100 semi dome for the 9-18 Oly lens. I'll be using this with the 14-42 kit, the 60 macro and the 9-18 ( when I get it).

I got a dome port and the 9-18 lens for Christmas, and we had also picked up a second Inon D2000 strobe. I found that the combination of the second strobe and arms and the port made the camera setup VERY negative (my trim went to pot!). I'm still trying to figure out how to fix that. My first dive, with two pieces of pool noodle on the arms, got the camera back to mildly negative, but despite the zipties I used, the pool noodles shrank enough for me to lose one of them.

You need to put floats on the strobe arms . I have 2.5 Stix floats on each arm and it's still a bit negative.

Optical Oceans has non-crushable foam floats. I tried pipe insulation. It looked pretty pathetic at 60'. The commercial floats work.

Those are the Stix floats. They leave my kit slightly negative, which I prefer.....

cardiver wrote: Sharpest lens I own......
Great for macro and for portraits as the lens has fantastic bokeh.
Here's a pic that I took of my son with the 60 2.8 just to show you how sharp it is.....

Still new to all the photography lens, but are you talking about the Olympus MZ 60mm Macro?

KneeDeep wrote:

cardiver wrote: Sharpest lens I own......
Great for macro and for portraits as the lens has fantastic bokeh.
Here's a pic that I took of my son with the 60 2.8 just to show you how sharp it is.....

Still new to all the photography lens, but are you talking about the Olympus MZ 60mm Macro?

Yes. 60mm 2.8 macro for m4/3 cameras........

cardiver wrote:Those are the Stix floats. They leave my kit slightly negative, which I prefer.....

+1 on the Stix floats. I have only 2 on my rig (only 1x strobe) and it is only slightly neg. Had it down to 125' last night and there was no different then if I was at 10'

I haven't talked with Scott Lundy or Dennus Baum (or anyone else for that matter!) but I'm wondering if there is interest in having a class specifically aimed at the E-PLx shooters?

I know both Scott and Dennus and neither of them shoot E-Plx's but they are both excellent shooters and good teachers.

So, any interest in a class? If so, let's start a list and if enough interest, I'll try to put a class together.

Thanks:

List:

Peter Rothschild

Problems and hardware QA.
My E-PL1 started eating battieries when sitting. I sent it in under warranty, got it back > it's better now but whatever ....tiny....battery is on the 'motherboard' to retain settings is either missing or dead. I cannot switch batteries fast enough to retain the date and time. No biggie, I simply remove the battery, then charge, replace and set just before diving.

I don't see this as a "one off" problem. Knowing that camera development continues, meaning no longer available to fit the housing, I bought a couple spares off Craig's List, plus my wife got one. Out of 4 cameras 3 of them have this problem. That's a pretty high rate.

Just recently my wife's camera (the only one without the battery flaw...Murphy's Law) quit firing the flash. No flash > no strobe. Took a couple days to figure that one out as we first suspected the strobe, then strobe batteries, then the optical cord. Glad we had a backup as we were in the Philippines.

Anyone else got any of these problems? Any solutions? I can't see any easy way to fix the flash, and at this point it certainly is not likely to be worth sending to Olympus for repair.
***

Use note - recently added a 2nd strobe (1st one also started eating batteries while sitting, fixed under 'generous' Sea and Sea warranty) and like the results, except for the carrying it around part. Also started using a +5 wet diaopter for macro and recently added a +2 and sometimes a +4 to it for extreme macro work. It's nice to be able to pop it off and return to the stock lens when a wider shot is desired. It seems to work almost as well as my wifes dedicated $400 60mm lens.

Wow -- we have three of them, and none eats batteries, and all three flashes fire.

fmerkel wrote:Use note - .....
Also started using a +5 wet diaopter for macro and recently added a +2 and sometimes a +4 to it for extreme macro work. It's nice to be able to pop it off and return to the stock lens when a wider shot is desired. It seems to work almost as well as my wifes dedicated $400 60mm lens.

Would be interested in links for this wet diaopter, as I've considered getting a 60mm, and this might an option for me.

I first got a +5 SubSee ($200) from Optical Oceans. [https://www.opticaloceansales.com/reefn ... -lens.html]
I saw a lot of this brand on top notch gear at the Philippines so it's well respected.
You also need the pop-off lens protector to screw it in to for $50 for the E-PL1.

Based on a recommendation from this group I picked up a pack of AGFA diaptors from Amazon for $15. [
At my skill and photography level I can't much tell the difference between that +5 and the Agfa +2 stacked and my wife's 60mm. They certainly aren't as large or heavy as the SubSee and I find myself using the +10 a lot for small stuff. For that price it's worth a trial.
Another issue it that lens 60mm is touchy to focus and needs a LOT of light. She had to dump another $200 into a suitable focus light. It's sort of the equivalent of a 120mm on a DSLR so you get great magnification, BUT you can't get really close. It is not a true macro, so much as a 'distance' macro. The depth of field at close range is very small which has screwed up a lot of photos. OTOH, when it nails a good shot it is a damn good shot.

The camera is getting old enough now to need batteries - PS-BLS1.
Stock battery claims to be 1100mA. Replacement $33 (Amazon) Generally the stock batteries are at least decent.

There are LOTS of other options for much cheaper which.....claim....to have MORE capacity (mA). This, of course, is complete BS. Probably the higher the claim, the lower the actual capacity. There's only so much you can 'stuff' into a package of that size, buy you can put anything you want on the label.

I just did a test on a brand new NEEWER (Amazon-cheap) which claims to be 1500mA. Tested at a 0.2A draw to 6.4v I got 760mA, about half the claim.

Anyone found a battery that's decent for substantially less than the stock? This would be particularly useful if you have the tools to support that.