Buying advice - swimming camera!

kelpdiver wrote:

Architeuthis wrote:

I would house the EM1II for WA (e.g. 8mm fisheye with 4" (or Nauticam 140) domeport; in case you can invest more money, I recommend the Canon 8-15mm fisheye for comparable IQ, but more flexibility in angle of view). For Macro I would continue to use the TG, as a first step...

Freedivers that want the very best IQ (at natural light, that is always low), go often with FF camera and Nauticam WACP (or a fisheye behind Nauticam 140 domeport) for WA, but EM1II is already very good...

Wolfgang

just don't tell her the price tags on any of these!

He, he - so welcome to the world of UW photography...

Maybe Magies problem with IQ on the TG is that she does not know yet how to work around the lack of manual mode with this camera. I do not use TG, but have heard that UW-photographers have paradigms to achieve this, e.g.:

https://www.backscatter.com/reviews/post/Olympus-TG-5-Best-Underwater-Camera-Settings

https://www.uwphotographyguide.com/olmypus-tg-5-tg-6-settings

http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/olympus-tg-5-settings-for-underwater-photography-video/

Maybe this helps and then there is no reason to make any investment, an additional wet WA lens may provide more creative possibilities. When the aim is to shoot friends splashing in the water, a TG is, to my opinion, more than sufficient. But of course this is a hobby and so what is the optimum is very personal ..

I doubt that a "naked" compact camera with standard optics and -port will be a substantial upgrade, worth the money. In order to be so, that will require a WA wetlens as e.g. WWL-1, not to talk about diopters for macro and flashes. And then the bulkiness and price tag looks different...

Therefore I recommend to house the EM1II with fisheye (eventually Maggie already owns the 8mm Zuiko or Pana) with a minidome. The minidome sells for 900$ and a Nauticam housing for EM1II for 2000$ (I got my NA-EM1II second hand two years ago for 1300$). Admittedly the Canon 8-15mm fisheye is an excellent, but expensive lens. A "relatively" cheap (cheap in terms of UW-photography ) and still very good alternative is the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye with Metabones 1x adapter (In case the native 8mm fisheye is not already owned, this is the lens to go when on budget). This, to my opinion, would be a great setup for a freediver...

When I go snorkeling I usually do not take lights and flashes with me (too bulky, when snorkelling with animals as e.g. the dolphins below), just EM1II, housing, domeport (in my case the Nauticam 140 domeport, but Zen DP100 miniport would be very similar, even less bulky) and fisheye (in my case Canon 8-15mm, but Zuiko or Pana 8mm will be identical, however without the possibility to zoom out). See here examples:

Snorkeling with a 180° fisheye (Canon 8-15mm @9mm in this case; Nauticam domeport 140mm)

This one shows the advantage of a zoom fisheye (taken @15mm; Canon 8-15mm and Nauticam domeport 140)

My wife snorkeling with a similar setup: EM5II in Nauticam housing, Zen DP170 and Tokina 10-17mm fisheye. Photographed with my EM1II "snorkeling" setup described above...

Wolfgang