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Epl-1 underwater in Roatan

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Bobby Handal

Bobby Handal

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Well, just came back from a short trip to Roatan, took my Epl1 with Olympus housing and a cheap intova flash, used the kit lens.

Quite happy with the results, made quite a bit of mistakes but I am learning from them. Would love to hear your comments.

















If you would like to see more photos , please visit:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v206/bobhandal/Roatan%202010/
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I especially like the second one! I'm not familiar with under water photography, so can't comment on technical things. But I don know I like these shots and they look very good to my eyes.

Thanks for sharing.

Damien
Bobby Handal said:
Well, just came back from a short trip to Roatan, took my Epl1 with Olympus housing and a cheap intova flash, used the kit lens.

Quite happy with the results, made quite a bit of mistakes but I am learning from them. Would love to hear your comments.

Click to expand...
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/bilgy_no1
 
I had seen the underwater housing so I knew it was possible.

You did get some nice results. Thanks for sharing them,

Dave
 
Finally! I think you're the first person here to share his collection of underwater shots using MFT. Now i know what the PEN is capable of. These are amazing shots!

If only someone invent an underwater housing for the E-P1/2. Sigh.

Btw, what color temperature you used for the WB?
 
Very nice pictures. Can you post technical details and your experience using the underwater camera housing and that flash?
 
Bobby,

Thanks for posting those. I do enjoy looking at underwater photography, though I have little experience of actually creating it myself.

As many seem to, I love the turtle shot. It clearly shows the detail that this little camera can capture underwater.

I also like the one with the small fish against the brain coral. Nice colours and a kind of abstract look about it. However, the coral is not sharp toward the corners of the image, which I would assume is either to do with the flat port on the housing, or the curved surface of the brain coral dropping out of the plane of focus. What aperture did you use for this shot.

There is a bit of softening in the corners of some of the other shots which leads me to believe that it may be the port. If this is something you are serious about, I gather you can get a dome port to retro fit to the olympus housing which improves the corner performance, particularly on wide angle shots.

I find the composition of some of the shots a touch centre biased for my liking, but this is a very minor point, and I am being picky here. But considering on the few occasions I have attempted underwater photography, concentrating on composition meant I stopped concentrating on bouyancy resulting in my subject getting further and further away as I rose through the water column, I shouldn't really pass comment and should instead congratulate you on either you rapid composing skills or your ability to remain neutrally bouyant without thought :)

In all though, a great collection, and there are more nice ones in your gallery.

I look forward to seeing more in the future and I hope you don't mind the (hopefully constructive) comments.

Regards

Al
 
thanks all for your kind comments. A lot of the photos are shot at ISO 500 , which in hindsight was a mistake. For some reason the the loss of detail seems more extreme in underwater photos than in topside photography.

The great majority of these photos are with available light only, majority with auto white balance. I agree that the flat port hinder the ability of sharpness on the wide angle side of things. I would love to use my 7-14mm but the dome port that the third party is offering costs the same as the housing itself.

I have the GF1 and the EP-1, but I bought the EPL-1 and housing for less $$$ than the underwater housing alone cost for any of my cameras. I love the Epl-1. I am going to convert my ep-1 to infrared soon.

The flash cost me like $140 plus the optical cable, I think it ended up costing me complet $160 from ebay. I modified one side of the optical cable and inserted it in the rubber top of the flash bay of the housing. It works great. The flash is triggered by the internal flash. I used the flash in several modes : fill, manual, etc etc.

I only snorkeled for these photos, I am sure that diving would have given me more opportunity and allow me to do a better job.











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These look very good. I am having some problems with my monitor so I can't tell exactly how good though. I have been debating whether to get this housing. I had a housed Nikon Coolpix 5400 but lost it in 2009. That did well but low light auto focus was a problem and flash sync. was only 1/60 sec. Not fast enough to stop motion blur. I understand that with Oly's pricy FL-2 and E-pl1 FP flash sync is possible at all shutter speeds. I would think though that the standard 1/160 flash sync is fast enough to freeze most motion blur. Was that an issue for you?

Thanks in advance for your response and thanks for posting.

Tedolph

P.S. right now we are using a Lumix TS-2 in a Panny housing. Not too bad. Auto focus is great and so is video but you can't keep ISO below 400 and it is a little noisy.
 
I've been using the GF1 in a 10bar housing for 9 months and will say that I wish it would sinc faster then 1/160th. It does work for most things but when it comes to things swimming fast 1/250 would be better.

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It's easier to ask for forgiveness then to ask for permission.
 
Thanks all for your comments. Really appreciated.

The housing is in fact the Olympus PT-EP01. Very nice, well made, it gives you confidence. It is a shame Olympus does not endorse ports, domes for this housing, It would be great to be able to buy cheaper ports and domes.

Yes, I did have issues with slow flash synch. Late in the afternoon, the breeze settled in and this brought waves, so underwater I would sway like a hammock. I had to time myself in order to press the shutter at around the same location that I locked the focus at.

The problem with high shutter synch is that then the background turns black or very dark, so one must compromise. Unless you take 2 strobes and a additional assistant with another strobe, this way you can light the background with one flash and light the subject well - but now your are talking big production and investment.

For the amount of money invested:

$599 Olympus EPL1 w/kit lens
$499 PT-EP01
$175 Intova ISS 2000 FLASH
1275 total investment

It would have been impossible to buy a Housing plus dome or port for say, my D700. And lets not even get started in size comparisons.

In regards to the pancake lens, I don't think is a good idea, you would be too constricted and perhaps it may vignette. Have not tested it.

I have shot with housed point and shoots and it is a big difference shooting with this camera, the shutter lag is quite shorter so no photos of just tails !!

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Very nice pictures. I haven't shot underwater pictures in twenty years-with a Nikonos IIIa and strobe. I'm thinking out loud and recall that my 35mm lens shoots 35 above water but 50mm equivalent underwater (FF - it's a 35mm film camera) due to refraction of the lens water barrier. On a E-PL1, it seeems that a 9-18 zoom would be a better choice than let's say a 20mm Panasonic. The 20mm converts to around 52mm FF equivalent when you factor in the 2x for M43 plus the 1/3 for refraction. A 9mm converts to around 24mm FF equivalent which seems to be a nice wide angle. It allows you to get in closer to eliminate the loss of light through water and get a nice angle.

Which lens do you think would be the best for the E-Pl1?
 
For me there are only two choices for 95% of my shots underwater. My 45m macro and the widest lens I have which right now is the 14-45. I've got a port for the 7-14 and am saving for the lens. I do use the 20mm for some low light diving at a site down the road from the house.
 
Very nice pictures! Thank you for posting this.

Have been eyeballing the UW case myself. Very interested in the combination of the MFT 9/18 with this case. (As yet have not been able to find any results of pics taken with this set.)

Please keep us informed about your experiences.

perry
 
Bobby Handal said:
For the amount of money invested:

$599 Olympus EPL1 w/kit lens
$499 PT-EP01
$175 Intova ISS 2000 FLASH
1275 total investment
Click to expand...
This is a great price for such a versatile package.

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It's easier to ask for forgiveness then to ask for permission.
 
How did you get the UW case for only $499.00?
 
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