Few years ago, a 'new comer' has been introduced to digital photography society, the mirrorless technology. A new 'approach' of digital camera system which offers better experiences compared to DSLR system. Some of those advances are: smaller size (travel friendly), image quality, faster auto focus, lower noise, connectivity, and quietness.
When it comes to advance underwater photography, the first thing we imagine must be a bulky DSLR system, and this is true. Mirrorless technology (which mostly smaller then DSLR in size) still have smaller market share compared to the compact and DSLR cameras, which also the case for underwater photography. This is also due to less vary of options for underwater setup currently available. Hence, most people still have hesitance to 'try' this new technology or completely shifting from 'common' DSLR to different world, the mirrorless systems. Currently there have been three serious players in mirrorless technology, Sony and the mirco four third (MFT) gank leaders, the Olympus and Panasonic, while Canon and Nikon are trying to catch up.
Among the few options in mirrorless technology, Olympus and Panasonic is starting to be more serious to grab more market share. Within last couple of years, they have been introducing some of their new product line of cameras, the OMD and Pen series (Olympus) and G series (Panasonic).
Ok, I will stop here talking about the current situation of underwater photography around the globe. I will jump right in to share my experience using the Olympus OM-D E-M5 for my underwater photography.
My Olympus OM-D E-M5
Olympus OM-D E-M5 is new flagship camera from Olympus which was released in 2012. Although it was released quite sometimes ago, this camera still has the more advance technology compared to most cameras today, let's say touch screen, 5-axis stabilization, and super fast AF. When it comes to underwater photography, Olympus makes this camera a serious contender for existing leading camera brands (Canon, Nikon, and Sony). Olympus has released underwater housing for this, including dome and flat ports. In the other hand, Nauticam and Ikelite also have been joining to provide more housing options for OM-D E-M5 to the market. Moreover, both of the third party brands including Zen and Inon have released various options for fisheye, wide angle, and macro port for the existing housing.
Currently I consider myself a wide angle enthusiast. My personal setup for OM-D E-M5 is:
- Lens: Olympus Zuiko 8mm Fisheye Pro f1.8
- Olympus Housing PT-EP08
- Inon Dome Port EP02
- Strobe: YS-D2 and YS-25 Auto.
This is my first interchangeable lens underwater camera, an upgrade from my previous Canon G16. Hence, I cannot compare the OM-D E-M5 to other camera in the same segment.
General Impression
In general, OM-D E-M5 is a great underwater camera, especially when it coupled with high quality lens. I use the Olympus Zuiko 8mm Fisheye Pro f1.8 which is I'm very satisfied with the quality. The OM-D E-M5 is one of the fastest AF in the market, and I found this very useful when taking photograph underwater. You will not missed important moment, or when trying to capture a fast moving animal like the anemone fish. As you see below, I managed to capture important moment which only occurred in split seconds. What I have to do just aim and press the shutter, and let the camera thinking about the focus.
This pipe fish was captured in split second, he came at the right moment. The AF work flawlessly to capture the fish in focus (F14, 1/250).
This photo was taken very quick. I didn't have much time to compose and lose this sweet moment. I aimed my camera and fire. Impressively, the exposure is perfect, and the focus landed on the seahorse as I expected (F11, 1/125).
In terms of image quality, OM-D E-M5 produced excellent images. I found the color accuracy is amazing, even by only using auto white balance with strobe underwater. Coupled with the Olympus Zuiko 8mm Pro, this camera produced excellent fisheye image, sharp and beautiful color. I use RAW+Jpeg most of the time shooting underwater. This is important to be able to adjust the white balance later on. However, since the color accuracy is great, I rarely change the white balance during post processing.
In terms of battery performance, I can do 3 consecutive dives a day without any warning of low battery, which is also very pleasing. Even you can push it for the 4th dive (if you will) with some juice left at the end of the day. The best way to use OM-D E-M5 for underwater is of course using off camera flash strobe(s). This camera is able to set to the manual flash setting. Even we can set the power down to 1/64, which is very useful to reduce the battery drain. My personal setting is at 1/8 of flash power, although lower power still works well to trigger the off camera flash strobes. I do have backup battery, but I've never use it at all.
Overall, I have no complain and very satisfied with this setup. Once again, this camera delivers excellent image quality, low noise, color accuracy, excellent battery life, and one of the most important thing is the very fast AF. However, it's important to note that you need a high performance SD memory card, to make sure smooth operation when you record in RAW file format.
Video performance is also no question about it. Altough it can only record up to 30fps fullHD movie, but the result was still amazing. Using the M. Zuiko 8mm fisheye lens we can create a unique close focus wide angle video. As most of underwater camera, it struggles to get perfect white balance without color filter or by manually adjusting the white balance. I'm not very much into video, but below is one sample footage that I took in Manado, North Sulawesi.
If you consider to get this one, there are several guides available online. This is one of the very good reference: http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/olympus-omd-em5-best-underwater-settings.
You can find more photos from my camera here and here
For other technical features of this camera, please refer to piles of references available online.
Please feel free to drop your comment and question.
Busy reef at Bunaken (F13, 1/250)
Healthy reef of Bunaken (F13, 1/250)
Lovely fisheye effect from the M. Zuiko 8mm Pro fisheye lens (F11, 1/250).
Advantage of fisheye when photographing the whole ship wreck.
The M. Zuiko 8mm pro produced a pleasingly sharp image (F2.8, 1/100).
Olympus PT-EP08 Housing and Inon EP02 Dome Port
