Wide angle lens

[Cheddarchick]

I want a wide angle lens to go with my PT30. I have looked at this one, Sea&Sea 16mm lens. How do I mount it on the housing? I assume I have to use a step up ring, right? What is a bayonet mounting??? Is it for ease for taking off and on underwater??? Thanks for your help!!!

[Soonerwink]

I hope some of the photo experts give you some good advice, I am not one however. I am in the same position as you are. I will be following your thread, I'm also looking into a wide angle lens for my SP-350 in an OLY PT-030 housing. Do you think the following WA lense will work?
Fantasea Line | FWAL-01 WA Lens w/ 56mm Thread Includes | 5121

[Aussie]

Originally Posted by Cheddarchick

I want a wide angle lens to go with my PT30. I have looked at this one, Sea&Sea 16mm lens. How do I mount it on the housing? I assume I have to use a step up ring, right? What is a bayonet mounting??? Is it for ease for taking off and on underwater??? Thanks for your help!!!

I believe the Sea & Sea 16mm lens is for cameras like the old 35mm Nikonos and Motormarine.

There are several brands that have "wet" lenses that simply screw into the thread on the camera lens itself. A "wet" lens is a lens that can be taken off underwater. The wide angle most common thread size is 67mm and they have setup rings to screw the wet lens onto smaller camera threads. Olympus(UN), Inon are some of the brands that make them.

I had a UN wide angle on my Olympus c7070 before I went to a digital SLR. Actually I dont think that ever took it off. I even used it on macro (wide angle close ups) with great success.

Thing to look out for is bubbles trapped between the wet lens and camera (from entering the water). All you have to do is unscrew the wet lens and remove the bubbles and screw it back on. Also care should be taken when screwing the wet lens on, to stop any crossthreading. It should just screw on easlierly.

After diving care should be taken with the washing and drying of the wet lens as the coating they have on the front of the lens tends to be removed if water (salt/ fresh) is left on for a amount of time.

I remembered my first shots from using my wide angle wet lens. It was a bad VIS day and when I downloaded the shots onto my computer it look like I was diving in much clearer water than it actually was.

I highly recommend the wide angle wet lens for any compact point and shoot.

I dont like the macro wet lenses as they tend to blur the edges of the frame.

Aussie

[Cheddarchick]

Thanks Aussie!!!
I know that my lusting after all the toys for my 350 is bad..... Does it ever stop? I also want to send the camera to Ryan @ Reef photo and have it set up for TTL with the H-W converter....Man I will have so much into the outfit I can never sell it......

[Aussie]

Originally Posted by Cheddarchick

Thanks Aussie!!!
I know that my lusting after all the toys for my 350 is bad..... Does it ever stop? I also want to send the camera to Ryan @ Reef photo and have it set up for TTL with the H-W converter....Man I will have so much into the outfit I can never sell it......

It doesn't stop. You start to lust over more expensive toys

I sold my Olympus 7070 in ikelite to a guy in Poland and I ended up lossing maybe $300 from when I bought it brand new. Which is great as I used it for 18months.

dSLR's you can resell and get some money back. This is what I am going to do with my D80 in maybe 2-3years time. Upgrade to something bigger and better.

Good luck.

Aussie

[WestTnDiver]

I think the PT-30 has a 67mm screw type base like most of the Olympus housings. I recommend the Inon UWL-100. I've used one for a few years with an Oly 5050 and PT-15 housing.
I've had good luck getting stuff for a good price from a company in Japan: UWdigitalcamera.com
It's about $245+shipping
Ryan has it for $329+shipping

[diversteve]

Originally Posted by WestTnDiver

I think the PT-30 has a 67mm screw type base like most of the Olympus housings.

According to the specifications page at B&H it's a 46MM port. It's not even listed in the PT-030 users manual. They also selll a Fantasea W/A lens that has the adapter for the PT-030 housing.

[Cheddarchick]

So let me follow this..If I get an adapter that starts out at 46mm and it has what ever size adapter that would screw into whatever mm the lens has, I could use any WA lens?

Wow that was hard to spit out on a Sunday, hope you followed along

[Aussie]

Originally Posted by Cheddarchick

So let me follow this..If I get an adapter that starts out at 46mm and it has what ever size adapter that would screw into whatever mm the lens has, I could use any WA lens?

Wow that was hard to spit out on a Sunday, hope you followed along

Thats right.

Step-up rings are normally provided with the wet lens.

The wet lens normally have step up rings which screw into your camera lens. Then you screw the wet lens onto the set up ring.

Have a look at the UN lenses as I bought one very cheap. UN make the Olympus wet lenses too.

Also with using a wide angle wet lens you have to zoom in a little to stop Vignetting of the frame. I had this zoom-in set just right and saved it in one of my custom modes on my Olympus 7070. It saves alot of time.

Aussie

[Soonerwink]

Man, this is great information, looks like I will be getting a wide angle lens now also. Thanks CheddarChick for starting this thread. I saw the same thread on SB with no responses. Diving season is about over here in Oklahoma, but I will be ready next year. Can you supply some links or vendors where I can compare prices? Here is one I found, do you think it would work?
Fantasea Line | FWAL-01 WA Lens w/ 56mm Thread Includes | 5121