Couple of TG-6 questions...

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TruckDiver1981

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Hi all. After the demise of my Canon point and shoot, I am looking at getting a new camera. A good friend of mine, who is an amazing underwater photographer has recommended the TG-6, which I think I will be going for. My budget is a bit limited. I can afford the Olympus bundle with camera and housing direct from Olympus but I couldn’t afford say the camera then a Nauticam housing. Is the Olympus one good enough as such, and are you able to add wet lenses/strobes etc as and when I can afford to do so? I have a dive trip in 3 weeks so want to be getting it ordered so I have it ready to go
 
Yes, you can add/remove wet lenses with the Oly housing (52 mm threads).

The Oly housing gives you access to all of the buttons/controls of the camera.

Remember, the camera is water resistant; if the housing leaks the camera should survive.
 
Is the Olympus one good enough as such, and are you able to add wet lenses/strobes etc as and when I can afford to do so?
Yes, and Yes.
 
The Backscatter M52 Air lens is what I use with the OEM housing, and it works great - well, at least when I remember to burp the lens when I get to the bottom. Too many times already I've forgotten and then have an air bubble photobombing my pictures for the dive. :)

As for strobes, I use a single (double at some point in the not-too-distant-future) Inon S2000 and love it. Great form factor that doesn't make the package too big, yet delivers some great light.
 
Well I have bitten the bullet and ordered one from Olympus with the housing, really looking forward to trying it!
 
I have a TG5 and I've had the stock Olympus housing down to 50+ metres, and regularly past 30 metres, and it has yet to show any leaks. The other tech housings look nice but are probably overkill unless you're going to 60+ metres.

I do periodically rinse off and re-lube the main o ring, carefully so as not to stretch, twist or damage it, and I do stuff like submerge in fresh water after diving and press all the buttons to get the fresh water in there, then shake it out.

There is no shutter speed setting on my camera, but you can force it into a faster shutter speed range by turning down the exposure setting. This works great in conjunction with a good dive torch, or even ambient light video.

Also definitely learn how to use the manually calibrated white balance mode, for example go to your target depth, and do a white balance capture on the sand or something white/gray at the beginning of the dive. Sure, you could fix the white balance later in RAW or advanced video editors (e.g. Kdenlive), but it's way less work to just get your setting right at capture time, WiFi the catch onto your phone using the app, and gram away while the housing is still drying out with the camera safely inside.

You don't need frames, video lights or strobes. I'm getting great shots, whether lit up by hand torch, or macro, or ambient wide, both stills and video. Keep it small for travel, and as a tech diver I love being able to just put the whole bare camera+housing into a wetsuit/drysuit pocket so it's gone/safe/out of the way. No fussing around passing it down/up boats either.
 
July 2019: I had a G16 in Ikelite TTL housing for many years, but wanted something in a smaller housing to use as a 'scooter camera'. After much looking and reading reviews, I bought the TG-6 and PT-059 housing (July 2019) when they first came out. I dove the camera with my DPV for a year, using it on every on of those dives. I got some pretty good photos too.

July 2020: I sold it this year in July, sadly just after Olympus started dropping the price by a lot. <sigh>

I am going back to my Canon G16, but I did buy a Nauticam NA-G16 housing for it. It's MUCH smaller than the Ikelite housing and allows optical strobe control (not really available on the Ikelite without some hand fabrication). I will use the Inon S2000 strobe I got for the TG-6 with the G16.

Mostly what I discovered is that I'm a Canon person. (I have had many other Canon cameras over the years). Turns out I'm not really an Oly person.
 
July 2019: I had a G16 in Ikelite TTL housing for many years, but wanted something in a smaller housing to use as a 'scooter camera'. After much looking and reading reviews, I bought the TG-6 and PT-059 housing (July 2019) when they first came out. I dove the camera with my DPV for a year, using it on every on of those dives. I got some pretty good photos too.

July 2020: I sold it this year in July, sadly just after Olympus started dropping the price by a lot. <sigh>

I am going back to my Canon G16, but I did buy a Nauticam NA-G16 housing for it. It's MUCH smaller than the Ikelite housing and allows optical strobe control (not really available on the Ikelite without some hand fabrication). I will use the Inon S2000 strobe I got for the TG-6 with the G16.

Mostly what I discovered is that I'm a Canon person. (I have had many other Canon cameras over the years). Turns out I'm not really an Oly person.
To be fair, you are a G16 person, not a TG6 person. Apples and oranges.
 
To be fair, you are a G16 person, not a TG6 person. Apples and oranges.

No, I'm a Canon person. AE-1, T70, AT1 (given), A1 (inherited), D40, A570IS (first 'good' underwater camera), 7D (current underwater DLSR camera), G16 (once again scooter camera).

I just like the way the Canon works.

(kinda like my wife has owned several Pfaff sewing machines and loves thew while her sister is a Bernina lover)

I think it all depends on which system you got into first. Eventually you have enough of the accessories that it's really too expensive to switch.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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