5050z Oly . Some feedback please

[Whitetip]

Hi Everyone ,

As a 5050z user and great fan of the model , i have a couple of questions relating to using the system underwater with the PT015 casing .

Firstly , the biggest bugbear I've encountered is the near impossibility to see anything in the viewer in very bright conditions . I've been told that some enterprising fellow painted the whole casing black and resolved the problem this way . Anyone heard of this and has comments please feel free to put in your 10 cent's worth . Also if there is any other way of resolving this very annoying problem please share your knowledge .

Secondly , shooting fast moving objects underwater . In many cases , the manual option of going for a fast shutter speed is countered by the problem of lack of light . The sport setting is supposed to resolve some of these problems , but I have had little success with it ... again some advise required . N.B , so far I'm only using the internal flash on forced mode . and the majority of shooting done on the P setting.

Finally , the problem of autofocusing the system . The half press on the shutter button to achieve focus is not the easiest operation in the world due to the lack of sensitivity , especially when using gloves . Perhaps 20 percent of my shots are a little blurry because of this . Any solutions to this ? or will just more practice be required ? And as for the metering what is the consensus on the best setting ? spot or multi ?

Grateful for your input

Dive safe

 

[chippy]

Firstly, I presume you, like me, do most of your photography in UK waters?

1) The viewfinder isn't meant to be used UW, the LCD is meant to be used for composing pics, I haven't really had any problem using the LCD, especially using the rubber LCD shade that came with the housing.

2) Yep, I have the same problem - I've been trying to get a good wrasse/pollock/pouting picture all summer and still haven't managed it!, although when I went on holiday to the carib it was much easier with the extra light. You might find that using the internal flash won't produce enough light, resulting in lower shutter speeds & wider apertures - water absorbs the light much more than air . You could try setting your exposure for the ambient light levels (manual mode makes this a little easier) and using the small amount of light from the cameras flash to "freeze" the moving fish - panning with the fish will also help, you'll need to be close though for the flash to have any effect. The other option if you had a strobe or two, would be to forget the ambient light and shoot at a much faster shutter speed, only anything lit by the strobe will come out. For instance shooting a fish in midwater would produce a black background with just the fish lit.

3) I agree, it can be really hard to find that halfway point sometimes without gloves on let alone with them. You might find that some of the out of focus shots may be due to the shutter lag too, especially moving macro shots. I've always used the mutli metering, but I've seen some great shots on this board from folks that use spot.

 

[Whitetip]

Hi Chippy

Thanks for your input , your experiences seem to match mine to a tee .

My photographing forays have taken place mostly in the Algarve , not in the UK , although they are both " green " water environments .

My comments regarding the viewfinder ... I off course meant the LCD , as you pointed out , and the problem seems to be generic to the technology . A little like trying to watch a tv set in bright sunlight , you know somethings there , but there's no definition .

I agree the rubber shade helps some , but it still leaves a lot to be desired .

As stated before , a pro photographer I met on holiday suggested painting the whole casing black to stop any ingress of light .... I'm still wondering if this would be of any help . Perhaps someone with greater knowledge of digital systems might be able to offer some pearls of wisdom .

As for an added strobe , i'm still trying to figure out if on forced flash I could still shoot at say 1/1000 shutter speed , and if this would get better results or if like my land based Pentax MX , it will only function on a 1/60 setting .

Dive safe

 

[ReyeR]

Re: the viewfinder - I've only ever had this problem in bright, shallow tropical waters. Painting it black and using the hood will probably help but YMMV. When I used to work in TV production sometimes I would have to stick my head into a cloth hood (tunnel) to view the monitor in the field. I suppose you could try it out by sticking plenty of black electrical tape on the housing.

Re: shutter speeds - Using A, S or P means the camera will determine the shutter speed or aperture or both for you. Typically, in P mode with the flash set to 'fill-in' (thunderbolt symbol) and the subject about 80cm away, the camera will use 1/100, f8 in full tele, and 1/30, f5.6 in full wide, and other interpolated values for in-between zoom settings and camera-to-subject distance. Not bad when you're fully zoomed in, poor in full wide. Why not take control of both if you're using the camera's flash or an external strobe? Try Manual mode - within the flash's range 1/125s and f5.6 would be a good place to start. The faster shutter speed will 'freeze' most motion and camera shake and prevent blurring. Using smaller apertures will increase your depth of field, further increasing the 'apparent sharpness' of the picture. If you're shooting using ambient light only (or using a weak artificial light source) and there isn't enough light, well, there isn't very much you or your camera can do - you will have to meter according to the available light and may have to sacrifice one over the other (shutterspeed/fstop) or even both.

Re: half-press - for me it was just a matter of practice and am quite comfortable with it even with gloves on.

As for an added strobe, I'm still trying to figure out if on forced flash I could still shoot at say 1/1000 shutter speed

If your question is if the camera's flash or the external strobe will sync at higher shutter speeds of the C5050, say 1/1000s, then the answer is yes. But at high shutter speeds flash exposure is another story. Normally the shutter speed, say 1/125s or 1/250s, has no influence on your flash exposure. But at very fast shutter speeds, say 1/1000s and higher, and depending on the flash tube characteristics, it will start affecting your flash exposure. Not because the flash can't sync at that shutter speed, but because shutter is fast enough to close before the flash could discharge the required amount of light. You can try this (topside) by setting your camera to M mode, flash on (slow) and F8. Compare a series of pictures with the shutter speed at 1/250, 1/500, 1/800, 1/1000, 1/1200, 1/1600 and 1/2000.