Anyone used an Olympus FE-280?

[myrtlebeachbums]

I'm wondering if my FE-280 has burst mode? I'm guessing it will as my other Olympus does. I'll have to mess with it and find out. On my other Olympus (a C720 I think) you set it to this, hold down the button, and take three pictures fast. It makes for kind of a "snap 'n pray" situation. Considering the 2 GB xD RAM card holds 999 pictures that may be the mode I leave it in.

I was seriously considering the SeaLife ReefMaster Mini and the ECOshot as the LDS had one of the two. Price seemed reasonable, and 6 megapixel compared to the 8 megapixel of the FE-280 didn't seem that much worse. (Let's face it - I rarely print my pictures, so no matter how many megapixels it has I'm only going to view it at a max of 1600x1200 on my big LCD monitor.)

Anyway the stat I saw that scared me off of the SeaLife and helped me make my decision on getting the FE-280 was that the battery life on the SeaLife was pathetic. I don't remember where I saw it - probably on an Amazon.com review - but someone said that a brand new set of AA batteries lasted 5 minutes when shooting video with the SeaLife. That's very, very unacceptable to me.

By comparison if you look at the parade pictures I listed above, I had the FE-280 on for the entire parade. That meant the screen on the back was on the entire time, and from my experience that really eats batteries for lunch. Not the FE-280. Using a no-name non-oem battery that I got in a 2 for 1 deal off of eBay it lasted the entire parade and had some life left in it. Very, very good battery life.

I figure from this experience that I'm bringing the battery that came with the FE-280 as well as both of the fully charged batteries I got off eBay when I go diving off West Palm Beach. I expect that one battery will last for an entire dive. From a "what I hope to get for battery life in a camera" perspective I don't think I can ask for more.

Now here's hoping it's underwater pictures are as good as its battery life.

 

[myrtlebeachbums]

Even in bright light, I noticed on your parade pics that there is some blur in moving objects.

The one thing I'd caution against coming to this conclusion is that I did no RTFM'ing before taking that FE-280 out for the parade. I'm sure that actually reading the manual and understanding the way it works might lead to better pictures.

Now to convince myself to actually read those directions in the next two weeks before I hit West Palm...

 

[pennypue]

I've got the FE-230 and there is a shutter lag. It's not meant to be a professional model. Shutter lag varies based upon the memory card and the resolution. Setting the camera to maximum resolution and using a slow memory card will lead to 5 second or so lag times. Using the higher speed memory cards and a medium resolution will speed things up, maybe in half based upon some unscientific tests (the mississippi method)...

I've found that in situations where I need the speed, I flip the camera onto movie mode... take 20 or 30 seconds of movies and then take a frame from the clip. Not the best but works and I don't have to deal with the lag. Works great when you've got moving subjects like sea lions or whatever.

Dave

I've got an FE-230 too, at Dave's suggestion .

I use it for snapshots, underwater. I've used it a few times in green quarries, and it made the quarries look green and murky, quite accurately. And snapshots topside too.

The thing I really like about it is the really small size. I stuff it in my drysuit pocket on cave dives. Great for pulling out on a stop and alleviating boredom.

And for the price of the housing and the camera combined it's a nice option to have in my pocket on a dive when I don't want to mess with a bigger camera, housing and two strobes!!

 

[NJMike]

I downloaded the manual for the FE-280 and there is no reference to being able to operate the camera manually, except that you can manually adjust the white balance.

pennypue, my "home lake" is Dutch Springs in PA and the average visibility is 20-30 feet. While I would not expect the clarity as Dave will get off Palm Beach, it would be nice to get some decent pictures, or at least have fun trying!

The shutter lag is the thing that I keep going back to. Hmm...just had a thought. I wonder if there is a support link off their website where someone might be able to answer the question as far as what they claim the shutter lag would be.

Dave....in those parade pictures....you said you had an estimated 3 second shutter lag?

 

[NJMike]

I just called Olympus support and they do not have a shutter lag time given for the FE-280.

He said there was a P mode which automatically adjusts the aperture and shutter speed, and a WB adjust. He also said that the shutter lag should be greater underwater.

So at this point I guess I'm still sitting on the fence.

 

[pennypue]

I downloaded the manual for the FE-280 and there is no reference to being able to operate the camera manually, except that you can manually adjust the white balance.

pennypue, my "home lake" is Dutch Springs in PA and the average visibility is 20-30 feet. While I would not expect the clarity as Dave will get off Palm Beach, it would be nice to get some decent pictures, or at least have fun trying!

The shutter lag is the thing that I keep going back to. Hmm...just had a thought. I wonder if there is a support link off their website where someone might be able to answer the question as far as what they claim the shutter lag would be.

Dave....in those parade pictures....you said you had an estimated 3 second shutter lag?

I'll try to see if I can post some quarry pics for you this weekend.

 

[myrtlebeachbums]

Okay folks. My PT-038 housing finally came in yesterday, and I didn't want to have the camera in the water for the first time on my up-coming trip to West Palm Beach so I hit the pool at the LDS today.

Here's a link to the pictures and video I shot: Picasa Web Albums - Dave - 2007-12-15 In...

PLEASE NOTE: I still have not RTFM'd for the camera, so there's quite a bit of learning on it for me to do still. I did make a point of reading the PT-038 manual because I did not want my own stupidity to translate into a flooded housing & ruined camera. I can sum the PT-038 manual up as "It's all about the O-ring." They recommend you inspect it after every use, and that it be replaced once a year - maybe more frequently depending on how much you use it / it wears. They've said that even a single hair can compromise the integrity of the seal, so be very, very careful when inspecting it prior to use.

The pictures from the link above are scaled down from the full resolution to the maximum size that Picasaweb will allow me. I tried taking pictures far away, close up, REALLY close up, etc. It seems that if you use the telephoto to zoom right in that things can get a little fuzzy. The macro mode works well though. The key seems to be get closer for better pictures.

I have no strobe other than what's on the camera. I'm not ready to make that purchase yet, and I'll see if that need arises or not.

I made a specific point of telling the guy running the LDS to please leave the lights off in the pool, and he left the lights off in the pool room as well. I remember reading that the reef dives I'll be doing in West Palm will be 40+ feet down, and I wanted to see how well the camera did in a lower light condition.

It seems to do fairly well. I tried all the different underwater modes, and honestly I didn't see a huge difference between Underwater Wide 1 and 2. I'll have to mess with it more.

...and as for the topic that a few of you have asked about repeatedly, the shutter lag seems to be about 4 seconds underwater. That's using all automatic settings. I don't know if tweaking the settings would decrease the lag, or if better lighting would have any effect. Again, more time messing with it will probably make a difference.

Finally, I must say that the battery life was outstanding. I took pictures last night at our company Christmas party, and may have taken a few pictures before that too. Today I was in the tank for a little over an hour, and it was on for the better part of that hour. (Focused on my neutral buoyancy skills for a little bit and then I pretty much zoned out on messing with the camera after that.) After all of this use, plus the addition of unloading the camera into the computer a few times, the battery still says it has a full charge. This is with the Olympus battery that came with the camera. You may recall that previously my experience with the non-OEM batteries I purchased off eBay seemed to be really good. The Olympus battery is even better. I'm sure they cost more than what I paid for the non-OEM batteries I got off eBay, but depending on how long you're going to be underwater it might be money well spent for a spare Olympus made battery for a multiple dive day.

I also tested to see if the camera and housing were buoyant or not. Nope. I took it off my wrist and it promptly sank. Not quickly. It won't double as a weight for you. It did sink though. The PT-038 has a nice strap on it that has an adjustable catch to prevent it from falling off your wrist. Much like your Wiimotes if you have a Nintendo Wii, it looks like it'd pay to use this strap and have it properly adjusted every time so accidents don't occur.

The only potential problem I can see is one so petty I have difficulty even bringing it up. You have to remove the camera strap before loading it into the underwater enclosure. To me this is a bit of a pain, but one I'm willing to live with. The problem is that removing that strap seems to be a lost strap waiting to happen. As of this moment I still have no idea where I've misplaced the darn thing. I expect that this may be a common thing for people with the FE-280 and the PT-038.

No, I haven't had a chance to have this out in open water yet, but from what I've used this camera both in and out of the water so far I can definitely say that if I had to purchase this camera and housing over again I would do it. I'm very impressed so far.

Hope this answers a few questions for everyone,
- Dave

 

[NJMike]

pennypue, please post pics (sorry, got lost in the p's).

Dave, thanks for all the info. The Olympus website has a good list of FAQ, which in part has pretty much convinced me to give this camera a try as my first one.

Comments/questions:

were the closeup pics of your face in macro mode? Those were awesome, but don't get any ideas, I'm happily married....

the movie was definitely grainy...and I would think that the pool would be very nice, clean, clear water...and I thought the movie was dark and grainy. That's not too big a deal for me, since I'm not really interested in the camera to take movies.

Did you use the DIS (digital image stabilization) in the pics that were blurry? The Olympus site would have you believe that digital stabilization is better than optical stabilization (and I have no reason to dispute this since I know squat about photography). They say that digital stablization will compensate for subject movement whereas optical stabilization will not.

The price of this camera, including the housing, is very good compared to other cameras, and that is a consideration.

Ok, pennypue, please post the pics. (There goes those p's again!)

 

[Larry C]

It seems to do fairly well. I tried all the different underwater modes, and honestly I didn't see a huge difference between Underwater Wide 1 and 2. I'll have to mess with it more.

...and as for the topic that a few of you have asked about repeatedly, the shutter lag seems to be about 4 seconds underwater.
- Dave

The difference between UW wide 1 and UW wide 2 is that UW 2 is prefocused at about 15 feet to eliminate the autofocus. It's supposed to allow a faster shot for moving subjects in open water. This would be applicable if you were swimming with a Dive Leader and a Turtle or Shark came along that you wanted to get a quick picture of. If you anticipated that situation, you could leave the camera in UW Wide 2 until you got to the reef or wherever you're being taken.

 

[NJMike]

Larry, sorry for a dumb question...but reference your explanation of the difference between UW1 and UW2...does that meant that you would have to wait until the subject was 15 feet away before taking the picture...and that anything closer or farther would be out of focus?