C-5060 and hot shoe

[slowhands]

What oprions are there for strobes on the Olympus housing for the C-5060. Olympus says you can ONLY use their FL-20 on the shoe on the housing. I am getting a C-5060 and Olympus housing and would prefer an actual strobe designed for underwater use instead of a land flash in a plastic housing. Any thoughts?

In order of ascending price, the options are using the Olympus PT-020 housing with their tiny Olympus FL-20 in the new PFL-01 flash housing or using the new ikelite 6130.61 housing ("available March 2004") with Ikelite digital flashes.

Olympus is simply trying to protect its market by saying "you can ONLY use their FL-20 on the shoe on the housing" -- false! I happen to use several flashes on this shoe for land photography, and the best is a non-Olympus product. I use the Oly FL-20, FL-40 and Promaster 5750 with 1045 module, and the Promaster is best by far. But I like the very small size of the FL-20 too, so use it for close subjects. It is fine for macro work. It may or may not have the power for distant subjects underwater. I would not dismiss it simply because it was designed for land use. Most of the underwater flashes are way behind in technology, but are simply waterproof. You should evaluate your needs and if needed, look at the Ikelites which definitely have more output, but at a much higher price.

The Olympus 5050/5060 hot shoe electrical interface is nothing fancy, but it is a little different than the old Nikonos and Ikelite interfaces that were the standards. So Ikelite made a little converter board that slips in the hot shoe and converts the Oly flash control signals to Ikelite compatible signals. These signals then pass through the new housings' "bulkhead connector" for Ikelite strobe cables to Ikelite DS series flashes.

If you already have Sea and Sea digital flashes and you are a tinkerer, you can probably make an adapter cable that connects this new Ikelite housing connector to Sea and Sea digital flashes. Here is partial information:

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/info/tech/nikttl.html

 

[jormax]

What oprions are there for strobes on the Olympus housing for the C-5060.

Olympus says you can ONLY use their FL-20 on the shoe on the housing.

I am getting a C-5060 and Olympus housing and would prefer an actual strobe designed for underwater use instead of a land flash in a plastic housing.

Any thoughts?

I suggest you spend the extra and go with the Ike housing. Use the D125 strobe and you get true TTL. You don't need to tinker with fiber optic cords, and flash covers. I used my set up for the first time on 3/6 in the San Juans and was very pleased with the number of well exposed shots-almost all of them. As a test I shot a white nudibranch with TTL and then again with only 1/8 power-as low as the strobe would go. That shot was blown out! The TTL shot looked great.