Considering Buying a Stylus 410

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Hello helpful UW Photo Gurus,

I've been wanting to get into underwater photography for the last two years. But I have steak taste on a hamburger budget. I would love a SLR set up, with housing and dual strobes, but I just can't swing it. At this point, I would enjoy just taking some pictures underwater, even if the quality is not as good as the latest tech has to offer. I would like to start the learning process and if I enjoy it, I'll upgrade when I can.

All that said, I found online a used Olympus Stylus 410 with Olympus PT-016 underwater housing (good to 40m) for $100. It seems like a good price to me, yes? Is this a good starter camera? With practice and patience, will I be able to take decent pictures? Can I attach an external strobe to this camera? Any info on the camera and advice would be appreciated. I'm not worried about wasting $100, but more conerned that this camera is way out dated.

Thanks for any responses.

PH

 

[MJSmith]

I am not familiar with the 410. I too couldn't afford a SLR for under water alone stuff. I have had a 770 and have a new Tough 8000. I have posted on these two before. Here is basically what I said:

I had one of the original Stylus 770s. That worked well for basic underwater shots, but back scatter is a problem. I bought a Sea and Sea side arm mount with the Olympus UF-1 as the external strobe to try and fix the back scatter. Works a little better. The complaint with the 770 was that on land, in low light settings, I would continually get "spots" or lens flare. I sent it back 2 times to Olympus, but they could never fix it (did charge me over $100). This summer, I took the 770 on a shallow dive (20') without the underwater housing for deep dives, and got some water leakage into the battery compartment. I stopped using it. It still works fine, but I gave it to my girlfriend since her camera died that she uses for commercail real estate. It still works fine on dry land.

I then bought the 8000. I only use it for still shots. I have never done video. It is a little better camera. I bought the PT 045 housing, and it is a good combo. Back scatter is still a problem. The Sea and Sea mount with side arm fits along with my UF-1 strobe. On the last deep wreck dive (100') I did, the gray diffuser slide that covers the flash got lost (current?), so the UF-1 AND the 8000 flash were both shining on the subject during camera shots. Major back scatter! I just found out there is a black slide that goes over the diffuser plate on the PT 045 housing that may help this. I just have to buy a sync cord to go to the strobe. I can't wait to see if that works.

The 8000 doesn't get the lens flare (low light flash spots) like the 770 did on land shots. There is still some difficuly focusing in low light settings. I also wished the zoom was more than 3X too. Still, it is a great pocket camera to just be able to throw into your shirt pocket and go, and not worry about getting wet.

Good luck!