Good morning all . . New OLY questions . . :o)

[Zorrr2]

Morning all,

I am a recent convert to the DIGITAL SIDE of UW Photography and have a few questions for you "OLY GURUS" . . ) I picked up the OLY C5050 and the OLY 015 housing, and the INON 180 Strobe and all the goodies to complete the set up. Now here are the questions . .

1. I may not be using my new system for a good while . . . like spring of next year . . . . should I remove the two main "O" Rings from the housing so they do not gain any memory from staying closed for so long . . ??

2. Now I have read MANY write ups on camera settings . . . but have not seen anything on setting up the camera for NIGHT DIVES . . . any suggestions . . ??

3. Last but not least . . . I am planning on using my IPOD to down load my memory cards while on trips . . . haaa . . its a 15 gig hard drive and should give me plenty of storage . . . is any one using the IPOD of this purpose and any insight would be appreciated . . . ??

Thanks in advance for all the help . . . )

 

[Gilligan]

1. As repsects the camera's main O rings, yes, remove them from the housing and keep them slightly greased in a zip loc bag. The same goes for the strobe O ring if it is going to be a long time before you use it. Leaving the cap off the strobe battery compartment relieves that O ring of pressure as stated right on it. However, I do not remove my D-180 O ring as I don't want to stretch it out, but I use mine about 3 or 4 times a week. If you don't want to remove it then grease it lightly and bag the whole strobe head to keep it clean.
2. I haven't done night diving with my strobe so I can't answer that for you.
3. I'm sure any storage device that works is fine. Run some tests in advance to be sure it all works well.

 

[justleesa]

what Gilligan said

 

[Dee]

Yeah....agree with Gilligan

 

[ChrisM]

A couple tips for night dives.

IF you use a spotting light, you might find that you have to pump the shutter speed up to 1/250 or above to reduce the chances of a hotspot from the spotting light.

And remember that when shooting with external strobes, the primary function of the shutter speed is to determine the exposure of the background (foreground will always be exposed, backgrund is dark with a fast shutter speed and light with a slow shutter speed. Since at night your background will always be black the shutter speed is *almost* irrelevant. If you have a focus light problem, I'd set it at 1/500 and adjust aperture from there.

I would suggest a spotting/focus light. It will help sharpen focus, and you can drop the aperture if you need tom since DOF is likely not as critical for fish sized night critters

Chris

 

[andrea31419]

Should you grease and store the o-rings for the housings after each dive? Would this be best?

 

[Dee]

Should you grease and store the o-rings for the housings after each dive? Would this be best?

I use my rig on the weekends so I remove, grease and store my housing o-rings when the weekend is over and re-install them the next weekend. On a dive trip where I use it every day, I leave them in the housing and leave the door unlatched when the camera isn't in it. After I get home, I clean everything well and store the o-rings.