Looking for Underwater Filter suitable for Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom

[Sylvie]

Hi

I'm looking for an underwater filter for my digital Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom. I've contacted the Olympus rep office here in Switzerland, but they were unable to help me. Instead they suggested that I contact Hama. The problem is Hama Switzerland doesn't know which of their filters is appropriate to use my with camera & it's Olympus underwater housing. There must be other lens manufacturers that produce filters suitable for this camera model as well. Any suggestions and reviews would be most welcome, as I'm certainly not getting much help from photo shops, or companies here. I need to get a filter by next week, so any info I can get which simplifies my choices would be great.

Cheers

Sylvie

 

[CUunderH2O]

The only ones I've seen are the ones listed here, out of the UK: http://www.camera-shop.co.uk/acatalog/UR_Pro_Filters.html

EDIT: oops, they only ship to UK addresses. only useful if you know someone who lives there. Sorry!

 

[RonFrank]

Provide a list of accessory options, did you look???

For this camera there is a converter that is required (CLA-4). This allows the lens to be used with filters and accessory lenses.

The threads are 55mm.

It would apper that this *adapter* addes a bit of length to the front of the lens, so I'm not sure if it would work with an UW housing.

BTW, what filter do you *need* for UW photography? I really can not think of many benifits to adding filters for general photography as one can easily *filter* the image in software with better precision.

Ron

Hi

I'm looking for an underwater filter for my digital Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom. I've contacted the Olympus rep office here in Switzerland, but they were unable to help me. Instead they suggested that I contact Hama. The problem is Hama Switzerland doesn't know which of their filters is appropriate to use my with camera & it's Olympus underwater housing. There must be other lens manufacturers that produce filters suitable for this camera model as well. Any suggestions and reviews would be most welcome, as I'm certainly not getting much help from photo shops, or companies here. I need to get a filter by next week, so any info I can get which simplifies my choices would be great.

Cheers

Sylvie

 

[RonFrank]

Save you $$$, and do it in software. Here are some better options (less expensive, and not limited to two sizes that will NOT fit this camera).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=breadCrumb&A=search&Q=&ci=260

You would need the adapter, and a filter which is going to run you $100. Most of these are special order, so if you local stores do NOT have them a week may not be realistic.

I'm guessing you will loose at least one stop of light, but the specs on most of these do not bother to say...

Ron

The only ones I've seen are the ones listed here, out of the UK: http://www.camera-shop.co.uk/acatalog/UR_Pro_Filters.html

EDIT: oops, they only ship to UK addresses. only useful if you know someone who lives there. Sorry!

 

[Sylvie]

Thanks for the very quick replies guys

I am aware that I need an adapter. I should have mentioned that in my original posting. I am also aware that once I have the adapter and the filter, it might not fit in the housing properly. I haven’t found anything on the internet about this for my particular model. This is why I've been requesting help for the manufacturers directly for the past few weeks. I am also aware that time is running short, but I remain optimistic because there are specialty photo shops in the area. Additionally the rep offices are also within 30 minutes driving distance for me, so as in the past I can pick up accessories directly. The problem is no one seems to be able to advise me on an appropriate lens.

Clearly I can compensate by adjusting the camera settings before the dives, and also edit the photos afterwards using photo software as necessary. I do this already, but it is a long and cumbersome process, particularly since I literally have several hundreds of underwater photos after a liveaboard or dive holiday. I think it would be more cost effective to spend a bit of money on a filter rather than to spend weeks of free time editing photos. As the saying goes – time is money.

 

[RonFrank]

Clearly I can compensate by adjusting the camera settings before the dives, and also edit the photos afterwards using photo software as necessary. I do this already, but it is a long and cumbersome process, particularly since I literally have several hundreds of underwater photos after a liveaboard or dive holiday. I think it would be more cost effective to spend a bit of money on a filter rather than to spend weeks of free time editing photos. As the saying goes – time is money.

You will loose at LEAST a stop of light with the filter, make sure that does not make the difference between usable settings, and not.

Editing images is part of photography, and a filter is not going to magically eliminate the need to edit. In fact if you use a flash as a main light source, the filter will be a problem.

You want to develop an efficient workflow to handle basic editing needs. For example, if you shoot 100 images under similar water conditions, most all are going to need about the same level of channel adjustments. Rather than performing this process 100 times, you can setup an action in PhotoShop, put all the images you want to edit in ONE folder, and run the action.

This type of processing can make a HUGE job simple, and time effective. Once the action completes, then it's time to decide what image you really want to work with.

If you have several hunderd *KEEPERS* after a week of diving, than you should evaluate your standards for editing. I'm positive you will NOT be printing 8x10's of several hundred different shots for mounting, framing and display. If you have 10 good shots of a paticular subject, pretend you have to submit ONE to a magazine for publication, and spend time on THAT image rather than attempting to do final images adjustments on all ten images.

Enjoy the trip.

Ron

 

[Sylvie]

Hi Ron

It’s clear that I will loose light with a filter. Like with any new gadget, I’m expecting to go through an experimental phase with it. Till I’ve tested it a few times, I won’t know exactly how it will affect my settings under the given conditions.

I don’t always use a flash or flash light when I taking underwater photos. It all depends on the subject, the amount of natural sunlight, and water conditions etc. I avoid it if possible. Sometimes using an external light is fine, other times however I’ve noticed that it makes the photos worse, particularly if there is plankton because the flash makes the plankton reflective. How exactly will a filter affect the use of a flash?

By the way, I don’t keep all my photos and don’t edit all of them either. Of course I delete the blurry ones, and only keep the best one(s) of the same subject. Most of the photos are pretty decent, particularly considering that I’m a relative newbie to underwater photography and I don’t have professional or even semi-professional equipment. Nevertheless, I admittedly keep some photos that are not award winning quality, simply because they mean something to me and I want to remember the moment i.e. like diving at a famous wreck and being followed by one of my favourite fish – the Napoleon wrasse. I rarely ever print my digit photos so that’s not an issue to me. However when I have time, I crop selected photos to get a better frame. After all, it’s not always easy to shoot a moving fish perfectly in the centre of the frame. If necessary I also try to correct the colour. I tend only to correct the colour on photos that I am cropping. Otherwise I’d have to correct most of the ones taken at deeper depths. Thanks for the editing tip using adobe Photoshop. I didn’t know about it. I will be worth testing it on those underwater photos that are too blue due to the limited light at depth. Should I attach a few samples to show you what I mean?

 

[RonFrank]

Hi Sylvie,

Comments in text.

Hi Ron

I don’t always use a flash or flash light when I taking underwater photos. It all depends on the subject, the amount of natural sunlight, and water conditions etc. I avoid it if possible. Sometimes using an external light is fine, other times however I’ve noticed that it makes the photos worse, particularly if there is plankton because the flash makes the plankton reflective. How exactly will a filter affect the use of a flash?

The flash is balanced to daylight. This varies with models, but about 5500K. The filter is colored to enhance various color underwater because the water filters those colors. Red is the first color to die.

If you use the filter UW WITH a flash as the primary lightsource, then the effect would be similar to just putting on the filter and shooting on a sunny day.... Likely NOT good.

So if you can remove the filter at will, then NP, do so if wanting to use flash. If not, then you will have to decide if you want to use flash or not for each dive.

Nevertheless, I admittedly keep some photos that are not award winning quality, simply because they mean something to me and I want to remember the moment i.e. like diving at a famous wreck and being followed by one of my favourite fish – the Napoleon wrasse.

Of course!! The reason most of us shoot photo's on a vacation is NOT because there are no photo's available of the area we are in, but to capture OUR memories.

I rarely ever print my digit photos so that’s not an issue to me. However when I have time, I crop selected photos to get a better frame. After all, it’s not always easy to shoot a moving fish perfectly in the centre of the frame. If necessary I also try to correct the colour. I tend only to correct the colour on photos that I am cropping. Otherwise I’d have to correct most of the ones taken at deeper depths. Thanks for the editing tip using adobe Photoshop. I didn’t know about it. I will be worth testing it on those underwater photos that are too blue due to the limited light at depth. Should I attach a few samples to show you what I mean?

Sure feel free. Recognize that learning Adobe is a time consuming process, but you will get better/faster in time. I've been working with PS for about a decade, and I'd consider myself intermediate at best.

Ron

 

[Sylvie]

Great, nothing happens when I click on my photos - select photos. I'll have to read the instructions on how to add attachments and do it later. Too tired to do it now, it's almost midnight Swiss time.