Memory Card and Dot Com Purchasing

[Dee]

conchnclyde once bubbled...
I do have a couple of "rookie" questions:

1) Do any of you use a filter on your camera for U/W pics? or is it even necessary for digi?

Some scenic wide angle shots can benefit from a filter because no strobe is going to reach that far. But for shots within 5-6ft, as a general rule you're better off depending on a strobe to replace your colors...although some will disagree with me.

2) What depth can I expect to start loosing color under my "in camera strobe/flash" no external strobe?

About 20 ft, depending on the clarity of the water, you're already losing the intensity of the red spectrum.

3) Do any of you have experience with not having a tray/arm, using the PT-015 solo for a while? Is it easier to handle the camera with a tray/arm from the beginning (not able to get ext. strobe right away)?

One of my suggestions to all new camera users is to shoot with no strobe, camera only, for a dozen or so dives. The PT-XX housings fir your hand very well and are easy to hold. Make sure you use the counter weight that came with it or your wrist will get tired of fighting the bouyancy of it.

So save your money for a good strobe instead of buying that filter. Get used to your camera and what it can do by itself as well as with the internal flash. You'll be amazed at the pictures you'll get! When you're ready for a good strobe, then do your research on the various options for strobe arms and trays available....it's a whole seperate subject!

 

[jbichsel]

I have not bought a digital for U/W photography yet, but last year I did buy a Nikon CoolPix 5700 for my wife for Christmas.

The guy I talked with was very friendly, knowledgeable, and sold me what I wanted. The price was well below B&H and others.

A friend of mine bought a Nikon D100 body from B&H. What he got was an Asian model for a US price. What gave it away? First, the manual was stapled together, obviously photocopied, and every 3-10 pages there were Asian language pages. Second, when he powered it up, the menus were NOT in English. B&H did not want to exchange it until my friend got Nikon involved directly.

Just some FYI.

 

[Finesse]

Look here and if you follow the other link in the post you'll find that unless shooting raw ....you will not see speed differences......I doubt that everyone uses the raw format....I have ...and to me personally its not worth the extra time editing the photo post dive. I’m sure you’re aware the files are huge (5-7 mb and my largest is 7.11 orf) as opposed to 2-3.5 for the jpegs. SHQ takes excellent photos (albeit the camera sets all levels for you as opposed to raw) that being said the end results are still amazing

The other thing is most external...and even some internal strobes cannot recycle in the amount of time a card writes so the camera will not operate anyway ....The DS-125 strobes have... most likely... the fastest recycle time at 1 second .... but I still have to wait for the cameras flash to recycle before I can do anything. Most strobes …especially when the batteries are low would have a hard time keeping up with the 4.2 second write time on some of those cards when using raw….. look down this chart for recycle times

khel once bubbled...


Well, to the best of my knowledge, writing faster IS better and you CAN see the difference, especially with high resolution pictures. And why "CF card cannot take panoramas" ???

CF, SM etc. doesn't matter - it just stores the info (files) and btw, on my canon, I can do panoramas without problems :mean: on CF card...

Again read the post above .....We are talking about an OLYMPUS camera .... not a canon ....Olympus requires the use of xD or SM....the panoramic feature will not work when the camera switches the card to CF



Pdoege … I would guess, based on you comments, you don’t have an Olympus .... I'm not sure why you would not use the second card however???

 

[JamesD]

I have no idea why your having such problems with the internet shopping? I have brought just cameras, just memory cards, and assorted bits (for various cameras) from the same store without problems...

I think it must be the particular stores your going to, how are you finding them? I normally use something like BizRate.Com to check the rating of stores, some I have found are cheap, but the consumer ratings are so bad I refuse to shop there.

 

[pdoege]

I didn't realize that an Olympus would not take panos with a CF. Sort of weird.

As for the two cards bit, it is normally cheaper to get 1 large single card. Obviously, if you can afford that plus another card, that is the way to go.

I would rather have say, 1 512 than 2 128s, etc.

I've seen some reports of bad and failing cards. I've never had an issue with one. Been using them since '95 or so.

Peter Doege

 

[Detonate]

I don't know about Olympus not taking Pano's on CF, but I DO know that the card MUST be Olympus brand.

The blue banding that is recorded for stitching the image together is in the firmware of the card.

I also heard that while the xD is slower, it consumes less power. And I'm 99.9 % sure that the Micro drives use way more power than any of the flash media....

 

[Detonate]

Oh, and as for online shopping.... I've good results using http://shopping.yahoo.com/ and only using Top Rated merchants. NOT Featured, but Top Rated.....

 

[conchnclyde]

Thanks again for everyones input.

Online Shopping:

The companies selling the cameras for the lowest prices, only put that out there as a hook, to get you into the door to sell the accessories. No problem, several of the bottom priced companies refused to sell me the camera, of course by playing little games, once they found out all I wanted was the camera (no inflated warranties, lenses, cases, and cards). They would lose connection and then when i got them back to the phone, they wanted to put the camera on back order:note; after I had already established that they were in stock, after calling them back on Friday (several days later).

Yes, these were the bottom priced companies, but I did not think that they would actually refuse a sell, no matter how much bonus they were getting on the sell of accessories. Dont get me wrong, as I am not saying that buying on the internet is a bad thing, just can be a bit deceiving + tricky, if dealing with the wrong persons/company sales tactics. I am all for capitolism, and a good sales person, but I hate to get slime on my hands when purhcasing anything.

The companies with the mid range pricing, actually has the best deals, if you need the accessories to boot. I actually found that I was paying more for the camera, but much less for the warranty, and cards, which came out to be much less than starting with the bottom of the barrel company.

All in all, it was a very good learning experience for me, and I understand that area of business much more from an internet perspective. Experience is the best teacher. I am just glad that I did not get burned in the process.

I am headed out on my first U/W photo dive in Sept. (5-12) to Aruba, and look forward to taking some great pictures.

Dee, I found out that there are "frogfish" on some of the wrecks (Antilla's) in Aruba, so I hope to get a shot or two for my first pics. Any advice on spotting them in their habitat, or where they typically hang out?

Good Shooting to All!

Clyde=-)

 

[Laser]

Finesse once bubbled...
I agree

Thats a bunch of crap ...Plain and simple !!!!! this is your set up not theirs !!!!!

You have the right idea of card set up ..... I might go with a larger xD card however. Plus there was a theory that the xD was the fastest to write to .... turns out there is a CF card thats faster.... pny???? I think.... Transcend is another one

Do you need to write fast ... NO
Is it nice to write fast ..... sure.... but you most likely would not be able to tell the difference anyway

The xD is a better choice over smart media as you can get larger cards in xD (unless you have SM laying around) ..... plus if you ever do any panoramas you'll need an SM or xD card ....the CF card cannot do it .....

Definitely go elsewhere to buy ..... I wouldn’t give some one like that the time of day after such an interaction ......

I've had great luck with B&H ..... they many not be the absolute lowest priced on the internet ....BUT at least you can trust them....and they are authorized to sell Olympus cameras .....VERY Important if you need warranty work done…..I can get stuff from them in 24 hours (depends where you live)

Chippy .... two cards for redundant back up. I personally would not want to keep all my pictures on one large card ….. lose that card and you're done. I've on two occasions had cards give me trouble with corrupt files (both on SM in the 3040 and on the CF in the 5050) and fixed with reformatting. Bacchus ..a member here almost lost an entire 128 mb card full of pictures....but was able to recover all but a few pictures with special software. why not utilize the two card feature especially while its in a housing .....

Solid advice in my opinion. I ended up shying away from the XD card because of the price, and the fact that I already had a card reader that reads CF and SM. I keep a large SM and a smaller CF in the camera in case one gives me trouble and that great shot is only there for but a second.