New Oly Models! Advice required...

[Tassie_Rohan]

Hi there -

I have been recently salivating over the Oly 7070, and was only days away from placing an order for one when I checked the digital camera sites one last time – foolish really as Oly has just announced the SP-350 which appears to be far more compact with similar features and it already has an underwater casing: the PT-030.

Although the 7070 seems a great camera I was put off by the size of the PT027 housing (I travel a lot and already have a fully stuffed carry on bag). The PT30 still looks large, but I haven’t seen its specifications yet.

Questions:

1) I 'd like to be able to take half decent wide angle shots underwater. The SP350 has only a 38 mm (35 eq) lens, with the WCON-07 wide lens apparently converting that to around a 28 mm equivalent: would people consider that enough? Else is there a wet mountable add-on wide angle (ie Inon) for that focal length?

2) Whats peoples experiences with housing makers and compact cameras such as this one: is it likely or unlikely that any other housing makers will design a housing for this?

3) Anyone use the olys underwater modes, or is manual a better way to go?

4) Any thoughts on suitability of the SP350 for underwater shots compared to the tried and tested 7070?

Sigh - With the rate that new cameras come out I'm never going to get around to buying one...

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[f3nikon]

Questions:

1) I 'd like to be able to take half decent wide angle shots underwater. The SP350 has only a 38 mm (35 eq) lens, with the WCON-07 wide lens apparently converting that to around a 28 mm equivalent: would people consider that enough? Else is there a wet mountable add-on wide angle (ie Inon) for that focal length?

The 8080 is already at 28mm without an add-on lens like the WCON-07 or 08 so from the start the 8080 will have a great advantage with image quality (no extra glass to degrade the image) and the cost of the add-on converter lens. And the SP350 only uses xD memory cards no CF.

2) What’ people’s experiences with housing makers and compact cameras such as this one: is it likely or unlikely that any other housing makers will design a housing
for this?

More of a question for Ikelite, they have to determine if the market will be big enough for this model camera before the next model change. But then most of Ikelite’s housings are “generic” or on size fits all, they can easily make it fit, people may have a hard time seeing a $400 camera in a $500 plastic housing.

3) Anyone use the olys underwater modes, or is manual a better way to go?

I don’t use the underwater mode, I use a strobe thingy.

4) Any thoughts on suitability of the SP350 for underwater shots compared to the tried and tested 7070?

The 7070 and 8080 has the proven experiences of the 5050 and 5060 backing them up. Like most of my past purchases, I never buy the first models of a particular product line I always wait till the second or third models, gives them time to get the bugs out. Though the SP350 looks like a across between the Olympus “Stylus” models the “C” series with less of the manual controls???


In conclusion: I am only going by the review but a nice feature I see in the SP 350 is the larger LCD screen and it has a hot shoe. Keep in mind that when the C-8080 first came out the retail price was around $1000 now the prices of an C-8080 is about $500, if you can find them. Olympus imo had to drop their prices to compete with the lower cost PS like Fuji.

Olympus loss is my gain, because Olympus really put some money behind the 8080 with an SLR type bright wide lens, a larger CCD sensor than the SP350 (though both cameras are 8mp, for all you pixel size to noise fans out there) and all the manual features one could want in an UW system.

Its similar to the problems BMW, Porsche or Mercedes had, they all had the make lower end models to compete with the other manufacturers. The SP350 could still be a worth while camera for UW use, only time will tell.

Good Luck

Dive Safe

 

[Dee]

If I remember correctly the aperture range on the SP-350 is 2.3 - 4.9. That's quite a step back from the 8.0 of the 5050. (Sorry, I don't have the later models) That's not nearly enough for me. And it only takes an XD card, unlike the previous models that accepted both Xd and CF at the same time.

I wouldn't depend on any 'mode' to set your camera for you. Take the time to learn to shoot in manual mode, that way you call all the shots.

If I was considering a new camera right now, I'd seriously be looking at the Fuji 810 and newer models.

 

[f3nikon]

Good points Dee, but on the Fuji 810, the SP-350 maybe the better camera. Again from the reviews the 350 is a true 8mp the 810 is at 6mp. The 810 is also discontinued, no hot shoe, the lowest ISO of 80 (the 350 is ISO 50), xD cards only same as the 350. I agree on the newer Fujis, like the S9000 maybe but if I had to go in that direction my choice would be the Canon "G" or Pro series.

Dive Safe

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Good points all around - especially about the poor aperture range (no depth of field on those macro shots) and being the first model in a new series (ie probably a very short lived model). Still - for me it comes down to do I want a compact camera that I can fit in a pocket for occasional underwater shots or a slightly larger fuller featured camera that will preform if I become more serious. Decisions decisions.... I guess I’ll have to have a close look at their housings before I decide.....

Thanks for you help and keep the comments coming....

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[bobf]

Good points all around - especially about the poor aperture range (no depth of field on those macro shots)...........
Cheers,
Rohan.

Rohan,

I wouldn't give up on the specs on this new model just yet. I'm not 100% positive, but the way I read the data from Olympus, the 2.3-4.9 may also be referring to the largest apertures available for wide angle and telephoto respectively and not necessarily the complete "aperture range". The smallest aperture may still be in the f/8 range if the SP 350 follows in the footsteps of most every other manual aperture control digicam offering from Oly.....

IOW, if you set the focal length of the lens to 38 mm (wide angle), the largest aperture available might be f/2.3. Whereas if you choose a focal length on the telephoto side (114 mm) of the zoom range, the widest aperture available might only be f/4.9. Either way, you still may be able to manually choose a smaller aperture to maximize the Depth of Field, which would most likely be at or near f/8. And even if you weren't able to, the DOF at f/4.9 would be relative to an SLR set at @ f26! (see wrotniak n times f rule)

Again, this is only a hunch!!!!!!

btw, if you study the image found in the dpreview press release, I believe if you look closely at the lens on the sp 350, the f/stop number shown looks more like f/4.8 to me......how ironic

bottom line, I'd wait for the camera to actually start shipping and hit the shelves prior to writing it off from just the press release.....

 

[JDog]

sp-350 sounds like the camara I have been looking for, anyone know when they will hit the streets for sure? I have seen September, October, and November as release dates.

 

[lanwu]

The first thing I noticed after reading the review on dpreview about both the 310 & 350 is that they do not have a dial to change settings like the 5050....so i'm assuming that it has to be done via buttons.

To up or down a setting (eg. aperture or shutter) by several stops is just so much faster when that dial is available - instead of changing these setting with push button action....I actually think that Olympus should use this dial changer in more of the camera functions...eg. inside the menus too...

Just my 2 cents....

 

[f3nikon]

You are correct on the dial issue with the camera and your bear fingers, maybe a bit different in an UW housing with gloves on. Some housings use a rubber wheel to rotate the dial by friction or a plastic gear, which make it difficult to control at times because it is tough to feel the clicks on the dial.

Very good point though, this means you can control your pictures in manual mode.

Dive Safe

 

[Ryan]

BobF is right, the claimed MAX aperture setting is largest aperture available, which gets smaller (bigger f number) as you zoom.

The camera can stop down further, I don't have one yet to know how far though, but would bet on f8.

The biggest drawback I see is a 38mm native wa lens...