Newbie Photo-system

[AmateurCichlids]

I'm new to diving, so I'll be new to underwater photography too. I'm taking a trip to Lake Tanganyika in Africa to photograph fish for my site. I currently have an Olympus C700 Ultra Zoom camera, but the housing for it is more than I want to spend on a camera that's only 2.1 megapixels.
I'm considering purchasing an Olympus C5050 with the Olympus PT-015 housing. Does anyone have experience using this setup and if so, how well do the pictures come out. The picture will be mostly of fish, so I need something that does will with moving objects.
Also, how necessary is the strobe system to go with it. Is the internal camera flash enough to get good results? I was looking at the Epoque ES150DS strobe, tray, 10cm arm and fiber optic synce I found at www.marinecamera.com/oly_pto15.html. I'd probably get the housing at a different site I found for $100 dollars cheaper. The camera I found for $539. If I went with the strobe, whole package would run me about $1,058.30 and give me a camera that I was already somewhat familiar with.
Does anyone have any suggestions on a better system in the same price range?
Amateur
www.amateurcichlids.com:stupid:

 

[wetman]

There is a shutter lag with cameras in this category that make moving fish shots slightly difficult. Because the shutter delay is several seconds, you have to anticipate fish motion. Things like the rapid shooting certainly help but it is something to consider for sure. I think you only get the ~zero shutter lag with digital SLRs. Olympus also has a camera with negative shutter lag which i'm sure would be good for those fast movers.

Oh - and when you're pricing - dont forget extra battery and memory costs. For me, that came to about the same cost as the camera. Though i did get quite a lot of memory - you'll need that for any reasonable vacation or you can get one of those portable hard drives to dump it to.

steve

 

[TedJ]

I have part of the system you are considering, Oly 5050, PT-015 but with Sea & Sea YS90DX, TLC arms, flip tray and handle left over from Nikonos RS, 128xD card, 2-512 CF cards, Archos Multimedia Jukebox 30MG, three sets of 1700 -2000 mAH NiMH batteries and smart charger, LowePro MiniTrekker backpack, and extraneous stuff.

I agree with the previous post, shutter lag is a consideration which is only solved with a DSLR, at much greater expense.

I love the system I have and there are many posts at www.digitaldiver.net that can answer many of your questions. There are a bunch of us who have the 5050s with different housings.