Oly 5060 PT-20 Strobe help (first post!)

[jsindorf]

Hi, this is my first visit to this site, and my first post!

I was just given an Oly 5060 and the Oly PT-20 housing for it. (nice friend, but wished she had asked for my input first!)

Now, since I have these items, I want to add two strobes and I want to be able to take advantage of the Oly TTL strobe control.

Please, share your wisdom with me. This stuff is costly enough that I don't want to purchase any strobes or connectors that I find I need to change out down the road.

My priorities are:
1) ease of use
2) consistent good results in both normal and macro shooting
3) sturdy to stand up to rigors of travel and use
4) cost effective - like to find the best solution for the lowest cost
5) simple connection to the camera - the fewer adapters and work-arounds the better.

I have been shooting video, film and stills above water professionally for some 25 years. Now I want to move below the water, and as I have helped many get started in television and film, now I look to you for the same advice and direction.

Thanks in advance....
Joe

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

No experience with strobes, but welcome to ScubaBoard anyway!

 

[ReyeR]

Welcome to Scubaboard.

If you want to take advantage of Oly TTL strobe control then I recommend these 2 (sync-cord wired) options:

1. Get a 'Heinrichs Weikamp' Oly C3 TTL convertor from Michael Finger at www.mike-dive.de (his website is in German but his English is quite good). I recommended the Inon Z220 strobes for this setup.

2. Put the PT-020 on Ebay and get an Ikelite housing instead. The Ikelite housing is much more robust and doesn't come with issues like the o-ring popping out of its groove and a flimsy bulkhead as have been reported by some PT-020 users. The Ike housing comes with their own version of the Oly TTL convertor which will work with Ike DS-50 and DS-125 strobes.

You have a third option of adding a pair of Inon D-2000 strobes with fibre-optical connections. These will work by 'mimicking' the camera's built-in TTL flash. But be aware that these strobes donot have sync-cord connectors so at a later stage if you change to a camera system that does then you will need to change strobes as well.