Olympus 770SW Review

[dgalvan123]

great shots nemrod!

Good thing you got the PT-035 housing when you did. Olympus no longer stocks it, according to their website. . . and I haven't found any seller online (outside of ebay) that has them in stock any more. The ebay ones I've seen are going for more than the $300 MSRP suggested by Olympus. Bummer.

 

[Nemrod]

Yes, that is possible. It is always best to jump on a camera when it first comes out and buy everything for it immediantly which is what I did. The product cycles on some of this stuff is very short and the volume production of accesories is small. Now, if I were buying new I would go for the new 1030 I think it is or the 850. The 790, 850 and 1030 all use the smae housing I think. The 770SW does not share housing with it's three siblings and thus may soon be an orphan.

N

 

[lil' castaway]

I have the 770sw and love it. I had been waiting (or should I say saving) to get the housing. Well the discontinuation caused me to get it now. I just purchased it from Cameta Camera. I found them on Ebay but they have a store in New York. They are an authorized Olympus dealer. I called them directly instead of going through eBay. (800-991-3350) They charge $239.95 + $12.00 shipping. They are shipping on Friday. I'm so excited, now I'll have it in time for my upcoming trip to Saba. (Anyone want to go? PM me.)

 

[WOODMAN]

I have the 770 camera with the PT-035 housing (please don't try to use this camera without the housing for any real diving depths!) which I got as an adjunct to my big C5050/ikelite rig, and carry it on my BC with one of those expandable snap cords. I use it for those really close macro shots which I cannot easily maneuver my big rig in close to. It doesn't have the picture quality of the C5050 (duh!) but it does fairly well if you stay within its limitations. For example, that macro underwater mode is only usefull up to within about a foot, then it loses focusing ability. You then have to go to supermacro, which is not an underwater mode option. However, I find that this does not matter much, and selecting the supermacro lets you get really close. One nice feature is to select the supermacro with the flashlight option, which is displayed on the viewfinder as such. This activates the little intense spotlight on the front of the camera, which will come on when you push the shutter release down halfway to prefocus, and stay on for the shot to illuminate the picture. The manual prefocus button (for the underwater macro mode) also works pretty well, letting you set the prefocus without having to play with the shutter release. I only used this camera rig on one dive trip so far, and am still getting used to how it operates. It will never replace the C5050, for sure, but it is small and handy for those really close shots, and rides nearly unnoticed from the side of my vest until needed. One tip- I tried to use it without the rubber viewfinder shade screen that comes with it, thinking that I would not need a glare shield at depth. Wrong!! It went back on after I came home and will stay on now. Oh well, part of learning the ropes, so to say. I have another trip coming in early August, and will shake this little camera out some more then. Woody

 

[Snorkelingdotinfo]

Snorkeling in Puerto Rico last week my 770 got wet (inside) which was really disappointing. Not sure what happened, all of the sudden there was an error message about a door being open (it appeared 100% shut) and I went to shore and the inside was wet and shortly afterward the camera died completely.

Thank God I was also reviewing a sea life camera, so my underwater picture taking for the vacation could still go on.

I'm going to contact olympus to see what they say, but needless to say I was pretty bummed. The camera probably hasn't spent more than 8 total hours in the water, and never deeper than 10 feet.

 

[WOODMAN]

I know they say that the darn thing is waterproof without a housing to 30 feet, but... I never trust such claims, as there is all too real a risk of floods with a dedicated housing for me to put much faith in the safety of a non-housed camera, even this one. This is the first time I have heard of it happening at such shallow depths with this camera, however. Ah, well- Good luck with Olympus. Woody

 

[Fsu1dolfan]

dgalvan123
I was curious those 2 trips you took...the 770SW was stock or did you use the hosuing and external flash?? Your pictures look great by the way. I do alot of snorkeling and i am thinking this would be an ideal camera stock....maybe down the road external flash and housing.

 

[dgalvan123]

nope I don't have a housing for the camera. In fact the housing is actually pretty hard to find now that olympus has stopped making them. I'd like to get one eventually, though. I do, however, use a silicone "skin", which helps prevent scratching.

I've been very happy wtb the 770, both for snorkeling and for diving and kayaking.

 

[dgalvan123]

Just thought I'd add a quick story:

Yesterday I went diving out at Catalina and almost lost my Olympus 770! I had it clipped to my BC and wanted to get it unclipped, but I couldn't manage to get the strap out of the clip, so I just left it. A few minutes later I went to grab for it again and it was GONE! :shocked2: Apparently I had managed to get it lose enough to where the strap dislodged from my brass eye-clip. Now, I was at about 40 ft at the time, and I had the red floaty-strap on the camera, so I assumed it had floated to the surface. My buddy and I went up to look around, but found nothing. Then I figured it must have got caught on the underside of one of the many stalks of giant kelp we were under, but of course it was doubtful I'd be able to find the exact spot it had gone missing. We continued our dive and when we got back to the boat, another diver had found the camera and brought it back to the boat! Boy I gave that guy a man-hug. Anyway, he had found the camera on the bottom. He said the red floaty strap was suspended (ie: floating up above the camera), but apparently not buoyant enough to lift the camera. So here is a good lesson:

The red-floaty strap gets compressed at depth such that it will not support the weight of the camera at depths below, say, 35 ft. IE: if you let go of the camera at these depths the camera will SINK.

Anyway, the camera is fine and all is well now. VERY lucky that guy found it.

Happy diving/shooting!