Optimal settings for Oly C-5060 help?

[Divmstr223]

I have the Olympus C-5060 with Epoque ES-150 DS.....I live in Southern Cal where the vis isn't always the greatest. I've only used the camera one time and it worked fine but the pictures were less than desirable. Very very dark and the strobe didn't seem to help much.

I would love some tips on setting up my camera and strobe for optimal performance....as of right now the camera is set up default everything.

thanks much...

 

[Bbarnes]

My husband and I bought a 5060 from Cathy Church in the Caymans. We have the Olympus housing and a YS90DX strobe. Cathy set up a My1 setting group for us. This is what she recommended to us:
Under MY1--ISO 100, flash on internal + strobe, flash on slow1, noise reduction off, digital zoom off, full time AF on, AFmode on spot (You can change to ESP! for landscape if you want) , accessory on underwater (the picture of the housing and a fish), mike off. Under Pic--SHQ, WB on cloudy, Scene mode on normal, sharpness 0,contrast 0, saturation 0. Under setup--EV step -1/3EV, English, AF illuminator on. If there is something I have left off, let me know. I am not sure this is how everyone will set theirs up. I just know that it is how Cathy set ours up and that we have had good luck with it. Have fun! One other pearl of wisdom from the school of hard knocks. Use your XD card for your primary card and your CF for your secondary. When we flooded our first 5060 we had no problem getting the pictures that were stored on the XD card. The CF would not read. About six months later I decided to try to copy the CF card one last time before I trashed it and it actually copied. I tried to make a second backup copy and it wouldn't do it again.

 

[alcina]

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gallery/underwater_photography/index.html

Have a look there for some tips, too

 

[Bbarnes]

It also sounds like your strobe isn't firing at the right time for your camera to take advantage of it. One way to test it is to take a picture of your strobe either in the mirror or disconnected. If you can see a flash it should be ok. If not, your timing is off. We had this problem with our strobe because we had set it to "pre" instead of "on". Once we corrected this we were good to go. Finally, remember you still have to get close to your subject. Your strobe will only go to about 6 ft.

 

[Divmstr223]

Thanks much for the advice Bbarnes and Alcina, I much appreciate the input. I wasn't online to check for replies prior to going diving yesterday, but I did use the information from splashdowndivers.com (I surfed and found it a couple of days ago) to set up my camera and it made a world of difference compared to my previous attempts.

Bbarnes, a couple of settings that you mentioned I will try the next time out, I believe I had some of them disabled wheras you have them enabled, and I left the WB on auto, I may try it set to cloudy next time around.

I'll post a couple of pictures I took from yesterdays dive here in a little bit, perhaps you can critique them a little...

thanks so much again,

Steve

 

[Divmstr223]

Two of my Macro shots from yesterday's dive at Santa Cruz Island, CA. Don't get me wrong, I was pleased with these photos, but I took about 140 pictures in all and 25 or so were worth talking about; the other 115 or so had too much light, not enough light, half lit and half dark, completely dark, or just colorless, LOL... This was only my second time using the camera, and the first time using it correctly, or close to anyway.

 

[Bbarnes]

Looks like you are getting the hang of it!! I especially like the color and texture of the top picture. The orange with the blue is beautiful. If you really want to look like a great photographer start hitting the delete button when you take a "bad" picture. That way it looks like you only took those 30 great ones with no bad ones. That being said, always look at your "in focus" and well lit pics on your tv or computer before you delete them. It can sometimes be a natural "Where's Waldo" kind of a game when you spot something in your image that you didn't see when you took it!! Keep up the good work!

 

[discrepancy]

I live in Southern Cal where the vis isn't always the greatest.

Vis looks pretty good to me.

 

[alcina]

25 out of 140 is a great start.

I didn't fall in love with any of the shots I took this weekend so sometimes you get good stuff and sometimes it just doesn't come together! Guess we'll both just have to keep diving!

 

[Gdog]

Bbarnes, please pardon the question, but I also am a beginner with the Oly 5060, Oly housing, YSD90SX strobe. From reading the above, it looks to me that you are shooting in Jpeg, not raw?