I love this little camera nearly equal to my old Nikonos III because of it's diminutive size and form factor and full controls for every function including separate dials for f stop and shutter. But the shutter/focus response was often slow and of course the sensor, while huge compared to the current TG series, is still a small sensor compared to a 1 inch Sony RX or M4:3 or APS-C rigs. But the S90 and S series in general had good dynamic range and made clean images that could be enlarged and it is RAW capable. It is still a good camera IMO especially compared to the ubiquitous darling of the net, the TG.
Some years back it flooded on the wreak in Cozumel and I put in a claim through DAN insurance and they paid for the housing to be restored and for a replacement camera. Street photogs still enjoy the tiny S90 so there are often a few to be found on eBay or similar. The flood, I found a little hair wrapped around the case back O-ring that caused the flood. It was not my hair either. I think it got picked up from the table in the dimly lit room at SCUBA Club when I was doing a mid day battery change
.
The world spun on and I bought a Nauticam NA6400 which is my main squeeze now and it too has been recently serviced and should be good for many more adventures. The little FIXS90 just sat there forlorn and forgotten and covered in dust
. But sometimes I just missed the FIXS90 so here it is, reborn:
I enjoy ULCS products and they are a fine company with the best clamps and other items but I never liked the grips on their tray, just being MTB grips, I found them uncomfortable and heavy. So I bought a China tray on Amazon and I really like it. I never liked having to squeeze my hand between the tray and camera to get to the shutter so now it has a nice and extremely tactile new trigger. The new trigger allows me to grab and lock focus and reposition my composition, I could never do that with just a direct shutter press.
I tried to duplicate the rigging of my Nauticam Sony rig so that in terms of feel and function, they are nearly identical. The two bolt snaps on the top clamps allows me to clip off to my harness D-rings for hands free shore diving entry/exit or climbing laddres or emergence assistence to another diver. The coiled security tether is always clipped off to my harness crotch strap "scooter" ring. The yellow paracord grip is removed in use, folded, clipped to itself and then clipped off to a chest D-ring. The lens cap is easily lost and replacement likely not easy so it too is always clipped either to the tray at entry and exist and in use to a chest D-ring or the scooter ring.
The housing has a 52mm thread and is adapted to the Inon bayonet mount for the Inon UFL165 dome lens (165 degree FOV) and for the Inon UCL macro lens. Anyways, I still find the camera useful with it high sync speed and rugged, small form. I will use it for some shore dives and dives where I want fast X-sync and for dives in rugged conditions. I think I can sneak the entire kit in my wife's bag, it travels much smaller than my APS-C Sony
.
The rear view mirror, well, that was a gift from a dive buddy. This way I can see him coming to bump me off the critter, so I can get out of his way. I know his ulterior motives
. Ha, it is useful to see what is going on behind, keep and eye on my buddy, it would have been nice when the tiger snuck up behind me and tried to eat my tank and then strobe, so yes, rear view mirrors and curb feelers, indeed, yes!
Another story, the lens got knocked off during a handoff on a dive in Jupiter. Rough seas, boat went up, I went down and the lens went away. It was sort of the crews fault, not a good handoff, but I did not fuss, took it in stride, yes, I did though I was sad. What goes into the sea may not come back out of the sea, just the way of the world. But, the rest of the story, I was on down in the Keys and got a call, they had my lens! Hooray, they found it for me.
It is probably a good thing I do not have this old Olympus:
Some years back it flooded on the wreak in Cozumel and I put in a claim through DAN insurance and they paid for the housing to be restored and for a replacement camera. Street photogs still enjoy the tiny S90 so there are often a few to be found on eBay or similar. The flood, I found a little hair wrapped around the case back O-ring that caused the flood. It was not my hair either. I think it got picked up from the table in the dimly lit room at SCUBA Club when I was doing a mid day battery change
.The world spun on and I bought a Nauticam NA6400 which is my main squeeze now and it too has been recently serviced and should be good for many more adventures. The little FIXS90 just sat there forlorn and forgotten and covered in dust
. But sometimes I just missed the FIXS90 so here it is, reborn:I enjoy ULCS products and they are a fine company with the best clamps and other items but I never liked the grips on their tray, just being MTB grips, I found them uncomfortable and heavy. So I bought a China tray on Amazon and I really like it. I never liked having to squeeze my hand between the tray and camera to get to the shutter so now it has a nice and extremely tactile new trigger. The new trigger allows me to grab and lock focus and reposition my composition, I could never do that with just a direct shutter press.
I tried to duplicate the rigging of my Nauticam Sony rig so that in terms of feel and function, they are nearly identical. The two bolt snaps on the top clamps allows me to clip off to my harness D-rings for hands free shore diving entry/exit or climbing laddres or emergence assistence to another diver. The coiled security tether is always clipped off to my harness crotch strap "scooter" ring. The yellow paracord grip is removed in use, folded, clipped to itself and then clipped off to a chest D-ring. The lens cap is easily lost and replacement likely not easy so it too is always clipped either to the tray at entry and exist and in use to a chest D-ring or the scooter ring.
The housing has a 52mm thread and is adapted to the Inon bayonet mount for the Inon UFL165 dome lens (165 degree FOV) and for the Inon UCL macro lens. Anyways, I still find the camera useful with it high sync speed and rugged, small form. I will use it for some shore dives and dives where I want fast X-sync and for dives in rugged conditions. I think I can sneak the entire kit in my wife's bag, it travels much smaller than my APS-C Sony
.The rear view mirror, well, that was a gift from a dive buddy. This way I can see him coming to bump me off the critter, so I can get out of his way. I know his ulterior motives
. Ha, it is useful to see what is going on behind, keep and eye on my buddy, it would have been nice when the tiger snuck up behind me and tried to eat my tank and then strobe, so yes, rear view mirrors and curb feelers, indeed, yes!Another story, the lens got knocked off during a handoff on a dive in Jupiter. Rough seas, boat went up, I went down and the lens went away. It was sort of the crews fault, not a good handoff, but I did not fuss, took it in stride, yes, I did though I was sad. What goes into the sea may not come back out of the sea, just the way of the world. But, the rest of the story, I was on down in the Keys and got a call, they had my lens! Hooray, they found it for me.
It is probably a good thing I do not have this old Olympus:
