Sealife DC310 VS Olympus C-5050

[spike627]

Let me know when you get the Nikon 4300 how it take pictures. If is as good as the C-5050

 

[kchfamly]

Its on sale at walmarts for 137. I took mine back and ordered a Oly 5050 (563 w/shipping) and housing (159 w/ shipping). Any suggestions on a flash?

 

[doctormike]

As with most purchase decisions... "it's all about the Benjamins" (i.e. money!). I use an Olympus 4040z with a Light and Motion Tetra aluminum housing and a Sea and Sea strobe, and the setup is fantastic...! Also, the 4040 is a GREAT topside camera with a quick, intuitive interface, as well with a sharp, fast f 1.8 lens (very hard to beat in the world of digital cameras). This camera is terrific for travel, nightime photography, special effects, etc... in fact, I use it more than my Canon EOS 10d digital SLR. The 5050 is probably a lot better, but you can now get the 4040 fairly cheaply. The Tetra housing is a tank, takes a real beating both in terms of impact and pressure, and gives you complete control of all of your camera's buttons.

This setup, however, will cost you almost $2k, so it might not be the best thing to START with. However, I think that using a low end digital camera without an external strobe might be somwhat frustrating, and instead of saving a bunch of money, you might end up not using it that much and wasting the money that you do spend on it..!

 

[Genesis]

I'd go that way, get the Ike housing for it, and get BOTH a still and video camera out of it.

That's exactly what I've done. If anyone's interested in what kind of video this produces, PayPal me $2 (for posting and duplication) and I'll cut you a roughly 40 minute Video CD (no audio, just the video) with some good examples of the kind of video footage you can get from it. It will BLOW YOU AWAY; I personally think the movie quality underwater is AT LEAST as good as my Hi-8 camcorder.

The disk will play on some DVD players and most computers that have combination DVD/CD drives with DVD software.

 

[kchfamly]

I have not revieved the Oly PT-015 housing yet, but will it not have full access to the video modes?

 

[Genesis]

You need to be able to get to:

1. The keypad on the back (so you can do the white balance at depth)
2. The mode dial on top (so you can select movie mode)
3. The shutter button.

Its fine with the Ike housing, and I can't imagine you couldn't get to those on the PT-015, as without them you wouldn't have any control of the camera in regular shooting mode either.

 

[clive francis]

spike627 once bubbled...
Let me know when you get the Nikon 4300 how it take pictures. If is as good as the C-5050

you cant really compare them

one is 5 meg has full functionality and an excellent lense

the other is 4 meg minimal functionality and does like low light

i know my friend has one and he ended up having copies of my 5050 photo's of when we were in italy