sp-350

[OzeDiver]

I don't use this flash and housing but have been following a fair few threads and to my knowledge, Yes that is all you need (with the PFL-01 you get an Underwater TTL Cable and hotshoe connector), it is TTL, and the PFL-01 is made by Olympus.

Another thing just from what i have heard is that this flash/housing combo is not too good for wide shots but sufficient for macro. Trying PM'ing Larry C or read through some threads you should be able to find out more. Have a look at www.digitaldiver.net

 

[OzeDiver]

have a look at this thread... http://74.52.40.173/showthread.php?t=144470

 

[LindaBluedolphin]

Larry
This thread has been quiet for a while.
I see that you use the SP-350 with Fl-20 flash and PFL-01 housing. Is that all I need for the Sp-350 and Oly PT-030 (which I have) and does it work TTL with the camera. Where is best source to get the equipment new? Is the PFL-01 made by Olympus?
Thanks,

I think we have scared him off...LOL

Okay I got my 350 yesterday and noticed there was no lens cap for the camera. What is everyone else doing? In addition to using this for my U/W camera I think I will throw it in my purse or something to carry with me in case I see something interesting while out and about (my other camera is more of an SLR and not as small).

Did anyone go to a camera store and pick up a small lens cap cover or not use anything at all?

Thanks,

Linda

 

[OzeDiver]

i also got mine just this morning and have been playing with it all night. Think i am gonna go with a the pt-030 instead of the ikelite housing. probably wont get strobes and wouldn't even go near the 40m limit of the oly housing. and the oly one is alot more compact by the looks. cant wait til i get it probably in about a week and get underwater!

bye for now. anyone know when gallery will be back up?

 

[Larry C]

It works in TTL only with an Oly strobe. My recommendation would be either get a good quality slave strobe or get the Heinrich/Weiskamps bulkhead replacement for your housing and get an Inon or Sea and Sea, etc. The FL-20/PFL-01 set-up is not a great strobe, due to a very narrow beam. I've really struggled to get good lighting with it. In tropical vis, the built in should work fine for macros and the manual white balance for distance. Where I dive, you NEED a strobe to avoid severe backscatter and blacked out or blurry pictures. Knowing what I do now, I'd have skipped the Oly strobe and the cheapy Sunpak, spent a couple hundred more and for about $600 got a YS-90 or Inon. A good strobe makes a huge difference in your lighting. Again though, you can get excellent macros (but not S-macros) with the built in flash. On S-macro, the lens effectively blocks the light, so it's natural light or a strobe. Good luck.

 

[friscuba]

Larry
This thread has been quiet for a while.
I see that you use the SP-350 with Fl-20 flash and PFL-01 housing. Is that all I need for the Sp-350 and Oly PT-030 (which I have) and does it work TTL with the camera. Where is best source to get the equipment new? Is the PFL-01 made by Olympus?
Thanks,

I can't answer all the questions, but one or two... The PFL-01 housing is an Oly product. They retail out at something under 300 bucks, but you can find them online for in the 200+/- range and ebay, if you are willing to do it, is the best bet. Olympusauctions is one of their "stores"... they sell returns, damaged packaged products and my guess, slow moving product, there. I just picked up a brand new, in slightly damaged box (their example shows a badly adhered lablel) PFL-01 housing for $58 plus $6 shipping. The auction just ended so I wont' have an "actual experience recommendation" for a week or so, but their satisfaction rate is very high. I can't even confirm my deal on the auction because of the typical "don't ship to PO box" and after-hours issues over the weekend, but I will probably be giving it a big test in 10-15 days once it arrives.

I saw a Japanese gentleman who had a 5050 setup with 2 fl-20s back in October of '04 when I was helping out at a Japanese operator here. I don't think he really knew much about photography, but everything looked relatively well exposed on the LCD screen at the end of the day. I've got to see if the dual strobe capabilities is something standard or just a Japan thing... work on a Japanese boat and you'll find that they have things which aren't available yet (or ever) here in the US, seems unusual.

Aloha,

 

[LindaBluedolphin]

I have been reading around the manual and playing with the settings, (quite confusing where is an 11 year old when you need one).

Anyway I have set the time just fine, but it seems to be on 24 hour time and I don't seem to be able to put it on normal time, that is, am/pm. Can anyone confirm that I will just have to adjust and deal with 1500 hours or whatever?

Repeat question.......Did anyone obtain an outside lens cap for the camera when it is not in the housing, you know one of those little plastic things just to protect the lens area? (well for extra added protection). If so where did you find one, stores here in my area few and far between and contain liimited stock.

I did the firmware upgrade (actually a techie friend of mine who understands this stuff better then me did it), and I still had the shutter issue, but perhaps it was because the rechargable batteries were not fully charged (they had been charged a couple weeks ago but were not used since). Does anyone have the CR V3 rechargable batteries, that might be a better way to go just to be on the safe side, any comments?

Larry said he uses the MYMode settings, does anyone else use them or just sort of set it as you go. I don't think that will be an issue if I am on a boat and have time to play with it, but given the camera might shut itself off underwater between shots, I don't want to keep having to fiddle with the U/W settings. From the instructions it appers the MyMode is a 2 step process, go into scene and do the settings and any other settings you may want, and then go into the MyMode to save it as Mode2 or 3 or whatever. Is my understanding correct?

Well this is as far as I have gotten for now.....comments would be appreciated.

 

[LindaBluedolphin]

Okay another question.

I was looking through the instruction manual and noticed about expected number of images. I must be misunderstanding or reading something wrong. It seemed like on the high quality settings I could only expect to get 25-30 shots per card. However with a 1gb card even on the high setting I would think I could get a couple of hundred. Please tell me I am misundersting, and if I am how many images can I expect to get.

I bought 2 each of the 1GB H xD cards when I bought the camera

 

[friscuba]

With a 1 gig card I think you should be able to do something like 80-90 pics in RAW and probably 125+ in the highest quality JPEG. If you got that number from the manual, maybe they weren't talking about a 1 gig card, maybe a 256K?

 

[LindaBluedolphin]

With a 1 gig card I think you should be able to do something like 80-90 pics in RAW and probably 125+ in the highest quality JPEG. If you got that number from the manual, maybe they weren't talking about a 1 gig card, maybe a 256K?

Its possible, I really could not tell what size card they were talking about.'

Thanks,