Suggestions for Wife's Camera

[emeyer36]

What do you mean by limited control? I don't do a lot of photography, but it seems to have more control than the other Sealife (ie. the DC300) which have no accessiblity to white balance & ISO, etc. Besides he did say Point & shoot. Maybe his wife doesn't want too many things to worry about. I know when I take photos I like it easy. Besides I can usually clean things up with my graphics programs. Believe me I am not trying to argue I am trying to learn.

emeyer36

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Seems like the C5050 and pto15 housing, with DS 125 stobe might work and I am used to getting budgets broken. But I am having a hard time finding c5050s for sale. What's wrong with the C5060?

Furthernore, what sort of lens does the 5050/5060 have? Is it's zoom adequate for close ups and sharks?

Talking about really busting the budget, I am also looking at a Cannon EOS Rebel Digital. I have a D10 that I won't risk in the water with my wife and already have a bunch of great lenses for the Cannon. It seems that Ikelite has/will have a housing soon.

Your comments are very much appreciated.


Dave Dillehay

 

[flima]

Dave,
I just looked at the Olympus website and I don't there is a housing for C-5060 .... at least not under 'Accessories' for that model.
Maybe that's why people are telling you to go with C-5050.

- Fred

 

[marpacifica]

Flima,

Yuzo is offering the PT-020 for the 5060 camera. Check out http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com

 

[ReyeR]

The C5050, PT-015, Fisheye tray + Locline arm and an Inon D180 strobe would be my recommendation for a moderately priced, no fuss setup. The native lens (35-105, 35mm equivalent) will be more than adequate for close-up and mid-range photography, though I doubt you will be able to get close enough to capture and light up a whole shark with this setup. You have the flexibility to add an external wide-angle adapter (and a second strobe) later.
If your wife isn't likely to get into serious wide-angle photography then my recommendation would be to replace the above setup with a C5060 and PT-020. The slightly wider native lens (27-110) and the smaller shutter lag would be an advantage. The movies are also of a higher resolution too.

Don't forget to add the cost of memory cards, batteries and chargers too.

Just my 2c.

 

[MikeS]

emeyer36 once bubbled...
What does everybody have against the Sealife Reefmaster DC310? In the Pro Set configuration it only runs around $700. Has 3.3 Mpixals, Strobe, 3X macro lens, case, etc. Just wondering, but it seems to fit the requirements.

emeyer36

The optics of the camera are terrible and unless all you are looking for is 4 x 6 inch "snapshot" quality prints, you will be disappointed. I learned this with a Reefmaster DC 200 which I will sell cheap if anyone is interested. Additionally, the housing does not let you access many of the camera controls.

Mike

 

[ssra30]

Dave Dillehay once bubbled...
Seems like the C5050 and pto15 housing, with DS 125 stobe might work and I am used to getting budgets broken. But I am having a hard time finding c5050s for sale. What's wrong with the C5060?


Talking about really busting the budget, I am also looking at a Cannon EOS Rebel Digital. I have a D10 that I won't risk in the water with my wife and already have a bunch of great lenses for the Cannon. It seems that Ikelite has/will have a housing soon.

Your comments are very much appreciated.


Dave Dillehay

The problem with C5060 is that there is only so much speculation about it from Olympus press release but not a lot of first hand experience where as the C5050 is a well known camera with lots of information and support.
So far the major plus for C5060 is less shutter lag, wider native lens ie 28mm, available Olympus housing/port of Oly TTL flash and wide angle lens. However some features that people are worried about and consider it a setback would be incompatiblity with other wetmount external lens (a big question?), Oly TTL flash is probably not strong enough for u/w photography, proprietary battery, Oly wide angle lens with port suppose to offer only 70 degree view (unlike third party lens that will give 100 degree or in case of Inon with dome lens 130-140 degree).
So until we get more information and hear more report from anyone who braves the new camera, it is hard to recommend the C5060 vs C5050 issue.

Some of my friends are drooling at the Canon Eos Rebel Digital as well. You might want to check with your wife first though if she is willing to spend a lot of time with choosing the right lens, port, commit to take macro or wide angle only for each dive, need to use viewfinder underwater rather than LCD screen etc before you buy her a DSLR camera. Personally I am willing to accept the limitation of the Oly C5050 in order to have the flexibility to shoot macro, wide or whatever that happens to come my way on that dive rather than commit myself to take a macro shot when a whale shark happens to stop by and to use LCD monitor for composition rather just for reviewing the pictures.

A couple of my friends predicted that I shall join the DSLR club within a year but we shall see....

 

[RESCUEDIVER]

There have been quite a few posts about the 5060 and 5050 on DDN. It looks like the 5050 still wins the race

B&H still has the 5050 in stock as well as PT-015 and YS-90 Auto They are out of the DX

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home

 

[medical1]

The optics of the camera are terrible and unless all you are looking for is 4 x 6 inch "snapshot" quality prints, you will be disappointed. I learned this with a Reefmaster DC 200 which I will sell cheap if anyone is interested. Additionally, the housing does not let you access many of the camera controls.

Mike

That was the problem with all the Sealife cameras up to the DC310 which is different. Unlike the DC200 through Dc300 there are now advanced controls on the DC310. I took some pics with a DC310 Pro at 1024 X 768 which is not the highest resolution for the camera and had them printed on 12' X 18' photo stock and they look GREAT. The lady at the photoshop saw one of the pics & wanted to buy it

 

[emeyer36]

I wanted to know more about the DC310 and thought I would get a knowledgable answer but everyone just jump on me with the DC200 info, etc. I didn't feel like explaining that I was not refering to the much lower pixal older models. If no one knew about the differences it would not have help. Glad to get an opinion from someone who is actually using one.