Super Macro on 5060/7070

[Nay]

Dunk that housing alone, in deep water before putting the camera in, look for leaks.

If it's not possible to take the housing for a "ride" before your trip, try asking your LDS to stick it in their pressure pot. I had by shop drop mine to 40m before I let the camera near the water.
Have a great trip.

 

[Wolverine]

Olympus reverted on the issue of slave strobe mode in Super Macro. The camera flash will not fire in Super Macro Mode. U would need an external flash (DUH!) to fire the slave. What's the bloody point! sigh.. oh well, guess that means no super-macro underwater..

 

[calypsonick]

Olympus reverted on the issue of slave strobe mode in Super Macro. The camera flash will not fire in Super Macro Mode. U would need an external flash (DUH!) to fire the slave. What's the bloody point! sigh.. oh well, guess that means no super-macro underwater..

That's a bummer!! I love supermacro. Strange that it works for the 5050 and 8080 but not in the 7070 ?!?!?! I would tell Olympus that what they are telling you does not make sense.

Nick

 

[Wolverine]

That's a bummer!! I love supermacro. Strange that it works for the 5050 and 8080 but not in the 7070 ?!?!?! I would tell Olympus that what they are telling you does not make sense.

Nick

Called them and they said the same thing. They tried it out as well and it couldn't. Guess no way. Apparently, they tightened the algo in the 7070. Dumb actually.

 

[coop85]

Congratulations! Assemble the entire rig. camera in housing, strobe etc. and start firing away...in and around the house and outside keep the distances to less than 2 or 3 feet. Ike's settings are a good starting point, but always experiment with all the different combinations. Know the limitations of the different settings. Remember the key housing buttons...in total darkness!

Dunk that housing alone, in deep water before putting the camera in, look for leaks.

Dive Safe

Thanks, I think your last piece of advice was probably the most important.

I've been shooting everything in sight. The supermacro is pretty cool, but the focus takes a long time. Is this normal?

Thanks again for your advice.

Eric

 

[f3nikon]

If it's not possible to take the housing for a "ride" before your trip, try asking your LDS to stick it in their pressure pot. I had by shop drop mine to 40m before I let the camera near the water.
Have a great trip.

Good idea, check for leaks before the trip at your LDS.

 

[coop85]

Good advice from f3nikon, I would add, take many shots of your subject when you can. I found the Autofocus to be rather hard to control. It does not always focus on what you want in focus and the display is too small to see whether it is crisp or not. So, take several shots regardless of how nice it looks in the display after you took the shot.

Also, bracket your shots. Try different shutter speeds and different f-stops ont he same subject. This will give you a greater choice of shots when you are processing and help you learn what parameters work better for different types of shots.

I can't count the times I got back with what I thought was going to be a great shot to see that it was out of focus or overexposed, etc.... Had I taken a few more shots with different settings, I would have probably gotten a better shot.

Have a great trip!!

Thanks, that sounds like good advice.

I have one additional question. Are you shooting in RAW? I find that the camera (oly 8080) takes forever to write to the CF card when using RAW, but clearly offers the most manipulation. I think if I bracket shots, I might run out of air before I get the 2nd shot written! :11:

Thanks for everyone's advice. I'll post some pics when I return from the BVI.

Eric

 

[f3nikon]

Thanks, I think your last piece of advice was probably the most important.

I've been shooting everything in sight. The supermacro is pretty cool, but the focus takes a long time. Is this normal?

Thanks again for your advice.

Eric

Your welcome, and thank you also for sharing the fact that you just got an 8080. I am also going in that direction, I have the 8080 housing (good deal) and strobes but still saving up for the camera. I played with an store display 8080, as an U/W digital camera, it is one of the final nails on the coffin, of most film camera's

Slow focus, now I know you been play with the camera, which is great! Nothing wrong with the camera, just like any other auto focus camera, it needs light. The more light bounced back to the camera the faster the focusing, esp. in macro where the depth of field gets very narrow. Cameras need all the help it can get on getting the focusing info. back to the camera.

Dive light even a cheap two c-cell light and mount to your camera housing. Again take pictures with the strobe and dive light on, to see if the strobe is strong enough to hide the hot spot from the dive light.

Check out some of Nick's macro land and water shots from the 8080, It will make anyone a believer.

Dive Safe

Al