TG-6 questions

[jejton]

I am looking to get my first underwater camera. I have plenty of topside photography experience but, aside from a GoPro knockoff I returned after one dive, no underwater photography experience. I have an opportunity to buy an unused Olympus TG-6 for about half the market price but am trying to understand what will be my costs in accessories before I can start using it practically. I am an AOW rec diver, and most of my diving will be shore dives, so shallow, with an occasional deeper boat dive. From what I've read, it looks like I'll need (at least if I'm going beyond a few meters depth) a housing. Do I need a tray and strobe to start? If so, what am I looking at in costs there? I enjoy macro as well as wide angle photography but if I can shoot macro right out of box, I don't mind waiting a while before purchasing a wide angle lens. TIA.

 

[mi000ke]

I just purchased a TG-6/Olympus housing/Sea & Sea YS-03 strobe package (came with a handle/mount for the strobe plus optical cable that plugs right into the camera housing). I've done semi-serious land photography for 50 years, but underwater for just a few years. This purchase was an upgrade from a canon s110 point and shoot and housing (no strobe). Sea & Sea recently replaced the YS-03 with the YS-03 SOLIS - almost no difference but you might be able to pick up the discontinued one cheaply. I got a new YS-03 for $300 (was originally $350). The new model is about $430. The housing is $300. I also have a m52 wide angle air lens on order from Backscatter - $180. That will restore the underwater wide angle view back to what it is on land. The strobe is definitely worth adding on. The camera can be used underwater as is to 60' but having the housing will give you one more layer of protection, plus you can go much deeper.

 

[jejton]

Thanks. So I picked up the camera and have been perusing Backscatter and some other sites' articles, as well as window shopping. How is the camera for use in shallow, ambient light photography? Do I need a strobe to get started, or am I ok to start taking on some shallow shore dives without a housing or strobe?

 

[living4experiences]

Thanks. So I picked up the camera and have been perusing Backscatter and some other sites' articles, as well as window shopping. How is the camera for use in shallow, ambient light photography? Do I need a strobe to get started, or am I ok to start taking on some shallow shore dives without a housing or strobe?

I used a Go Pro for years and decided to upgrade and I like to take pics and video of anything big or small and I just do it for fun. I'm definitely not a pro and wanted a minimal setup. I have a new TG-6 ($380 at Costco), the housing ($300 at Divers Direct), and the Sea&Sea YS-03 Solis strobe ($346, Optical Ocean Sales). I was only able to use the camera once before COVID hit, and at that time, I didn't have the strobe yet. If you like macro, this camera is phenomenal with the built-in flash. I got the strobe because to get shots of sharks requires a bit more light when they're at a distance and reduces backscatter. My advice is to take it one step at a time. You don't want to overspend on equipment that later becomes unnecessary for your individual purposes. Here's a few pics.

 

[Chris Ross]

Some good suggestions but I would suggest going with a flash that can do manual exposures - particularly if you want to do any wide angle shooting TTL can often be an issue. S a YS-01 or a INON S-2000 rather than a YS-03 .

 

[David Novo]

Some good suggestions but I would suggest going with a flash that can do manual exposures - particularly if you want to do any wide angle shooting TTL can often be an issue. S a YS-01 or a INON S-2000 rather than a YS-03 .

TTL is interesting if you are starting UW photo as the OP seems to be. A second strobe (YS-01) can always be added further down the road, with YS-03 on slave mode.

As a beginner UW photo, I find TTL enough for now and the strobe a valuable add-on that partially compensates my lack of skill.

 

[mi000ke]

Some good suggestions but I would suggest going with a flash that can do manual exposures - particularly if you want to do any wide angle shooting TTL can often be an issue. S a YS-01 or a INON S-2000 rather than a YS-03 .

True, but I would still recommend using TTL to start to keep it simple.

If you use ambient light - which you will essentially be doing if you can't get at least about 4 feet from your subject (assuming you use the YS-03), you will want to learn to shoot in RAW format and manage the color issues in post processing. The free Olympus Workspace software is pretty good and has more features than you will need. At the very least you can convert RAW (Olympus labels them ORF files) to JPEG and then work with any photo editor. To get good results using the in-camera color settings you would need to be in shallow, clear, well lit water.

 

[jejton]

Thanks for the information. I currently use Adobe Lightroom for organizing and most of my editing (still a lot to learn there). From what I read, the TG-6 has pretty good in camera color correction, but am sure will need to tweak further post. I have seen the PT-059 housings for $250 on ebay and Amazon. Was hoping to pick up a used one cheaper but imagine there won't be many. How common is it to find the strobes mentioned, or others that are appropriate, used? What about lighting for video? Is a normal dive light sufficient for starters ? Do you keep one strobe and one video light on your setup?

 

[Chris Ross]

TTL is only simple when it works, I see way too many posts of people posting shots where the ambient light overpowers the strobe because TTL decided it didn't need that much flash and honestly manual is not that hard. In any case I would still recommend the manual capable strobe over the pure TTL YS-03 sure you can use buy a second one later and slave it but why not spend a few extra $$ how to get one that can do both. The TTL will work quite well on macro shots, wide angle shots might be a bit more variable.

Most dive lights won't do video well as the beam is too narrow - depends on the light and you need a fair bit of light. More likely to be successful on macro where the narrow beam is less of a problem. Be aware the TG-6 has two apertures f2 and f2.8 (at the wide end) f8 is achieved with an ND filter. There is no advantage of going to f8 unless you have too much light which might happen with shallow tropical water or if you are trying to exclude ambient light and shooting 100% flash to get a black background. What this means is that shooting at f2.8 it is not so demanding of light power (or strobe power for that matter).

Strobes mentioned come up in the classifieds here and on Wetpixel reasonably regularly, you just have to be patient.

 

[Clevelandguy]

I am looking to get my first underwater camera. I have plenty of topside photography experience but, aside from a GoPro knockoff I returned after one dive, no underwater photography experience. I have an opportunity to buy an unused Olympus TG-6 for about half the market price but am trying to understand what will be my costs in accessories before I can start using it practically. I am an AOW rec diver, and most of my diving will be shore dives, so shallow, with an occasional deeper boat dive. From what I've read, it looks like I'll need (at least if I'm going beyond a few meters depth) a housing. Do I need a tray and strobe to start? If so, what am I looking at in costs there? I enjoy macro as well as wide angle photography but if I can shoot macro right out of box, I don't mind waiting a while before purchasing a wide angle lens. TIA.

I've got 2 inon s-200 that are bran new that i am prob going to get rid of. If you are interested let me know. I had to sell my camera so i have no need for them and cant return them.