thinking about getting the Olympus SP320 & housing

[yukoneer]

I am going on a dive trip to Bonaire in 3 weeks. I am in the market of a new underwater rig.

My old camera rig is: Olympus Stylus 300 Digital with PT-016 housing, pictures at: http://www.yukoneer.com/scuba/

I still have it, but I want to upgrade to better MP's and better capabilties.

I am interested in the SP320 + olympus housing. I am a novice photographer, I am not aware of "f-stop", "shutter speed", etc... I basically just point, focus, shoot.

Would the SP320 be a good camera for me while I learn to become a better photographer?

The 3 underwater modes interested me the most, are they good?

can I shoot pictures pretty quickly?

does the red light just before a flash scare off marine life? (I tried the camera in a store, and a red light always came before a flash... not sure if it'd affect fish to move)

 

[RockyHeap]

I just got back from Belize and did 16 dives with a SP-320. My first impressions.

Didn't like the underwater modes. Mode 1 is fixed focused at 15 foot, mode 2 allows macro, then there is mode 3 which is macro but no flash. In any of those modes, I got the common no contrast washed out blued backgroud.

I always force the flash to strobe, tried the manual white balance underwater too but wasn't real happy with it so went back to auto mode.

BEST results was in manual mode BY FAR. There is full manual, or Apperature priority, or shutter priority where the camera does the rest of its calculations. Set a shutter speed, (no slower than 1/60th or you'll get bluring) and then the camera pics the right F stop. REALLY not that hard to do.

Movie Mode is FUN, set the white balance to "cloudy day" mode for best results. 30 frames per second 480 x 640 resolution with audio.


Get lots of AA rechargables and swap out every dive, the write speed starts to slow down at the end of the dive after shooting 60-70 pictures with flash on all the time.........

All in all a kick butt camera for $200 at Circuit City. $189 housing from B&H photo has nicely laid out buttons and was easy to operate.

No regrets after having moved up from crappy Fantasea housings and Nikon coolpix.

PM me with an email address and I'll send you some of the stunning results when I started using a SL960 external strobe along with the manual modes. You don't need an external strobe as the internal flash works great for macro work!

LOTS of features to learn and grow into with this camera, so you won't be limited, and it does fine in auto mode, but I just didn't find the underwater scene modes to work any better than just leaving it in full auto.

PM me and we'll chat more.

Diver Dave

 

[yukoneer]

Sent ya PM of my email.

What memory card do you use? what size?

 

[gert7to3]

Here are a couple of Preview (SP 320) and Review (SP310) web pages which might be useful. The SP 320 seems to be mostly an upgrade of the SP310. Another option might be the SP 350 which has some further capabilities which you might grow into. Also it's selling for nearly the same price ($200). These all use the PT030 U/W housing.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/SP320/SP320A.HTM

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/SP310/SP31A.HTM

http://www.imaging-resource.com/CAM...&sections[]=925&sections[]=994&submit=Compare

 

[RockyHeap]

When I ordered the PT-030 housing from B&H, I also got two of the Oly XP cards, 1 gig each, they were only $40-45 each. Trust me they fill up quick too underwater if you're shooting at full rez still as well as movies.

320 is a 7 meg pixel, at full high res for jpgs average file size is about 4-5 meg, and movie files? GULP, at full rez a 1 minute movie is about 130-150 meg. So get 2 cards, I came up from a single dive with 800 meg shot, then I dump them to a laptop back at the room for hard critical editing.

 

[yukoneer]

RockyHeap... i did the splurge and got myself a SP-320, from Circuit City last night for $190. It's SOOO much better and much faster than my old Nikon 4300 (4mp)

I got 1 high speed olympus XD card. I did notice it uses a lot of memory, especially in RAW format (I wont be using RAW anyway). Can I get by with just 1 GB card? My gut feeling is saying that I should get another.

I'm looking into buying a PT-030 housing now.

I also better clean up my old laptop it only holds 20gb

 

[yukoneer]

How long does batteries usually last? about 80 shots?

 

[RockyHeap]

Matt, check your email, you have some cool pictures headed your way.

Batteries do suck down quick but I flash on every picture (or at least the red flashing indication says their low)

The premature low battery indicator on the SP310 and SP350 was one of the things Oly "fixed" with a firm ware patch you download. The SP-320 is the newest of the bunch and I've checked but no new software for it yet. (maybe they already incorp'd the fix)

If your running a bit low on battery, I'd just turn the camera off for a minute, then power it back up and batteries go back to green. Camera turns on in about 1.8 seconds so its quick to get back shooting.

I use Ni-MH 2300 and 2500 ma hours, and travel with about 12 of them for two full sets for both camera (2) and my strobe (4).

This camera is LEAPS and bounds better than a Nikon 4300, which I've too shot with.

You'll love it.

 

[Larry C]

RockyHeap...
I got 1 high speed olympus XD card. I did notice it uses a lot of memory, especially in RAW format (I wont be using RAW anyway). Can I get by with just 1 GB card? My gut feeling is saying that I should get another.

If you're not going to shoot RAW, you'll get about 500 Jpegs on a 1 gig card. I don't know how long aa's last with the flash going, but I get about 150 RAW shots, no built-in flash, plus review time out of one charge on an R-CRV3. If you're taking a trip, I strongly recommend you get at least two of the high speed cards. Even if you're transferring to your laptop you still might not have time between tanks or there may not be a place on the boat to safely transfer. I have frequently run out of card before I was done shooting on a second dive. I shoot RAW (81 shots/gig) so I now have 4 1gig cards. Fortunately, they've gotten cheaper. I paid $69 for my first two type M cards. My first type H "high speed" card ran me $49 and I just got another one for $39 (Frys Electronics in store sale)