What will you do when C5050 is out of the market???

[divemed06]

I'm with Mo2vation on this one. Many of the camera shops I've been to have recommended the 5050 over the S50 (figures...I ended up with the 4000, still a nice camera). If I was to upgrade and the 5050 wasn't around, I'd most likely take the giant leap and go for the Canon EOS 300 Digital SLR with the Ikelite housing.

 

[justleesa]

Please note that the C5050 is a zoom camera and the 5060 is a wide angle camera...since they have different specialties I doubt that one will really push the other out of the game that much. As for what if I had a second choice.....I would enter my major requirements of a camera in google and see what would come up and take it from there.

Lisa

 

[archman]

Here's where I go for a quick breakdown of cameras that have underwater housings. Both Nikon and Canon make their own housings now, and they are not-so-roughly comparable to the PT-series for Olympus models in both price and quality.

http://www.digideep.com/

 

[clive francis]

Thanks archman, alternatives was excactly what I was after in my original positing. I appreciate your posting.
Understanding the alternatives makes you much more comfortable with a choice.

but surely when comparing different cameras you should compare them in terms of the medium in which they will be used, i.e. in this case water.

just because a camera is good on land it doesn't follow through for water.

also you have to take into account the ancillary equipment to be used with it.

i.e. housing - functionality and cost
strobe - functionality, connectivity and cost.

no point in getting a muts nuts camera if there ain't a case for it.

like wise with the strobe, some people fell foul of the d100 with this.

also another important factor is word of mouth recomendation.

would you buy a camera or case that everyone said was a pile of crap?

i know i wouldn't

 

[archman]

Clive francis, you're right on all those points. I have great difficulty however getting such reviews on underwater cameras, and even less outside the high-end (professional) and/or Olympus-made models. As I previously mentioned, underwater photography is a niche market. There's far less consumer drive for comprehensive professional reviews. If someone could post links to such reviews, that would be fantastic.

And I love word-of-mouth reviews, and use them a lot. But they're a lot like my local dive shop... they only are experts on what they have, and tend to not know (or sell!) much about what else is "out there." My camera shop also recommended me to an Olympus C-series camera when I visited them months ago, but candidly admitted to not being "up on" the other manufacturers. I got suspicious of that and held off.

Rather than nitpick me to death (and it IS upsetting me!), what I believe the thread originator wants (and what I was hoping to see too HINT HINT) is a list of nice alternative cameras. They don't have to compare head-to-head to the C5050, they merely have to be "nice underwater cameras," and not any more expensive than a 5050 or 5060. That's most peoples' cutoff.

 

[clive francis]

Clive francis, you're right on all those points. I have great difficulty however getting such reviews on underwater cameras, and even less outside the high-end (professional) and/or Olympus-made models. As I previously mentioned, underwater photography is a niche market. There's far less consumer drive for comprehensive professional reviews. If someone could post links to such reviews, that would be fantastic.

And I love word-of-mouth reviews, and use them a lot. But they're a lot like my local dive shop... they only are experts on what they have, and tend to not know (or sell!) much about what else is "out there." My camera shop also recommended me to an Olympus C-series camera when I visited them months ago, but candidly admitted to not being "up on" the other manufacturers. I got suspicious of that and held off.

Rather than nitpick me to death (and it IS upsetting me!), what I believe the thread originator wants (and what I was hoping to see too HINT HINT) is a list of nice alternative cameras. They don't have to compare to the C5050, they merely have to be "nice underwater cameras," and not any more expensive than a 5050 or 5060. That's most peoples' cutoff.

why not contact these guys (camerasunderwater) they should be able to give you an unbiased view of what is what as they stock and sell everything.

never know, within the year someone might bring out a housing for the e-1 4/3 rds system, no need to worry about lens compatability then. read on dpreview that if kodack make the pixel pitch to that of the 5050 you would have the eqivalent of a 31 meg dslr.

 

[Scubatooth]

archman

besides the C5050 there are housings available through either the manufactures or ike are Canon a Series (through canon) the G Series (through Ike)

Nikon has housings available from ike and fantasea(4300 and 885 only right now)

Sony has its own line of housings for its cameras

here is a list of housing available from ike for digital cameras http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/1digital.html

hope this helps

Tooth

 

[ssra30]

Rather than nitpick me to death (and it IS upsetting me!), what I believe the thread originator wants (and what I was hoping to see too HINT HINT) is a list of nice alternative cameras. They don't have to compare head-to-head to the C5050, they merely have to be "nice underwater cameras," and not any more expensive than a 5050 or 5060. That's most peoples' cutoff.

Archman, don't feel frustrated. Now that you have an S50 and seems to post quite a bit, we all certainly are interested in hearing more about it. Most people have good experience with C5050 so they tend to talk more about it. Again, I think S50 is at a different price point than C5050, is a compact camera so for some people, it will fit their needs/ budget etc more than the C5050 so more information, impression about the camera is always nice. I think most people who bought OlyC5050 also did do research on other alternatives as well but ended up choosing Oly.

One of the disadvantage of the canon series (at least for the A series, not sure if it is the same with the S series also) is that once the camera is in the housing, you have to leave the camera in the on position. This is a bit of an inconvinient for me as I like to set up my camera the night before the dive so I have plenty of time to check it and clean it. This is especially helpful for a landbase trip where I would then go out on a small boats to various dive sites. With the Oly, I can turn the camera on and off whenever, while in the housing so battery issue is not a big problem and the camera will last through 3 dives at least.
Some people complained of the Canon automatic power down feature after period of inactivity. While it helps to save the batteries life, it is a bit of an annoyance as well. I like the idea of just leaving the camear on and turn off the LCD monitor with the Oly to save the batteries.

Well, that's just about all I know about the Canon digital camera line (the one with relatively cheap Canon housing anyhow).

 

[Dee]

I chose my original Olympus camera two years ago by seeing some of the first underwater digital photos being posted on Rodales message board. At the time Olympus was one of the few digitals cameras that had an affordable housing.....affordable being the key word....and so most of the first digitals photos shown were from the Olympus C-series of cameras. I bought the C-4040 for several reasons, one of the most important was there was information available from Jeff and a few other photographers who had already tested them for underwater use and were willing to share the knowledge of settings, etc. to help with the learning curve. When I felt the need for an upgrade, I did do a bit of research and quickly found out that Olympus and it's housings were the most versatile when it came to lens and strobe choices. I didn't find anything better so I continued with Olympus.

Since Olympus was one of the first digi cameras to provide an affordable housing, more divers had the chance for good results from an underwater set-up. It just follows that there would be more Oly cameras in use than the others. I chose mine from seeing results from it and preferring it to the results I saw from other brands. The results were what I looked for, not stat's written on paper. If I've influenced anyone to buy Olympus from my recommendations or my results, then I am glad. I did so out of confidence in my system, not anything against any of the brands that have come along.

I can't recommend or even offer opinions, beyond what I have heard, about any of the other brands. I have no reason to learn why or how they work, what their features are, good or bad or how much they cost. I think all of us here are basically the same, we recommend what we use and what we like. We know about our systems, not others. So how can we be accused for not giving information on all digital cameras available, except our own? Listen to our opinions but do you own research like we did. As far as I know, no one has done a comparison on underwater set-ups. I'm sure if someone wants to donate camera systems from all the different brands out there, some of us would be more than willing to start a comparison for you.

To answer the oroginal posters question of what would I use if the C-5050 wasn't available? If the Oly C-5060 was my only Oly choice for upgrade, I would keep my C-4040. I would probably do some research on the Canon S-50 but only because I have seen some decent photos from it, but I don't think there's many aux. lens choices so I'd probably still stick to my C-4040. More than likely I would give serious consideration to upgrading to a digital SLR.

Steve's digi-cam
DPreview
wetpixel

I'd start with these...the url's can be found with Google.

 

[Sodgaard]

Please note that the C5050 is a zoom camera and the 5060 is a wide angle camera...since they have different specialties I doubt that one will really push the other out of the game that much. As for what if I had a second choice.....I would enter my major requirements of a camera in google and see what would come up and take it from there.

Lisa

Lisa,

As stated initially C5050 is being outphased already in several parts of the world in favour of the C5060.

Cheers

Stephen