Whats the advantages of Oly5060 over Canon A95

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Both cameras have several, out of the box, preset modes that can be used UW just as easily as above.

 

[f3nikon]

"The disadvantage is that (again, very roughly), a small f/# (or large aperture) has less depth-of-field, meaning that a smaller span of distances appear in focus.

If I'm shooting a fish at 1 m distance at f/2.8, the zone from about 0.9 to 1.1 m will appear in focus (more or less).

If I'm shooting the same fish at 1 m, at f/16, the zone from about 0.6 m to 2.5 m will be in focus. (Actually, the wide angle also plays into that; wider angle has better depth-of-field).

For macro shots, for example, it's very nice to set a wide aperture (small f/#) and focus on your subject. Then, foreground and background are blurry. For fancy landscapes (or seascapes), it's nice to set a small aperture, so that a lot of the background (essentially, to infinity) appear sharp."

Your bring up a very important point, and nobody is going to jump you!
Please look at the differences in D of F on the f 2.8 and f 16 settings.

f2.8 = .2 or less than a meter, f16 = 2 meters, about right?

At f2.8 with the correct shutter setting, the backround open water can easily be blue.

At f16 the background will be BLACK! the shutter would have to be set beyond 1/30 sec. to get the blues back.

 

[hdtran]

Your bring up a very important point, and nobody is going to jump you!
...snip....

Yes, but I want him to trade in his gf for another camera

p.s. why would the background be black at f/16? Suppose your shutter was T=1/60 at f/2.8, you'd need around T=1/8 at f/16 (can't multiply in my head, but that sounds about right). You would need to worry about camera shake, but unless the background lighting is different than foreground & subject, I don't see why your background would be black?

 

[f3nikon]

Lol! (for the gf part)

f2.8 @ 1/60

f4.0 @ 1/30

f5.6 @ 1/15

f8.0 @ 1/8

f11 @ 1/4

f16 @ 1/2 second ......this is beyond the handheld range so the background will be black or at least very dark.

As you look back at most UW pictures with the backgrounds included, for the most part the background will be dark if not black. Some folks do not even go to shutter speeds lower than 1/125 sec., like their camera with stop working below that speed.

Oh, I almost forgot about the punchline on the depth of field.

At f16, depth of field 2 meters, black background.

The light from the strobe can only Illuminate about a foot or so from the front of the subject to the back of the subject. The 2 meters of depth of field is wasted to the black background because the light cannot reach the backend without over exposing the front!

So here is the story you tell the person viewing your picture. Ah, the background is really a rich deep blue, no I was not shooting at night and the depth of field is really about 2 meters, you just cannot see it because its in the dark!

Or you could just shoot at f2.8 or f4.0 rich blue background with a depth of field of about 1 foot in the first place!

 

[Ryan]

Other than a hotshoe, the only way to fire an external strobe is with the camera's internal flash...there goes your camera's battery charge and the temperature in the housing will go up. Also on slave mode you dealing with this preflash @#*&! Hardwire via the hotshoe is the direct connection.

My own experience, and the experiences of hundreds of my customers prove this is simply not an issue with the cameras being discussed here.

• Olympus cameras have "SLAVE" mode, which allows the user to dial in a very small "blip" of external flash specifically designed to trigger slave strobes. This is a single flash, so no "preflash @#*&!" is required. Since this flash can be set to a minimum amount of intensity, I'm very skeptical as to whether it has any noticable affect on battery life at all w/ the C-5060 on up....
• In Manual Mode, Canon cameras fire a very similar single flash (NOT A PREFLASH) that can be dialed down in the menus to a level that will be sufficient for triggering the external flash, but won't drain battery life or build up much heat.

While your setup for your camera certainly works, optical systems are less expensive, more reliable, and require less maintenance. This makes them ideal for casual divers who want to take pictures underwater.

 

[JJP161]

Lol! (for the gf part)

f2.8 @ 1/60

f4.0 @ 1/30

f5.6 @ 1/15

f8.0 @ 1/8

f11 @ 1/4

f16 @ 1/2 second ......this is beyond the handheld range so the background will be black or at least very dark.

As you look back at most UW pictures with the backgrounds included, for the most part the background will be dark if not black. Some folks do not even go to shutter speeds lower than 1/125 sec., like their camera with stop working below that speed.

Oh, I almost forgot about the punchline on the depth of field.

At f16, depth of field 2 meters, black background.

The light from the strobe can only Illuminate about a foot or so from the front of the subject to the back of the subject. The 2 meters of depth of field is wasted to the black background because the light cannot reach the backend without over exposing the front!

So here is the story you tell the person viewing your picture. Ah, the background is really a rich deep blue, no I was not shooting at night and the depth of field is really about 2 meters, you just cannot see it because its in the dark!

Or you could just shoot at f2.8 or f4.0 rich blue background with a depth of field of about 1 foot in the first place!

WOW! Ok now what does all that mean, you guys are talking way over my head. Is the Oly5060 or Canon a bad choice for what I want to do?

 

[f3nikon]

Sorry to have hi jacked your thread. I still stand by my first posts, moving towards the 5060, using a tried and ture, lower cost, higher reliablity/efficiency, hardwired sync cord system.

Dive Safe

 

[f3nikon]

My own experience, and the experiences of hundreds of my customers prove this is simply not an issue with the cameras being discussed here.

• Olympus cameras have "SLAVE" mode, which allows the user to dial in a very small "blip" of external flash specifically designed to trigger slave strobes. This is a single flash, so no "preflash @#*&!" is required. Since this flash can be set to a minimum amount of intensity, I'm very skeptical as to whether it has any noticable affect on battery life at all w/ the C-5060 on up....
• In Manual Mode, Canon cameras fire a very similar single flash (NOT A PREFLASH) that can be dialed down in the menus to a level that will be sufficient for triggering the external flash, but won't drain battery life or build up much heat.

While your setup for your camera certainly works, optical systems are less expensive, more reliable, and require less maintenance. This makes them ideal for casual divers who want to take pictures underwater.

Thanks for your input. But I find it hard to get around these numbers.

Hardwire/Hotshoe setup

½-20 tap $ 10.00
Ikelite fitting $ 20.00
Sync cord $ 80.00
Hotshoe adapter $ 15.00
Used Ikelite Strobe $ 100.00 or less
Total $ 225.00

Fiber Optic

Heinrich adapter $ 225.00
Optical cord $ 100.00
New Strobe $ 500.00
Total $ 825.00

"small "blip" of external flash" did you mean internal?

Even without the Heinrich adapter the price of the fiber optic is still twice the price of a hardwired/hotshoe system. Its the battery charge that will be reduced because of the use of the internal flash not the battery life.

And some amount of heat will be generated when the internal flash fires at low or full power.

Dive Safe

 

[hdtran]

JJP161,

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate to f3nikon's recommendation. The CanonA95 is significantly smaller. When housed, the housing adds quite a bit of bulk. So, a smaller bulk diving makes you more maneuverable. You can get very nice photos w/o an external strobe, especially if you get close to your subject (per the various galleries which have been mentioned in this thread).

If you're not hauling a big camera+strobe, you're more likely to haul a camera when diving, and likely to take more photos. Ditto dry land. A camera which fits in a male shirt pocket is more likely to be carried around than one which is bigger. If you have a camera on you at all times (on land or in water), you're more likely to take pictures. The more pictures you take, the better photographer you'll become.

The one disadvantage is the inability to take raw format pics for photoshopping blue out of the photos. You can photoshop jpegs, but you will lose sharpness & details.

In the end, it's not the camera, but the user at the other end of the camera. You could hand me a DSLR with fancy lenses, 8 MP, etc. I know that I can figure out how to use all the buttons. Then, give Ansel Adams (ok, I know he's dead) a $50 e-bay special. Ansel Adams will still take better pictures than me

Either case, you'll be happy.

 

[JJP161]

JJP161,

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate to f3nikon's recommendation. The CanonA95 is significantly smaller. When housed, the housing adds quite a bit of bulk. So, a smaller bulk diving makes you more maneuverable. You can get very nice photos w/o an external strobe, especially if you get close to your subject (per the various galleries which have been mentioned in this thread).

If you're not hauling a big camera+strobe, you're more likely to haul a camera when diving, and likely to take more photos. Ditto dry land. A camera which fits in a male shirt pocket is more likely to be carried around than one which is bigger. If you have a camera on you at all times (on land or in water), you're more likely to take pictures. The more pictures you take, the better photographer you'll become.

The one disadvantage is the inability to take raw format pics for photoshopping blue out of the photos. You can photoshop jpegs, but you will lose sharpness & details.

In the end, it's not the camera, but the user at the other end of the camera. You could hand me a DSLR with fancy lenses, 8 MP, etc. I know that I can figure out how to use all the buttons. Then, give Ansel Adams (ok, I know he's dead) a $50 e-bay special. Ansel Adams will still take better pictures than me

Either case, you'll be happy.

You make some very valid points and I agree with you. I do still want to focus on the dives and not be consumed by my camera I just want to be be able to bring back some good pictures to share with family and friends. As you mentioned I was very impressed by Canon picture galleries, especially considering they were not using an external flash they were fantastic pictures by my standards. If I could go out and bring back pictures that looked like those I would be thrilled.

So if I do decide to go with the Canon what are my options for adding an external strobe? What kind of results could I expect and does the Canon housing allow you to add on the different lenses?

Joe