New Olympus C-5050

I'd be interested in hearing performance results from this camera. 5 mega pix is not bad for a point & shoot . It may be worth a short term investment until I consider SLR investment. On this score I am eagerly awaiting the S9 reports.

Any users of the new 5050 please post you opinions here so we can all learn.

Mark H

Some first impressions of the C5050-Zoom with the PT-015 housing

Note: Previously I was using a Sony P5 housed in a MPK-5. I don’t regard myself as an expert on underwater digital photography and someone with more expertise might form quite a different impression.

I took the camera on a trip to Kapalai for 10 days, during which I did about 30 dives. The visibility was not good (generally 5m or less) but there were plenty of interesting subjects. On a couple of days we went to Sipadan but even there the vis was only 10m or so.

Overall, after the first 5 dives or so, I thought quality of the pictures was already much better than I had achieved with the Sony after about 80 dives.

What I most liked

- The white balance settings seem to do a pretty good job (once I got it sorted out!) for non-flash pictures. This was a good thing since my external flash wasn’t working well on this trip. Overall I’m very happy with the colours in the shots.

- Ability to save 8 different camera settings and recall them quickly.

- Shutter lag is shorter than I am used to.

- After a bit of messing around with diffusers, I got good exposure results on macro using the in-built flash and its automatic metering, without needing to use the external flash.

- Autofocus seems pretty good (all I need to do now is to find a way to stay perfectly still in the water ...)

What I didn’t like

- The positioning of the LCD screen. You have to be almost directly behind the camera to see the panel, as the housing puts a rubber sleeve in front of it to shield it from light which might otherwise make it hard to see the screen well. It’s really hard to see what’s on the screen if you need to put the camera in a low position to take a shot. On the other hand, when looking at the screen from behind the camera, it’s then hard to see directly an object close in front of the camera, as the housing body blocks the direct line of sight from the eye. This can make it hard to position the camera properly for the shot and sometimes when very close up I couldn’t tell for sure that the housing was not about to bump into the object. Admittedly my depth perception (judgment of short distances) is not too good anyway compared to most people.

- Using the housing, I can’t reliably tell when the shutter button reaches the lock position, so I ended up taking shots before I wanted to sometimes.

- The white balance doesn’t work too well if I point the camera at a white card to set the balance; the subsequent shots were too red. To get good results without the flash I have to find some near-white sand to set the white balance. I can’t work out why this should be.

- It’s a bit awkward to rotate the knob for most adjustments underwater – you need to press a button or two, while simultaneously twisting a knob. Could be a problem if there’s a significant amount of weight attached to the camera.

- I couldn’t work out how to get the histogram to display constantly in Manual mode (no problem in some other modes)

In spite of these compaints, overall I'm extremely happy with the camera & housing.

If you want to see a couple of examples colour balance without a strobe, you can see some sample photos (low resolution only) at http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/d3m2m; the Kapalai photos were taken with the Olympus and the others were taken with the Sony on previous trips. None of these have been processed in Photoshop, but some have been cropped. This will sound silly, but due to an accident (user error!) I lost all the original files including the information about whether I used the flash and I only have compressed versions of most of the photos. Still, I think some Kapalai photos taken without the strobe were 150401 & 221847.

For the extreme close-up shots I didn't use the super macro mode, instead I was using normal AF mode with a close-up lens. These close-up shots all used the camera's internal flash; I attached a diffuser to the front of the housing to try to avoid having a shadow from the lens cover of the housing.

-David

Dave,

I looked at your pics, and there look good. I can't believe that you didn't use the mirco for the close-up shots. The clown-fish is a great shot.

You said that you couldn't see the LCD in certain positions b/c of the rubber boot. Did you ever try to take the boot off to see if you could see the LCD screen from those different positions? I would think that the LCD screen should show up with less than 5m.

Great report. I'm getting that much closer to owning my own

Just to clarify: the very-close shots used the external close-up lens in normal focus mode, the medium-close shots used the macro focus mode without any add-on lens.

I don't understand the optics of the close-up lens, which just allows closer focus. As I mentioned in a previous post, it will allow slightly greater magnificatoin than the super-macro mode because with the close-up lens I can still zoom in. Zoom is disabled in super-macro mode.

I have thought about taking off the rubber boot. However, it is part of the system which holds the camera securely in place in the housing, so I'd have to be pretty careful about modifying it. Perhaps I could just remove the top part, but I'm unwilling to try cutting it until I'm sure I can find a replacement part if necessary.

The two plastic channels on the outside of the housing are to attach an external continuationn of the black rubber boot. I haven't used this, but I imagine it could be useful for snorkelling (where glare from the sun could be a problem). These channels would block some part of the screen even without the top part of the rubber boot, but it should still be possible to see the screen from an angle so as to set up the shot confidently.

-David

do you recall any of the settings you used to get these shots? were they in manual, A, P, or S modes? reason I'm asking is that I've just got one myself (first time with uw stills). thanks

Dear All,

Hi!.

I have just traded in my c-4000 for a c-5050 today!. I have dived with the C-4040 then the c-4000 in the PT-010 case. The reason I used the c-4000 was, I DROWNED my fav 4040 due to sheer carelessness of getting the corner of the silica pack to be caught in the o ring during one of the dives. Sigh!. Anyway I really miss the top LCD indicator on the top side of the 4040 as the 4000 does not have any such indicator. All status were displayed on the main screen for about 3 secs. when some buttons were depressed. Anyway to be fair, the c-4000 was a damn good camera which produced some really great pics despite being the "el cheapo" brother to the c-4040.

I was elated when a friend of mine (used to be a diver too) who runs a photo equipment & processing retail outlet, gave me a "long forgotten" SUNPAK MARINE 32 u/w strobe recently. Eventhough I very damn happy that the strobe triggered by detecting the internal flash of the camera, as the cable that came with the strobe was proprietary and the fact that PT-010 didn't provide any outlets for outboard strobes.

However, joy soon turn to confusion as the pics turn out to be severely underexposed & dark. After some frantic searching & digging on the web, I have come to the following conclusion.

Most digital cameras uses a"pre" flash to guage the settings before the actual flash and shutter were actually triggered to produce a picture. Both these flash actually very close to each other for most of us to notice and that also explain the shutter lag as compared to film cameras. The pre flash actually triggered the strobe to fire way too early before the actual flash and in the process screwing up the settings for the camera light metering. That results in a severely under exposed pics despite both flash & strobe seemingly having fired!.

I've took it back to the shop and tried with different settings & different digital camera from canon, casio & nikon and all gave the same results. If u look carefully, most digital cams actually flashes not once but twice like we thought it to be.

Anyway, as a newbie, sorry for being "long winded" or too lengthy like we asian are use to saying, but do anyone has any exprience with problems of this nature. If so, how could this be overcomed?

I would also like to recommend a excellent website dedicated to u/w photography for all to share at : http://www.marscuba.com/

Alfred Kwok

Yes, the preflash is quite well-known to us underwater photographers and there are strobe manufacturers that make sensors to accommodate this "feature". I was under the impression that the C-5050's preflash could be disabled by going into the menu and selecting the "slave" strobe option. Did you try that? I'm curious to know the answer. If the preflash can be disabled, then my old Ike slave sensor and old strobes would work in manual mode with the camera . . .

Mike

You can use the slave flash mode in Manual & Aperture priority modes. It is not available for P and S modes.

-David

Yes, the preflash is quite well-known to us underwater photographers and there are strobe manufacturers that make sensors to accommodate this "feature".  I was under the impression that the C-5050's preflash could be disabled by going into the menu and selecting the "slave" strobe option.  Did you try that?  I'm curious to know the answer.  If the preflash can be disabled, then my old Ike slave sensor and old strobes would work in manual mode with the camera . . .

 

Mike

Mike,

I recently bought the 5050 and tried out the slave feature with my pair of YS90-DXs in the ON / Slave position (not PREflash) and the photo exposed perfectly. I can also confirm David's statement that it works in full manual and aperture priority modes only.

Your Ike strobes should work perfectly.

do you recall any of the settings you used to get these shots? were they in manual, A, P, or S modes? reason I'm asking is that I've just got one myself (first time with uw stills). thanks

Sorry, as mentioned elsewhere I lost the specific info for each shot ...

By the end of my trip I was using the internal flash (with a diffuser at the side of the lens barrel when necessary to avoid having a shadow in the corner of the picture) for shots within 1m distance, with the camera on manual or shutter priority setting, and with a short exposure time. The camera then determined the flash required to correctly expose the shot. If the object was too far away it would be underexposed, and I would then increase the aperture until the flash was powerful enough to do the job. I guess I wasn't very serious about remembering the best settings for the various situations. By using a short exposure time, I was trying to ensure that most of the light would come from the flash, so as to get good colours in the shot. If I was worrying about getting good colour in a more distant background as well, I would use a different approach (next trip!).

After a while I had some "My mode" settings saved (you can save 8 custom modes):

- extreme closeup setting (suitable when I was using the external close-up lens)

- macro setting

- normal (without flash) for distances >1m

- a night-time mode for distance >1m (using the slave to drive a strobe, which wasn't working during the daytime - a long story)

One irritation is that the "My Mode" settings include the zoom position as part of the defined setting ... which didn't suit me at all.

Incidentally I never succeeded in setting the white balance manually with the flash and so I used an outdoor (sunlight) setting with the flash. Don't know whether this was the best choice. Trying to set the white balance with the flash by pointing the camera at something white-ish always resulted in red pictures. (Anybody know how to fix this??)

Because of some previous reading about ISO settings & noise in the pictures, I always used 64 or 100. Not sure I can tell the difference, though.

Hope this helps a bit. I'm definitely not an expert; this is the first time I have used a camera with manual control. I hope others can suggest some improvements. (Please!!)

-David

Patterns,

Did you know that the camera saves all of your settings information embedded within each shot? It's called EXIF data and can be read using photoshop, or many other image browsing programs.

When you work on the files and resave them, this info can be lost, so check your originals. You do save all of your original files, right?

Cheers

James

I was playing with my filing system and a feral batch process killed all the originals from the trip. Ooops.

Dear All,

Thanks a mil. My 5050 preflash could indeed by disable but the camera must be set to M or A mode. It even have a variable intensity slave flash from 1 to 8!. Great!. I could get my strobe to fire in sync now but have yet to test it u/water as my pt-015 casing has not arrived yet. I'm quite sure the 4040 & 4000 didn't have this slave mode.

Anyway I tried long exposure during the new year fireworks display and were quite please with the outcome. However there some noticable barreling effect in wide mode where the buildings seems to curve a little.

It a great dissapointment too that our version of 5050 were supplied with non rechargeble battery and NO REMOTE CONTROL!. Fortunately I still have the old remote from my dead 4040.

Hopefully the AF illuminator would be of any use during night dives. That would be another bonus switching to 5050.

Thanks again for all your help especially to Mike & David.

Alfred Kwok

It a great dissapointment too that our version of 5050 were supplied with NO REMOTE CONTROL!.

This is the first I have heard of this.

I have shopped around for the C5050, and in none of them do they mention a remote control.

I haven't even seen this in the add-ons. Has someone bought a 5050 with a remote, or bought a remote for the 5050? I'm very interested in learning more about this.

Keith

After looking around I found this on the Olympus wed site

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/...=1&accessory=12

They have it for $39.99

Haven't found anyone that sells this with the camera

I bought a C-5050z last week and it came with the RM-1 remote control. It was purchased at a retail store in the Annapolis MD area. Haven't used it yet but I like the camera.

Thanks for all the comments chaps.

So here's the burning question, do I pay a bit more & buy a Titan housing for my existiing E10 or buy a new C5050 & housing.........Tough one!

Mark H

It a great dissapointment too that our version of 5050 were supplied with NO REMOTE CONTROL!.

 

 

 

 

Alfred,

 

Can you tell me where you bought your C5050. I'm hearing that the RM-1 remote is only provided in the north american C5050's.

 

I would love to here if anyone a purchased form the internet, and received the remote with the camera.

 

Does anyone know for sure why some of the camera's come with a remote, and some don't?

 

 

Keith

It a great dissapointment too that our version of 5050 were supplied with NO REMOTE CONTROL!.

 

 

 

 

Alfred,

 

Can you tell me where you bought your C5050. I'm hearing that the RM-1 remote is only provided in the north american C5050's.

 

I would love to here if anyone a purchased form the internet, and received the remote with the camera.

 

Does anyone know for sure why some of the camera's come with a remote, and some don't?

 

 

Keith

I got mine from a UK supplier and it wasn't supplied either... the instructional booklet states that it is only supplied to certain markets but fails to mention which ones

Keith,

My unit of 5050 does not come with remote and supplied only with non rechargable lithium batteries, yuks!. Last year when I have my 4040 it came with the remote but batteries still non rechargable lithium. 3 months back the 4000 came with no remote function, hence no remote & ALKALINE batteries only!

Anyway I live in Malaysia, the cameras costed were 4040 - RM3200 (US$842), 4040 - RM1750 (US460) & bought my 5050 at RM2800 (US$740) last week. I got the PT-010 in Singapore for S$380 (US$190) but I can't find the PT-015 in stock in singapore & they told me the stock only arrive in two months!.

Anyone has their hands on the pt-015 yet?. If so where & how much?

Thanks.