New c-5050 setup, a few pics and a few questions

Hello everyone, this is my first post here. With the help of James Wiseman, I picked out some new camera gear. This is my second digital camera, and first underwater setup. I decided to get the new Olympus 5050z, the pt-015 housing, and the ikelite ds-125 strobe setup with their tray.

I took the whole setup out on a spearfishing trip last sunday. I had all my gear in a new pelican case, but I forgot one key part. I left the screw that holds the camera to the tray at home. I wasnt able to take the strobe underwater because of that. I was really pretty suprised at how good the shots came out without any extra flash, especially since the vis was so bad.

Here are a couple of shots that I took:

I was freediving and I dropped down over nothing, so theres not much to look at in that picture. I decided to show it beacuse that was at 50 feet with only the camera flash.

That shot was at the surface.

So, here are my questions:

1. I dont know how to use a camera that well. I grew up with point and shoot. What are the quality of my pictures going to be if I use the strobe with the camera set to P? I obviously have a lot to learn.

2. I am going to the Marshall Islands in 3 weeks and I wanted to get some more accessories for my setup. I was looking at getting a wide angle lens. There seems to be several brands that fit my housing, which is the best?

I think thats it for now.

Thanks guys

Dustin

Holy Crap, I just realized that the "extra" oring that came with the housing, wasnt really an extra one. I guess I missed that part in the instructions. I noticed when I had it down at about 55 feet, it made a clicking sound like the housing was compressing, but no water got inside. Good thing I had it insured.

Dustin

I was wondering where that extra o-ring was supposed to be placed ?

You got to be Irish !

Marc

Haha, nope, not Irish. I had never used a camera housing before. Still can't believe I did that.

Dustin

I think the only thing you will be disappointed with is that rediculous strobe arm - Especially if you are considering wide angle without detatching it.

3-weeks? You still have time to change it for the ball joint types.

Haha, nope, not Irish. I had never used a camera housing before. Still can't believe I did that.

 

Dustin

You are the third person I have heard of that has done that with that type of housing, so you are not alone.

M

Ha ha .

Dustin, if you're not Irish you sure got the luck of one!

Thanks for doing the experiment! Re-assuring to know it was good with just one o-ring, so should be pretty water-tight with two!

Hope you took the housing down WITHOUT the camera as test before you took those pics!

The PT015 does 'pop' at depth. Popped several times on me especially at 40m. Very disconcerting.

Yeah, don't like the Ike arms (didn't want it but got it as part of the Substrobe package which is bit silly). Got Ultralight arms instead.

Inon, S&S and Olympus all have WAL for the PT015. Don't know much about their performance chart though.

How does the ikelite ball socket arm compare to the ultralight arms?

Dustin

Yeah, having used that arm with my DS-50, I can definitely say it's not real practical. Get the ball joint style from Ikelite, ULCS, or TLC. Even if you can only get one arm segment, it'll still be more flexible.

Is an arm system like this going to be sufficient?

Ikelite Arm

Dustin

To start with, most likely, especially for macro. I have no experience with the Ikelite ball arms, but if they're like the rest of Ike's products, they're probably great.

As you get into wide angle, and if you add another strobe, you'll want to add another arm segment, but this is a good starting point.

SPEARFISHING !!!!!!!. Shame on you. I trust now you have your new toy - c5050, you will bin the spear!!

Mark H

That looks like it will do the job more practically, not a bad price in comparison to those ludicrously expensive TLC ULCS etc.

Mark knows how I feel about so called Sport fishing - Now you have a camera for underwater dump the ******* spear gun. Why should fish suffer the consiquences of a egoist after a worthless piece of trash to put on a shelf. Sooner or later your local water will end up like the Med. Nothing to photograph except sand and agae.

The fact that this arm has space for the wireless TTL controller to mount keeps the cost down compared to an equivalent ULCS setup, but not by much, since this is a 2 clamp system, not 3 as you often see with ULCS.

The equivalent ULCS arm would be

AC-IK - $24 (adaptor to fit Ike handles)

AD-TTL - $25 (mount for TTL sensor)

AC-TCS - $35 (triple clamp to hold AC-IK and AD-TTL plus arm)

AC-CSF - $30 (clamp for arm and substrobe)

AD-125 - $23 (adaptor for DS-125 to convert to ball mount)

DB-08 - $48 (8" double ball arm)

Total: $185

The Ikelite version will probably keep the sensor steadier, since when you loosen the triple clamp, there's a chance the sensor mount will shift. At this point, it's really just a matter of preference and of whether or not you care about mixing and matching brands.

So that Ikelite setup seems like a good choice? Maybe I should add an extra 6" arm and clamp too.

Im not going to get into an arguement over my choice to spearfish. I will tell you that it has nothing to do with putting fish on shelves or collecting fish for the pure sport of it. Just like you, I disagree with that. I fish for food and I fish responsibly. If it bothers you guys I can edit the post.

Dustin

James helps you with a camera and forgets to mention orings...for shame james.

You are one lucky guy!

I fish for food and I fish responsibly.  If it bothers you guys I can edit the post.

 

Dustin

No need to edit: It works out quite well.

You guy's are spoiled over there we have to pay at least 50% more for that stuff - hence my comment.

No need to edit the post. At least you are honest!

Seems like I started off on a good foot with you guys! Hope I didnt offend anyone.

Yahsemtough, James was a lot of help, it was my own fault that I didnt put that other oring in there.

Dustin

Just one thing. If you ever take up diving make sure you change those fins. Noone wil be able to catch you up!!!