Updating rig, Fuji E900 or Olympus SP350?

Hello,

First of all I am new to Wetpixel and I appreciate everyone taking the time to give their expertise. So, I currently am using a Olympus C-3040 with a Inon D180 strobe and Inon macro and wide angle wet lens attachments. I like my rig but have decided it is time to update. I don't know if I really want to pay the money to update to the SLR yet. Ideally I would like to update to a camera that would be able to use the Inon strobe and lens attachments. I am willing to look to look into any suggestions that someone has but right now my current options are the Fuji E900 vs. the Olympus SP350. Here are the qualities that I am really looking for out of my new camera:

1) Quick Focusing time and Small Shutter lag.

2) Great Auto focus. This one may be more on me, but I had a lot of trouble shooting a Pygmy Sea horse and getting it in focus, I know I was with in the focusing range of the camera since some of the picture was in focus but I couldn't really get the Pygmy to ever get in focus. I attached a picture for example.

3) Flash Modes - This is a issue that I read about with the F900. When blocking the internal flash but usin the optical cable to fire the Inon, the flash will fire at full power and takes nine seconds to recharge. I have this same problem with my C3040. I see on the SP350 it has a slave mode that allows you to adjust the intensity at which the strobe fires, is this going to solve my problem, and can anyone with the E900 confirm this issue.

Last does anyone know if the SP350 has capablities of adding 67mm wet lenses to the PT030 housing? I think I saw a adapter for $60.

Any performance input that you have about either the F900 or SP350 is appreciated. I think I am leaning towards the SP350 over the F900, due to the slave option and its about $200 cheaper (with housing).

Thanks for eveyones help!

The PT-030 has a 46mm ring. To use the 67mm lens, you would need to use two step up rings. That would put the lens further away from the camera so you would probably have to zoom out.

Does your Inon strobe have the ability to be hard-wired? If you can, then the housing bulkhead can probably be modified.

Unfortunatly my strobe does not have the hardwire capabilities. I realize this may limit the performance capabilities of my rig and I may have to get a new strobe with the capabilities of hardwiring. Right now I would definitely like to keep using my current stobe, due to prices of new strobes.

I shot the SP350 for the first time yesterday. Here are my conclusions to your points:

1. Focusing time is not quick but adequate for things that are not moving when there is enough light. There is alot of shutter lag, so I don't think this camera will stop moving fish/animals well. This is probably true for most point and shoots.

2. The autofocus is pretty good. Check out the samples I posted yesterday in the Photos and Gallery Showcase. I was using a focus light and I think this would be mandatory to get decent shots in low light/deeper dives. For shooting small stuff like pygmies, the SP350 can focus down to about 1/2 inch from the subject in super macro mode. I have tested this and it is very impressive especially on a cheap camera.

3. Flash modes. There is a flash exposure adjustment that can be made but I think even if its adjusted down, the recharge time is more or less on the same magnitude as you indicated.

4. I have this camera housed in an Ikelite housing. The inon lenses will fit on that housing. It also has built in TTL that is connected to the hot shoe. If you go this way, you will add a couple hundred bucks for this housing over the Olmpus housing but you also get to suppress the internal flash and get better battery life. Also, if you go this way you would add to your cost and defeat the idea of using your current strobe.

I've seen many excellent pictures taken with the E900. I don;t think you can go wrong there, especially for the price. Since you have a strobe and you're ok using an optical trigger, I think the E900 might be better for you.

A side note - The SP 350 allows 4 custom settings. I set these up topside and used them exclusively as starting points for manual shooting. This is a really cool feature and allows for instant custom supermacro, macro, wide shooting by simply pushing the custom setting button. Once in the custom mode, you can adjust the manual controls.

hope that helps.

You won't have the slow recharge problem. The SP has 10 manual settings for slave flash, on the lower settings it recharges very quickly. If you want fast shots, especially on S macro, where your distance is fairly fixed, I'd recommend using the manual focus feature. It will let you adjust within a widely spaced screen for a minimal distance adjustment, and when you get past the max distance, it changes the screen to the next step. The strobe will fire only on Slave in S macro, but for you, that should be fine. If you decide later to upgrade your strobe, the Oly has a hotshoe. If you don't use autofocus, you can get 3 shots per second. One of the UW presets (UW2) is set for a fixed focus at about 15 feet. You can also set up the camera for multiple shots on a single squeeze, but it doesn't work very well if you have to wait for your strobe. I use the Oly housing and it works fine, but as previously mentioned, if you plan to go to a ttl strobe setup it will only do Oly strobes-which aren't that great. That would make the Ike a better set-up. OTOH, the built in flash works quite nicely for macros and I believe the Ike blocks it. If you want sample pictures, you can check a couple hundred of them on my gallery at Scubaboard.com under Larry C.

Just a couple of notes from a user. I believe Inon was suppose to come out with an adapter for the SP-350 so you could use their macro and WA lenses. That was supposed to be out by the end of April.

Larry is on target with his assessment of the flash recharge times. I've tested the recharge time and its more due to write times of RAW files. RAW files take 7 seconds to write. SHQ JPegs write to fast XD cards in a little under 3 seconds the camera is ready to fire again. Your D-180 should make the transition well. Both Larry and I have the Oly FL-20 flash housed in an oly housing connected to the Sp-350 via a TTL cable. You can get the flash and the housing for around $200 on Ebay. This would allow you to use your Inon in slave mode off of the FL-20 while leaving the internal strobe disabled (saves battery and no recharge issues).

As far as quick focusing times go, the only way you'll get that with the SP-350 in low light is to place it in complete manual mode. Then there is little to no delay. This mode is a little more difficult to use because you're basically setting the focus by distance to the subject which can be deceptive underwater. This is somewhat of a clumsy workaround but most point and shoots don't have a workaround while their autofocus hunts in low light conditions.

Here's a picture of my camera and flash. I'm still in the hunt for that 2nd strobe but Larry has me leaning toward that Sunpak.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11517

regards,

Gary

I still haven't shot the Sunpak under water. My wife's been sick this week, so we didn't do our usual weekend trip. I think just about any decent slave strobe should work fine, as long as it has a preflash setting. On normal setting, there's about a 2 second delay between the preflash and both strobes flashing, but then the camera does seem to use the ttl info for both strobes, so if it's a macro or fixed target shot of some sort, you'll get good lighting. I just really like the option of having a hardwired strobe, one way or the other. The SP allows that. I don't know if the Fuji has a hotshoe or not.

The Inon AD mounts for the PT-030 are available. You can use the wide angle and macro lenses. The macro lenses will even stack.