New Olympus DSLR and housing

Olympus is going to show an updated E-410 DSLR at PMA. It is going to be a minor update to the E-400, but with the added live view feature of the E-330.

Olympus has also made a new underwater housing for this camera. It appears that Olympus is the only major DSLR maker to be interested in providing in house underwater solutions. The E-400 itself is the smallest DSLR and the E-410 housing should prove to be quite compact.

OK, Tell me true.... is the LIVE VIEW feature worth steering a purchase to Olympus? I'm about to buy the works. I had planned to go with Nikon D-80 until I heard about Live View. Is it as good as it sounds? Does any other mfg offer a similar feature? Does the E-400 NOT have Live View? If not, when will the E-410 housing be out?

Opinions??? Words of Wisdom???

I just cashed in my old rig and spent several thousands of dollars in an E-330 and Iikelite housing. LIVE VIEW is worth it. There are times when I still use the viewfinder, but, most of the time I use the large live view panel and it makes life SO MUCH EASIER ... especially in surgy conditions or a tight squeeze when getting your eyeball to the finder is difficult.

Rick Colman

OK, Tell me true.... is the LIVE VIEW feature worth steering a purchase to Olympus? I'm about to buy the works. I had planned to go with Nikon D-80 until I heard about Live View. Is it as good as it sounds? Does any other mfg offer a similar feature? Does the E-400 NOT have Live View? If not, when will the E-410 housing be out?

there was a review done by wetpixel member jeff mullings on the the e330 and the live view a while back

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/olympus-evo...housing-review/

you might want to read it to get some more information on it.

/paul

Good review. The only significant update is that autofocus is now available in B mode with a firmware upgrade. Although, I really only can use B Mode is very calm waters ...

Rick Colman

I use the E-330 & E-300 in the Olympus housings. As a long time film user it has taken me some time to worm-up to live view but find myself using it more and more each time I travel. The E-410 will be the smallest DSLR on the market and the only one with live view besides the E-330. The olympus housing for the camera will be very small and cost about the price of a 180 degree or 45 degree add on finder. The up side is the live view is about twice the size or more than the image in those finders. For the price, you will kind a lot of upsides to the system. Check the link for a full review.

http://www.letsgodigital.org/html/review/u...ldives_EN1.html

Phil Rudin

i'm a big fan of olympus, but I gotta say: PMA is in 29 days. There will be a raft of cameras announced over the next month. Whatever you decide on live view, olympus, nikon, canon, whatever, wait a couple weeks. Anything could happen. D200's could drop to $50. We'll see.

D200's could drop to $50. We'll see.

Ooo, i might buy one if that happens...

According to the "leak" from our friends down under, the Olympus E-410 will fit in the Olympus PT-E03 housing first designed for the Olympus E-400. This would lead me to believe the cameras are the same size with the same controls and a live view LCD. If in fact this is the case then the housing should be about life size as attached and the camera photo the same. I have used the Olympus port storage cover (about 4.5 inches tip to tip) and a CD as referance points. If you super-impose the camera over the housing it also appears that the pop-up flash may be allowed to open in the housing presenting additional options for optical TTL flash.

Phil Rudin

Looks good! About the size of a UK-Germany housing!

Cheers

James

I wonder if anyone at Olympus actually dives???

The problem with Oly housings is that they have no provisions for DUAL STROBES and if you want to use a single strobe, then you are stuck with one of their clunky, housed ordinary land flash units.

Yes, I understand that there are some adapters and such floating around, but I have not had great luck with TTL adapters on other Oly housings.

Can you spell IKELITE ...

Rick Colman

Rick,

Some of us can spell Inon, Sea & Sea and Athena. I myself have both manual and TTL adapters for my Oly E-300 and E-330 housings that work well with DUAL STROBES. If I owned Ike strobes I might be inclined to want an Ike housing but that is not the case for me. I have addressed the issue of the proprietary bulkhead with OlyUSA but OlyJp seems to feel some still like it. I don't see a single Ike strobe in the group.

Phil Rudin