C5050 vs. SP350 some advice needed (James, Eric, etc)– TTL, housing’s, etc (long)
In the past I have mainly been a lurker looking up the posts of others as in the past I have only gotten a chance to use my camera on 1 or 2 trips a year, but that will change this year as the end of next month I will finish with my paramedic training and will be getting a opportunity to travel and dive for the rest of the year. So with this opportunity coming I have been doing a fair amount of reading on what the latest technology & equipment that is available so that I can finish out my camera rig I have currently or trade up to some newer technology.
My underwater rig consists currently of a oly C5050 (2) and a PT-015 housing and inon strobes (1-220S & 1- 220F) run off fiber optic cables. I don’t have any adaptor lenses as I have rented (from reef photo) them when I have needed them. This rig has served me well in the few times that I have used it. I have gotten some very good pictures out of the camera including a couple that have been blown up to 11x14 &16x20 prints. When I bought this was considered the best camera on the market and I don’t think that its been out done yet, but some of the newer technology seems to offer more flexibility that isn’t possible for this camera, at least how it appears to me (i.e. TTL).
For the record topside I shoot with various cameras digital and film and in multiple formats (Canon 1V-HS, 20D, mamiya 6x7, 645afd and 4x5 etc) as I shoot a wide variety of subjects from indoor events, to studio portraiture and most things in between but mainly focusing on portraiture. Underwater shooting is a extension of what I shoot on land but I don’t have as much control with my lighting as I do topside with digital at least, (I have a lot of control with a nikonos and TTL and familiar with its capabilities) as it seems to me as I normally keep a light meter on me to verify lighting and settings.
The biggest thing that I don’t have the control I would like to control like I do topside is flash level output (i.e. TTL) as on land I have the option of using TTL on the flash or using a light meter in the studio to set my settings. I have done testing in the past with my Nikonos to test TTL and can verify that it works very well, by testing it simply by attaching a strobe and cable and setting the camera up and facing the strobe toward the camera and then away noting the flash levels (smaller toward, and higher away). I have tried doing the same with the c5050 and not certain that I can notice a difference in the output with pointing a bright light source toward or away from the camera with it in manual mode and flash set to go off (the symbol is the “in + the flashgun symbol†on the menu). Am I testing it incorrectly, if I need to try something else please let me know.
So finally I'm wanting some advice on where to go from here on this rig as I have a very good opportunity the second half of this year to do a lot of UW photography and I want to be able to get the most of the opportunity by getting the gear to take the best pictures possible with the same quality that I get on land. Over the past couple of days I have been reading up as much as I could on TTL options for the C5050 including contacting Mathias and Ryan at Reef Photo (thank you for your patience with me) and it seems like most of the options that looked good to me have been discontinued (the external and internal controllers) and the option that is available from Matthias (mk II converter) I don’t seem to understand how its able to initiate the TTL protocol (lack of finding user reports doesn’t help) without being attached to the hot shoe to communicate with the camera from reading back through the C5050 Manuel I don’t see any mention of TTL for flash output control. Then also I haven’t been able to find any recent user reports on the latest version so I cant judge what its capable of. The biggest option that I don’t seem to have control over with this adaptor is flash compensation as this is a tool I use a lot especially at indoor concerts with lots of backlighting. If im wrong please correct me as I don’t want to have bad information to be basing my opinion on.
Then in the process of looking up the TTL options for the c5050 I have seen that the oly SP350 has gotten a fair number of good reviews and has a few options that make it attractive, i.e. the TTL converter port from Matthias, but it seems that the camera and housing have been discontinued but the housing and camera are still available at decent prices, which is the same situation I was in when I got the c5050 just shortly after it had been discontinued by oly in 2003, even since then I have been able to get a back up last July at a good price and have seen housings available from time to time but at prices higher then they originally sold for. The sp 350 weighs on my on my decision it has two real good point with RAW (8 mega-pixels is a good point as well as it allows more editing overhead then the 5050) and a hardwired TTL option really is appealing as I know with TTL I can shoot and know I will get the shot I intended when I press the shutter, like I get on-land. In addition I still need to outfit my rig with a wet mount WA and macro lenses so that the set up is flexible with the situations I come upon. At this point I sit between two options I could trade up to the SP350 and PT-030 and Matthias TTL converter port for no cost or some left over based on the current selling prices for the c5050 and PT-015. With finding this information it has put me in a hard place to decided on where to go which is why im posting it here.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Scubatooth
I’m going to post this now and any and all help would be appreciated but note that I wont be back online until late Sunday as I have 24 hour rotation in the morning and wont have internet access, but I will get back on Sunday morning.
