Olympus C-5000 for a beginner?

Just picked up an Olympus C-5000zoom with a Oly PT-019 housing, and looking for opinions. I'm brand new to diving (and UW photography), and was wondering if this is a decent setup for a beginner. Do I need an external strobe, or (generally speaking) would the onboard flash be sufficient? I'll be diving the Bahamas and the West Central Florida Gulf Coast (Tampa/Clearwater).

Any basic recommendations as far as operation during the dive is truly appreciated (white balance, etc.).

Thanks!

The first rule of underwater photography is to get close, then get closer. The tricky part is that most new divers need more experience to fine tune their buoyancy skills. If your skills are good, go right ahead. If not, having a camera would be a distraction.

What kind of photos do you want to take? Most shown on this board are either wide angle or macro. Using the camera only, you could do some nice macro and head & shoulders portraits.

If you want to start out easy and get some nice results in shallow waters, pick up a Magic Filter. You'll see all kinds of posts on Wetpixel about them. I would use aperture priority at f/5.6, ISO 100 or 200, and about -1/3 or -2/3 exposure compensation. There is a filter called the Auto Magic, designed for small cameras. It would allow you to keep your white balance setting on automatic. Filters are primarily for shallow water with good light.

Shoot JPEG. The other mode on your camera is TIFF, which will take forever to save and won't offer any practical advantages over JPEG.

Buy a book about underwater photography. It's a great way to learn about composition and technique.

If thinking for an UW Photography book to buy, I would most certainly care to recommend "The Underwater Photographer" by Martin Edge. Really simple to read, covers most basic stuff and will remain as a good reference for future.

And offcourse this forum contains tons and tons of useful information.

Happy shooting!

Cheers, Scubamoose

Do I need an external strobe, or (generally speaking) would the onboard flash be sufficient? I'll be diving the Bahamas and the West Central Florida Gulf Coast (Tampa/Clearwater).

I just bought my camera/housing this year and already looking at strobes to get. I do mostly snorkeling with it, so I generally don't have to use the cameras flash and hawaii/bahamas/florida have sort of the same waters. Remember that color is lost rapidly as you descend deeper. With the cameras flash you will most likely encounter problems such as backscatter, over/under exposure, etc.

Thanks for the great advise. I somewhat accidentally/on purpose bought 2 UW camera setups (SeaLife 300 $40, and Oly C-5000Zoom w/housing $70). I figured they were cheap enough, and I can give one to the wife. I'll see how comfortable we both feel during certs, and take it from there. We'll be going to the Bahamas, and I wanted to be able to dive, but we're also going to snorkel while there. For now, it'll be 'vacation fun' type photos, just for the memories. As I live on the Gulf, and have a boat and at least 2 friends that dive, I expect to dive fairly frequently. Unless I end up freaking out, which I highly doubt, I hope to be taking 'real' UW pics by summer. Thanks again for the advise!

any reviews so far?

any reviews so far?

http://www.camerasunderwater.info/articles/index.html