Titan Rocks!!!

Finally got my Titan this weekend and I love it!!!

1st impression: rock solid, well built, simple and effectively executed housing. Controls almost every camera function, but does not control on/off.

I've been waiting around for this housing for a few months, and in that time I became very familiar with the E20 that it houses. This made the learning curve a little quicker.

Posts on this forum have expressed concern over the macro function of this camera, its ability to focus in low light, and the standard lens' range. I dove this unit for over 8 hours this weekend, and I can say that the AF is quite good. I really didn't have any trouble even shooting lobsters backed up in a hole. The macro ability of the system is more than adequate. In fact, I had a macro lens on order and may cancel it since out of the box I got good results. It seems that everyone reads Olympus' claim that the macro feature allows you to focus on objects inside 8" from the lens, and interprets it to mean not much inside. Out of the housing, it focuses quite well inside 4". In the housing, I never got close enough to any critters to have difficulty focusing, even on a semi-closed rebreather. I think the macro function of the system is very good.

The only disappointment is the wide angle ability of the built on lens, which I hope will improve dramatically with the wetmate wide angle lens. I'll post an update once I've received it.

The image quality of this system is exceptional. I cropped and blew up images to 8X10 and got very good, photorealistic prints.

I love the system, and it was worth the wait.

Very cool Kasey.

Thanks for the report.

Have you put some images up, for us to see?

Do you explicitly have to turn off the IR focus mechanism, for use in the housing, underwater?

Thanks for sharing with us!

Don

Kasey

You can't give us all this great information with out even a small sample..

Also, I am still waiting for the invite to go diving with you in the USVI!

No, you don't have to turn the infrared off. I suspect that the infrared helps the camera focus more quickly, but without it it seems to do the job well.

I posted a description of the diving in St. Croix on the trips board. If you are interested, let me know. The shore diving is exceptional, which makes the trip very inexpensive. Airfares tend to be high, though. I can easily hook you up with a place to stay that is right on the North Shore wall, 50 ft from the dive shop, and a 100 yard swim from the best wall dive on the island. I'm always looking for a photo buddy.

Here are some pics from my 1st weekend out. Not yet edited, just straight from the cam.

The compression I used to upload images made them kind of screwy. Also, can't figure out how to attach multiple images in one post. I've got a few more I'd like to upload. Please help!

I'm out of town, and my Titan is waiting for my return, so I haven't laid hands on it yet, but my understanding is that you do need to turn off the IR.

1. It does not function to aid the autofocus while in the housing.

2. The camera/strobe controls in the handles communicate with the housing via IR (they are not hard wired), so the camera IR can interfere with that.

Can't wait to get home!

Richard

The manual makes no mention of this. I've used it for over 8hrs now with no problem, but I can't say that I've had the focus button depressed while operating the ROC simultaneously. Nonetheless, it is pretty unlikely that the signals operate at the same frequency.

You are right, though, that it does not aid the AF, but I don't think turning it off matters. I'll try it and see whether it makes a difference.

Still can't seem to get pix uploaded - probably an OSX glitch. You can see them at

Let me know what you think. Be gentle.

Hi Kasey.

To my setup, and my eyes, the photos could use more contrast, but otherwise look like they've got plenty of detail to work with.

Most digital images seem to require some contrast adjustment, at least, to get them looking really nice.

So, are you in any of those shots?

Wow, the usvi sound great.

Let's have the first annual wetpixel forum shootout, at your place!!

Don

No, I'm not in any of those, but a wetpixel shootout sounds awesome. I could easily arrange for the dive shops to host it, and maybe even get steve simonsen, a St. John photo pro, to run seminars. All interested let me know!!!

Im ready, I use FF miles and fly over next month...Sign me up!

I just received my Titan and taking a dry run in the living room I encounted an issue.

When inserting the camera, I did not get that slight resistance referred to at Line 7 of page 6 of the manual. And then the zoom control had some slipage. I called Light and Motion and we went over some specifics. It turns out that there are four slots on the inside of the part that receives the camera lens and inside the slots are oring material (lengths) which provide the resistance and therefore the zoom performance (mechanical). On my camera there were 2 opposing slots that were empty. Light and Motion is sending me some oring material to "pop" in the empty slots to see if that stabilizes the fit.

I just wanted to post this in case anyone else needed to address zoom control and I would be curious to know who does or does not have all four slots with the intended oring material inserts.

Also (whew) why would they have us turn off standby mode when we have to put the camera in turned on. Without standby the camera will remain on all the time - I wonder if it has anything to do with the IR signals not being properly able.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Nick Boyd