C-5050 tips

Hi. I recently went on a trip to Turks & Caicos with my new setup consisting of a C-5050z camera and the PT-015 housing. I decided that for this trip I would mainly just get used to the camera and not worry about the strobe. I bought a color correcting filter for the PT-015 and used that on all of my dives. During the dives I generally left the camera set to automatic, although I did eventually put it in the forced flash mode, because I noticed that at times the camera didn't recognize that it needed the flash. Anyway, most of the photographs came out too blue, so I realize it may be time to add a strobe? Anyway, I'd like to hear what settings people use the camera at and what sort of strobe I should use with the camera (including how the camera is set for use with the strobe). Thanks for any advice!

I too did the same thing on my trip to Hawaii. The macro pictures came out with good lighting and color. Any of the other pictures were very blue. I would be interested in strobing suggestions as well as possible Photoshop setting to make these pictures more attractive. Thanks.

Hey--what filters did you get and where did you get em? I haven't seen filters advertised...I personally don't use a strobe, but then again I live in Hawaii and mostly freedive. I guess if you need tanks you'll need strobes too.

--John

The front of the camera is 67mm threaded, so you can use any 67mm filter. I use a 77mm FL-D filter with a 67-77mm step-up ring.

What kind of depth do you typically use these filters at? I am not sure if I will get any filters for now. I am so far behind in the learning curve and behind in my to-do lists that I often think I should clone myself to get things done. BTW, remember I mentioned a scratch on my WAL a while back? It's pretty much unnoticeable. I'm still very bummed about the whole thing, but it's nice that it is at least somewhat usable. I often get the little sunspots when I take pics up towards a light source while using the WAL and I wonder how that will look or if there will be any bizarre effects from the scratch. In the meantime, I am ordering the Inon UWL100 and the Dome Unit. Instead of putting my hard-earned money into investments that tank(I won't add "in a Bush administration") I have decided to blow it on camera equipment instead and just pretend another stock went bust. Doh, Krispy Kreme down 2 and a quarter--whoa, where'd this strobe come from??

Anyway, enough rambling...it's late here in Japan. Oyasumi nasai...

--John

Re Strobes, your choices are Ikelite, INON, or Sea & Sea. I use Ikelite DS 125s with manual controllers and I love them. While there are pros and cons for the strobes from these 3 sources, when all is said and done I think the winners are the Ikelite DS 125 and the INON Z220 for power and angle of coverage with the INON excelling in lightweight and the Ikelite in cycle time.

For details on settings that work well with the Ikelite DS 125 see the following URL

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gall...up_settings.htm

What kind of depth do you typically use these filters at?

You might want to read through the pinned thread on available light shots if you haven't checked it out yet. It covers filter use, depths, colors, brands, etc.

A page on 5050 strobes: http://home.swbell.net/stusa/olystrobearms...s/strobespg.htm