Oly 30X0 info. & practicalities?

Hi,

I hope this hasn't neen beaten to death already, but I'm looking to buy a first digicam to play around with both above & underwater. I'm an experienced 'conventional' uw photog already and this will primarily be for my wife (right??).

So, after a bit of research and price being a deciding factor, I plan to pick up an Oly 3030/40 and PT010 in Singapore when I pass through there next month. Can any current users advise on the following practicalities assuming I'm using the internal strobe only:-

Thanks in advance for this rather broad question. Anyone want to know about 'old fashioned' cameras underwater, feel free to ask!

Also, anyone know the cheapest place to pick up the kit in Singapore, please let me know (not Lucky plaza though!)

Andy

Hi Andy, I'll try to answer some of you questions.

I use 1600mAh batteries and have never run them down on a single dive, and I think the consensus here is that they will last thru two dives with no probem. I'm admittedly conservative, and change batteries after dive, just to be safe. Sure as I didn't, I'd see a whale shark or something just as the batteries died.

The camera will focus down to 8" in macro mode. I don't think you'll fill the frame with a 2" subject, more like 4".

Since I use a 3030, storage capacity will be different, but shooting SHQ I can get about 80 shots on a 128MB card.

Yes, it's hard to see the lcd in shallow bright water, but that applies to all digicams as far as I know. Also, don't count on being able to determin sharp focus with the lcd. It's just to small, and almost everything will look to be in focus.

Hope this helps.

Richard

Thanks Richard. Not quite what I hoped to hear.

Regarding the focus, is it easy to tell if you are too close and the subject is OOF? If you don't use the LCD to confirm focus, how do you do it? just assume it's OK?

I must admit, I hoped to be able to go closer without any external optics. But then I guess the internal strobe would be pretty useless. Any idea how much closer you can get with the Inon or Oly close up lenses?

Sorry for all the questions but I'd like to know I'm making the right choice before investing any money.

Andy

Hi Andy,

I concur with everything Richard wrote, just adding my 2c.

I have pretty much the same setup with a C3030 which I've been using for about a year. We do tropical water only so about 45-60 mins/dive. I use the LCD screen 100% of the time, 1600mAh batteries and usually run out of juice towards the end of the second dive, especially if I snorkel between the dives.

For me I'm not going to risk opening the case between dives to replace the batteries. I'm moving up to 1800mAH so I hope the extra 10% does the trick.

On the subject of focus, when you push the shutter part way, there's a green LED in the view finder, if it's flashing that means the camera's not happy with the focus so move in or out an inch or 2 and try again.

Actually I find the focus very similar to out of the water so practice before diving. Sure I take some out of focus shots but I try to make up for it in volume!

Just one more week till Cozumel!

--Nick--

[Edited on 5-20-2002 by NickDoe]

Our Crazy Uncle and NickDoe have provided some great info to which I will add a couple of details.

INON macro will allow you to get very close to the subject...within a couple of inches, but, if you are more than 8 away, be sure to remove it.

There is also a method documented here or on Steve's forum on how to "trick" the camera into focusing closer without an add-on lens. I personally haven't tried it yet, but will in two weeks in Cozumel. You zoom to the limit then tap the zoom lever three times back. This should land on the sweet spot where you can focus down to 4 inches.

Here's a sample of an image with the INON.

This subject is less than an inch long.

As Nick is hoping, the 1800 mAh batteries will consistently last two dives. Don't skimp, get Ansmann batteries and quit worrying. I use 1600 MAHA cells in my strobes, and they last 3 or more dives, but the camera burns through the 1600's too fast for two dives.

On focusing, you will occasionally get a shot that appears OK in the LCD, but is actually out of focus. But, it certainly is more accurate than anything you will find in the film world (unless you are dealing with a very high dollar housed SLR).

Hi,

I use a C-4040z and mostly concur with the previous comments. I have 1800MaH batteries and change those every two dives. Better safe than sorry (I tried to go three dives last week and missed a picture of a sleeping hawksbill turtle due to the dreaded blinking battery warning). The INON macro lens will let you get a bit closer and is fairly cost effective. With it, you should be able to get a nice photo of your 2" nudibranch. You might even get a pretty good picture without it as long as you select macro mode. Since you will have the camera zoomed out all the way for the macro shots, the internal flash will still be effective. If you really want to do supermacro with a digicam, you might also consider the Sea&Sea adaptor that will allow you to fit the 2T and 3T lenses to the housing. Either that, or get a Nikon 995. (I know, either option makes the package price go up!). As for knowing when something is in focus or not, you can tell pretty easily on the LCD if something is way out of focus. However, it can be hard to tell on shots where the camera may focus, but on something close to the subject instead of the subject itself (e.g., the camera may focus on the coral right behind the subject, not on the subjet's eye).

I also use MaHa 1800 rechargables in my c4040 and can always count on two full dives with continual focus and monitor on full time.

Karl

Excellent, I've just got the Maha 1800s too so I'll be looking for 2 dives/charge next week in Cozumel.

(only 6 days to go!)

--Nick--

If macro is really important to you, you should seriously think about getting the 4040 instead of the 30x0. If you think about it, the 4040 has roughly 33% more pixels than the 30x0... this means that if you shot a small critter on the 4040, you could crop the image by 25% and still have more resolution in the image than the full frame of the 30x0 (meaning that you'd wind up filling more of the "frame" (final cropped image) with your subject without losing resolution.

I shoot the Light and Motion Tetra, and just got the macro port for it - hasn't been wet yet. I'll post some pics when I finally dunk it.

Anyway... hope this makes sense.

-D

Thanks for all of the info. guys. Re. batteries I already use the Ansman (sp?) & 1800mah batteries so no problem there. Unfortunately, I recently sold a Sea & Sea camera including the 2T & 3T lenses. Kicking myself now of course.

Which leads to another question regarding macro and using the Inon lens. From the posting above, I assume that there is still enough distance between subject and camera for the internal flash to be somewhat effective? Or would I need to use an external flash with any of the close-up adapters? I'm pretty sure that my wife will want to shoot small critters and am wondering if adding the Inon lens will do the trick - I'd like to avoid adding an external strobe at the moment. Does that all make sense?

Thanks again,

Andy

You are a Light & Motion Dealer right ?

Good, I'm Located in monterrey too, could you please send me your address so I can visit you and buy some equipment !

Yes, with the INON macro lens you should have the camera zoomed out all the way. this gives enough relief so that the internal flash is effective with the PT-010.

Mike

I'm using the 3030 in a PT010 and i am rather happy with it.

All pictures in http://www.dive.snoack.de/Pindito2001/e_gallery.html

were taken without macro lens and with internal strobe only, they should give you an idea of what is possible (although some of the macro shots are cropped).

1800 mAh Batteries last for 2 dives easily if you turn off the LCD when you don't need it.

You can change the brightness of the LCD underwater if neccessary.

What i like is that the settings menu is really easy to use underwater.

The focus trap is hard to find at the beginning but with some practice works very well. As you cannot determine the sharpness from the LCD, take several pictures of an interesting subject and hope for the best.

The 3030 sometimes has a problem with purple fringing.

There are better cameras and housings but the Oly in a PT010 is very small and easy to use.

Regards - Sabine

In the last week I've changed my mind from the Oly 3040 to the Canon G2 and am now back (kinda) again at the Oly 4040. It's always the same when you start to look into things....

Anyway, I guess my two main concerns with the 4040 now are having to use Smartmedia with a max of 128mB (the G2 appealed with the microdrive and CF option but quality issues and no worldwide guarantee have put me off), and focusing.

Is the 4 megapixel Oly overkill underwater considering that the largest capacity card is 128 mB so to take any number of pictures on one dive means you have to use lower resolutions? Or am I answering my own question? Is it true that some cameras have trouble using 128mB cards as well?

Where the focusing is concerned, how do you current users find it? With a little practice is it possible to get the majority of shots in focus and sharp or do you find after downloading the image that you've 'missed it'?

Thanks once more,

Andy

Hi there...

Well, being a 4040 user, I use the 128mb cards with no problem. I shoot at "SHQ" mode, which is the highest quality mode except TIFF (don't shoot TIFF in this camera!).

I get roughly 65 photos on a 128mb card... typically enough for me for a dive (and usually two).

Shutter lag is noticeable, but no moreso than any of the other digicams in this category based on my experience anyway. Leave the monitor on and set it to constantly focus and it's manageable.

I really like my camera. I find the f/1.8 to be nice underwater as well, especially given the incredible depth of field in these cameras.

-D

Decisions, decisions....

just a note about the 128MB Smartmedia issue. In the first year that I had my 3030, Smartmedia cards doubled in capacity from 64MB to 128MB. Toshiba is expecting to produce a 2GB Smartmedia card this year (http://www.toshiba.com/taec/press/to-177.shtml) so I'm not sure that is an issue. AdobeDavid is right, it's very uncommon to fill a 128MB card on one dive.

As for focus, I actually get very few out of focus shots. With a little practice you can learn to overcome the shutter lag and learn to 'lead' your subjects.

Richard

I use the camera in HO mode - get 130 pics on a 128 MB card - I do change to SHQ if I need a particular shot but am generally happy with the pics at HO. This givesA4 prints which look fine to me.

Very interested to hear about bigger smartmedia cards though - any links to this?

Larger SmartMedia has been rumored for a long time, but I haven't seen ahything concrete since late last year. Now that SD cards are out, I'm not convinced that anyone will really pursue the larger SmartMedia format. That being said a bigger potential problem with holding out for larger SmartMedia capacity for a particular product is that the SmartMedia cards don't have their own memory controller whereas CompactFlash cards do. This means that the camera (well, at least its memory controller) has to have been configured for a particular size SmartMedia beforehand. Larger SmartMedia may not be compatible with older cameras w/o a firmware upgrade . . .

Mike

Andy,

To help answer some of your questions: I use an Oly-3040 with GP 1800 batteries. My dives are normally each an hour long and I have no problem shooting approx. 100 photos in total between both dives and I'll still have about 15 minutes of time left to review them. A couple of things to note: Although I have used quite a few of smart microprocessor controlled chargers, none seem to charge up the batteries as well as my SLOW Energizer charger. I have confirmed with some battery makers that slow charging your batteries will allow them to take in more of a charge. Makes a difference when you start missing that end of your second dive, once-in-a-lifetime shot. I also shoot with my camera's strobe set at -2. Turning off your LCD inbetween shots will also help you conserve even more battery power.

As Jeff (Sharpdiver) was mentioning, the Olympus 3040/4040 has a macro 'sweet spot' that will allow you to get ~4 inches away from your subject. How close can you get without a macro lens? Here's an example:

One small correction to Jeff's statement. You need to zoom in all the way and slightly tap the zoom/wideangle level four times. Then simply move the camera back and forth a tiny amount until the subject falls into focus. (I'll talk about focus in just a minute)

With the addition of a macro lens (Sea & Sea and Inon) you can expect to get much closer.

Shot with a Sea & Sea 3T lens.

I shoot with a 128MB card in HQ mode--I have yet to see a noticeable difference between SHQ and HQ--and I get 164 photos per chip. This is on the 3040 camera, which is 3.3 megapixels.

Now, on the subject of focusing. I have a bit of a different opinion. There are a couple of tricks that will definitely allow you to get that subject in focus. The one that is well known is the full time auto focus. Works well and it even slightly reduces the shutter lag but it eats up your batteries---no good in my opinion.

There is also the LED confirmation Nick mentioned.

Here are a couple of things I do, especially when shooting macro. Hit the zoom/wideangle lever while having your subject in frame--the camera will automatically focus on the subject. Shoot in manual mode and when you bring the zoom down to below 8-inches the LCD will zoom in...this helps me out immensely in my macro shots. And last, but definitely not least, once you've taken you photograph you can go back and preview it and zoom in up to 3x. This will give you a pretty good idea if your shot is in focus. Either way, just like you'd do in film (without the cost of wasted film)---shoot, reshoot, and reshoot some more. The more shots you take of the same subject the better your odds of a good photo.

If you're going to be shooting in shallow waters, attaching a small hood to the camera would be advisable. With it, you should have no problem seeing the LCD.

There are quite a few tricks to using the Oly cameras and I feel that with its aperture range (16 positions) and its shutter range (36 postions)---these camera offers a variety of exposure capabilities--well worth the few bucks.

My 2 cents.