Real TTL with Olympus C-5060 Wide Zomm !!!

"This is the first and only housing to include circuitry that converts Olympus TTL signals from its hot shoe for TTL compatibility with our DS-50 and DS-125 SubStrobes. This is not a TTL by "watching the camera strobe" slave system. This provides real Olympus TTL control with a sync cord."

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/oly_5060.html

Excellent news Ike! I'm really glad to hear your tech whizzes cracked this one. Using the 5060 with true TTL and a wide and powerful strobe like the DS125 will be a big plus.

Now, have you started looking at making a port for the Olympus wideangle converter lens? :-)

Cheers

James Wiseman

I assume this is "true TTL" the same way it is for the Nikon Coolpix 5000 - the camera controls the flash, but light isn't actually measured off the CCD (during exposure).

BTW Ike: Is there any chance Ikelite will be making a housing for the Leica Digilux 2 and/or Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1? I want one!

Leica: http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_600.html

Panasonic: http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_440.html

Opinion of our knowledgeable types is that Olympus produces one of the better TTL system as evidenced also by above water photos. Our next project along this line is to decipher Canon E-TTL then Nikon D-TTL. Leica is not in immediate housing plans............

Ike, when you design the Canon E-TTL interface, be sure to add flash exposure compensation control to your circuits. The Digital Rebel does not have FEC.

Our next project along this line is to decipher Canon E-TTL

Ike, just make sure to do this as an external controller and finish it by Dec 31, 2004 so that my predictions in this thread come true.

Presumably this is achieved by a little box of tricks in the housing. If it works for the C5060 I guess there is no reason why it would not work for the 5050. Is it something that could be retrofitted to older housings?

We are cogitating about retrofit to older 5050 housings.............

Opinion of our knowledgeable types is that Olympus produces one of the better TTL system as evidenced also by above water photos.

Yes, but...

1) Where, physically on the camera, is the flash exposure meter? Is it behind the lens?

2) When are the flash exposure measurements done - before or during exposure of the CCD?

(I'm asking about the 5060.)

/Anders

Very cool. If my -5050 housing could be retrofitted, I could finally get rid of the bit of randomness that my current setup gives me.

The Oly's sensor is located in behind the lens somewhere and it does its exposure calculation with the pre-flash before the CCD is "exposed".

Too bad I can't use my external add-on lenses with the -5060 . . .

Questions to Ike...

Will the Ikelite housing for the Olympus 5060 allow the use of the Olympus WCON-07C wide angel converter? ...other "converters"?

Will I be able to buy an Ikelite substrobe and use it (TTL and everything) with the Olympus PT-020 housing?

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_still...mpus/pt020.html

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/oly_5060.html

I just spent some time in a store testing the 5060. Manual focusing seems to work ok, and it drastictly reduces shutter lag. Most likely I'll buy one of these cameras. The only question is which housing and which substrobe. I'm beginning to think that manual focusing and a manual substrobe is ok! It's what I always did with my Nikonos.

/Anders

External wide angle lenses from 5050 can be used with our new 5060 housing, but the wider 28mm lens of the camera requires zooming out to eliminate vignetting. Additional coverage gained seems to be negligible, but we have not tested thoroughly yet.

We just got the WCON-07C wide angle converter today. Immense size will require adding a different port, then adding the lens to the camera after installing in our housing or their housing, then adding a removable front to this stack. Seems like lots of possible problems. We are studying possible alternatives.

Ikelite DS strobes will operate TTL with our housing, even in Super Macro. We have no immediate plans to offer for the PT-020 at this time because we need every advantage possible to sell our housings.

Additional coverage gained seems to be negligible, but we have not tested thoroughly yet.

Ike,

Can you elucidate on what you mean by "additional coverage gained?" Do you mean in addition to the 100 degrees the wide angle lens offers on say the 5050 or do you mean that using the wide angle lens has no additional wide angle benefits once you've zoomed enough to avoid vignetting?

This is wonderful news IKE please do keep us updated on this, (i'm currently using a C5050Z with IKE Housing).

If the ike 5050 housings could be retrofitted, i'd surely get a DS125.

Now Laz, elucidate is too complicated for my addled brain. We believe coverage is not improved enough with addition of the external lenses to warrant purchasing. We are still evaluating all of the possibilities with this new camera............

We just got the WCON-07C wide angle converter today.  Immense size will require adding a different port, then adding the lens to the camera after installing in our housing or their housing, then adding a removable front to this stack.  Seems like lots of possible problems.  We are studying possible alternatives.

I agree. I don't like this design.

Further more: "When using the standard port underwater, rectilinear correction is excellent and aberration is minimal in the mid-zoom to telephoto ranges; but at the extreme wide angle end, pincushion distortion and chromatic abberation are apparent. ... it is unavoidable with any camera system when using the 35mm equivalent of a 27mm lens (air corrected) and a flat port. Consequently, for high-quality wide-angle photography the PPO-02 + WCON-07C solution is recommended."

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_still...mpus/pt020.html

Will the Ikelite housing have a flat port?

Why buy a camera with a wide angel lens if I can't use it!

There are two things I don't like about the PT-020. The fact that it uses a proprietory substrobe bulkhead, and the design of the PPO-02.

The port is interchangeable - perhaps someone will make a better one.

For Ike:

Will the new housing be ready to ship by Feb 21st? Just getting ready to plunk down the cash and would love to have it for Cozumel.

Ike, stop wasting your time on the Olympus nonsence and get your boffins to work on Canon E-TTL. And make sure it's not the same boffin who did the 10D measurements for the 10D/Rebel housing! :oops:

Seriously though, looking at the 5050 TTL pictures the balance between available light and flash seems to me to be skewed towards the latter. I don't have any knowledge of olympus's flash modes, but Canon's Av exposure mode (shutter speed and aperture to expose for availbale light, automatic flash exposure for subject) with flash exposure compensation on camera or strobe is what I really want for underwater.

A quick question to Ike. I would like to know why Ikelite push the release of the 5060 housing to end of Feb and no more to Jan as it was announced last time.

Second One is regarding the SubStrobe 200 and 100. Are we going to be able to use them on this new housing directly or an upgarde is needed.

Thanks to let me know all that

http://www.digitaldiver.info/yabbse/index....y;threadid=5220

Ike: I think it's time you show us what your port solution will be.

/Anders