Olympus E-PL3 housing and pics of their "Target Macro Light"

I just had a look at them - they are absolutely superb!

As per my Flickr comment, I'm interested in any insights you might have about the camera after the trip, and what settings you used. I have just bought mine but am still learning how to drive it.

I just had a look at them - they are absolutely superb!

 

As per my Flickr comment, I'm interested in any insights you might have about the camera after the trip, and what settings you used. I have just bought mine but am still learning how to drive it.

Hi Phil,

Ok, in general my week (18 dives) were a mixture of feelings, but as time went on, each dive I felt I was getting on with it much better. It's a learning curve and feel now I have a good grasp. I'm off to Mexico in a few months, so hoping to hit the ground ruinning from day one this time..haha.

Having played with lots of settings I felt that using Manual was the best control, and it I generally used the following:

ISO- 200

Shutter 160 (default setting)

Aperture 7.1 - Seemed to be a good all round sharp aperture

I used center AF focusing with a single spot - I stayed away from multipoint focus as it seemed to lose the plot.

RAW

WB - Auto

One oversight on my part was that when changing ports, ensure that you reposition your strobe, some shots were not getting any light as the flash was getting blocked by the port. So just keep that in mind.

I think if like me, you have two ports etc and haveonly just bought your system, just master one thing at a time, I think I tried too much too soon. In the end I just stuck with the kit lens, and wet macro dipoters. I found I was moving much quicker with the whole thing getting used to this first.

I think if you're on a budget, the kit lens, kit port with wet lenses (macro and WA) is a super flexible solution. I've used WA lenses and been quite impressed - I also read a review from a well known photographer in the UK (duxy from OLC) who also shares that view.

I can't say if the macro lights on the front are good or not, as I didn't really use them, I used the FL on my strobe.

Thins I didn't like about the system, iso 200 would be better if 80/100 were available, the lowest strobe shutter sync was 160. That for me was an pain. It just means you need to look for other ways of say getting different levels of ambient light.

On the whole though, I'm still really chuffed with it. It's compact, flexible, you can get a flexible solution from a low cost, and it performs well and has given me some results that I'm happy with. Now the initial getting used to the system is out of the way, I'm looking forward to having another serious play sometime soon!

Any questions, let me know

I made one discovery today: my strobe slave is not firing reliably (strobe is a little Ikelite AF-35). That would explain some very dark photos! It is really designed for compacts so I might have to upgrade to one with a fibre-optic cable.

I got a few semi-reasonable shots despite this, still nothing like your Maldives ones: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31166719@N06/

Changing to centre-AF as per your suggestion made a big difference - much easier to find focus. Unfortunately I didn't have my macro lens for the tiny nudi. The macro lights are pretty dinky & useless in daytime but I suppose they might work on a night dive.

I made one discovery today: my strobe slave is not firing reliably (strobe is a little Ikelite AF-35). That would explain some very dark photos! It is really designed for compacts so I might have to upgrade to one with a fibre-optic cable.

 

I got a few semi-reasonable shots despite this, still nothing like your Maldives ones: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31166719@N06/

 

Changing to centre-AF as per your suggestion made a big difference - much easier to find focus. Unfortunately I didn't have my macro lens for the tiny nudi. The macro lights are pretty dinky & useless in daytime but I suppose they might work on a night dive.

Hi Phil, the flathead shot is nice and sharp and clean, so looks like you're getting there. It took me a series of diives and playing with it etc before it fell into place, so a little more and you'll be well away.