Dpreview.com reviews the Oly 8080, Canon Pro1, Coolpix 8700

Hi Folks,

Phil Askey has today posted his reviews of these popular 8 megapixel cameras (Oly 8080, Canon Pro1, Coolpix 8700). Here's a link to the Olympus review:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusc8080wz/

Phil managed to post all of these reviews at the same time, so it's a great way to compare this new crop of "prosumer" cameras before deciding which one will be best for underwater use.

Sincerely,

James

After fast forward on the reviews its seems that the Oly will continue to be the best prosumer camera for U/W use.

You beat me to it. I was going to mention this and that the Oly seemed the best of the lot. It doesn't appear to have a macro mode though. Very useful UW. Will it have a dedicated wide angle lens (I don't find 28 mm wide enough).

The review says fast shutter lag; but how fast is it compared to a dSLR? After my D100 I would find anything slower unusable. Can anyone who has both a dSLR and a digital point and shoot say that in UW conditions the point and shoot has a shutter lag close to that of the dSLR??

As these camera are the same price as the 300D or D70 I would definitely get the dSLR first but wouldn't mind one as a second setup if they would solve the shuttler lag problem. and it was compact enough.

I see where Oly does list a macro mode for the 8080.

28 mm is a good start point for WA (at list better then 35 mm) there is a lot of WA lens in the market and for sure there will be adaptors to the housings in the moment they will came out(if needed at all, dome Oly housing don't need an adaptor at all).

The 5050 & 5060 have very good super macro mode so I assumed its will be also good at the 8080.

The 8080 will probably not work with add-on underwater optics (i.e. no wet-mate wideangle lens).

Cheers

James

MR also reviewed it over at Luminous Landscape:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...hoosing-8.shtml

... and came to the opposite conclusion.

There is a huge DPReview thread debating the two. It has some valid points in it, but you'll have to wade through a lot of crap to get to them.

I used to like the DPReview reviews, but damn, they have gotten LOOOOONNNNNGG. I find myself not wanting to wade through 20+ pages of specs and widgets as much as I used to.

I'll give Michael at luminous landscape some credit, his reviews get to the point of whether it's a good camera in his opinion or not.

I'll give Michael at luminous landscape some credit, his reviews get to the point of whether it's a good camera in his opinion or not.

Too bad about the content, though, or lack of it. If you want to know whether he likes the button layout his review might be of interest. Just don't expect rigor or objectivity since he takes pride in having none.

Yes, that's true. Somewhere in between MR and DPReview would be nice. Comprehensive enough to compare image quality and usability without having page after page of menu reviews...

I find it ironic that MR complains a lot of button layout and menu system, yet does not bother to provide almost any actual verifiable information of either. At the same time he claims image quality is irrelevant (within same class of cameras), yet provides "ultra-sophisticated" measures. Funny.

MR seems to have a Sony bias from what I read. I had a 707 and admit they have a lot of great features but he talks about how he measures color on his Sony monitor so it has to be correct. Either way I have ordered the 8080 and an Iklite housing. Won't be here in time for my 2 week trip to Coz at the end of may to get married.. Someone at Iklite told my dive shop that the housing would accept the wide angle/macro lens in the standard port. I hope they know what they are talking about.

Enormous size of this lens precludes adding externals, but we may be able to offer a port for the Olympus wide angle lens. Current information is shown on following URL:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/oly_8080.html

E-mail me at <ike@ikelite.com> if you want me to try and make your Coz trip deadline.

Ike; is that port with your 8080 housing a dome port? With the lens on this camera going down to 28 mm equivalent (comparable to a theoretical 24 mm Nikonos lens) it would seem that a dome port would be useful.

Underexposed; how do you find the shutter lag with the 8080? Have you used a dSLR to be able to compare the two?

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Dome is being evaluated, but suspect it will limit zoom range. Viable possibility is a port that does not allow zooming but accepts the exterior lenses like Inon. Skeptical if customers would accept such an offering so have not proceeded with the idea. Will know more when our people get back from Bahama testing of lenses and strobes this week............

I got to play with a C8080 today. It is ofcourse reasonably bigger than the C5050 but has a nice feel to it. The zoom is smooth and responsive. I wouldn't say the shutter lag has improved as it still hunts like the C5050/5060. For those comparing it to a DSLR you will be disappointed. A few things that stood out:

- the start up time is extremely quick, especially if you've parked it on wide before shutdown

- something I was very happy to see is the programable Jog dial*. In the Setup menu you can set the Jog dial to Normal, Custom 1, Custom 2 or Custom 3. In Normal turning the Jog dial will do what it's meant to do e.g. in Manual shooting mode it'll adjust the shutterspeed and holding the +/- direct button and turning the jog will change the aperture. Select Custom 1 and interesting things begin to happen. For example in Manual it'll no longer change the shutterspeed. Instead the shutterspeed can be changed by pressing the up or down arrow keys and the aperture by pressing the left or right arrow keys. NO MORE HOLDING DOWN THE +/- BUTTON AND TURNING THE JOG DIAL! For more details download the Reference Manual PDF and see page 152.

- write times on the xD is now very close to my Transcend 30x CF card. A RAW file (11.8MB) takes about 15secs (from releasing the shutter to the lights stop flashing). On my C5050 a RAW file (7.2MB) takes 5secs on the Transcend and 8secs on the xD.

- the shutter release has been moved to the front and at an angle and needs a little getting used to, especially for the half-press focus lock.

*Interestingly, I suggested something like this to Olympus, Japan when I first got the C5050 - that we should be able to assign functions like changing the aperture in Manual mode to the arrow keys. Whether this is a coincidence or not, I'd like to believe that they sometimes listen to customer feedback. So next time you have a suggestion, write to them, you never know when it'll filter to the correct department.

Ike, are your people back from the Bahama's yet? I have a 8080 with the housing and 125 on order and am very interested in how the testing went. I am less interested in zoom capability then I am with the options for lens and how the strobe worked with the TTL. Please give us an update as soon as you have some info... I'd also like to know how the macro preformed.

Ike, are your people back from the Bahama's yet? I have a 8080 with the housing and 125 on order and am very interested in how the testing went. I am less interested in zoom capability then I am with the options for lens and how the strobe worked with the TTL. Please give us an update as soon as you have some info... I'd also like to know how the macro preformed.

Will know next week............

Will know next week............