Olympus 8080 housings

Hello,

I want to buy an Olympus 8080 housing. I know there are 2 on the shop lists, but I don't know when can I realy buy them.

Olympus says middle of june and Ikelite says end of may.

I have a trip to Bali from 5. July but if the housing will be not accessible I don't buy a camera too.

Is here anybody how knows better information?

Is it possible to attach a DS-125 strobe to Olympus PT-23 housing with a sync cord?

Which housing is better Oly or Ike?

(Maybe some experience with 5050/5060 series housings)?

Thanks!

Re "Which housing is better Oly or Ike? "

Answer - Ikelite because of TTL that can drive Ikelite strobes and because the Ikelite dome port option does a better job at wide angle than the Olympus flat port.

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_still...mpus/pt023.html

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_still...s/ike_8080.html

The following is my view of the 5060 and I think it applies to the 8080 as well.

In the past, Olympus housings have provided a lower cost alternative to more full featured Ikelite housings. However, in the case of the 5060, the severe wide angle limitations of the Olympus housing make it a non starter for all but the simplest of needs e.g. snorkeling. For all other uses, the Ikelite with the dome port will prove to be a superior solution and will cost only a few dollars more than a similarly configured Olympus solution.

Bottom line: I think Olympus dropped the ball on the 5060 and 8080 housing designs.

Edited for spelling.

I talked to Ikelite today and they say my 8080 housing will ship on June 15th. I hope this is correct. I also ordered the dome port so I am going to assume that will come with the housing and strobe.

Will start shipping housings next week, but optional dome port is still in testing and evaluation stages............

Nice to see, that the housing is ready.

By the way where can I find some information about the above mentioned dome port?

If I have a dome port can I use the zoom? I know that the motor works but what is with image quality? As I heard a dome port works only with one special zoom position.

How much does it costs?

Thanks!

Is there or will somebody make a WAL for the C-8080 Ikelite house?

Can´t you use TTL with the PT-023 house?

Is there or will somebody make a WAL for the C-8080 Ikelite house?

Can´t you use TTL with the PT-023 house?

///Johan N

Is there or will somebody make a WAL for the C-8080 Ikelite house?

Can´t you use TTL with the PT-023 house?

Ikelite is looking in to the development of a housing for Olympus' terra firma wide angle lens. A wet changable optic is not possible due the construction of the 8080's native lens.

Olympus' PT-023 provides TTL with the FL-20 land strobe. This strobe will prove to be underpowered for anything other than macro work. The Ikelite housing allows TTL with the DS-50 & DS-125 strobes, which are far better suited for UW use.

Olympus' sync connector is the most poorly designed I have ever seen, making o-ring service difficult to impossible. The announced WA ports place a wide angle lens behind a flat port, reducing its coverage by 1/3 and dramatically deteriorating image quality.

We recieved our first shipment of PT23 housings today, it fits your hands like a glove, but man oh man this thing is huge, nearly double the size of the PT20 or PT15 housings. It's so big the flat front port cover could be used as a frisbee. I would strongly reccommend looking at the Ikelite housing when it hits the market, I hope they can improve on the port situation. All it really needs is a conpact dome port and an Ikelite, Sea & Sea or Nikonos ttl flash conector.

See this post for more pics:

http://www.wetpixel.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic...ic-t-5677.phtml

I recieved my Ikelite 8080 housing last week. I have not taken it underwater yet but the hot shoe connected to the DS125 works great above the serface when set to TTL. All of the pics had great exposure.

One other note. The 8080 will not use the onboard flash in super macro which I was worried about, but it will use the strobe when the camera is set to the external strobe only setting.

Thanks Mark for posting the pics of the Ike housing. Would you be able to post one in comparison with a 375ml soft drink can? In a similar position as the first pic I posted in the link above? That will be very helpful.

Thanks heaps.

Here you go. I hope this helps.

Regular light - Corona light!!

It's Old but maybe some one nows the answer.

Have a Ike 8080 housing with the 8080 camera and a DS50 substrobe with the proper (blue lable) cable.

The strobe goes of when I take a picture but I think to early because you can not see the flash. I try 1/15-1/30-1/60-1/100-1/125-1/200 and so on but never see the flash on the picture.

I have (almost) the same setup - two 125's instead of one 50.

With around 800 dives on the housing I've seen this happen in two ways:

1. When I switch the strobe off/on with camera on - it seems the TTL circuit gets confused and only flashes once (for correct TTL the strobe should fire twice, quickly). The fix was to make sure camera is on first, then strobe. I now avoid switching the main strobe off/on when camera is on.

2. Strobe needs to be in TTL, I had not quite moved the rotary switch far enough so strobe was in manual while it looked like it pointed to TTL. Fix was to rotate the switch back and forth.

If the camera is set to slave flash, then you'll also get only a single flash - but that should be in time with shutter.

Good Luck

Thanks Jeff, don't work for me I got only one flash and not two as you write, I think it is firing to early so sync is not working good I think.

I tried all strobe settings with the 8080 slow, slow2, intern+extern etc. DS 50 is always firing but can not see on any picture.

It should not matter if one or two strobes, the second with a split cable is just a "slave" with only one strobe supplying power to the TTL chip just as in a single strobe setup.

The last thing I can suggest is to try camera in full manual, with camera flash in SLAVE mode, and strobe in full power (not TTL).

If that fails then it'll probably have to go to Ike. The DS-50 is quite an old strobe so if you have a "vintage" one it may need an upgrade.