Oly UW Housing for E-10/20

I've edited the "cost estimate" Dave. I'll keep doing so as the numbers come in from Eric, etc.

Cheers

James

Originally posted by Anonymous

.... Some of you seems to be more interested in the tech than in taking underwater pictures ;-)

Well said Anon!

Why do you think is that , Tio loco ?

The thing is that, is the tech that will help us underwater to take pictures. But in a sens, I know why you don't want to talk about techs and that's because the product you sell is not the best one is we are talking quality versus price.

[Edited on 6-1-2002 by sharkeye]

I already have a E-20 and ordered a Titan house for it and can see the many opinions about it and the E-20. Does anyone know the 'width' of the wide angle wetlense (24mm?) and the spec on the close-up lense? My conclusion after reading all these emails are that I need at least to buy the wide angle wetlense.

Originally posted by sharkeye

Why do you think is that , Tio loco ?  

What I think is that a camera is a tool, just like any other tool. Having the very, very, very best camera, with the very, very, very best lens, and the very, very, very best strobes still does not guarantee you will every take one decent picture.

Originally posted by sharkeye

The thing is that, is the tech that will help us underwater to take pictures.

Yes, I love techie tools as much as the next guy, but the key word there is 'help'.

Originally posted by sharkeye

... I know why you don't want to talk about techs and that's because the product you sell is not the best one...

If you read my earlier posts, you would know that I'm not affiliated with ANY manufacturer. I do have a minor affiliation with a local dive shop that is a dealer for LMI (as well as Ikelite, Sea & Sea, Sea Life etc.).

I do not sell cameras, housings or any other equipment. I have over the past couple of years, through the shop and through the local UPS, developed a good relationship with LMI, and I foolishly thought I could share my knowledge of their products with others through this forum.

Obviously that was folly. This forum started as a venue for sharing information about U/W digital phography. It has degenerated into petty, juvenile nitpicking. "Well, my camera can beat up your camera... so there!"

Sorry children, I have better things to do with my time...

Richard

Most of us are interested in your comments, at least i am !!! Your time here is well spent.

And anonymous replies like that are very bad style :mad:

Sabine

Ditto

As you kow I own 2 LMI housings. I am aware that I paid premium dollar for them, and it was my choice to opt for a bullet proof 2o-ring housing from a mfr that I trust. It seems that LMI must have really hurt some feelings around this site, because they are bashed at every turn.

My question is, with all the talk of the overpriced wetmate lenses, has anyone actually built or found an alternative. If I could find a way to safely, securely mount an equivalent conversion lens to my titan, I might try to save a few dollars.

Can't we all just get along?

I'm a little surprised at the level of emotion over the various setups everyone likes and dislikes. I guess I shouldn't be, it's not different than in any other situation where people use different types of equipment, i.e. motorcycles, cars, etc.

The beauty of all this is that even if you could make a case that Brand X with Housing Y is the best, tomorrow, some other brand or housing would be better, because we're still in a massive transition in the digital world.

My advice, FWIW, is to use what you want, enjoy it, and spend your energy diving and taking great (or mediocre for some of us) pictures to share with the rest of the world.

Sorry... I'll get off my soapbox now...

Tom

Sony DSC-S85 (Sony rules until I get a Canon D60!)

Ikelite housing / DS-50

My advice, FWIW, is to use what you want, enjoy it, and spend your energy diving and taking great (or mediocre for some of us) pictures to share with the rest of the world.

I would be very glad if you can share

some of your S85 shots as a demo.

Use our submit form to conviently

transmit. Because we don't have any

S85 demos on digideep.com yet.

Concerning the flame wars... I just can

say that I am really impressed how

passionate some people stick to their

equipment. And with the high Olympus

market share it reminds me a little of

windows/linux discussions. Everyone

buys it, but not many people love it...

Please take my comments not too serious

I don't want to take position for any person

or brand in this fight. But I have to state that

I am satisfied with using the Nikon

stuff,... But I am not sure if I would pic

a D100 or the Canon D60 as I cannot

use the old Coolpix accesories at all.

According to the test on dpreview.com

the Nikon seems to be very slightly better

value for the money...

What do the other think about it?

.oOo. Andi

I was at the scuba show yesterday. One of the lectures said he was going to buy the Fuji s2 as it is a 12 mexapixel camera (interpolated from 6 mp) When informed by someone that the D100 was going to sell for 1950$ US he said that would change his mind to the D100. Of course there is the issue of TTL compatiblity with UW strobes.

Well, it looks like it's time to revisit this thread.

Here are some photos I took of the Titan wetmate lenses.

http://www.wetpixel.com/features/200206_SeaSpace/

Here you can see the wideangle lens bayonet mounted onto the housing. The macro lens is just to the left of the LMI rep's hand:

Earlier in the year I also made a couple of "informed predictions" about yet-to-be released digital SLR's and the companies that will house them. It looks like I was right on the money.

Instead of being a "pipedream" as one person called it, Sea and Sea will in fact do a housing for the D100 as well as for the D60. That will make cost comparisons easy at least. Aquatica, Ikelite, and Sea and Sea will all do housings for the D100 also possibly UK Germany.

I'll start a separate thread to compare the cost for the three different camera setups: Nikon D100, Fuji S2, and Canon D60.

Cheers

James Wiseman

James - To be fair, these arguments about E-20 vs housed D60 other dSLRs were made nearly 3 months ago - an eternity in the digital world. You can't continue to compare housed systems released today to systems in the pipeline. We must expect that it will take housing mfrs at least 6mo after the camera release to provide a housing, so housings wil never be available for the "best" cameras.

Further, while you pat yourself on the back for being correct about the sea & sea housings, realize that you were quite incorrect as to the origins of the wetmate titan lenses. You even claimed to have held the "Inon" lenses - yet the Titan lenses are totally custom built. They are NOT modified Inon lenses.

The fact is that the Titan is one of only a few dSLR housings built in the US. More will come, and some will be better, and some not as good. By comparison to other available housings, the Titan with wetmate pro lens pkg is one of the most versatile digital housings on the market today. I've had one since they 1st shipped and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have had some technical probs with my system, primarily with the handles which originate with LMI's video cameras. I guess such problems are unavoidable when you buy the 1st run of anything.

I hope to see this subject, and the wetpixel forums in general, remain objective and open minded. This subject in particular has been filled with personal attacks more than objective (or subjective) information. We are all out there just trying to take some nice images, and we should enjoy sharing with divers of common interest.

Kasey

Thanks for bringing this wonderful subject back to the top again!

/sarcasm off

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear before - the Tetra wetmate lenses ARE made by INON. I talked to the LMI rep about that at Seaspace a few weeks ago. I think you might have that statement mixed up somehow with my "why????" statement about the Titan.

And for whoever posted the above graphic - you should be ashamed of yourself.

James

Wow,

What a wide range of responses!

I asked the original simple question whether there was a cheaper alternative to the Titan for the Oly E10/20, based on "news" I heard that Oly was introducing their own housing for about $1000.

It's many months later, and still no news.

Anyone know if Titan price has come down or if a used one is available? I'm a simple hobby photographer, have a blast with the E10 and would like to get it underwater.

Thanks,

DanL

Dan -

Don't hold your breath on the Titan pricing changing. LMI and most housing manufacturers set the price and hold it for years. It is pricey, but justified by the infrared handles and controls - other aluminum SLR housings are over $1600 without those features.

If this is more than you are willing to spend, perhaps you should look into a consumer digicam and housing for now.

Overall, however, I am very happy with my Titan system. It might interest you to know, however, that I'm now considering augmenting my arsenal by housing my Nikon film SLR. The housings are very reasonable, and so are the lenses. With digital we spend so much for sort-of-wide angle, but film will give me super-wide for far less $.

Kasey

Hi!

To add some facts (rather than believes) to this thread:

There's another option. Have a look at my webpage to see the results of submerging an E-20 in a bruder uw-housing. What I'll get next is a wide angle port with a true 180° converter.

I thought of other cameras available at that time (The D30 or S2 e.g.) but the E-20 simply is great value for money. I paid the same amount for the camera, housing and lights as I'd paid for the Fuji camera body, maybe with a cheap lense.

Yes, there are restrictions, esp. with wide angle. I went mad searching but then I found the newly released raynox converter which has pretty good quality. Again, it's a trade off and may not compare to a Nikon lense (I used the Nikkor 200 micro for over 20 years and still think of it as the best macro lense ever) but again, it's value for money.

As I'm using the prototype housing it always takes some time to design and build some add-on. Therefore, the dome ports for the wide angle converters will be available early next year (the WCON08B = 28mm SLR is on the way, maybe ther will be sample images soon on my webpage).

Helge

Helge,

Thanks very much! I am going to contact Bruder for a price. How much do you think it will cost $US? Any tips, features I should ask them about? What controls are necessary underwater? From your suggested settings (P mode, autoWB, autofocus and most shots at widest angle) it seems that only shutter release is really necessary.

10 kg seems heavy, especially since the housing body is carbon fiber. I suppose that includes all lights etc?

Dan L

Hi!

The housing is priced around EUR 2200 which would be about USD 2000 at the current exchange rate. I tried to use auto settings because fiddling with all these controls kept me from taking pictures in the first place. After getting aquaint with the camera, I'm using other features as well. In macro e.g. the A setting gives you best control over depth of field (but you should have an eye on the shutter speed). The WB setting is ok for dives where there's still enough ambient light. Night dives tend to get quite yellowish so I will use another WB setting next time.

Only shutter release isn't enough. After some time you will use other settings too. The macro switch e.g. is important. Changing ISO sensitivity may be useful to reduce amplification artefacts whenever light situations allow. Also switching the P, S and A mode, even M for certain situations comes in handy.

Teh AF is a must but is irritated sometimes. I couldn't get the camera to focus correctly on some nudibranches e.g. and had to correct by moving the camera after locking the AF. Switching it off isn't possible with my housing neither is manual focus. It could be built in but I think that in those situations where the AF fails you wouldn't get it ok either.

I didn't say "most shots at wide angle" (I hope I didn't). I did most macros and at 36mm focal length. Wide angle is quite restricted with the standard lens. The 35mm SLR is reduced to about 50mm SLR when used UW. I'm working on a solution to get the *real* wideangle feeling now. I ordered a dome port for the WCON08B (which should arrive the next days) and will get another one for the raynox DCR-FE180PRO which will be absolutely great (up to 180° view angle!) for wrecks and reef panorama shoots.

The lights should have wide angle bulbs to smoothly light a wider area. That's important, even in macro to get better results.

Deep down ;-) I'm a macro freak but every now and then you need an overview. A whole wreck simply looks far more stunning than a single screw.

10kg means: camera 1kg, housing 4kg, lights 5kg.

The carbon layer is about 6-8mm in width to sustain the pressure (tested to 80m, available to 120m at request). There's a steel base plate for the handles. The lens port is a huge tube with a thick plain glass plate. That sums up to some weight.

I'll have to update these things on my webpage when I return from my next trip.

Helge

Helge,

Thank you for all the additional info. I am just starting into digital underwater - I will continue to watch your webpage and work.

Regards,

Dan