Any opinions on the Olympus C-8080 and PT housing?

Hi,

I'm new to underwater and digital photography and was considring taking the plunge for the Olympus C-8080 and corresponding PT housing. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about either? and if good could you recommend a strobe? Also i'm heading to the Galapagos at xmas, would you recommend a wide andled lens with this setup for taking pictures of big stuff (assuming i see some big stuff)?

There's so much choice i'm a bit lost, but i like this camera and the housing looks nice and compact.

If you don't like this setup then any suggestions would be most welcome.

Cheers

Tony

Olympus' very large front port is held in place with two very small acrylic pins that will shear off in time. I've witnessed this happen first hand, on both the PT-023 and PT-020.

Also, the Olympus WA Port is a very poor design. A flat front element induces a 33% magnification, or reduction in WA field of view.

Ikelite's housing is no larger, features Olympus TTL conversion circuitry, is very rugged, and offers an optional WA dome port w/ 90deg of Whale Shark Coverage

Olympus' very large front port is held in place with two very small acrylic pins that will shear off in time. I've witnessed this happen first hand, on both the PT-023 and PT-020.

Also, the Olympus WA Port is a very poor design. A flat front element induces a 33% magnification, or reduction in WA field of view.

Ikelite's housing is no larger, features Olympus TTL conversion circuitry, is very rugged, and offers an optional WA dome port w/ 90deg of Whale Shark Coverage

Thanks for the advice. I have a couple more questions if you have the time.

Can you recommend a strobe to go with the ikelite (and approximate cost)?

Approximate cost of the WA Dome port? - is this essentially a wide angled lens or do i have buy the lens separate but the port facilitates the connection? Is the wide angled c-8080 wide enough on its own?

Finally, i've heard a lot of good comments around the C-5060 WZ any opinion on this camera vs the 8080 WZ? My thinking was that i could spend a coupl of hundred extra bucks and get a near top of the camera and be done.

Sorry for all the questions, it's a pretty daunting exercise. checked out your website and it looks good.

Cheers

Tony

I'm new to digital photos also. I just purchased a C-8080 and am going on a trip to Belize in late October to try it out. I have an Ikelite housing and Ikelite DS-50 strobe which works in TTL mode since the Ikelite housing has an internal wire which attaches to the camera's hotshoe. According to Ikelite, the wide angle dome port for the C-8080 is supposed to be available late this month. Even without a wide angle lens inserted in the dome port, the coverage is supposed to increase from 56 degrees to 78 degrees as opposed to using the flat dome port that comes with the housing.

To me, it is clear that the most frustrating thing about using P&S digis, underwater, is the slow autofocus, (which gets slower and slower, with dim light, low contrast, moving subjects, etc), and slow final shutter release.

The 8080 uses a hybrid autofocus system, with a non-TTL infrared range finder device. The external device will not operate in a housing, so focus will be much slower than on land.

The sony V1, (for which Ikelite has a housing), or the upcoming V3 would be better choices. MUCH faster auto focus systems, that are purely TTL, and much faster final shutter release.

Check out http://www.imaging-resource.com/ which has standardized comparisons of timings like this.

I'm holding out for the V3, since it supports raw mode.

Don

I went for the Oly-C8080 (hopefully arriving today), Ikelite housing and DS 125 strobe. I'd heard the DS 50 wasn't powerful enough. When i was buying the housing the wide angled dome port was already available, but i thought i'd try it out as is and order the port later. I'm planning a short break in Bermuda in early October so i'll let you know how i get on.