Can't see anything on the LCD

Hello everyone,

I have just bought an Olympus 8080 digital camera, an Ikelite housing and an Ikelite DS-50 strobe.

In order to use the strobe with TTL automatic exposure, Ikelite recommends setting the camera in manual mode with the following parameters: ISO 50 (the lowest available), 1/100 sec shutter speed and 5.6 aperture.

With that setting, the LCD appears almost completely black due to poor light conditions existing underwater. The image only appears clear on the LCD for a second or less when striking the shutter button.

Under these conditions I found very difficult to compose pictures.

I already tried to increase LCD brightness, but it was not successful.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hola Scubamauro, I went and tried the set-up that Ike recommended on a C5060 (I am sold out of C8080, but should be the same). the LCD is as usual in this mode, try resetting all, in the menu or on the camera per say. if that help cheverre!, si no, there should be someone out there who had the same problem before and can help. Mochima is my diving spot overthere, I go every year since I married my own Miss Venezuela!

Hasta luego.

I don't have my camera in front of me but believe there is an option called recview when you change this it changes view on the screen. Hope it works. Will experiment later.

scubamauro is trying to find a way to get a brighter image while composing, not after it is taken.

Does the C8080 have something like a 'M mode Real' ON/OFF option? I know the C5060 does. When set to ON the camera will show the scene at the brightness of the selected exposure settings.

A focus assist light will also help.

The 8080 does not have "real display" off/on for manual exposure shooting, whereas the 5060 and 7070 do have that. So this means that the 8080 sucks at composing shots using typical manual exposure settings one would wish to use; you can't see a thing in its LCD if you want to shoot macro at manual settings with a small f/stop. I use a separate Ikelite model light and it is a poor work around. The model light in my Ikelite DS125 strobe isn't bright enough either, and I also tried an Aquatica video light which wasn't bright enough to let me see something in the LCD. I normally shoot in more dimly lit waters in San Diego. If you are shooting in brightly lit tropical waters, this deficiency in the 8080 isn't so apparent; I didn't have a problem shooting in the Bahamas. However shooting hammerheads at 4pm is very problematic, again the dim lighting predicament...........Peter B

Alas, this is one of the lamest things the digicam manufacturers have ever come up with. As if you are judging exposure, with the LCD, before the shot. The LCD should be used purely for composition, and data display. The idea to make it too dim to use, when the meter thinks it will be underexposed, EVEN WHEN IT KNOWS THERE IS TO BE A FLASH, is incredibly dumb.

I can't believe the 8080 has no way to turn this stupid feature off. But there it is.

Don

Seems like a firmware edit could solve this? maybe? I don't think you could swap out firmware with a 5060 or 7070 bc of the different lenses/physical features etc... but maybe taking some code from the other FWs and inserting it into a copy of the 8080s could get rid of this annoyance. Just a crazy idea...

Just not worth it... seems that most folks I know have abandoned the C8080

Cheers

James

Heads up! It appears this dubious engineering feat has been passed on to the SP line of Olympus Cameras as well. The only work around I've found with the SP-350 is to press the shutter release button halfway. For about 1 second the display brightens and you can actually see what your taking. You can repeat this as often as you need to in order to get the right picture but what a pain!

If interested you could read my ramblings on the post I started about the Oly SP350.

It has exactly the same LCD blackout problem. Crap is the only word I can use for this feature.

Canon S70 may also be prone to darkening in Manual Mode

Maybe this is a disturbing trend in the P&S market.

If you go into mode menu, select camera, scroll down to histogram (last item) and select "+-On" the LCD will display at low ligh (no histogram) and you should see at all light levels.

Dang Alseem...they ought to promote you to Whale Shark by tomorrow. Good call. I have the camera and by turning off the histogram the screen brightened dramatically. Changing the F stop or shutterspeed had no darkening effect at all. Way cool.

So this solves the problem discussed in the other thread?

If so, perhaps you should post the info there too, in case some people are not following both...

And if you want to see the histogram after you take the picture (most useful way anyway with a flash) press quick view and then the +/- button on the left side twice and the histogram is displayed.

Al