Olympus Camedia PT-015 for the upcoming C5050Z

here is how the new PT-015 looks like

Depth rated @ 40m with full control of the camera and compatible with the Sea and Sea WAL, INON UWL-100 and Olympus PWC-01 as well as the INON UCL-330 and Oly PCU-01 macro lens.

Allan forgot to mention some of the most important features, such as the double O-ring seals and included hood for the LCD.

The housing will be available at the end of November 2002.

Fantastic! It's great to see them increase the depth rating on housing. Now I'd probably be able to get some shots of the props on the Spiegel.

Although by the looks of it, it doesn't look to have a sync port to connect a strobe. Unless they've setup the super macro feature to work with the internal strobe it would make this nice little extra feature useless underwater with this housing. Good for everything else though.

Looks like they've modified the shutter button, added a pair of tripod mounts and even color-matched the o-ring(?).

Allan, do you know if they'll be releasing the housing at the same time as the camera?

Laz, it looks like our posts crossed.

Yes, Olympus will release the housing approximately the same time as the camera, probably a week or a few weeks after the camera judging from past experience.

I also doubt that Olympus will ever make housings with a sync cord port. There is just too much room for error with an extra opening...

Hi Matt. I noticed your post after I had posted mine. Thanks for the info!

I went over to the Japanese website of Olympus and I translated some of their info using Babelfish. Turns out that the Oly5050 will not have the internal flash enabled for super macro. A real shame because that super macro feature is fantastic if only you can fire your strobes--either optically or wired.

I also loosely translated that the new housing is using latches-possibly metal latches.

Laz, that is correct, the housing uses "buckles" which is the Japanglish for Stainless steel latches, the same as used on the PT-012.

Also, hope someone out there can develop some sort of patch so that the internal flash can be set to fire even on Super Macro mode. I'm sure it can be done or someone can persuade an engineer at Olympus Service Center to do it for some beers...

I tried contacting Olympus about the super macro / strobe issue about a month ago in regards to a C-4000 I had purchased. Although they were very curteous and prompt in their reply, they were not able to offer any resolution. I hope someone has better luck than I did. I had contacted both the US and European divisions.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. I'm sure glad I can still use my C3040--its been worth its weight in gold.