Best cost effective strobe for Olympus C-8080?

Hello folks,

After a very long and careful stretch of research, I bought an Olympus C-8080 to replace my trusty but aging Canon G3 (I can't see spending $600 to get an underwater case for obsolete technology, even if it was great technology). I was lucky to nab one for less than $400 shipped. I feel I got a great deal, especially since I was able to get the PT-023 underwater case for $240 shipped. I could just not see paying more for the underwater case than for the camera! And I figured since Olympus made the PT-023 case, it would be the best fit for the best price.

My only problem now, hindsight is 20-20, is choosing a strobe. It appears Ikelite and Sea&Sea make the best strobes. However, I cannot find any info to indicate which one(s) will fit with the PT-023. I'm hearing now that Olympus pushes you into going with Olympus flashes due to a proprietary connector. Argh!

Well, unfortunately the nice Olympus FL-36 has a hugely overpriced underwater housing--$600 USD! Insane. I am not paying almost as much as I did for the camera AND camera housing just to get a housing FOR THE STROBE/FLASH!

Am I stuck? Should I sell the PT-023 and buy an Ikelite case for the C-8080? Or is there some known combination of strobe arm and strobe plus adapter that works well for the Olympus PT-023 underwater case? I saw someone state on another forum that with a little drilling, you can make that a reality--drilling? Um, there's a risky feat. I'm hoping someone here has been through the pain of searching/experimenting for a nicely priced alternative setup and is happy with it.

Thanks in advance for any useful advice/comments...

I think you can replace the flash connector on your housing with one made by Matthias Heinrich and you can also use his TTL converter with many of the existing strobes on the market.

Do a search on here or on http://www.mike-dive.de

Here's a picture from his site of a Nikonos bulkhead on a PT housing:

Cheers

James

.... or forget TTL and use an optical slave. I prefer the Inon strobes. I sold a pair of YS90-dx and replaced them with Z220's.

I think you can replace the flash connector on your housing with one made by Matthias Heinrich and you can also use his TTL converter with many of the existing strobes on the market.

Do a search on here or on http://www.mike-dive.de

Cheers

James

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the tip, James. It looks like this may be my ticket. I don't plan on doing more than 2-3 dives per year, so I am looking for a fairly budget conscious solution. Most of my underwater photography will be close range (less than 10'). I would have prefered to go with the Olympus FL-36 with underwater housing, but Olympus charges over $600 for just the housing! I may just go with a YS-60 or DS-50 strobe. Once I have a set up that works well, I'll post the details here. Thanks again!

Regards,

~Gary