Apres dive

[Frank O'Donnell]

Okay, it's not an in-water shot, but I couldn't resist posting this sunset over Catalina Island as viewed from the bluffs at Laguna Beach, California.

That's about the best I have to show from last weekend, unless you get more excited by giant keyhole limpets .... ;-)

http://www261.pair.com/inkbox/undersea/keyhole-limpet.jpg

 

[Shadowkiller]

Awesome limpet photo. Love the colours on that sea urchin!

Have some karma for your efforts!

Now... questions: camera? setup? strobe? what depth?

edit: stoopid karma button wont work... guess I owe ya one when it gets fixed...

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

Thanks for the feedback, SK. The camera is an Oly 5050 in a PT-015 housing with two Ikelite DS-50 strobes on TTL sensors. However, I think that shot mostly relied on available light. It was quite shallow -- I was cruising an inshore reef at Laguna Beach in ~15 feet of water. I ran across about four of these giant keyhole limpets.

The urchins are indeed colorful, although in this locality we view them with mixed feelings. Due to depletion of their predators, their population has exploded, and they have eaten away all of the kelp holdfasts. This cove is accordingly what's referred to as an "urchin barren."

P.S. The karma button doesn't know what to make of users with apostrophes in their names ... but heck, I know who my friends are. ;-)

 

[Shadowkiller]

Awesome! I am currently waiting for delivery of my very own OlyC5050. Might see how I go before spending as much on a strobe as did on the camera...:hmm

Can you do Macro shots without a macro lens on the Oly? And what have you found to be its useful battery life?

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

I think you can do nice work with the Olys with available light or their onboard flash. I'd definitely spend some time getting to know the camera before buying strobes or other add-ons like lenses.

I came to the 5050 from a year and a half or so of freediving and taking pictures with a Nikonos. I use the Nik mostly at one of the two extremes -- either with a 15mm wide-angle lens, or with extension tubes to shoot macro of creatures like nudibranchs. Since the Nikonos is a rangefinder and not an SLR, though, it's hard to take standard 'fish portraits' from a couple of feet away. One of the main things I like about the Oly is the capability to shoot such fish portraits.

As for macro, you can get quite close with the onboard lens system. I did buy an add-on macro lens, but haven't used it much yet. There are some sample pictures at the bottom of this retailer's web page that show the effect of various lenses:

http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com/English/eM67lens.htm

As for batteries, rechargeables are the only way to go. I use 2200-mAH Maha Powerex AA's for the Oly and strobes. To conserve battery life during a diving session, I leave the camera turned on but I turn off the LCD screen, which is the main power-munching function.

The other comment I'd make about the 5050 is that it has so many different functions that it takes a while to get to know it. I'd definitely recommend using it as much as possible topside so that you aren't spending all of your underwater time on the trial-and-error part of the learning curve. I've seen people take great pictures with a 5050 (much more awesome than mine), so I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

[Adrian]

Very nice pics Frank!

Did you take the sunset with the Oly too?

Adrian

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

Originally posted by Adrian
Did you take the sunset with the Oly too?

Thanks. Yep, that was with the Oly -- zoomed to telephoto, as I recall.

 

[Adrian]

I also have a Nikonos V and am thinking of getting either a 20mm lens or using the money to buy the Oly 5050. Only thing is that the prices here in Spain are still around 750 euro, the pt 015 around 250...do you know of anyone coming to Spain any time soon? I'm thinking that I'll get more milage out of the Oly in terms of general versatility and usage, not to mention saving on film costs! The only concern is the sharpness, but once you resize and tweak the digital shot, the quality is excellent, as seen in your pics. You can see some of my photos at www.art-centre.com/sea. All the latest ones were taken with the Nikonos in ambient light. A couple of the black and white ones are greyscaled from color slides and then given a wide angle effect to simulate a wider angled lens.

Adrian

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

Adrian, can you buy by mail from overseas, or would shipping and/or import duty kill the cost? I see that at uwdigitalcamera.com in Japan, Yuzo has the PT-015 for 18,900 yen (144 euros), plus shipping. His price on the 5050 at 79,800 yen (608 euros) is not as competitive, as I've seen it from U.S. mail order sources for US$599 (491 euros). One drawback to the Japan site is that the warranties are only good in Japan; I don't know the situation with the warranties from the U.S. sources.

Nice shots on your website. Are those all with the stock Nik V 35mm lens? If I were in your shoes, I'd go with the Oly setup. I haven't forsaken the Nik V completely, but I now use the Oly 95% of the time. I mostly take the Nikonos out when there is killer visibility and I can get wide-angle panoramas. Despite the fact that I usually use the Oly, my digital friends still have said they appreciate the look of film on a couple of my Nikonos shots, such as this kelp forest view:

and this shot of scuba divers on an anchor chain:

In any event, keep up the good work!

 

[Murat]

Yesterday i went to shop to ask the prices of the cameras and shop owner said, C5050 is 870 euro and waterproof case pt-015 is 700-750 euro something like that. He said he can give both to me for 1130 euro with ALL DISCOUNT he can do.....

What you think...?

 

[Pezman]

That's an outrageous price. I was able to get the 5050 and the pt015 both from B&H for under $800 for the pair. Here's a link to their current price on the 5050:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh6/controller/home?O=&A=ShowProduct&Q=&sku=262382&is=REG&m=Y

With a little research, you can get significantly better prices, but I wanted the convenience of one-stop shopping and B&H is a highly rated vendor. Also, I was in a hurry to get the camera before a trip.

Good luck -- it's a prtty nice rig. Now all I need to do is refine my chops so I can take pictures that are 1/10 as good as Frank's

 

[Murat]

Luckily i don't want to buy camera now...

 

[Shadowkiller]

I bought my C5050 via an Ebay shop for $1350 Aus, thats about 700 Euro, and thats with underwater housing.

A 1Gb microdrive has cost me a further $220 instead of $600 retail...

 

[loopy]

$1350 Aus = 820 Euro (www.xe.com)

Pez - where did you find a cheap housing for it?

 

[Pezman]

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to s it was cheap, but it sure was reasonable. I just checked and B&H has it for $160

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=278668&is=REG

When I was shopping this summer, the cases were about $200 (B&H's price) and you could get one for $170 if you shopped real hard, so I would guess that you could probably get the case for $140 or so if price was your prime motivator (all prices $US of course).

B&H also maintenance stuff (o-rings, grease for the rings, silica gel dessicant packs etc.)

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

FYI, I buy much or most of my photo gear through B&H, and have always been happy with their service. When I bought my Oly 5050 and PT-015 last spring, I went through Adorama (adorama.com). They have the camera for $580 and the housing for $160 currently.