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Would you buy an Olympus c-5050 again?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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SThompson

Nekton Pelagic
Apr 15, 2002
68
9
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I have been wanting to buy an Olympus C-5050 for awhile. I have been pricing them for about a year now, hoping beyond hope that I would be able to pick one up for sub 400 dollars, even if it were refurb model. But alas, my hope has been dashed on the rocks, just like my last Kalick in Nassau. Tradgedy, travesty, cruel fate, call it what you will.

My question to you, owners of the glorius and mystical C-5050, is simple:

If you had to do it all over again, would you still buy the Olympus C-5050?

The pictures posted by amatuer photogs that use the 5050 are stunning. Unirdina's video using the same also impressed me quite a bit. I am afraid that, as I am as amatuer as amatuer can be with regards to photography, if I buy the 5050 and it is too much camera that I will kick myself for spending the money on it when I could have gotten by easily with a lesser camera. On the other hand, I have "cheaped out" before and kicked myself that I did not buy the upgraded version on other purchases. Seeing as how embarrassing it can be to kick oneself in public I would like to avoid the situation if at all possible.

Any direction in the sea of digital camera choices that you can provide would be very very appreciated. Thanks in advance!:)
 
I'd buy one again

As far as I know, it's about the cheapest of the high-end amateur cameras and one of the highest rated. That said, I bought mine primarily because of the fast lens.

There are definitely a lot of features in the camera and I'm still exploring them (slowly, lazily, unsystematically) -- the moral being that you can get respectable results using the camera on full automatic and learn the various features as needed and at your own pace.

When I bought mine, the camera and underwater case cost less than the list price for the camera itself. I think that I paid a bit under $800 for the whole setup. That's just a little over 4x what I paid for a super-minimal underwater camera (2MP, fixed focus, no movies, no fancy features of any kind -- the case wasn't even actually made for the camera -- it just happened to work -- sort of).

You can shave a bit off the price by getting one of the other Camedias, but the cases for them cost the same as the PT-015, so you're going to pay close to 90% of the price of a C-5050 with a PT-015. Better to spend the extra $100 to $150 imho.

No matter how I look at it, I keep concluding that it was a good value. Oddly enough, though, my wife is of a different opinion ;).
 
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Hi Scot,

If you get the 5050, there is an incredible low light video waiting to be make in Blue Springs (see your pm). Get below someone coming up out of 100 ft or so. At about 60 to 80, its like flying through the rafters of a cathedral.

Good luck on your camera choice
 
Hey Scot,

To say I don't know many functions of my 5050 is an understatement. I know that the camera can do all kinds of camera tricks, but that's not why I bought it (although, that is the reason my girl wanted it. I wanted it because 1. It takes video and sound - and there is no size limit to the file. 2. It is fairly idiotproof 3. Because it's a 5 megpix camera. And this equates to not only very crisp photos, but also allows me to crop any photo I want, and still have more than enough res to make a nice 4X6. That said, I've seen photos from a 4040, and they look pretty nice too. Not as good as the 5050, but better than any film photos I've ever seen. It's all relative, I guess ;). 10 years from now, it'll probably be considered a clunker.

Ted

ps. the fact that the price hasn't dropped a whole lot, is a good sign for those of us who already own it ;).
 
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Me too.

I've decided to buy a camera for freedive photography while the gettin's good (before the little lady gets her fingers more tightly gripped around my bank account)!

The 5050; is that the one you brought out here last summer, Mike? Seemed pretty nice, not too bulky, easy to operate. You took some great photos considering most of the vis we had. We oughta to submit that footage of the cliff-jumping/sea-cave holed-up car thief vs. massive police seige to Cops!

Questions I have are about the housing: which one do you folks have? Or is there only one for that camera? And do you buy the housing in the same store, at the same time as the camera?
 
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I beleive that most of us have the Olympus PT-015 housing. There are other housing out there, made by Ikelite and Light and Motion, but they are MUCH more expensive.

Latest price on the PT-015 is around $134.

Ikelite is over $400 and the Light and Motion is up around the $1,500 mark.

The advantage to the more expensive housings are greater depth capabilities and the ability to connect a TTL strobe to the camera. Neither of those things were important to me since I am just using it for freediving.

Since Ted can post pictures of his cat, I can post this:
 
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Peter,

Yup, that was a 5050 that I was packing this summer. Bought it just for the trip
 
I have been looking into digital technology and was wondering how you guys like your 5050s for video?Do you feel like it doubles well as a video camera? I really want a video camera but the 5050 seems to have both still and video capability. Pros, cons?
Thanks,
Jim
 
Well I didn't get the Oly 5050. I just decided that it wasn't the right camera.

Instead I listened to Cliff and bought the Oly 5060 instead. :t
You have heard the expression "In for a penny, in for a pound"? I think they were speaking specifically of underwater photography. The camera was only 70 dollars more ($545 including S&H from butterfly photo) and on advice from Andrsn I went ahead and picked up the wide angle lens and adapter. (ebay and J&R photo $140 total).

I am in the same boat in regards to the housing now that Jon was in when he bought the pt 15, because I am adopting early they are gonna gouge me a bit. I am ordering the housing this week and the best price I can find is $240 + s&h. Ouch! I want to wait till it the price drops.......but I can't.

Another important thing to note on the 5060: standard external wide angle lenses don't work well since it is already a wide angle camera. Unless you are zoomed all the way out you can get vignetting (I read that on wetpixel.com, as I am an X-treme Noob in regards to photogtraphy and don't really even know what that means, but I am assuming its bad). So that means I am going to be shelling out for the PP0-2 which is the housing attachment that holds the w/a lens. IMHO, this is not the best of designs as you can't change lenses during a diving session easily and extra o-rings = xtra chance to leak.

The pic quality is GREAT, I will post a few topside images for your perusal, just what you would expect from an Olympus C series.

Quick question : Who is everyone using to insure their setups? Since I will have just dropped a cool G on this (and that is a LOT of money to spend for me) I would prefer not to have my investment washed in the mother ocean due to my stupidity with O rings and be out the hard earned dollars. Suggestions appreciated.

X-treme Noob Photogs Unite!! (Hey if you can put x-treme in front of skateboards and have it sell, why not this?)
 
Jim check out Unirdina's video in the thread Coz Video . It was shot using the Oly 5050 and it was REALLY impressive. You will have to get a compact flash card with some significant memory, I can't remember offhand if he had a a 512 or a Gig.

As I am poor:) my new 5060 only has a 256meg card but I will try out the video in the next couple of days and see if I can manage to post a sample to let you know what it looks like. Both camera's do sound and I will being playing with mine topside so we can see how the dialog sounds.

Ted's video is INCREDIBLE. If I can do that (or a poor imitation) with mine I will be very pleased.
 
Scot,

I read on a camera forum that the 5060 records video in 640*480 (the 5050 takes 320*240). Is this true? Still Quicktime right?

If this is the case, your resolution will be much better, but your vid files will also be 4X bigger. Also, I wonder if the camera will be able to maintain the write speed for long vids - or will there be a time limit?

And yep....512 card is what I had.

Actually, I was looking through my archives, and I do have plenty of clips left to make another 'video' ;). Maybe I'll throw another one together today and host it.

Jim,

The 5050 is fine for taking little clips and sending stuff around the internet. But if you want to record your kid's birthday party, it will leave you underwhelmed.

Ted
 
Jim,

I'll give you all the footage you want from the 5050 and you can decide on the quality. Let's have lunch in U. City agian and I'll bring a CD (and your Millenniums).
 
Ted - You are correct, the 5060 does record 640x480 and it is still quicktime. I tried playing around and making a couple of movies last night with minimal success. Tonight I will just sit down and let it run to see how long of a clip I can take at that size. There is a meter that supposedly tells you how long you have left in regards to memory but I found it slightly unreliable
 
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