New Oly 770 SW and Oly UW housing

[BLD_THRST]

Has anyone gotten the new Oly 770 SW? its rated up to 33ft/10m which is rather shallow for average dives up to 20m.

Has anyone taken it (without housing) deeper than 10m? Any problems with taking photos or using the menu?

There seems to be an Oly UW housing (PT-035) available. Distributors here do not keep stock and there is no ready model for me to see. I am considering to add an arm and strobe at a later stage, however, not sure that the Oly housing allows for it. If not, should i go for a 3rd party housing.

This is my first step into UW photography, hence, would really appreciate your feedback.

Thanks.

 

[alcina]

I've got the previous model and a friend who dives a couple of times a week with us has one with the housing.

I wouldn't choose this as my underwater set up as there are no manual controls and I have been underwhelmed by the images that my bud brings back from her dives. She is perfectly happy with them - though often asks "why don't mine turn out like..." when my little Canon A520 is also shooting that dive.

I use my camera, without housing, for on the boat, on the beach and snorkelling sometimes when I want something very tiny and am not worried about quality so much. When I was on a dive trip last year I stuck it over the marlin board to take shots of the sharks swimming around...it was perfect for that. Image quality isn't the best, but fine for sharing on the web and probably small prints.

These cameras seem to suck in low light - very grainy - so I rarely take it along to parties, bbqs, get-togethers in the evenings or at night.

All in all, for the money, I think there are better options out there unless the other features - shockproof and already waterproof to a certain depth - are something you'd really use. We do use ours quite a bit, but not for diving.

 

[BLD_THRST]

Thanks for the feedback.... will try to look at other options... )

 

[haha49]

i work in a retal store and see alot of thouse cameras comeing back because they flooded and no longer work...

 

[Nemrod]

We have one. It takes great pics. As good as any point and shoot digi camera. I certainly would not take it diving. I think of it as a spash proof, accidental dunking proof camera. It is also shock/crush resistent and can live in normal atmospheric humidity and temperatures unlike many digi cams. Obviously for serious underwater phototgraphy it would not be ideal, even with a housing it is far from an SLR.

Let's see, two cell phones, one digi cam and a lap top splashed and ruined. The idea of electronic products that can live in the real world might be a good idea.

N

 

[TrickyRicky]

I've got the 720 sw. It's a great boat camera! Before I always had to dry off my hands and miss the shot. Now I don't have to worry. I've taken it to Coco Beach, FL. had some very rough waves while body surfing and goofing off. I must have one of the good ones because it never flooded with the waves hitting it as I was shooting a video. The reason I bought it was because I'm a bit of a rough dude, if it's fragile it'll break if I just look at it(and no I'm not that ugly). I just ordered a housing for it so I'll soon find out what it's like at depth, however I am pretty happy with the camera for the use that I bought it for.

Cheers!

 

[OtownDiver]

I recently purchased the 770 SW and the PT-035 housing. So far I have only used it at Wikki Wachee Springs here in FL and got some great, and some interesting shots of turtles, the mermaids, and a few other spring creatures. First, I am not a pro, in fact this is my first underwater camera, and my interest is simply to capture some images of the beautiful places I go diving so that I can add them to my digital log book and maybe print a few out to make some photo collages to hang on the wall. What I've found so far is that while there are not any real manual controls, experimentation with the presets built in to the camara can yield a number of interesting and wonderful shots. Any further color balancing and stuff I do with software. I do not have a strobe, but any of the major stobe manufacturer's products will attach to the housing. In fact Olympus is coming out with their own strobe towards the end of this summer that will work TTL if you are in to that. While we were at the Springs, another person there took a 770 diving without the housing, and the pictures and the camera were fine. The only drawback was that the buttons are small so it was actually easier to use the housing while underwater. All in all, I was looking for a small camera that I could easily fit into my pocket for land use, and one that would allow me to take good underwater shots without forcing me to think too much about setting up the shots and stuff. I like taking pictures, but I'm a bit too impatient to become a true underwater photographer. Point and shoot... its exactly what I want!