OK - I'm done with my Oly 5050

[Mo2vation]

Background: Been shooting a long, long time. Made the jump to shooting exclusively digital in 1999. Haven't looked back. Its been Oly all the way - back in the UZI days, up thru the 2000, the 3000, 3030, 3040, 4040, 5050, etc.

I took a brief hiatus from the C line and moved to the E20 last summer and all of its lens adapters. WOAH. Loved it.

Sold all of it to downgrade back into the C line to get the housing, strobe, tray, arm, etc. to try my had at some UW shooting. I suck, but that's for another discussion.

My issues is this: I completely underestimated how much I'd miss the DSLR format. I look at the pics I was shooting last summer (topside) and compare them to what I'm shooting now, and how much I enjoyed the DSLR (no shutterlag, a real viewfinder, manual focus, serious lenses, etc, etc....) and I'm just not happy with moving back to the C series. My topside shooting has diminished to almost ziltch, and the artistic quality of my topside pics are not there. This cam is simply un-inspiring.

I've reached the limits of my artistic expression (topside) with my C5050. This week I was in East Cape, Mexico (sort of between Cabo and La Paz on the Sea o' Cortez side)... and I was out shooting some of the rugged landscape, then took it below to shoot the reefs at Cabo Pulmo, then took it out Kayak fishing for RoosterFish... And I'm just missing shot after shot. If its not fish-butt after fish-butt below, its trying to compose landscapes outdoors in the sun with a stupid LCD, or trying to do Macro shots without a manual focus, etc...

This weekend, my beloved FL40 fried while at East Cape. I shoot everything (save sweeping landscapes) with external flash. Half-way thru my vacation, I'm forced to peel off my Inon clearflash film and use that limp on-camera flash. No diffuser, no bounce... it was torture. My shots sucked.

So now I'm looking at dropping another $225+ into this 5050 to replace the FL40, or selling the lot and bolting to the very reasonable D70 Nikon DSLR.

Its becoming a no brainer. I think my 5050, housing, Inon strobe, ULCS arms, tray and all that hoopla is hitting the street soon and I'm gonna jump back to the DSLR format.

It may be awhile until I start shooing UW again ($$$ for housing & strobes) - and from what I'm reading, the D70 has TTL issues that most UW strobes won't address (but I shoot manual UW, anyway...)

SO here I sit... I have an event to shoot next week, no flash, and I'm just angry at my cam. Its UW limitations are my own (as I said, I suck UW so far) and its topside limitations are IT'S OWN (see rant in paragraph 4, above.)

Any of you that have recently gone through the research and demos of the entry level DSLR's, why did you choose the D70 over something else... or did you go Canon? My film cameras back in the day were all Canon, but honestly, I'm not overly impressed with the Digital Rebel line. The Nikon D70 is a sweet deal for an excellent, fast, compact DSLR.

Share your thoughts with this sincere Oly lifer who is looking to cut the cord with his trusted friend.

Thanks -

Ken

 

[ChrisM]

Hey Ken, sorry to hear it. Honestly, I was surprised when I heard you were going from a DSLR system to a prosumer model......

I was a point and shoot piker topside, took some decent pics with a 35 mm camera, but never did much with the Oly, LCD composing sux.....

As you may or may not know, I have the D Reb in an Aquatica housing. Lenses and all that external c*** are new to me,...... but UW this camera setup absolutely rocks. You want a garibaldi face? Take the pic.... juvenile garibaldi flitting around? Take the pic. Camera does what you want it to do, not what it wants to do when it wants......I am happier than I thought I would be with this camera. UW photog. has become fun again. I don't know if you saw any of the pics I took last weekend.... first trip with the camera, had a ousing issue and couldn't adjust exposure, but still....these are straight from the camera, no PS at all except resizing.......

Re: Canon/Nikon..... That debate, as I have discovered, can be as heated as the DIR debate......I had no lenses or Canon/Nikon bias and bought the D Reb pre-D70. I have no place debating the merits of Canon/Nikon, since I'm a piker in those areas (and frankly, doubt that anyone I know could tel the difference between a pic taken with the Digital Redneck or the D70........) I have seen great and crummy pics from both a D70 and a D reb.

Differences I know about. D Reb Has 100 iso, D70 is 200. This is important UW. D70 sync speed is higher. This is important UW. D Reb is plastic. Better IMO UW since it's lighter, easier to use, places less stress on tray.....

Canon also has the CMOS sensor which, I am told, is better than Nikon. There is also an "unofficial" firmware update that places the D Reb in the 10D class...... adds some additional features disabled by Canon

Both cameras I am sure are great choices.

Good luck

Chris

 

[PhotoTJ]

Ken, as you know, I work in a camera store, when I'm not diving or shooting. I have been a die-hard Nikon shooter since 1988. My opinion, for what it's worth. Nikon has been sitting on their name, while Canon has been pacing the industry. I am in the process of selling all my Nikon gear, and converting fully to Canon. Faster autofocus, better autofocus in dim light, and their color managment software seems to be the top of the heap. I will have a 10D in two weeks, and I don't think I'll look back.

TJ

 

[chippy]

Ken

Have you though about/considered the S2? I used to have en E20 too, and IMHO the S2 is leagues ahead in all areas. The thing that drove me nuts with the E20 was the extraordonarily expensive lenses, which at the end of the day, were always going to be useless when I moved up/on to a new system.