Time to upgrade? Oly 5060 to ?

[Gdog]

Well, broke the bulkhead of my PT 020...hard to believe I know. dont see any more PT 020's on Ebay. Do I do the Heinrichs conversion, sounds like maybe close to $300 for bulkhead, converter, sync cord......or is this the time to step up to the E 420 or E 520? First of all, which of the two would I be more happy with, having been non dslr? Housing costs? What about my strobe, will it work? If not, what strobe? Any input would be cool! thanks!!

[jlyle]

IMHO, coming from the point-and-shoot 5060, look for a used Oly E-330 & housing. While the 420/520 are great cameras, they don't have the "live view" that you are used to. Although the 420/520 have versions of "live view," they suffer from shutter lag that the E-330 doesn't have. An additional advantage to the E-330, you can get into a dslr for much less money.

Yes, your strobe will work with the dslrs.

[ce4jesus]

The E520 housing is $900 (video direct) and you can throw another $350 for the standard port. The strobe is a good question...my YS27DX would only fire on manual with my E410. So I sold it and purchased an Inon Z240 "豐英水中撮影機材 FUN-IN Underwater Photo Equipment" (http://www.fun-in.com.tw/catalog/index.php?cPath=95_34) . I've only used the live view on my E series camera for static portraits or macro. Jlyle does a good job of describing why. Although I will tell you the lag on the E520 is considerably less than the E410. More aggravating than the lag is the time between shots. There is some sort of resetting that occurs ... haven't looked into it. However, since I've been using the viewfinder, I've not missed the LCD. The reason is simple...its so much more clear and bright than the LCD. I generally had trouble tracking smaller subjects or quickly moving subjects with the LCD that I don't have trouble with using the viewfinder.
The other item you might be forgetting is your base or tray. It will need to be at least around 10 inches to accommodate the larger housing.
Anyway, you won't miss the P&S too much. Speed is a wonderful thing in photography.

[Gdog]

Ok, good advice. I will check into it, thanks!