Any Oly C-8080 Experience Yet?

We have been shooting 35mm with an S&S MMII then scanning the negs. Finally decided to make the move to digital, so we have purchased the Oly C-8080, Ikelite housing, and Ikelite DS-50 strobe. We are leaving for Kona, and a week on the Aggressor this Saturday, and this will be our first trip with it. We have it set to Ikelite’s recommendations, and are just wondering if anyone has had experience with it yet, and if so some recommended settings.
Thanks

Deuceman:

We have been shooting 35mm with an S&S MMII then scanning the negs. Finally decided to make the move to digital, so we have purchased the Oly C-8080, Ikelite housing, and Ikelite DS-50 strobe. We are leaving for Kona, and a week on the Aggressor this Saturday, and this will be our first trip with it. We have it set to Ikelite’s recommendations, and are just wondering if anyone has had experience with it yet, and if so some recommended settings.
Thanks

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I know there are some folks on www.digitaldiver.net shooting this camera. Try running a search there.

There's one thing I would set specifically on the C8080 and that would be the Dial menu to Custom 1 (Mode Menu >> Spanner symbol >> Dial >> Custom 1). This way, if you shoot in M shooting mode, you you can use the arrow buttons to change the Aperture and Shutter speed, instead of having to hold a button down and turn the jog dial at the same time (see page 150 in PDF manual for more details).

Apart from that I think the settings are pretty much the same for the C5050/5060/8080. I presume you are using Ike's TTL conversion circuitary (no EV manual controller):

• ISO 50 (for strobe shots)
• SHQ
• For close-up work use Macro (flower symbol), both AF Mode and Metering Mode to Spot and, if possible, use a spotting light
• For extreme close-up use SMacro
• Use the Flash Exposure Compensation to lower or raise the amount of TTL strobe light
• In M shooting mode a good place to start is 1/125s and F5.6. Lower or raise the shutter speed to control motion blur and ambient light, and the aperture for DOF

ReyeR:

There's one thing I would set specifically on the C8080 and that would be the Dial menu to Custom 1 (Mode Menu >> Spanner symbol >> Dial >> Custom 1). This way, if you shoot in M shooting mode, you you can use the arrow buttons to change the Aperture and Shutter speed, instead of having to hold a button down and turn the jog dial at the same time (see page 150 in PDF manual for more details).

Apart from that I think the settings are pretty much the same for the C5050/5060/8080. I presume you are using Ike's TTL conversion circuitary (no EV manual controller):

• ISO 50 (for strobe shots)
• SHQ
• For close-up work use Macro (flower symbol), both AF Mode and Metering Mode to Spot and, if possible, use a spotting light
• For extreme close-up use SMacro
• Use the Flash Exposure Compensation to lower or raise the amount of TTL strobe light
• In M shooting mode a good place to start is 1/125s and F5.6. Lower or raise the shutter speed to control motion blur and ambient light, and the aperture for DOF

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THANKS
That is pretty close to Ikelites recomendations. We have "custom 1" set as ISO=50, WB=auto, AF=on / spot, f5.7 - 1/100. SHQ JEPG 8 MP. Sounds like a good starting point. And yes we are using the Ikelite TTL conection, and we have the strobe set per their instructions. We have test fired the set up and all works well. Rather than buying $2K worth of memory cards we have 2 sets of 256 xD, and 512 SD, also have a new 40 GB X-drive. It has also been tested, are these things pretty reliable, I would hate to lose our vacation shots, and is it Ok to let the hard drive go through the checked bagage x-ray? We are new to anything more than simple point and shoot digital, and our trip is near, so we'll take any and all advice. Being new to this level camera we are still in shock over what this thing does on land. We really love the diferent custom modes, so we will not need to reset for land, night, day, movie, etc. Do all of the nicer cameras have this feature? Also just playing around I took a shot of our bearded dragon ISO 100 about 6" through the glass with the internal flash SHQ 8MP, played with it on Adobe and was able to see little hairs on his scales with little to no pixelation WOW. We didn't even know he had hair, it's invisable to the human eye. I'm thinking this is going to be fun! Sorry to ramble, but we are just a bit excited.
Thanks Again

Sounds like you are all set. Enjoy!

One other tip if you shoot in P or A mode: set the flash mode to 'Fill-in' ( :lightning symbol ). It'll give you better shutter speeds ( and apertures in P ).

ReyeR:

Sounds like you are all set. Enjoy!

One other tip if you shoot in P or A mode: set the flash mode to 'Fill-in' ( :lightning symbol ). It'll give you better shutter speeds ( and apertures in P ).

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Wow, I din't notice your location before. I work for an Australian company, ever heard of Rinker Materials or I think over there it's still called CSR Building Materials?

Deuceman:

Wow, I din't notice your location before. I work for an Australian company, ever heard of Rinker Materials or I think over there it's still called CSR Building Materials?

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Yep, see their big CSR mixing trucks all the time.... And their sugar makes it to my coffee every morning . Hopefully that's the same company you're talking about.

thank you for the Dial menu to Custom 1 tip saves a lot of time.