Issue with Stylus Tough 8010/PT-048 housing. Supermacro LED does not work with....

[anenomefishman]

PT-048 housing. Has anybody used an Olympus housing where the supermacro LED illuminator works correctly in the housing? My 8010 supermarcro LED illuminator seems to be blocked by the PT-048 housing.

I recently bought an Olympus 8010/PT-048 housing. I have been running an SP350/PT-030 and DZ-40/PT-012 cameras/housing for many years. We are going to hit the Lembeh straights in Indonesia this summer (muck diving, tiny creatures). I had problems last time looking at pygmy seahorses in Indosnesia with my old setup. I bought the 8010/PT-048 to look at very small stuff with a small camera setup. I tested it on land with just the 8010 body and it works great! I can get to within less than an inch from the camera and it looks great even in the dark with the LED illuminator. On Olympus P+S cameras, the flash will not fire in supermacro mode. On the 8010, it has an extremely bright LED in supermacro LED mode that lights your subject very well within a few inches of the lens. The Stylus Tough 8010 camera body is only rated for 33 feet without an underwater housing. People have reported using them at 60 ft without a housing, but this sounds marginal to me.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bruce

[slowhands]

..Has anybody used an Olympus housing where the supermacro LED illuminator works correctly in the housing? My 8010 supermarcro LED illuminator seems to be blocked by the PT-048 housing...I can get to within less than an inch from the camera and it looks great even in the dark with the LED illuminator. On Olympus P+S cameras, the flash will not fire in supermacro mode. On the 8010, it has an extremely bright LED in supermacro LED mode that lights your subject very well within a few inches of the lens.

Wow! That sounds like a great tool for macro, so compact and the LED is a great idea. You really need that LED for focus and illumination of closeups.

Do you mean the LED is blocked by the flash diffuser? That's the way it looks from the product pictures. I can't believe Olympus is not aware of this and thinks it's not a problem: the LED gets diffused, so what? I don't have this housing, so I'm just guessing.

If this diffuser is a problem, it appears you can remove the diffuser by unscrewing the 4 mounting screws. You don't need the flash diffuser for supermacro, especially if the flash can't fire in that mode. The diffuser is only intended to reduce backscatter when using flash.

I had my dive buddy holding a focus light to get the attached photo of a pygmy seahorse on Cabilao Island at 30 meters. I really could have used something like this, because it was hit and miss. The seahorse was turned away, fubar.

[anenomefishman]

Wow! That sounds like a great tool for macro, so compact and the LED is a great idea. You really need that LED for focus and illumination of closeups.

Do you mean the LED is blocked by the flash diffuser? That's the way it looks from the product pictures. I can't believe Olympus is not aware of this and thinks it's not a problem: the LED gets diffused, so what? I don't have this housing, so I'm just guessing.

If this diffuser is a problem, it appears you can remove the diffuser by unscrewing the 4 mounting screws. You don't need the flash diffuser for supermacro, especially if the flash can't fire in that mode. The diffuser is only intended to reduce backscatter when using flash.

I had my dive buddy holding a focus light to get the attached photo of a pygmy seahorse on Cabilao Island at 30 meters. I really could have used something like this, because it was hit and miss. The seahorse was turned away, fubar.

No it is actually blocked by the housing. I took my flash diffuser off and it is blocked by the housing (mostly lens/filter ring). I have posted an issue on Olympus America's web site about this. Nice Seahorse! My Avatar I shot with my SP-350/PT-030 internal flash in Macro mode/flash and 1/500 shutter speed. Clownfish are much larger than pygmy seahorses though. I will post some links to some of my pics when this web site lets me. Right now, it says I have too few posts to add links to my posts.

Bruce