TG-3 & TG-4 Housing Options

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FritzCat66

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After doing lots of research online, I'm leaning pretty hard towards replacing my ancient Pentax S5i (and factory O-WP2 dive housing) with an Olympus TG-4.

I'm just an amateur and have no plans to be more than that, but I do love shooting away when I'm on the reef and sharing with friends & family. I'm also a "one-camera guy" - that is, I use the same camera for everything, topside as well as diving. That way my poor brain doesn't have to remember how to use different cameras; I would rather get to know one camera inside & out, all its quirks & foibles, and carry it everywhere with me. It also means I don't have to buy a bunch of different lenses and accessories for different cameras.

I've been looking at some of the underwater photos posted here from TG-3/TG-4 users and they look pretty good to my rather uncritical eye. And while I don't primarily shoot video, I did like the fact that my old Pentax could always switch over to video with one button, a feature the Olympus seems to have as well.

I also appreciate that the Olympus itself is waterproof to 50 feet out of the box, but of course I'll need a housing for serious diving. I've seen some posts here about some of these housings but not all of them; I figured since I was collecting information on them anyway it might be handy for other ScubaBoarders to put a list of them in one post.

List of Dive Housings for Olympus TG-3/TG-4

Any others I didn't list? Mention in comments and I'll add it here.

As of June 2016, street prices seem to range from about $300 for the factory housing up to about $800 for the Nauticam.
 
On my old Pentax rig, I used a 1-handle tray with a single Sea & Sea YS-01 external strobe that I would like to continue to use, but all these housings seems to have at least an option for a standard fiber-optic strobe connector.
 
Looks like you've done sufficient research on the housings, I imagine you should be able to connect your ys-01 to any of these housings with a fiber optic cable.

I don't know any pros/cons to the different housings, but you can find a tg-4/pt-056 package deal for around $600. The price difference between the olympus and nauticam is pretty dramatic, might be worth exploring why, might be for good reason or if you aren't going to ever test the 300' depth maybe it'll be moot.
 
I just took a look at the nauticam housing; it's a nice looking housing. Aluminum vs plastic, looks well constructed, obviously has the better depth rating and it comes with two fiber optic ports built into the housing for dual strobes. On the pt-056 you'll have to get a port adapter type thingy I think to hook up dual strobes; not quite as clean.

Still a tough sell to pay $1150 vs $625 for housing and tg-4 unless you know you'll be testing the depth rating.

----edit

One more thought, if you plan to ever add any wet lens, look at the different housings and the port size to know what lenses are compatible or if an adapter would be needed.
 
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We have the tg4 in the olympus housing. Very happy with it. You cannot add wet lenses to the housing though
 
You can add wet lenses to the Olympus housing, it has a 52mm thread. Many wet lenses take 67mm so you need a M52 to F67 adapter. The UWL-04 wide angle lens is 52mm threaded though and works very well. Our experience is that the TG3 & 4 has excellent macro capabilities.
 
We have the tg4 in the olympus housing. Very happy with it. You cannot add wet lenses to the housing though

I happily stand corrected
 
That looks very similar to my setup with the Pentax right now, Skeptic; of course all I'll be doing is replacing the camera & housing. Question: Does that fiber optic connector adaptor come with the PT-056 stock? Or did you have to acquire that elsewhere? I've not seen that on any of the marketing photos.

Also, were you able to use a stock Sea & Sea fiber cable? Is that a YS-01 or YS-03 strobe, and have you had any sync problems with it on the Olympus?

I'm not diving much right now because of, erm... a domestic situation that should resolve in about a year or so. So I probably won't be getting a dive housing right off the bat, but since I know I will be using it as my scuba camera in the future, I wanted to make sure I will have good options. An advantage to delaying the housing purchase is I can consider the more expensive Nauticam option as well since the cost won't be up-front. And who knows, I may be able to get one used in a couple years.

However, I can't delay getting a new camera until then, because the Pentax is just getting old and cranky. Also, it's hard to find batteries that hold much of a charge anymore - even batteries marketed as new have been sitting on a shelf for years and don't compare to the factory originals. Plus I want something with some newer capabilities; a lot has evolved in the compact digital world since the early-2000's.

Meanwhile, being landlocked will give me a chance to familiarize myself with the camera and its controls. I don't like to be fumbling with it underwater. I have used my Pentax S4i/S5i for well over a decade and know it intuitively, what it can do and can't, and exactly which buttons I need to press or what menu item to access in order to do whatever it is needs doing. I want to get to that point with this Olympus as well. And I want whatever I get now to also last me another decade or more - I'm obviously not the type who upgrades cameras every other year! Kinda the opposite...

Also an appeal on the TG-4 is the option for RAW output. Not ever having that option before, I need to learn some basic desktop processing techniques. So much to learn even with these compact digitals!
 
You can add wet lenses to the Olympus housing, it has a 52mm thread. Many wet lenses take 67mm so you need a M52 to F67 adapter. The UWL-04 wide angle lens is 52mm threaded though and works very well. Our experience is that the TG3 & 4 has excellent macro capabilities.

Jack - I notice you also carry the Nauticam. What kind of wet lens connection options does that offer?

I have also read consistently good things about the TG-3/TG-4 macro capabilities, at least for a compact digital, and that's part of its appeal to me.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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