5060 housing...

[badassbill]

Hello All...
Can anyone tell me the difference in housing for the 5060 in both the Olympus and Ikelite. I know there are obvious price differences, but was wondering about expandability with lenses and eventually strobes. Can I hook these up using the Olympus housing? There is sucha a difference in price, I'm trying to be reasonable and yet plan for the future...

Thanks much,
Bill

 

[ReyeR]

Hello All...
Can anyone tell me the difference in housing for the 5060 in both the Olympus and Ikelite. I know there are obvious price differences, but was wondering about expandability with lenses and eventually strobes. Can I hook these up using the Olympus housing? There is sucha a difference in price, I'm trying to be reasonable and yet plan for the future...

- The Olympus housing is rated for 40m and is a well finished product. The Ike housing is rated for 60m and is more rugged

- A tray and handle is included in the price of the Ike housing

- The Ike housing has 'stay depressed' buttons so you don't have to press a button with one hand while turning the jog wheel with the other

- For wide angle you will need to use Olys land wide convertor and house it with a dome. Ike has a dome option for their housing. You can also get a dome for the Oly housing that's made by Athena.

- The Ike 5060 housing comes standard with a strobe bulkhead and Olympus TTL conversion circuitary which means you can get true Olympus TTL with Ike's DS125 and DS50 strobes. The Oly housing comes with a proprietary strobe bulkhead and you will get Olympus TTL with a housed Oly FL-20 land flash. Someone in Germany has started making a sync cord that'll connect the Oly proprietary bulkhead to Nikonos compatible strobes.

 

[badassbill]

Thanks...that was very helpful!!!

 

[jewey4]

-
The Ike housing has 'stay depressed' buttons so you don't have to press a button with one hand while turning the jog wheel with the other

That sounds like a big plus. Does anyone out there find the OLY housing to be terribly annoying because it lacks this?

-
- For wide angle you will need to use Olys land wide convertor and house it with a dome. Ike has a dome option for their housing. You can also get a dome for the Oly housing that's made by Athena.

But without the dome, the 5060 images come out looking fine, right? No distortion? Or do I have to buy this right away? I understand that the full WA capacity that the 5060 has cannot be utilized without the domes, but is it still a little wider than the 5050 in its regular housing without add-ons? Or is the whole wide angle part of it useless without the domes? I'm not in need of something super wide right away. I just want to jump in the water and start taking pictures for the fun of it!

-
- The Ike 5060 housing comes standard with a strobe bulkhead and Olympus TTL conversion circuitary which means you can get true Olympus TTL with Ike's DS125 and DS50 strobes. The Oly housing comes with a proprietary strobe bulkhead and you will get Olympus TTL with a housed Oly FL-20 land flash. Someone in Germany has started making a sync cord that'll connect the Oly proprietary bulkhead to Nikonos compatible strobes.

Ok- a lot of this stuff doesn't make sense to me yet. I don't plan on buying a strobe for awhile but I want to know that if I were to get an Olympus housing, could I still get TTL use by using an Inon D-180 strobe with it? Is it more complicated and costly in the long run with the PT-020 than if I went straight with the Ikelite? Aren't there all these add-ons if I want to have the OLY with the Inon strobes in order to make it compatible? Or is the same for Ikelite and its strobes? I haven't heard good things about using the housed Oly FL-20 land flash to get TTL.

Sorry, I know so little when it comes to strobes. I try to research online but it still just doesn't make much sense. It just seems easier to go with Ikelite, but it is a 300 dollar difference between that and the PT-020.

EDITED 5:30 PM
Ok from what I just read off a different post, the Inon is not TTL. Aren't TTLs great for beginners or is it not that necessary? If it is a better route, maybe I should just go with Ikelite housing.

 

[ReyeR]

That sounds like a big plus. Does anyone out there find the OLY housing to be terribly annoying because it lacks this?

It was a concern with me to start with but I just got used to it - doesn't bother me now.

But without the dome, the 5060 images come out looking fine, right? No distortion? Or do I have to buy this right away? I understand that the full WA capacity that the 5060 has cannot be utilized without the domes, but is it still a little wider than the 5050 in its regular housing without add-ons? Or is the whole wide angle part of it useless without the domes? I'm not in need of something super wide right away. I just want to jump in the water and start taking pictures for the fun of it!

If you mean you just want to use the standard built-in lens of the C5060 in the housing with the standard port (not dome port) the answer is yes, you can jump in the water and start taking pictures and they will come out fine. You don't have to buy the dome for the standard lens. If you do decide to add the wide angle later then the Athena dome port is recommended over the Olympus flat port.

Ok- a lot of this stuff doesn't make sense to me yet. I don't plan on buying a strobe for awhile but I want to know that if I were to get an Olympus housing, could I still get TTL use by using an Inon D-180 strobe with it? Is it more complicated and costly in the long run with the PT-020 than if I went straight with the Ikelite? Aren't there all these add-ons if I want to have the OLY with the Inon strobes in order to make it compatible? Or is the same for Ikelite and its strobes? I haven't heard good things about using the housed Oly FL-20 land flash to get TTL.
Sorry, I know so little when it comes to strobes. I try to research online but it still just doesn't make much sense. It just seems easier to go with Ikelite, but it is a 300 dollar difference between that and the PT-020.
EDITED 5:30 PM
Ok from what I just read off a different post, the Inon is not TTL. Aren't TTLs great for beginners or is it not that necessary? If it is a better route, maybe I should just go with Ikelite housing.

In my opinion TTL is great for beginners and advanced users alike. In fact Olympus's TTL is very good and there have been good reports about Ike's implementation of Oly's TTL as well. Having said that manual strobe control is not hard at all to learn and master. I think in the long run if you wanted to make the C5060/PT-020 into a hard-wired TTL setup (and it is possible) it would probably come pretty close to the $300 difference in terms of cost and implementation. Also, remember that the Ike housing comes with a single-handle tray for that price. A point to note, if you go down the Ike route, is that you can only use TTL with Ike's strobes only (DS-50 and DS-125).

 

[Jason B]

I think you'll learn more and ultimately be a better photographer if you go with learning to manipulate the cameras manual settings to accomplish the desired exposure. In other words, not letting the camera decide the exposure, but instead, letting you control it. Of course you'll probably have better results right away with TTL but it will probably take you longer to learn manual control because letting the camera decide is "so much easier". Just my thought on the subject.

 

[jewey4]

If you mean you just want to use the standard built-in lens of the C5060 in the housing with the standard port (not dome port) the answer is yes, you can jump in the water and start taking pictures and they will come out fine. You don't have to buy the dome for the standard lens. If you do decide to add the wide angle later then the Athena dome port is recommended over the Olympus flat port.

I'm a little confused. Isn't the standard built-in lens a wide angle to begin with? I understand it may not be as wide as with a dome and additional lens, but it'll still be wider than most other cameras in their housings, correct.

I didn't know you could only use Ike strobes with the Ike housing. Hmmm- now I need to look at price differences in those and the Inons! I think they're about the same though.

 

[ReyeR]

I'm a little confused. Isn't the standard built-in lens a wide angle to begin with? I understand it may not be as wide as with a dome and additional lens, but it'll still be wider than most other cameras in their housings, correct.

I didn't know you could only use Ike strobes with the Ike housing. Hmmm- now I need to look at price differences in those and the Inons! I think they're about the same though.

Yes the built-in lens is a wide zoom (27 – 110mm). It is wider than the C5050 at least (35-105mm). It will work fine in the standard port of the PT-020.

Ike's TTL will only work with Ike's strobes. You can't connect an Inon D-180 as it has no sync cord connector. You can connect a Z220 with Ike's sync cord but it'll only work in manual.

 

[jewey4]

Thanks ReyeR, it all makes a lot more sense. It's just I keep reading posts about attaching a WAL and I kept thinking "Isn't it a wide angle already!" So thanks.
I'm still debating over the housings though. That's ok- I still have another week or two before I would like to buy it.