C-5050 advice

[Randall]

I know many of you use the Oly C-5050 and I have seen many of the excellent pictures you take with this camera. I'm probably going to buy one very soon. I've found the waterproof housing made by Olympus and will probably go with that. The part I'm wondering about is the flash. What kind of flash works best with this setup? Do you have to have a strobe, or is the flash on the camrea good enough? Thanks for your help.

 

[Dee]

I know many of you use the Oly C-5050 and I have seen many of the excellent pictures you take with this camera. I'm probably going to buy one very soon. I've found the waterproof housing made by Olympus and will probably go with that. The part I'm wondering about is the flash. What kind of flash works best with this setup? Do you have to have a strobe, or is the flash on the camrea good enough? Thanks for your help.

You'll find answers to you questions in several threads here. But basically, there are 2 main brands of strobes being used with the C-5050/PT-15 and each has their strengths and weaknesses. If you plan to use the Oly PT-15, you'll need a fiber optic connection which you can get with the Inon D-180 series or Sea & Sea YS90DX strobes,

You do NOT have to use an external strobe. In fact I always suggest new users first learn to use the camera without one. The internal flash on your camera is very powerful albeit limited in range. It's great for macro and close shots. Concentrate on learning the camera first, learn it like the back of your hand so you can change settings quickly, you don't always have time to figure it out U/W.

 

[jlyle]

You'll find answers to you questions in several threads here. But basically, there are 2 main brands of strobes being used with the C-5050/PT-15 and each has their strengths and weaknesses. If you plan to use the Oly PT-15, you'll need a fiber optic connection which you can get with the Inon D-180 series or Sea & Sea YS90DX strobes,

Two main brands? How about three? Nearly, everyone I know who has a c5050/pt-015 combination is using the Ikelite DS-125 strobe with either a TTL or manual controller.

While you will be able to achieve excellent results with the camera's flash on subjects that are no further than 2 feet from the camera, the flash is ineffective beyond that distance. You can also get bad back-scatter from any particulate matter using the camera's flash.

Like Dee says, start without a strobe, learn the camera, then buy yourself a good strobe/tray/arms and save up for your next purchase, a wide angle lens adapter!

 

[TheNitroxinator]

The only thing with the internal strobe (and this is true of any camera) is that it tends to give a lot of backscatter.

What I did with my Canon S50 (and I never had a strobe with it), was to use my nightlight (a C8 at the time), and then set the S50 in a shutter mode so it would shoot at 1/60s. It sounds wierd, but that's how I got this picture on a night dive http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/4027/sort/1/cat/500/page/1. The main thing is that, no, you don't *need* a strobe, its just nice to have one, and, in point of fact, you'll probably get better shots by adjusting the shutter and using an external light.

If you're shooting wide angle/panoramic shots during the day, the strobe won't help much anyway, so you're still going to want to learn how to muck around with the shutter speed and aperture.

 

[Randall]

Thanks for the information and advice. This will help a lot with my decision!

 

[Dee]

Two main brands? How about three? Nearly, everyone I know who has a c5050/pt-015 combination is using the Ikelite DS-125 strobe with either a TTL or manual controller.

I didn't mention Ikelite because just about everyone I know uses Inon and S&S. But you're right, I should have mentioned it.