Olympus C-5060 Newbie

[mburden]

I had recently purchased a Olympus C-5060 with the Oly UW housing and FL-20 flash. I’m just looking for some insight of some pictures I took in Tahiti / Moorea. I tried to do as many Southern California dives before my trip with the 5060 as possible. The only major issue I found that all my personal settings were for cold water with 20-30 ft vis at the most. When I we went down to Tahiti the water was 79f with 200-250ft vis. This became very interesting for taking pics which I used manual mode for all my pics but the Oly FL-20 flash is to week and would like to know if someone else is using an Ikelite or Sea&Sea with the 5060 with success. Any recommendations and or help is greatly appreciated. Here is the line to the pics I took in Tahiti with the Oly 5060 PT-020 UW housing and the FL-20 flash. Does anyone recommend a specific strobe to use with the Oly PT-020 UW housing, ikelite, sea and sea, etc that is TTL compatiable?

http://photos.yahoo.com/mkeburden

Thanks

- Mike

 

[scubaaaronh]

Take a look through this section i had posted, and some of the replies had info on flashes.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t71747-c5060-settings-for-beginner.html

Did you try to use white balance at all or just the flash?

I dont know if you use your cam in low vis. Here in the great lakes region vis is about 20 - 30 feet on a good day
I used white balance and ambiant light to take these pics.
If you have questions on wb lewt me know i have a good collection of info on using it and cam setup.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/holoway@sbcglobal.net/my_photos

 

[ReyeR]

This became very interesting for taking pics which I used manual mode for all my pics but the Oly FL-20 flash is to week and would like to know if someone else is using an Ikelite or Sea&Sea with the 5060 with success. Any recommendations and or help is greatly appreciated. Here is the line to the pics I took in Tahiti with the Oly 5060 PT-020 UW housing and the FL-20 flash. Does anyone recommend a specific strobe to use with the Oly PT-020 UW housing, ikelite, sea and sea, etc that is TTL compatiable?

It looks like the FL-20 did an ok job with some of your close-ups (e.g. P9090468). The FL-20 is not a very powerful flash but also keep in mind that most strobes become in-effective at about 4-5ft. To get a TTL setup with the PT-020 you will need a strobe like the Sea and Sea YS-90DX or Inon Z220 with the Matthias TTL convertor. See Mike's site http://www.mike-dive.de, specifcally http://www.mike-dive.de/kameras/olympus/5060/montage.htm. Or you can get an Ikelite housing and get hard-wired TTL with the Ikelite DS-50 or DS-125 strobes.

 

[mburden]

Take a look through this section i had posted, and some of the replies had info on flashes.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t71747-c5060-settings-for-beginner.html

Did you try to use white balance at all or just the flash?

I dont know if you use your cam in low vis. Here in the great lakes region vis is about 20 - 30 feet on a good day
I used white balance and ambiant light to take these pics.
If you have questions on wb lewt me know i have a good collection of info on using it and cam setup.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/holoway@sbcglobal.net/my_photos

I had never tried to adjust the white balance before and was using just the internal and external flash for most of the pics unless I was in super macro mode then it was external flash only. I have heard of using a dive slate at depths to help out when setting the white balance but I have never tried this either. Most of my dives here in Southern California are limited vis and any where from 15-80 ft but regularly 15-20ft. The pic's I took in Tahiti the vis was 150-250+ Ft which made me very confused and I had to reset most of myMode personal settings on the camera.

 

[AndyT]

I have the same camera / housing setup as you do and also the FL 20 , and as
ReyeR says , it's inadequate for anything but macro / close up . I have ordered the mike-dive TTL converter for my Sea & Sea YS 90 Auto , and if you can hang on a
while I can post some photos for you and give you some feedback .

Safe Diving

Andrew

 

[ReyeR]

Andrew, we will be very keen on seeing some results with the Matthias/Michael setup. Please keep us posted.

 

[mburden]

I have the same camera / housing setup as you do and also the FL 20 , and as
ReyeR says , it's inadequate for anything but macro / close up . I have ordered the mike-dive TTL converter for my Sea & Sea YS 90 Auto , and if you can hang on a
while I can post some photos for you and give you some feedback .

Safe Diving

Andrew

I’ll definitely wait to hear back from you on the results of the TTL converter. I really don’t want to get rid for the PT-020 housing since it is a full featured factory housing, but then I really want a true TTL sync cable and strobe so I may have to give up something and go with the ikelite or just do the DS-125 with a slave sensor. This is all so confusing and frustrating at the same time. I know there are more blogs out there about this subject and I’ll be reading them and continue to pull my hair out. Thanks to everyone for this great assistance and the replies to my post.

- Mike

 

[AndyT]

In the meantime check out this thread :

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=70913

Have a look at devilgas 's site - it should give you more insight.

Mike says my TTL converter should be here by the end of next week .

Safe Diving

Andrew

 

[mburden]

In the meantime check out this thread :

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=70913

Have a look at devilgas 's site - it should give you more insight.

Mike says my TTL converter should be here by the end of next week .

Safe Diving

Andrew

Now I have even a better reason to replace the FL-20. I sent back my PFL-01 UW housing for the FL-20 for warranty replacement because the mounting bracket started to crack on the threaded side of the housing. I have about 20 dives on the PFL-01. I can not say that this was not self inflicted due to the diffuser floating above the housing and the seals thought it was a piece of food and had smacked into the housing several times on a couple of dives. I do not know if anyone else has had this happen to them and or if this is just one the week points of the housing that needs to be watched over more carefully. My other solution is to purchase a real strobe, stay / tray / arm and what ever else goes with the package.

This is a link to some recent pic's from a local So. Calif. dive site.
http://photos.yahoo.com/mkeburden

 

[AndyT]

Mike says my converter/cable will be here next week - so hopefully some pics soon .

Andrew