Olympus E-PL10 Underwater Camera & Housing Review

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Olympus E-PL10 Underwater Camera & Housing Review



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Ordered mine, just waiting

 

I very nearly bought this (well, the AOI version, not this rebranded one), but there are a few drawbacks people might want to be aware of.

1. Strobes are triggered by LEDs built into the housing (I think with a hot shoe connector to trigger the LEDs, which are powered by a battery internal to the housing). Not using your camera flash might save some camera battery, but it struck me as too many potential points of failure or timing issues, and if something did fail it would likely need the housing sent back to the manufacturer.

2. The internal battery that powers the LEDs and the moisture detection circuit is a rechargeable LiON battery. This adds yet another thing needing to be periodically charged (on top of camera batteries, strobes, torches, computers, etc). And the housing needs to sit there open while charging. You may not need to charge it often (I don't know how many hours/shots it will last for), but I didn't want the hassle. Also, I enquired with AOI and was told that the LiON battery is not user-replaceable. So if one day it dies, that's another trip back to the manufacturer.

3. Depth rated to 45m. That is ample for most people, but a limitation for me.

All of the above points may be a positive (battery saving LEDs; recharging instead of replacing batteries as the run flat) or at least unimportant to you, and if so then I think this is an awesome combo and definitely amazing BFYB. The camera itself is a great little unit (I had an E-PL5 for many years and for the cost it had so many high-end features). I would highly recommend it if you're fine with the points above, but for me they were a deal breaker.

 

Interesting