I just got an SP-350 and PT-030, and have been playing with it the last few days. I haven't used it underwater yet. I researched my purchase on wetpixel and found almost no previous users, and the same issue came up. Fortunately, one owner found a solution not even known to Olympus. Hope this helps "If you go into mode menu, select camera, scroll down to histogram (last item) and select "+-On" the LCD will display at low light (no histogram) and you should see all light levels. You go into menu, mode menu, then select the setup menu. Then arrow down until you run across what appears to be a digital representation of a histogram (its the 4th screen down and the 4th option on that screen). Select this histogram and turn it off. I think Olympus tried to make the screen an active histogram for the novice. Unfortunately when there is low light, the screen is completely black...even with the flash enabled. When you turn the histogram function off, manual mode reverts back to normal." Thank you to CE4Jesus at Wetpixel forums for this and other info he helped me with while choosing this camera.
So far I'm very happy with this camera. If you use it in auto-mode, you get very iffy pictures, but there are a ton of pre-set scene modes including "underwater wide 1" which uses autofocus, "underwater wide 2" with focus fixed at 15 feet, and underwater macro. There are also macro and super macro settings which will allow focus from less than an inch away. The flash level is adustable. The camera will take pictures in raw format and convert them on camera. There is also a program included called Olympus Master that includes raw conversion and editing, but at least on my ancient (Athlon 950) pc, it is painfully slow, as in ten minutes for each edit and no batch editing-each change must be applied separately. I'm looking for a better raw converter program. If you buy this camera, expect to spend a bunch of additional bucks on accessories. It has 25mb internal memory but doesn't come with a card. The xD cards it uses are readily available, but pricey. I would recommend the max.
Currently 1gb, in the future, supposedly up to 4. I bought mine through Fry's outpost for 65 bucks. They list at 115.00. Costco sells a 512 for $59.95. The camera comes with a one use li battery (CR-V3) that has good capacity, but is pricey. You can use two AA's, or AA NimH rechargeables. I haven't tried those, but the nominal capacity is really good. I got a rechargeable CRV-3 and charger/car charger kit from Radio Shack ($59.95, ouch) because I wanted it right away. I've had really good luck with SterlingTek batteries in the past. They sell the battery for $9.95 and the charger for $19.95 on line, but the nominal capacity is quite a bit lower than the Radio-Shack one. I don't know how this translates, but their battery for my Sony had higher than the original and I got two for half the price of one original Sony battery. I'm also looking into filters for underwater use. I've heard good things about the "magic-filter" gel filters and there are also some threaded filters available in the size of the housing port thread. Any suggestions? Hope this helps. I'll post some pics after I go diving with it.
