SP550UZ - no Ikelite housing

[Gilligan]

FYI Ikelite has informed me they will not be making a housing for the Olympus SP550UZ camera.

No reason was given.

I wanted to share this info with those of you that were counting on an Ikelite housing so as to be able to use 67mm wet-mount lenses with this camera.

 

[Wisnu]

And the PT-037 still not available. First, the said end of March, then Mid of April, and now mid of May. Amazon put 4 - 6 week delivery since March 20.

I almost sure the long barrel lense is one of the reason.

 

[Wisnu]

And I will sell my SP-550UZ if until mid of July still not available

 

[maynard.hogg]

FYI Ikelite has informed me they will not be making a housing for the Olympus SP550UZ camera. No reason was given.

Simple economics. It's not a very good choice for underwater photography.

I love it for taking close-ups of birds (http://flickr.com/photos/maynard/475176373/) and flowers (http://flickr.com/photos/maynard/469939901/in/set-618428/), however.

 

[RTRski]

Yeah, the 510 might be a better choice (ditch the extra UZ range).

That said, I've been looking for a 'better' dive camera than my plain old Canon A520 and looking hard at the Olympus, but I'm a bit scared off by all the reviews that it takes 6-8 seconds to save a RAW image. Having a RAW output is one of the things I'd definitely want out of any newer camera and that's lacking in my current one.

I did find a site that claimed they had the Oly housing for the 550 in stock...probably just a bit of web truth fabrication.... ;-)

 

[maynard.hogg]

Yeah, the 510 might be a better choice (ditch the extra UZ range).

I did my first local dives of the season on the 2nd. I sure missed the SP-510's image stabilization and other new features—but, because it was dark, not the extra zoom.

Background: My underwater camera is two years old. I was going to upgrade this season, but I dropped my 10x land-based camera once too often on March 21st and blew my budget on the 510. I'm very happy with its macro and zoom capabilities—ON LAND—but steamed at the way switching to MANUAL FOCUS does not turn off the auto focus. I tried to shot the rising of the full moon only to watch the image DEFOCUS after I pressed the shutter button.

 

[RTRski]

I've also been looking at the Panasonic Lumix FZ8. Similar features to the Oly 550UZ, but reportedly the RAW mode delay is only on the order of 3 vs. 6-8 seconds. Much better reviewed overall at dpreview.com

The downside is I can't find a single underwater housing for it, so far....(sigh)

Frankly I don't care so much about the UZ capability, underwater, although it would be nice to have for land use. I just want a good either compact or DSLR in the 6+ MP range, with white balance override (would be willing to skip that if it had RAW, perhaps, but would seriously prefer both), RAW that doesn't take ages, Aperture-priority auto capabilities, and a reasonably speedy AF with some zone choices, that has a housing to go with it.

Are we asking that much? Focusing on the wrong stuff? I freely admit my personal comfort with task loading means I don't really want to have to do full manual mode shooting or WB adjustments too much on the fly, hence the preference for Aperture priority and a RAW output for post-processing. Yet even the 'for dummies' underwater point-n-clicks skip RAW it seems....

 

[azcaddman]

I had the same issue (no housing) for the camera I wanted (and purchaced) panasonic fz-50 .. great specs, lens, raw etc.. but no housings, dont know why, but nobody makes housings for 99% of the panasonic's out there.

(ended up with canon a640 for u/w, and fz-50 for out of water)

 

[Steve Lawson]

So why don't you think the 550 UZ would be good for U/W photography? Granted, the UZ is not needed U/W, but the lens will go to 28mm for wide angle shots. As for the 510 and 500 models, they don't have the underwater settings, nor does Olympus list a housing for them (but Ikelite does). I would venture to guess that Ikelite uses a standard box for most cameras and the 550 UZ doesn't fit.

A close second to the 550 UZ is the new Stylus 780, which has just about everything the 550 UZ does (including the dual image stabilization), except for the RAW image output. It is also water resistant, so if your housing were to leak a little, your camera shouldn't be toast.

I've been eyeing both for some time and will likely purchase the 550 UZ and the housing, once it's available. The price on e-Bay for the 550 has been about $425.

Steve

 

[azcaddman]

they (ike) made a mid-sized housing, that fit the canon s-3, and at one time the sony dsc-828.. I would have thougth it would be a close fit, or work for the 550, or the fz-50 for that matter, but oh well