TG-5 for occasional photos - what lighting gear?

[Bruno Genovese]

For starters, although I enjoy a nice photo like the next guy, I am not an avid photographer that would carry the camera in his hands for the whole dive. I think I will usually want to carry my camera clipped on my rig and only take it out occasionally to snap a photo.

The TG-5 and its Olympus housing seem perfect for that purpose: Compact, capable and reasonably priced. And I saw a neoprene pouch to give it extra protection and clip it to me when not in use.

But lighting is necessary, and all of the rigs I saw make it so bulky that I can't imagine a good way to carry it hands-free without banging it against the bottom.

Can anyone make recommendations for a compact lighting rig and pouch or other protection so that I can carry it all clipped to me?

Or is the camera's built-in flash/light sufficient for my purposes? (I doubt it but I might as well ask you pros)

 

[h2sk1]

......snip....

Can anyone make recommendations for a compact lighting rig and pouch or other protection so that I can carry it all clipped to me?
Or is the camera's built-in flash/light sufficient for my purposes? (I doubt it but I might as well ask you pros)

I personally did not find the built-in flash with the diffuser useful. It is better than nothing, but very limited. I suggest 2 options that might meet your needs.

option 1 - the cheapest. Dive with a video light, approximately 1000 lumens. That's small and compact. The reason I suggest a video light is that it provides wide angle lighting. You could also use a dive light that has an adjustable beam. This is cheap because you probably are already diving with a light, and now that light has two purposes. When taking a photo, you hold the light in one hand, lighting your subject, and hold the camera in the other. If you have bigger hands you could hold the camera & light in one hand. I have more success with this than my wife. Alternatively, have your dive partner handle the light.

option 2 - use the 'hot shoe' at the top of the Olympus housing to mount a video light. If you buy something like the light & motion photo 800, and mount that on a ball or locline, you'd have an adjustable light you can turn on/off, and it sits on the camera securely. Unfortunately that means buying a new light. The L&M Photo 800 comes on sale fairly often.

Since progressing through both of these options, we've now settled on using arms & strobes, but it is bulky like you said, but each step wasn't useless. We still use our video light as a basic dive light, and the L&M Photo 800 is our focus light for my M43 setup.

 

[h2sk1]

I should have added that using video lights instead of strobes definitely has its limitations but for macro photos and close-up fish portraits, handheld lights on the TG5 are pretty good! As a bonus, the 'no strobe' setup works well for video, not surprisingly because you are using wide angle lights.

When using the ultra close-up 'microscope' mode on the TG5, any hand-held light provides more than enough lumens to pop the colors on a nudibranch or tiny shrimp.