Olympus 5060 with underwater case

[MartinS]

The C5060 is sold out at WarehouseDirect and they will not be getting any more at that price - bu**er!

I was hoping for one of these for Christams, and the price was absolute max, but with them not doing it anymore, can anyone recommend a camera that i can get an underwater housing for which will be almost as good as the C5060?
I've seen the C5060 for £319, but with the buy now pay later £299 price, it just doesn't compare. The wife keeps pointing out cameras saying 'isn't that one any good?' but I don't know, and keep telling her the C5060 comes highly recommended.
Any pointers to something suitable (and maybe slightly cheaper) gratefully appreciated
Regards
Martin

[Tim Ingmire]

Ebay!

[MartinS]

Tim
Only one UK (posted from the US), and after postage, just over £300 - would rather pay the £319 that I've seen it from a UK retailer than risk buying from the US at the same price. There are several around the early £200s but they are Germany only, which is a real shame!
Will keep looking, but if anyone can suggest a camera that'd be a good starter (and has a underwater housing available) I'd be grateful
Regards,
Martin

[Clowny]

Be very careful with the 5060. I have the 5050 and have done well over a 1000 dives with it. Its tooled up with a D180s strobe. The C506o that those around me have used have had untold amounts of problems with. These are guys that use it everyday perhaps 3 dives a day mind you. There seems to be a software glitch that switches it on and off when you don't want it to, does the same whe showing pics and gets quite hot.

The 5050 on the other hand I've never had a problem with and some of them wanted to buy it off me before I headed back to the UK. However, I'm hanging on to a large piece of wood now in case it blows up on the 1001st dive.

Here are some pics from the C5050 with macro lens and D180s...please sign guest book if you don't mind

[Jules]

Join the club Clowny, there are a lot of us on here with the 5050. Perhaps you might like to start a new thread with your tips for 5050 use ... Frogman was asking me for my settings and we would find that useful (having seen your pics you cant pretend you are rather expert!)

Jules

[Lou]

Doesn't the 5050 have the huge advantage of a 1.8 aperture, whereas the 5060 just matches most other digital camera by only going to 2.8?

I had thought that this helped enormously in u/w, dark n gloomy situations?

[Clowny]

The 5050 does go to a 1.8 f stop and does have an advantage in low light..BUT you then have aproblem of a complete loss of depth of field. So you are fairly limited in what you can shoot. The 5060 does have the advantage of a wider angle lens but this in my opinion only really becomes a benefit with strobe use.

I suppose I could start a thread on the 5050. I've done a hell of a lot of dives with it and it does take time to get used to the settings. Ok..top tip...if you shooting without a strobe and using a rred filter shoot in apperture priority. If your shooting with a strobe try F8 with a shutter speed of 200.

That'll do for a start.

[Clowny]

almost started to hijack your thread. If your after a C5060 try these two places...

www.digitaldepot.co.uk
www.warehouseexpress.com

I've bought cameras from them before and they are reliable.Or at leaset they have been for me. BUT...

before you do that can I ask you something? What are you using the camera for and what level do you want to take it to? What kind of water are you going to be shooting in? How often are you going to be using it?

If you can feedback on those I can tip you on cameras/set ups. remember that if you are serious about this the camera is your first building block and you will want to expand. That will effect what camera you will want to buy.

I'll check back or you can PM me and then maybe I can give you more advice if you want it.

[MartinS]

Originally Posted by Clowny

almost started to hijack your thread. If your after a C5060 try these two places...

www.digitaldepot.co.uk
www.warehouseexpress.com

I've bought cameras from them before and they are reliable.Or at leaset they have been for me. BUT...

before you do that can I ask you something? What are you using the camera for and what level do you want to take it to? What kind of water are you going to be shooting in? How often are you going to be using it?

If you can feedback on those I can tip you on cameras/set ups. remember that if you are serious about this the camera is your first building block and you will want to expand. That will effect what camera you will want to buy.

I'll check back or you can PM me and then maybe I can give you more advice if you want it.

Thanks for the response - I have done no underwater photography at all, but love underwater life, and up until a few years ago, had been a keen tropical/marine aquarist since a child. I regularly read threads in this forum to see what others are using/doing with theirs (and admiring the wonderful pictures taken) and have heard many of the users rave about the Oly 5050/5060, so decided that if I was going to do this, then there is no point spending a hundred quid on a cheap 35MM starter camera and case which would frustrate me by having to wait to get the results back, and then why spend 200 or so on a 3MP camera which would not give me a good enough quality (or RAW file-type) to be able to enlarge/play with successfully, or enough options to make photos ready to go without messing about with them in photoshop. I decided that if I'm going to try this, then I might as well go with a camera that is recommended by people who use it, and I'll also have lots of you lot to pester with help/advice when I get stuck (give me five minutes of owning one )
Hope that answers your questions.
By the way - you mention your photos (and guestbook) a few posts up but there is no link - any chance of adding one?
Regards
Martin

[Clowny]

I re read the thread after more input and realized I may have come across a bit to negative about the C5060. I have had pople with a bad time with this camera BUT i did download a firmware update for them from the olympus site and to date the two pople in question haven't come back to me with problems. Perhaps theirs was an earlier model ??

It will suit you well. I can also recommend the D180s strobe set up as well. It links on well to the olympus housing. This is without a doubt a hell of a lot better way to go than the poxy housing and arm you get for the deicated flash system. I am not a fan of this set up at all as you can guess. I also like the control I get with D180s and the fact that you could move it between cameras..also another down factor for the dedicated system.