Olympus C8080 settings? help!

[rich.williams]

ok i have gone for it and bought an Olympus C8080 and housing. all for £570 which seemed like a good deal, but what i want to know is what would be the best setting for my to use underwater ie ISO shutter speed, my old camera i kind of let it go on auto but this seems are far better camera.

[recurve]

Right, there is no such thing as a free lunch in photography. If you gain in one area you will lose in another. So what are our choices?

ASA/ISO (film speed)

GAIN:- If you increase this you will have better low light sensitivity, be able to use a faster shutter speed and/or a smaller apperture.

LOSS:- You will increase 'noise' in a digital picture, it will look more grainy and indistinct. Film users will also get grainier pictures.

SHUTTER SPEED (remember, big numbers, faster shutter, less light)

GAIN:-If you increase shutter speed you can shoot things that are moving without them being blurred. It also makes your photography more tollerant of camera shake.

LOSS:- You have to get the light from somewhere, so with a faster shutter you have to use a larger aperture (hole the light comes through). When you do this you tend to reduce the overall sharpness of the image due to lens limitations. You also limit your 'depth of field'. This is the bit in front and the bit behind your main subject that is in focus. This can be a bit critical with 'macro' (extreme close up work). Alternatively, increase the ISO/ASA film speed (see above).

APPERTURE(hole the light comes through, big number, small hole, less light)

GAIN:- With a small apperture you get a nice deep depth of field (see above) so your picture is more tollerant of slightly dodgy focusing. You also tend to be using the best quality bit of your lens so pictures tend to be shharper.

LOSS:- You've made the hole smaller (less light), the only way you can get the light you need for the picture is to use a slower shutter speed, (This can lead to blurry images from moving subjects or the dreaded 'camera shake') or a faster (higher) ISO/ASA rating (with the previously mentioned noise/grain problem).

Having said all that, if you can use sufficient flash light, you can side step most of these problems.

[Tim B]

Could you let me know what you got and where you got it from? I want to upgrade on what I have (Nikon coolpix with a fantasea housing) and could really do with a strobe- did you get one in your package?

[Cussy]

I've not got an 8080, but I'm on my second Oly. One good bit of advice I was given was to set the EV to -0.7. Digitals tend to over expose as they are optomised for land photography in bright sunlight. I shoot ISO 200, noise reduction on (unless I want to shoot multiple shots). With 8MP you may be able to get away with 400, depends on how big you want to print. Usually shoot using aperature priority. Note that Olympus tends to offer f2.8 all the time in auto, so thats why I shoot A. Read up about white balance and set this at depth, If the 8080 is similar to the 7070, you should be able to store 3 WB settings, so can have a different one for different conditions (depth) etc.

If you have access to a pool or somewhere like Stoney, do one dive photographing the same thing on different settings. Also useful to do this top side. The photos are virtually free, but you'll need a very sympothetic buddy.

Lastly, take a look at digigreen if you are shooting in green water (http://digigreen.net/digigreen/index.php). Plenty of advice there.
Rob

[awalker]

Is that package with the Olympus PT-023 housing?

Recurve and Cussy give good advice. But one of the problems I have found is knowing enough about a camera to use the right settings in the right situation.

A lot of it will be trial and error, but that means you just need to lots of diving to get it right.

Thats how I am working with mine, although now I have an Ikilite housing I have to learn all the controls again!

[Cussy]

awalker's right, question depends on conditions. The settings I stated were for typical UK conditions and seemed to produce pretty good results even in Stoney.

[recurve]

Originally Posted by awalker

Is that package with the Olympus PT-023 housing?

Recurve and Cussy give good advice. But one of the problems I have found is knowing enough about a camera to use the right settings in the right situation.

A lot of it will be trial and error, but that means you just need to lots of diving to get it right.

Thats how I am working with mine, although now I have an Ikilite housing I have to learn all the controls again!

And the beauty of digital is that, unlike film, trial and error is free. Check 'em on the computer and bin anything that is suspect. Only keep what you would be proud to show others (although I will add the caveat that if you only get a bad shot of something rare, it's not a bad plan to keep it).

It is good practice to take 3 pictures of a subject, one as the camera meter says it should be, one overexposed and one underexposed (bracketing). This increases the chances of getting one right, and allows you to draw some conclusions about likely best settings in the future. How you persuade your subject to stay still that long is another thread completely.

[ding]

Originally Posted by recurve

And the beauty of digital is that, unlike film, trial and error is free. Check 'em on the computer and bin anything that is suspect. Only keep what you would be proud to show others (although I will add the caveat that if you only get a bad shot of something rare, it's not a bad plan to keep it).

It is good practice to take 3 pictures of a subject, one as the camera meter says it should be, one overexposed and one underexposed (bracketing). This increases the chances of getting one right, and allows you to draw some conclusions about likely best settings in the future. How you persuade your subject to stay still that long is another thread completely.

Try http://www.splashdowndivers.com/
http://camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_sti.../ike_8080.html
http://camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_sti...pt023test.html
Hope this helps