Olympus SP-350 questions

[Crisspy Fiver]

Hi All

Im currently looking at buying an Olympus SP-350 with underwater housing. Looks like I can get the camera from Ebay for about £125.00. I have read on some of the old threads that some of you have this set up. Seeing as you have now had the set up for a while can you let me know what you think?

I would like the camera for underwater pics when I go Normandy end of August and for the Red Bull air race the day after I get back. My girlfriend has put me of the camera saying the zoom is not that good, any comments on the zoom would be appreciated thanks?

If there is another camera around now that is also just as good for about the same price then please let me know.

Thanks

Jamie

[triplefin]

Hi Jamie
If you take a look at the digigreen green site I think you may find a lot of info that may be useful for u
Digigreen - UW Photography in Temperate Waters - Site Home

[aquayle]

For underwater - forget the zoom - macro is more important. IMHO the camera is about as good as you can get without going for DSLR. The only short-coming is the time it takes to write RAW files to card.
HTH - Andy

[dave archer]

Yep, forget zoom, you want to be physically as close as possible to the subject underwater.

I love the camera except for the battery life being crap when using NiMH rechargeables. In process of swapping to Lithium CR-V3 as I'm told that solves the issue - if it does then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this setup.

As with all UW cameras, a separate strobe on an arm will improve the results, but can always be added later.

A good thing about Olympus is good interchangeability of such add ons as strobes and wide angle lenses. Also the fact you can fit/take off a lense underwater gives more flexibility then my posh mate with the second mortgage Nikon DSLR setup... (don't it Gareth? )

HTH

Dave.

[Lee B]

The move to the CRV3 does solve all the problems

[onthetrain]

I use mine with a rechargeable CRV3 and have had pretty good life. say 250 shots between charges.


Agree with the others, zoom = waste of time underwater.

Most digi compacts only give 3X optical zoom, at least with the 350 you can add lenses.

Alan

[Crisspy Fiver]

Thanks for the replys so far so the zoom underwater is no use whick I did kinda guess but how is the camera out of water? If im walking around taking some pics I would at least like alittle bit of zoom thats going to work well.

Say Im at the drag strip watching some racing will it be enough to get me some good shots of the cars?

Also can someone explain what the RAW output is please?

Cheers

Jamie

[onthetrain]

its a great camera out of water, but its only a 3 X optical zoom. So without another lens forget about long distance work

[Venus]

I have the SP350 and love it

I keep in on macro the whole time (not super macro) and I have had some amazing results

i have had the same problem with the battery life, so I'm going to get the other rechargables as suggested earlier

Venus

[Scuba1]

Originally Posted by Crisspy Fiver

Thanks for the replys so far so the zoom underwater is no use whick I did kinda guess but how is the camera out of water? If im walking around taking some pics I would at least like alittle bit of zoom thats going to work well.

Say Im at the drag strip watching some racing will it be enough to get me some good shots of the cars?

Also can someone explain what the RAW output is please?

Cheers

Jamie

You can get a tele converter lens for it for things like sports events etc.
In a nutshell RAW stores all the data uncompressed on the memory card of the camera. That way you can change things like white balance exposure etc. after you have the photos on your PC using a compatible editing software. The files are quite large when taking the photo though with an 8 mpixel camera like the S/350 I think they are in the region of about 7mb each so you will need a fair sizestorage card in the camera. It takes a while for the camera to write them on the card as well after you have taken the shot. But it is the dogs dngly bits for under water photos.


HTH

Michael