5050Z Price

[scubadog]

Found a company in Madrid offering the 5050Z and PT-105 housing for 949€ [ around 650 sterling ]
It that about right? or does it seem a little expensive.

[Tim Ingmire]

Looks a little steep nowadays.

Goto www.kelkoo.co.uk and you'll find companies doing the 5050 for about £400.  The housing should cost you no more than £150.

[Jules]

got mine for uk pounds 398.97 for the camera and 135 for the housing from a place in manchester, great service and free delivery about 3 weeks ago.
UK Digital cameras 0845 123 5345 114 mauldeth Road, fallowfield, M14 6SQ.
paul@ukdigitalcameras.co.uk.
The price they have listed for the housing was 139 but I found it cheaper and he matched it.
www.uk-digital-camera.co.uk
Just looked and they have it now for 404 quid but they negotiated on my housing so worth giving them a call. It comes with a 8Mb card and you will probably need a 256Mb whci is about 40 quid and many some extra good batteries.

hope that helps, it's a very nice bit of kit and if you look in trip reports and photgraphy you will see the stuff i took with it last weekend, my first serious play with it and i am well pleased with the results.

Jules

[scubadog]

Thanks for the help guys...I was a press photographer for 10 years, but never taken any shots below the waves. I was intending to stick with film, until I´d viewed the quality of digital shots on YD.

Can anyone recommend the best flash unit for a 5050?

[Narked@50]

Your price is too steep.

Dito underwater cameras of Manchester, they do a pack with a bigger CF card which I went for. Buy extra "O" rings too, you need two.

James  

[Rick Huggins]

<font color='#0000FF'>

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Can anyone recommend the best flash unit for a 5050?

You'll be surprised with the quality of shots that can be taken with the inbuilt flash.

I got mine for about £358 from Dabs, and the casing £135 from UW cameras about 4 months ago.

As Timing said, do a search on Kelkoo

ATB

Rick

[Tim Ingmire]

When it comes to external strobe (cos as Rick has said the internal flash actually gives good performance) you've really got a choice between Inon, Ikelite and Sea &amp; Sea.  Of these Inon and Ikelite seem to be the most popular choices to go with the 5050 / PT015 combo.  

From Ikelite you can go for the DS-50 although the DS-125 is better (in terms of power and colour temp) than the 50 but more expensive.  From Inon you have quite a wide choice from the Z220, Z220s, Z180 and Z180s.  I originally went for the DS-125 but, due to out of stocks, have reverted to the Inon Z220s - I'm still awating delivery so can't personally comment on its performance.

For suppliers of strobes you can get Ikelite stuff from Cameras Underwater or Inon stuff from  Ocean Optics in the UK.  You can also get stuff from the US - Underwater Camera Pros stock both Ike and Inon and gives good impartial advice on both (unlike the UK guys who behave a little more like dealerships - although they do know their stuff).

For even more info try Digital Diver, another forum where there is simply loads of info and people with lots and lots of experience with the 5050 and PT-015 set-up. (Don't you just love that sentance construction?).

I'd love to see some of your photos once you've got the rig given that you're an experienced top-side photographer.  UW is different (stating the bleedin' obvious) but you will have command of the skills necessary for all photographers eg. composition, knowing how cameras work with light etc etc.

[Jules]

I am still using a dive torch instead of a strobe to light from the side so will interested to let you lot buy strobes test them and then tell me which one to get!
Bythe way Steve Walker has just taken delivery of the 5050 and underwater housing too.
The onboard flash is ok for machro stuff as long as there arent too many particles in the water. i decided that i should turn it down a bit but havent done my mymode settings yet.
jules

[scubadog]

Do the underwater strobes allow you to play around with the settings so you can use them to &quot; fill in &quot;. Being used to film, you could change the film ISO on the flash, so it would emit only a little light.

[Tim Ingmire]

The ones I've mentioned above can be operated in fully manual mode so you have full creative control.

They aren't cheap tho cf standard flashes for top-side use you would be paying £700+ for strobe, arms, tray and cables at UK prices. &nbsp;Get the right strobe tho and it will still be in use if you upgrade later with a housed D-SLR.