We have just recently purchased the OLY SP350 with the PT030 housing...I have been told both that we will need a red filter and also that we will not...does anyone that has this camera/housing know? We depart for Bonaire next week and would like to purchase here if necessary.

My advice, skip it. Get close, then closer and use the flash. The filter is used when your subject is out of range of the flash and you have the flash off. It is suppose to help the white balance at depth where there are no reds. It will only help at certain depths/lightings everywhere else it will hurt.

Agreed, skip the filter. It helps with video but is pretty much useless with stills. If you want to color correct the photos when you are taking them, you can add in some red to the auto white balance. Remember the golden rule of UW photography..get close, get closer, get even closer and when you think you are too close you are about right. I would also suggest you forget using any programmed mode and go totally manual. It take a little time to learn but it's really the best way to shoot UW.

Cecil and herman...thanks for the great information, that's just what we were looking for!

depends on the filter...look at the difference in the color between what's under the floating ikelite (URPRO i believe) filter and what is not...



;)

still no substitute for a strong external flash however...

a cutout from one i "nuked"

off topic...but the thread is over anyway;)

there are more subtle gains achieved using a strobe - depth of field seems more pronounced (if those are the right words) as if light has a gradient that creates a highlighting/shading gradient that makes depth more so...

and digital editing...another cutout from a pic i had essentially thrown out - same turtle but a better result;)

whatever,

still playing...another crop-out...from wide angle shot - one of those cute little blennies or whatever is sticking its head out of the coral...applying a photoshop correction to a cropped section can yield results "better" than when applied to the original pic - case for having enough pixels originally (then later - throw out the bad ones (pixels))

adobe's light room is now available for windows (free beta download)

ain't like photoshop - seems to have stuff in it for actually "developing" your photos - after importing them as "digital negatives" ??? ;)

changes pics like i have not seen photoshop do - too early to tell if that is a good thing;)

fyi