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Bonaire Photography & Videography: Anyone use the Olympus Stylus 770?
Bonaire Talk: Bonaire Photography & Videography: Archives: Archives 2006- 2007: Archives 2006-08-01 to 2007-12-31: Anyone use the Olympus Stylus 770?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Parmley (BonaireTalker - Post #25) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 10:16 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

This is the point and shoot camera that can be used to 33 feet without a housing. It's about $370. I'm a snorkeler and am currently using a cheapy film camera. I took 6 rolls of film in yesterday and I know that at least half of them will be junk. So I'd love to get a digital but only have the opportunity to snorkel once or twice a year and don't want to spend a ton of $$. Any thoughts on this camera?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cecil (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5766) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 12:32 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jennifer, I have looked at the specs on this camera in the past and could find no faults. It should be a great snorkel camera.

My only potential concern is the brightness of the LCD. One of the biggest problems snorkeling is the sun brightness, it makes seeing the LCD all but impossible. Out of the water I use the viewfinder in bright light, this is not possible UW (viewfinder is blocked). Now this camera does not have a viewfinder which means you must frame with the LCD even on land. Olympus claims to have fixed this issue.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #11) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 4:57 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Just used the Olympus Stylus 770 on Bonaire in July. It worked very well. It has 3 presettings to use under water, and you can do your own settings, if you want. Only 2 downsides:

1. The LCD under water is only really useful about 10% of the time. Other times you might see your subject, or the screen may not show anything visible. The solution is to take multiple shots, maybe at different zoom (zoom level is very visible). Aside from this issue the camera was very good.

2. The camera does not float. Be sure you don't drop it where it can't be retrieved.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Parmley (BonaireTalker - Post #29) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 8:45 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for the info Tom. Was the LCD also difficult to see above water in the sun? I agree with you about snorkeling. I always think about get a dive certification but just love snorkeling so much...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #13) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 9:00 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

The LCD was no problem at all above water. We took pics in sun, shade, even at night in dim light.

There is ONLY the LCD, no viewfinder for you to look through by eye. This didn't bother me at all, but some people find it annoying.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Parmley (BonaireTalker - Post #30) on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - 8:48 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom would you mind posting just a couple of pics underwater you took with the camera? Thanks for the help
Jennifer

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #14) on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - 10:31 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Can someone advise me the best way to post representative pictures? If I understand correctly, to post a picture in a message, a picture file needs to be edited down to less than 50 KB. All the pic files that I took are around 300 KB or more, so editing them down will change the picture so that it is no longer as representative.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cecil (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5788) on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - 4:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom, I don't know how to tell you this, but just looking at the pictures is not representative (by your definition). The pictures I take are 3072 pixels wide and my monitor is 1280 pixels, so there's some serious scaling going on just looking at them.

Anyway go into your favorite editing software and reduce them down to 640 wide and save with a new name. Check the files size and make sure they are under 50k, if not reduce further.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Parmley (BonaireTalker - Post #32) on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - 6:22 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom don't worry about it if it's a pain. I'll just take your word for it. :-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #16) on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 2:33 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

OK, thanks Cecil, for clarifying the process. I'll use multiple posts.

Here are a range of lighting and distance. Some have been cropped.
1
2
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #17) on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 2:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

more pics
11
12
13
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #18) on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 2:47 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

last ones.

20
21
22
23
24
25
26

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jennifer Parmley (BonaireTalker - Post #33) on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 9:29 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great Pics Tom thanks so much for posting. A million times better than the ones I took

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #6019) on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 7:32 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks, Tom! That was a lot of fun snorkeling with you...nice shots! cb

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By William Gates (BonaireTalker - Post #86) on Monday, August 6, 2007 - 6:13 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

ID Please:

Nice shots Tom!

Could one of you experienced BTers kindly ID the following of Toms pictures posted above?
1, 6, 7 [____ sponge?], 11 [the Coral?], 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25. Thanks for your help.

Oh, the numbers are those seen when the cursor is placed over the pictures.

Thanks for your help.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cecil (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5804) on Monday, August 6, 2007 - 9:06 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great pictures Tom.

All from memory (and a weak one at that)

#1 Orange Cup Coral
#6, White Spotted Filefish
#7, ?
#11, ?
#13, Blue Chromis
#15, Four Eyed Butterfly Fish (?)
#16, Not without a book
#18 Juvenile Can't Remember fish
#19 Sharp Tailed Eel
#20 Gar Fish (?)
#21 Scad maybe
#24 Yellow Tailed Goat Fish
#25 Sargent Major Damsel Fish

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Whitney (BonaireTalker - Post #83) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 11:29 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom
Very nice pictures! My wife and I also snorkel and are looking for a new camera. Did you use manual settings for your pictures or did you use auto settings?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #22) on Sunday, August 12, 2007 - 2:05 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom-
Yes, I believe that there are 4 auto settings designed for underwater photos. One or two of these auto settings seemed to work the best. It may also be possible to store a favorite manual setting, but we didn't try.

-Tom

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Eiceman (BonaireTalker - Post #27) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 9:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom T.

Hi, I'll be in Boniare next week and was thrilled to see your pics. I just purchased an Olympus 770 and have been experimenting with it in the pool with colored objects. Referring to your comment "one or two of these auto settings seemed to work the best" I understand what you are saying. The macro setting seems to be the best all-around but I was wondering which auto setting you used for fish movement? Also, the movie mode seemed to work great and had great color - did you do any video?

Thanks, Bob

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Eiceman (BonaireTalker - Post #28) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 9:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tom T.
I forgot to ask how you applied your flash options. Auto, fill, none, ??

Thanks, Bob

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Tarnowski (BonaireTalker - Post #23) on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 2:55 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Bob-
I believe the Olympus 770 has 4 underwater settings for still shots:
Snapshot for pics of people, e.g., at the beach
Underwater 1, more for underwater scenes
Underwater 2, more for scenes with some motion (e.g., swimming fish)
Macro (I believe more for very close shots)

We used Underwater 1 and 2.

We did not try the video at all.

For flash, we mostly used Auto. With Bonaire's bright light, it did not activate very often. occasionally we used the "flash on" setting to ensure that the flash would activate for something that was under a ledge, etc. The flash setting was relatively to view on the LCD screen under water, as was the W (wide) vs T (tight) setting.

This was literally the first underwater use of the camera for either of us, so we had no previous experimentation time, and once something seemed to work we tended to keep with it.

The color was good, but some of the pics were edited with Microsoft Digital Image Standard 2006 Editor (Touchup menu). I found that Touchup editing could not make a poor picture good, but could enhance a good pic. Some pics were cropped, which is why they aren't all the same size and shape. All were reduced in size (resolution) to meet the 50 kb limit for posting here.

BTW, it was also good for just general pics. Only thing we tried that didn't work was a pic of the starry night sky near the salt pier. Probably needed a tripod and longer exposure times.

I'd be very interested in your experience with the settings, especially after taking pics on Bonaire. Post a report here, or in the Trip Reports section!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Eiceman (BonaireTalker - Post #29) on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 8:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Tom,

Will be on island Wednesday and hope to put your tips to good use. Was at the pool again and fooled around with the UW Macro setting. Pretty neat for closeups. Also found the LED Illuminator. Very interesting feature - might be helpful for those "crevice" shots. Will report back. Thanks Again, Bob

 


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