Hi again,

I just purchased a new SP 350. Now the big question is. OLY underwater housing or Ikelite?

Does the OLY have room to add a strobe? Also any suggestion or tips on the use of the sp 350?

The Oly PT 030 housing has a shoe for a stobe or a braket on the bottom for a arm. The housing(oly)is smaller then the Ikelite and the cameras flash can be used with the Oly housing.

My advice for use is get yourself a 2 gig card and practice, pratcice, practice...

I think the shoe on the Oly housing is for accesory attachment. It is not a hot-shoe for connecting to a strobe.

With the Oly housing you would have to use a fiber optic triggered strobe.

With the Ikelite housing, you can connect a strobe via a sync cord. If ist a non-Ikelite strobe you get manual control. If its a newer Ikelite strobe, you can get TTL strobe control.

You can check www.digideep.com for camera/housing compatability and features.

Both housings offer wide angle lenses (which is a key for me).

As far as tips for use, I concur with Ron...practice, practice, practice.

You may want to practice with the camera in the housing so you can get used to the feel of the controls on the housing.

Lastly, the more "automatic" camera settings you can override, the less the camera has to figure out so the shorter the shutter lag.

ISO and white balance are easy ones to set to values that are good for the entire dive.

shooting manual expsore (f-stop and shutter speed) also reduces lag.

I think you’re better off with the original Olympus housing.
Iklite housings are very bulky especially when you start ading an external arm and strobe, which you will need if you want some descent results.
Also consider the extra expense on the syncord, arm and strobe if you go with Iklite.

Second, not all camera functions are available in an Iklite housing, this however depends on the model.

Should you have any water damage, there is a good change Olympus will warrent your camera and housing. This will certainly not happen if you put your Olympus camera in a Iklite housing.

Practice, practice practice sounds a lot like waisting time. You spend so much money on diving, travel and camera gear, why not just a little more on a underwater photo course. You will get results much faster and it saves you disappointment on bad results. Feel free to contact me if you need more help. Tim.

You can use the sp350 with a TTL connection on the olympus housing. I have a friend who has one. I will obtain the name of the shop that set it up for him and get back to you with it.

Thomas

The name of the shop is Reef Photo and Video.

They have a website and a store in Ft Lauderdale.

tel. 877 453 8927

Good luck with your photos!

I'm so glad this question was posted. I too have this camera and have yet to purchase a housing. I have an Ikelite Strobe DS50 with arm and tray. Question. Is the tray compatable with the OLY housing?

most unlikely the ikelite tray will fit oly...the ikelite housing typically has two screw posts that go thru a center slot(if the tray has a single slot or maybe two "semi-long" slots) on the tray for attachment. the oly would have to have similar sized screw heads spaced similarly???

guess i could go look at an ikelite handle and see what i can glean?

update:

the ikelite 9523 single and dual handle trays will take any housing using a standard tripod mount...ikelite housings don't have tripod mounts that i have used but maybe the oly does?

My wife uses this tray with her Olympus housing. She also is using an Ikelite DS50 strobe with it.

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/olytray.html

Thanks Ron, I just found one at Helix along with a new tray. Looks like I have a tray to sell along with my Ikelite housing from previous Nikon.

hi,I use the oly housing and an inon strobe:
bought all of this from Reef Photo in Ft. Lauderdale...great service!
Item Model List Price Qty Sub
Inon D-2000 Deluxe Lighting Package ino.d2k 996.95 916.95 1 916.95
-- Inon D-2000 inod.2000 539.00 0.00 1 0.00
-- ULCS TR-D Digital Tray ulc.tr.d 39.95 0.00 1 0.00
-- ULCS AC-CSF Clamp, New Syle w/ 15° Lateral Movement ulc.ac.csf 29.95 0.00 3 0.00
-- ULCS AD-IN Adapter for Inon Z-series and D-series Strobes ulc.ad.in 24.95 0.00 1 0.00
-- ULCS TR-DHB Padded Handle w/ Ball for Digital Tray ulc.tr.dhb 49.95 0.00 1 0.00
-- Inon Optical D Cable W20 Set for Olympus PT-030 ino.odcw20 89.95 0.00 1 0.00
-- Inon AD Mount Base for Olympus PT-030 ino.admb.pt030 61.95 0.00 1 0.00
-- ULCS DB-03 3" Double Ball Strobe Arm ulc.db.03 29.95 0.00 1 0.00
-- ULCS DB-05 5" Double Ball Arm ulc.db.05 47.95 0.00 1 0.00
Inon UCL-165AD Close-up Lens ino.ucl165ad 135.00 135.00 1 135.00
Inon UFL-165AD Underwater Fisheye Conversion Lens ino.ufl165ad 369.00 369.00 1 369.00
Inon UWL-105 AD Wide Angle Lens ino.uwl.105ad 259.00 259.00 1 259.00
Inon "AD" Bayonet Mount Lens Caddy ino.adlhs 47.95 47.95 1 47.95
Sub-Total $1727.90
Shipping $0.00
Total $1727.90
Please Note:

This quote is based on current product availability as of May 20, 2007.
This quote is is valid no later than Jun 03, 2007
All prices quoted are US Dollars.
If shipping charges are included they are estimates. Actual shipping charges may vary.
All orders are FOB Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Content may include errors or exceptions.

Scott, you are showing pretty nice pics with the rig you show. Good work; Kathy Church is an excellent teacher.

We have the SP-350 with the Ikelite housing and DS-125 strobe. My wife loves this setup, and gets great pictures. I thought about the Olympus housing, but the TTL strobe options are limited unless you do a bulkhead adapter change. Also, over on scubaboard.com (lots of threads over there on OLY vs IKE), several users have reported cracks showing up in the Olympus housings when attaching larger after market strobes. Most responses also indicate better customer support from Ikelite than Olympus if there is ever a housing problem. If you plan on diving deep, the buttons on the Olympus housing are reported to get stiff or stick more often than the Ikelite. I was tempted by the size of the Olympus housing, but the reviews and strobe options convinced me to get the Ikelite.