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Everything Else Bonaire: Underwater Camera
Bonaire Talk: Everything Else Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999 - 2004: Archives - 2004-02-26 to 2004-08-31: Underwater Camera
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (BonaireTalker - Post #75) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 12:52 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi all,

I am in the market for a new underwater camera and need some advice if possible. scuba.com has an Olympus C5050 digital camera for $579.95 and they give you a free Underwater Housing. My questions:

1. Has anyone used this camera - especially for taking pictures while snorkeling (I don't dive)?
2. Did it take good pictures?
3. How long is the delay when you press the shutter release?
4. What kind of picture storage does it use and how many pictures can you take before having to change storage media?
5. Is this a good price?
6. Any other cameras you would recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By joe brannan (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #322) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 1:25 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Belinda.....take a look at http://www.digideep.com/. It's about the best website for underwater camera stuff that I've found. Not knowing much about the C5050, i just quick looked and that sounds a bit high (digideep shows a much lower price for the camera, so maybe the housing really isn't free). I'm thinking that many of the olympus housing are 30 meter rated, which isn't a really bad thing, but you always need to remember that if your going to be doing more than 30 meter dives.
Duh, I just reread your post and see that you're a snorkler not a diver, so disregard the previous...who knows you might end up a diver though.
As far as recommendations, I've had extremely good luck with Sony DSC-P5 (out of date.....now it's the DSC-P9 which is in roughly the same price range and the housings are rated at 40 meters.
Drop me an email if you have any further questions.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #307) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 1:42 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Belinda,

Go over to http://www.scubaboard.com/index.php and do a search on C5050 in the photography section. You will find out more on the 5050 than you ever wanted to know. This same offer is being discussed over there. The general opion is that's it's a refurbished camera, not new. There is nothing wrong with a refurb but it does drop the value of the camera to around $450( New around $600). The housing is in the $160 range. It may not be a bad deal if you understand what you are getting. As for the camera itself, I have one but I have not had a chance to get it UW but from the results I have seen on the Scuba Board it does a great job UW. As for storage, it uses Smart Media, XD cards and Compact flash. How many pictures you get depends greatly on the quality you want. For example, on my 64mb card, I can get anywhere from 4 pictures to over 1000 depending on the quality I set the camera to. From what I have read, it looks like around 25 per 32mb of memory is a good number for good quality pictures if the print size is kept to around 8x10. Jake has some pictures on this board he took with one, do a search for them.


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (BonaireTalker - Post #76) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 1:58 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Joe and Herman,

Thanks to you both SO VERY MUCH for the information. I will be spending a great deal of time on all the sites mentioned to make sure I am not disappointed with the camera I buy. $500+ is a large enough investment for me that I would hate to regret my decision so I will be sure to research it fully before making any final choices. These web sites are awesome - thanks again for your quick responses. You are the greatest!!!!!

I'll try to finish my trip report between research sessions and get it posted :-)

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DARLENE ELLIS (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1003) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 2:19 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

We use the sony P8 for snorkeling and it takes great pictures. It has a bit of a delay but I do fine with it. It is nice and small and compact.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #308) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 5:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Oops, I missed Secure Digital media as well. Another huge benefit of the 5050 over some other (C5060 for example)cameras is that it uses standard AA size batteries. It comes with NiMh type rechargable and that's what you should get as spares but the key issue is that the camera does not use some expensive or hard to find custom battery. AA's will be around for a long time and are easy to find. It's a real bummer to have a perfectly good camera and can't find a replacement battery for it. This is esp true on the day before a big trip.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anthony Cooper (BonaireTalker - Post #41) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 6:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Belinda - Hate to bust a bubble, but if you go back to scuba.com and try to "checkout" with camera and housing, I think you will find that the camera AND housing is about $830...there IS no free lunch (or housing)...the ad is awkwardly worded, indeed. Nevertheless, while I have not shot with the 5050, I have been shooting with an Olympus housed 3040 for a couple years and think quite highly of it. Many of the folks who post regularly on wetpixel.com, scubadiving.com and other sites will speak very well of the 5050, especially for non-professional use. Olympus has been on the digital cutting edge since day 1 and their "in-house" housings are a reasonable buy when you compare them to housings like the Tetra and others which are more substantial, but which run $1000 +. There's lots of info out there and the hunt is fun...but if you end up with the Olympus as your choice, check www.pricescan.com for prices (you should be able to do the 5050 for under $500 including shipping) and the housing is pretty firm at about $260.

By the way, the 5050 is also an excellent above-water choice and would put you in excellent shape to "cover the world".

There are, of course, many other options out there, quite a few for less bucks, too, but the Olympus is a good bet.

Good luck, have fun and dsao (er...ssao?)

Tony Cooper

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cecil Berry (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3244) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 6:55 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

This is driving me crazy, I swear I saw a review of a new camera that was waterproof enough for snorkeling. Now I can't find it, I checked Sonys and Olympus and neither of their new cameras is anything more than splash proof.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linnea Wijkhof-Wimberly (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #630) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 9:23 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Check out www.diversdiscount.com and click on 'Cameras' and then on the kind of camera you are interested in.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anthony Cooper (BonaireTalker - Post #42) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 10:04 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi, Linnea - Hate to do this again, but DiversDiscount.com and Scuba.com are the same outfit...and the Oly 5050 and housing are still $840...maybe we can start a revolution and get them to drop their price?

Tony Cooper

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Susanf (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #702) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 11:33 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

B&H Photo (www.bhphotovideo.com) has the housing (PT-015) for 160.00. They used to have the 5050 (we got it for $549 from them), but apparently not any more.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anthony Cooper (BonaireTalker - Post #43) on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 11:56 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Belinda - One more suggestion...go to wetpixel.com, click on "Forums" on the banner at the top of the page, then go to "Consumer digicams". About 3 posts down you will find a thread with the question "What camera should I buy". There is probably as much info there to help you out with a camera/housing selection as there is info on Bonaire on this incredible site. If you drill down a bit you can't help but find all the info you're looking for.

Good luck, again.

Tony Cooper

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By seb schulherr (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1439) on Friday, March 5, 2004 - 6:46 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

SusanF, B&H they may show they have th P015, but a co worker could not get one from them last Wednesday.
I've had good luck with OceanBrite, they have a good website and prices. Belinda, I strongly suggest with your housing you get an extra o-ring or two.

(Message edited by seb on March 5, 2004)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (BonaireTalker - Post #77) on Friday, March 5, 2004 - 9:52 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Anthony,

The housing WAS free - it was a special email offer to get both for $589. I called on it to verify and the camera was new, not a refurb. However, they sold the last one a little while before I called. I have checked around online and have found the housing for $155 and the camera for $450 so if I order them separate I'll still get about the same deal.

I've done some research and I think I'm gonna go with this one. Thanks to everyone for their help - it is GREATLY appreciated!!!

I'll definitely order the spares Seb!!!

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anthony Cooper (BonaireTalker - Post #44) on Friday, March 5, 2004 - 6:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Belinda - It sounds as though you ended up with a great camera at a great price. I'm sure you'll find the 5050 very servicable and with just a little care the PT-015 housing should do equally well. Enjoy...your pix will be the envy of the block...to say nothing of the great time you'll have taking them. One of the real beauties of digital is the ability to "shot everything that moves" (...or doesn't as the case may be) and simply delete the shots that don't satisfy your "aesthetic sensibilities".

Happy snorkling!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (BonaireTalker - Post #79) on Friday, March 5, 2004 - 6:48 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Anthony,

Thanks so much for your nice sentiments! It really prevents buyers remorse which I am very prone to in situations such as these. I got an email that my camera has already shipped so I am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

I ordered two extra o-rings and an extra tube of silicon grease from OceanBrite so I think I have everything I need for now.

Your comment about digital is precisely why I decided to go that direction - with 24 or 36 pictures only I'm always saving some for that "once in a lifetime" photo and there are lots of things that I want to take pictures of that I don't. So this will be heaven for me. I just need LOTS of practice with the camera before I take my next trip to Bonaire so that hopefully I can get some pictures I won't be embarrassed to post here.

Thanks once again to everyone for their responses!

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #311) on Friday, March 5, 2004 - 10:32 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Belinda,

If you have a "Best Buys" store in your area, you might want to drop by and see if they have any Smart Media cards. They were selling them out around here a few weeks ago for a cheap price. 128mb were $25 and 64mb were $15. They were on a discount rack so you may have to look around some. The 5050 comes with one 32mb XD card so you will want some more memory. You can use a compact flash AND a Smart Media (or XD) in the camera at the same time so having 2 different types of media is helpful.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Daniel L Crawford (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 1:08 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

The C5050 is a very popular camera with some of the photo folks that hang out on the Rodales Scubadiving dot com bulletin board at:
http://dive.scubadiving.com/talk/list.php?f=1

You might want to read some of the reviews there by search for posts on that camera.

www.digitaldive.net is also a good photography resource for divers.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (BonaireTalker - Post #81) on Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 10:48 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Herman,

We do indeed have a "Best Buys" store about an hour from us. I'll be in that town all next week (I work there) so I'll definitely check it out on my lunch hour. Thanks bunches for the heads up!! And I did not realize that you could use 2 different types of media at the same time - that is a great tip because otherwise I probably would have stuck to one type of media out of familiarity.

Daniel,

Thanks for the links - I'm really excited about it! It shipped on Friday so I should receive it early next week.

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (BonaireTalker - Post #82) on Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 10:52 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

To everyone,

Just want to say a BIG THANKS to everyone for their posts in response to my question. You all have been a great source of information and it is greatly appreciated. If any new information arises please feel free to keep it coming. I have each response emailed to me so I read each and every one. I love this place!!

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By seb schulherr (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1445) on Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 12:00 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Belinda, I'm surprised Oceanbrite didn't manage to sell you an orange filter you can screw on the font of the housing, you must have ordered on the web. Not a bad thing to have in your pocket, he convinced me when I phoned to get one, and I've been glad I did. I also ended up with a 2x lens I can also add on the front of the housing. I'm still avoiding getting a strobe, but I have been known to put a little flashlight on things at night for a shot.
My first trip with my 4040 I took 1600 pictures, and I only had one 128 MB card per dive.
I use XP now to import all my photos, it's easier to name them all at once that way.
One of my co-workers went to B&H photo here in NYC for the same setup, he walked out $1300.00 poorer by time they got through with him.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Daniel L Crawford (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Sunday, March 7, 2004 - 3:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

OOPS.... in my previous post I referenced www.digitaldive.net

The correct URL is http://www.digitaldiver.net

 


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