[RoxnDox]

Jim... Bad news on the loss, but great news on th replacement and pics. Looks like you are having a great time! and enjoying the warm water diving.

Kyteflyer.... good that you are out and about. Love those clouds!

I'm still shooting with the XZ on a regular basis. It's so convenient to carry anywhere.

Well, let's just say that there was a dive incident - purely self-inflicted stupidity, but obviously survived it... - and the replacement of the camera was a financially painful reminder about the proper things to pay attention to when 75 ft under... As to the warm water, yeah it was GREAT - I could really get addicted to it. But since the warm water is far away, and the cold water is right here at home, I'll keep doing a lot more of that than I will warm water!

I agree completely about the convenience factor. I haven't even taken my K100D out more than a couple of times in the last few months. "The best camera is the one you have with you" etc...

Love the last capture there - great expressions on all 3 :-)

Jim

[planedriver]

Hi there,

Went for the Xz-1 a few days ago. Grey skies makes it difficult to enjoy "normal" colors.. but it's great to play with the Art filters:










Thanks for looking

Andras

[kyteflyer]

Its a damned good camera... I keep deciding to sell mine (I want an X10) but can't let it go. I think in the end I will have both.

Lovely set, Andras... particularly like the last one. Your boy?

[planedriver]

Its a damned good camera... I keep deciding to sell mine (I want an X10) but can't let it go. I think in the end I will have both.

Lovely set, Andras... particularly like the last one. Your boy?

Thanks! yes my boy!

Andras

[planedriver]

Xz-1 super macro hand-held Mossie. PP in the Olympus viewer 2.




Thanks for looking

Andras

[einstrigger]

Some photos from the XZ-1 and a trip to Thailand

[RoxnDox]

Nice! Good to see somebody else with dive pics - what housing do you have?

Jim

[einstrigger]

Housing is the Olympus PT-050. I don't have any strobes yet, but hopefully down the road. Underwater shooting is pricey...

[MrPetkus]

@einstrigger - nice pics! I'm intrigued by the "fish spa" - can you explain that to me?

#36

[einstrigger]

Lol...yes the fish spa. So in Thailand, all along the streets of Phuket you find these "fish spa" stands. They're just outdoors, right in public, alongside the busy streets. I'm not sure about the species or type of fish, but the idea is like a "fish pedicure". The fish are supposed to eat the dead skin around your feet while not bothering with living tissue, thus leaving the feet nice and rejuvenated. Or so the idea goes.

I never did it myself, but it's definitely a nice touristy thing to do (amongst others) and the locals make a killing off it. 150 Thai Baht is almost $5 USD. So it comes to about $1/minute. The photo above was taken at night with nothing but the street lights. It's very lively there!

[RoxnDox]

Housing is the Olympus PT-050. I don't have any strobes yet, but hopefully down the road. Underwater shooting is pricey...

Yes it is... Same housing I got. I'd have liked the aluminum Nauticam housing, but then I couldn't have bought the strobe and tray at the time... And since I dive up here in Puget Sound, where 10 feet is considered good visibility :/ lights were pretty much a necessary option. At least for anything beyond a few inches range

You can get the pieces online from B&H or Adorama or other places, but let me pass on a link to the shop where I got my rig. They'd still be online for you, but these guys are strictly an underwater photography shop, that's all they do. And, they have good prices and are willing to talk to you about what you need for what you want to do. They did not try to push me beyond my desires at all. Camera & Video Housings, Strobes, Arms, Trays & More! - Optical Ocean Sales Underwater Photo - 800-359-1295!. I've expanded my rig a bit since the photo I posted of the package from them back in Feb. Now I've got a tray with a grip arm on either side, a focus light on right arm vs the cold shoe, and a Sea&Sea YS-01 strobe on the left arm. Been thinking about adding an Olympus strobe as well, to put on the opposite side and balance out the shadows. Whole rig is on a lanyard I clip to a chest D-ring. Oh, and I added some foam floats on the strobe arms to try and get to neutral buoyancy (camera and housing alone is slightly positive, whole rig is seriously negative w/o floats).

So did you use the Underwater mode, or just auto WB? I tried a couple shots with the UW setting and they pretty well sucked, so went back to auto WB - but then I was trying to go close and get in flash range for most shots. The ones I tried to go wide are also pretty darned blue like yours.

Jim

[einstrigger]

Yeah, I used auto WB as I didn't like the underwater mode and the camera spent most of the time at its widest angle in Av mode. It makes it easy to hand off to another diver for photos. That's actually my wife and I in the photo where she's giving the thumbs up.

And thanks for the info. I've actually perused through Optical Ocean Sales, Backscatter, and Blue Water Photo many a time looking at all their offerings. I just don't go diving enough to justify expanding my kit just yet :-( Thailand was great, but I'm from central California in Sacramento where the closest body of water is a man made freshwater lake. Lol...so good diving for us is 4 hours away in Monterey Bay towards the coast. Depending on the conditions, we can get great viz at 35ft or more, or crummy viz at 8 to 12 feet too. And no shorties there, you're looking at wearing 7mm wetsuits or drysuits if you're going in, but I'm sure that's the case in Washington too.

I would also love to get my hands on the Olympus UFL-1 flash as well. Do you not like the Sea&Sea YS-02? It's just a little more expensive than the Olympus, but the specs look better on paper. Your current kit already sounds awesome and I would love to expand to something similar. In the meantime, I think I would be happy just messing around with a strobe like these guys:

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[RoxnDox]

Yeah, I used auto WB as I didn't like the underwater mode and the camera spent most of the time at its widest angle in Av mode. It makes it easy to hand off to another diver for photos. That's actually my wife and I in the photo where she's giving the thumbs up.

And thanks for the info. I've actually perused through Optical Ocean Sales, Backscatter, and Blue Water Photo many a time looking at all their offerings. I just don't go diving enough to justify expanding my kit just yet :-( Thailand was great, but I'm from central California in Sacramento where the closest body of water is a man made freshwater lake. Lol...so good diving for us is 4 hours away in Monterey Bay towards the coast. Depending on the conditions, we can get great viz at 35ft or more, or crummy viz at 8 to 12 feet too. And no shorties there, you're looking at wearing 7mm wetsuits or drysuits if you're going in, but I'm sure that's the case in Washington too.

I would also love to get my hands on the Olympus UFL-1 flash as well. Do you not like the Sea&Sea YS-02? It's just a little more expensive than the Olympus, but the specs look better on paper. Your current kit already sounds awesome and I would love to expand to something similar. In the meantime, I think I would be happy just messing around with a strobe like these guys:

Thailand looks like it was a lot of fun! The video looks like an underwater photog course, kinda fun too I actually do like the Sea&Sea strobe, the reason I was contemplating hte Oly strobe is because it has the ability to be optically triggered by the onboard flash without having a fiber optic cable... Of course, the the guys at Optical Ocean Sales said it wasn't terribly reliable in murky water, especially if you pull the strobe arm back behind the plane of hte housing at all. So I might end up just getting another S&S strobe and a double-ended fiber optic cable.

Of course, now that my Hawaii trip is done, I have put the camera up for a while, to continue working on making myself a better diver. I'll pick it up later, and just take above-water pics for now.

Jim

[planedriver]

einstrigger-I like your colors very much-esspecially on the first three pictures!








Andras

[RoxnDox]

Andras - NICE capture on the cat! Great detail on the fur, the eyes perfectly in focus, great smooth bokeh... What settings were you using?

Jim