HateCheese

<HR style="COLOR: #efefef" SIZE=1> <DIV id=post_message_4621920>I picked up an Olympus Tough 8000 camera a few weeks ago, and just got the Olympus housing to go along with it. Here are some quick impressions and a few links to video I have posted.

Not being a camera person (always wreck digital cameras taking them offshore, and never have them long enough to take many pics...) I went w/ the Oly because of the waterproof to 33', shockproof, etc qualities above everything else. I shouldn't be able to break this one....

The camera is small, compact, and comparable in size to a pack of cigarettes. Because you can drop it from 6 feet, it is a tad on the heavy side - seems like pretty solid construction to me.

Immediately took the camera (no housing) to the pool. Easily was amazed by the video quality and was overjoyed that I hadn't wrecked another camera by chucking it in the pool and playing w/ it underwater.

Have taken a few above water photos, and have been very impressed by the quality you can get being a beginner. Macro settings worked great, and was able to capture some dragonflys and see the hair on their legs...

Got the underwater housing 2 weeks ago and have taken it out on two dive trips since. First trip w/ camera was a low viz (~30ft) dive where i traded the speargun for the camera, and followed FelixH around as he filled the stringer. Playback afterwards confirmed that on this 90ft dive with less than stellar vis and not carrying any light source that you could actually see better on the video than you did when you were on the dive! Switched to take a few photos - did not come out well using it's flash because it was all backscatter from the particulates in the water. I need to play around w/ this more in the pool before the next time out.

On Thursday 8/6/09 I took it to the Oriskany. Yes, the housing works down to 132 feet, cause I took it to that depth and it didn't flood. sweet. My luck at the O is always way worse vis than it should be - after hearing reports of 80-100ft 2 days earlier I get there and it is ballpark 35ft. Still, recording w/ the standard underwater video setting resulted in seeing futher/clearer in the video than when actually on the dive.

Still figuring out posting video to youtube, so these are SHORT clips. Chose to not degrade the original quality (640X480 and 30fps), and instead chopped up video to post. Quality when posted is definitely worse, but you can get an idea. Anyway, here are the links:

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JoeZ

Sounds like a heckuva camera.

How much did it run you if you do't mind me asking? Housing and all.

HateCheese

Actually was pretty cheap considering. Found the camera on amazon for about 300. After buying my last digital camera about 2 years ago and taking it offshore - only to have it ruined by water in a ziplock, in a waterproof bag sitting in the cabin.... I figured a little more for a camera that can get wet and even go down 33ftwithout a housing would be the way to go. No excuses for not taking it to the beach now.

Housing was only 200 - it is easy to spend 1K on an underwater housing so I didn't figure that was too bad. Went with the olympus housing that they make for this camera.Got aXD 2gig video card and a 4gig SD card along with a few other toys, but those didn't reallybump up the price too bad.

fishFEEDER9697

cool post. thanks.

true-king

Sounds like a great camera. I need to look into one.

Sam Roberts

I bought the olympus sylus 550wp (water proof) which only goes down 10 ft (had it down 25 free diving) awesome camera. Not being a diver it is awesome for me, I can get it wet, I can jump in the water to get a cool pic of some fish ect.

Sam's Club has them for 159$ (8 megapixels) and Best Buy has mine for 179 (ten mega pixels)

YALL NEED TO GO GET YOU ONE!

by the way a friend of mine has the same one you have and accidently sumerged it in fresh water to clean it and left the USB port open! It didn't work at first he put it on his roof for 6 hours and hasn't had a problem since! GREAT CAMERA!

HateCheese

Yeah, they do seem to be pretty indestructible. Cool that he was able to dry it out and get it back and running, and lucky it wasn't salt water he dunked it in without closing everything up. Just the camera without the housing has to be about the best setup for taking a camera out when you go fishing / boating / etc. I should end up w/ a few more posts that have pictures now.

Evensplit

Great report - Thanks!!!

UnderWater Angler

I've got the 1030SW, yea they discontinued it right after I got it:banghead:banghead, but check out the ikelite housings. I just got one for mine from Ron's Camera off Ninth Ave by PJC....same price as the Olympus.



I believe a few of the shops in P'cola are dealers for ikelite also, all of them actually. The 8000 is pretty new and may not have a housing yet...you can check the ikelite website and see.



Congrats on the Camera!

DreamWeaver21

Thanks for the post. My digital camera broke. It has been solid for years though so I can't complain. I looked at this camera online but it got mixed reviews. The underwater video looks awesome to me though. I think I might get one.