The camera I chose originally in 2001 was the Olympus C-3000 ZOOM. It is a three mega pixel camera, at that time rather respectable amount of pixels. Writing 2001, Olympus was one of few brands offering fairly nice priced underwater housings (in Japan).

Recently (2005) my little girl dropped the camera. Following Murphy, the cam dropped right on the lens (you know, with the very delicate mechanism to move it out of the camera when you switch it on and to retract it into the camera like a turtle head in its shell when you switch it off, accompanied by a nice zooming sound). Lenses are not four-year-old-daughter proof.

So I was stuck with a total-loss camera and an underwater housing for which no new camera's were available in store (you know, development goes on). So I bought a second-hand C-4000 ZOOM, the successor of the C-3000 ZOOM, which also fitted the underwater housing.

C-3000Z sample, reduced from 2048x1536 original size. Click to see original

C-4000Z sample, reduced from 2288x1712 original size. Click to see original

Original size cut out C-3000Z

Original size cut out C-3000Z

I chose the Epoque ES-150 DS strobe. It is a small one with a respectable amount of light and a fine price. The light appears to be a bit 'cold'. This is a slave strobe responding to the camera's internal strobe. The slave strobe produces a fixed amount of light. It does not measure the amount light actually needed, like a TTL strobe. The latter measures what is needed Through-The-Lens. The disadvantage of such TTL strobes underwater is that some electrical communication is needed between camera and strobe, through the underwater housing. This results in expensive solutions.

Many digital cameras (and yes, the C-3000Z/C-4000Z too) perform two flashes: the first to measure, the second to illuminate the scene. An external slave strobe should not kick in on the first flash, but on the second one. The ES-150 DS is able to skip the first flash. As you can see on the photographs below, I replaced the diffuser of the internal strobe on the cam housing with a black piece of plastic (a piece of a floppy disk case). In this way the internal strobe is blinded. The internal strobe would otherwise illuminate particles in the water right in front of the lens, giving the snowy effect. Because the slave strobe does not pick up enough light from the internal strobe (it is blinded, the scene is not illuminated), I use an glass fiber light conductor (which does not go through the housing, but is just attached to it on the outside).

The Epoque ES-150 DS is an adjustable strobe. I am used to fix the aperture of the camera and adjust the strobe intensity to the scene. I do this basically on feeling and trial-and-error: adjust the strobe setting until the picture looks right on the display.

One hell of a problem with this strobe is that when closing the tiny battery lid, it is quite easy to move the o-ring out of the socket (some ridge hardly worth the name) and leave it somewhere stuck between the lid and the strobe housing. I got one strobe FUBAR (F##ked Up Beyond Repair). I got the replacement flooded twice already, with salt water. Batteries (NiMH) short-circuit when exposed to salt water and leave one brown sauce inside the strobe. Iron parts of the strobe internals start oxidizing right away. Fortunately, by cleaning and extensive rinsing the inside and internals of the strobe with fresh water and drying it saved it both times.

I bought a wide-angle lens that can be attached in front of the underwater housing. It's an Epoque DCL-20 0.56x. This lens costs a couple of bucks, but for underwater photography you cannot do without, especially in the Dutch murky waters. Using the wide-angle I can get close to the object, reducing the amount of dust and particles between the object and the lens.

A drawback is that the image might get distorted (blurred) in the corners of the photograph. Furthermore, vignetting may occur when zoomed out completely (pieces of the lens are shown in the corners of the photograph). See the photos below. But whatever, this non-professional hobbyist does not complain and is really happy with the lump of glass.

The detail on the right shows the mounting of the strobe. The strobe is fixed on a aluminum tube, made square at one side. Loosening the bolt on the strobe allows the strobe direction to be adjusted.

The aluminum strobe tube slides down a PVC tube which is sawed in. The aluminum strobe tube can be fixed by fastening the winged nut and can be shifted when loosening the nut.

On the photograph on the right the aluminum strobe tube is shifted in the PVC mount from left to right. It can also be shifted in from right to left, putting the strobe further away from the lens.

The PVC strobe tube is mounted on the stand. It can rotate when the winged nut on the stand is loosened. This effectively puts the strobe higher or lower with respect to the lens.

Photograph on the right shows an experimental setup, built previously. The pilot light was placed at the outside, which bothered holding the camera. The strobe could not be rotated up and down. The camera housing was mounted a little bit less elegant (one point). All was improved with the new design described above.

Initially I did not use light conductor. Since the internal flash is blinded, the external slave flash sensed hardly enough light to trigger on. This led to occasional non-triggerings by the slave.