E520 Housing with photos and thoughts

[ce4jesus 1]

;D Just got my underwater housing from Olympus and I'm really liking the design changes. I'll talk a little about each photo.

 

For starters...what a sexy :-* housing. Nice black front to stop any stray light from getting in through the front. Secondly, built in fiber optic connections. It has a nice big shutter button and an ergo grip.

 

Straight to the big feature. Olympus got rid of those undersized clips and replaced it with a rotating latch that clicks into place with a recessed locking switch. This ensures the clam shell housing is closed correctly every time.

 

 

What stands out here is Olympus added plastic caps with big buttons and labelled clearly. Furthermore the buttons are easier to depress. The old PT-E03 housing buttons were a beast to push and so close together it made working it tough even without gloves. I can see someone operating this fairly easy even with gloves on. The only drawback with the easier to push buttons is the flimsy feel. Maybe its just me but the thought of losing the old buttons never crossed my mind because they were very well engineered...even if they were tough to operate. I guess the test of durability will be evaluated over time.

 

 

Its still a clamshell design so the two halves line up well. There seems to be a bit more space inside so I'm hoping its a little more neutral. There's actuall space designed into the housing for the eyecup. The housing is a 2 oring design like the older housing but there's a twist I'll talk about in detail later.

 

 

This is what appears to be an overpressure relieve valve. A nice feature added to the new housing.

 

 

Another big-little addition was a locking clip on the camera base mount. Before it was easy to get the camera misaligned or the base not seated correctly in the housing and there was nothing to tell you that you had it right until it passed the leak test. In the new housing you again have a locking, recessed switch which clicks into place once it is inserted correctly.

 

 

Not too many changes from the top view. You still have the electrical connection. The buttons being easy to depress makes changing your aperture easier in manual mode. I can do it with one hand on the new housing and the old housing took two due to the buttons requiring a lot of pressure.

 

Here's the twist on the oring. In the PT-E03 there were two orings. One was mounted in each half of the shell. They faced each other and simply sealed against the opposite side of the clam shell. In the new housing, the outer oring faces out!! Its recessed in. This is a lot like the orings in a video housing. The 2nd oring does seal against the opposite clam shell as it is closed. This is a big change that I think will put to rest any fears of flooding....or at least the housing induced kind.

 

Finally the part of the housing that goes over the flash has a much better design by making the curves much more subtle.

 

 

Finally the gap at the top of the housing..although slightly larger than the rest of the body (Actually almost hard to detect) its worlds smaller than the crevace which lead to issues with the PT-E03.

 

Overall, I'm excited about the new housing and can't wait to get it wet now. As soon as that happens I'll report back.

[james 0]

One bore sealing o-ring and one face sealing - good design. The LMI Titan had that design and I liked it a lot.

 

James

[diggy 54]

Am seriously co nsidering this housing so thanks for the pics and inputs. Do keep us posted once you use it u/w

 

Cheers,

 

Diggy

[vinny 0]

that solves a mystery for me

the pressure valve , i wondered what it was

[ce4jesus 1]

Vinny,

Yes my thoughts are it is designed for when the camera housing sits in the sun and pressure builds up it has a way to relieve that internal pressure. However, that's just a guess.

One bore sealing o-ring and one face sealing

 

Thanks James...I was at a loss with the technical jargon

[ktwse 0]

Thanks a lot for the excellent report!

 

I'm going to pick it up as soon as the credit card allows it...

[rtrski 20]

Very nice....if reports of a "tweener" camera announcement coming soon are true, and Oly follows with a similar housing for it, I see my upgrade path from my E330 I think. Not that I should be considering an upgrade yet!

 

Does the new housing come with a tray, or is that still after-market? (e.g. Athena or whatnot) And one thing to test out on the 'easy to push buttons' is if they risk depressing on their own on deeper dives. Is the housing rated to 150fsw or 200? (probably in meters....?)

Edited August 23, 2008 by rtrski

[albatross911 0]

Thanks for the report. I've got the E-520 and am considering if I should go with this into the water. Looking forward to your wet report

 

can we have more pictures of the housing with relative size comparison, say next to the body? Thanks in advance.

Edited August 26, 2008 by albatross911

[Phil Rudin 457]

More photos and info. here, http://www.digitaldiver.net/yabbse/index.p...;threadid=24982

 

Phil Rudin

[ce4jesus 1]

Very nice....if reports of a "tweener" camera announcement coming soon are true, and Oly follows with a similar housing for it, I see my upgrade path from my E330 I think. Not that I should be considering an upgrade yet!

 

Does the new housing come with a tray, or is that still after-market? (e.g. Athena or whatnot) And one thing to test out on the 'easy to push buttons' is if they risk depressing on their own on deeper dives. Is the housing rated to 150fsw or 200? (probably in meters....?)

 

Rated to 40M just like the earlier PT-E03

[JERO 0]

HI

 

MY NAME IS JERO AND I AM NEW IN THIS FORUMS

 

I WRITE FROM SPAIN (CANARY ISLAND) AND I DO UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY FORM 2 YEARS AGO

AND NOW I BOUTH THE 520 AND THE HOUSING

AND I DID FOR TEST 2 DIVES JUST WITH THE HOUSING AND I FOUND STRANGE THAT FORM 20 METERS DOWN

THE HOUSING MAKES SAME NOISE LIKE ||CLACK|| AND I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT CAME HAPPENN

I WILL APRECIATE YOUR HELP

and sorry for my inglish i am spanish and i dont know the language

 

 

thank you very much

my email hero_reef@hotmail.com

[regul8r 0]

Okay, with the information I have gotten from the local camera store, the information on the various forums I have decided I will go with the E520 for my first DSLR. Moving from a old Stylus 400. which served me will until I didn't get the UW housing sealed well and it flooded in Bonaire last year.

Phil thanks for the pictures of the housing with the strobe you posted. That was the kind of setup I was wanting to get, and it is nice to see that Oly can provide the entire setup and what appears to be a very reasonable price range.

HOWEVER, wife will not allow me to spend this kind of money unless I get insurance in case it floods. So with that in mind I would like to ask my fellow readers what kind of insurance they have on their equipment and where they got it from?

DAN appears to have some fairly decent insurance with what appears to be a 250.00 deductible. Or maybe it was 100. with DAN. I have thus far looked at 2 different providers.

 

On another note I was reading someplace that their had been a problem with leaking on the PT-E03 housing has this problem been resolved with the E05?

 

Has anyone taken any pictures that have been posted with this setup yet? I have seen above water pictures and they look fantastic, however the ones i have seen didn't provide much in the way of details as to if they were taken on auto or manual adjustments.

Another question I have for everyone is in regards to the noise filter. On the E410 it was noted you can get more detail in your pictures by turning this feature off and setting the sharpness to -2 or so. Does anyone know if the E520 addressed this issue?

[ce4jesus 1]

I'm not sure where you live but I checked with my homeowners insurance and they told me that my system was covered under my homeowners policy. There is also an organization called DEPP...if you buy the olympus housing you'll get a brochure from DEPP with it. I've heard mixed results with them.

 

www.dpreview.com does a good job of analyzing the noise filter. I usually have it set to low with a sharpness of -1

[regul8r 0]

Well I broke down and bought the 520 today. Figured 599.99 with the 14/42 f3.5/5.6 lens was a pretty good price. Another 70. for a 8GB card. Now I am waiting on the battery to get a full charge so I can play with it... ITS TAKING FOREVER!!!!! Well perhaps not forever, but when you have a new toy you want to play with, (Like any 46 year old kid) nothing goes fast enough.

Figure I have a few months to play with the camera and get familiar with it before I start shopping around for the housing and lens ports. Next spring when I go on vacation I should be all set.

 

I think I read about DEPP. I will have to call my insurance agent.. somehow I am not sure they will cover it if I take it 100' down and it floods, but I will definitely check into it. Thanks for the suggestion.