PT-020 issues

[rcolman 0]

Has anyone experienced these problems with the Oly 5060 in this housing (two different cameras in the same housing):

 

" at times, my camera acted very goofey uw... the thing wud zoom all the way out, w/o my knowledge, buttons wudn't function well (varied with depth, the deeper the worse the condition), and the flash wudn't fire or wud fire at the wrong time (this was probably user ignorance, since I didn't have the strobe set properly to allow for pre-focus lights, etc.)... I bought an extra battery back then too to make sure I always had a freshly, completely charged one for diving... anyway, all the headaches compelled me to invest, as u know, in the Light & Motion housing, afterwhich, I've not experienced any of those problems... some Oly users have shared with me that the OLY housing does seem to flex enough under water pressure to alter the button functions... dunno if that's what ails you, but suspect it's contributing... am not saying u run out and buy a new housing, but maybe u want to begin thinking about it"

 

Could these be condensation issues?

 

Rick.

[col1964 0]

Ah, so it's not just me then.

 

Just got back from Costa Rica (saw a whale shark - yay!!) which was my new camera's first dip in the water.

 

For the first few dives (including the whale shark) all was well, and I was very impressed.

 

But, then, strange things startyed to happen - menus appearing when I didn't want them, and some functions (such as the rather vital flash on/off and macro) becoming totally unavailable. Even worse, at times, pressing the shutter had no effect either.

 

Dive depths were up to 26 metres, but the problems didn't seem to be depth related - they occured on 12 metre dives too.

 

I spent some time sitting on the bottom looking at things. It's not that the housing buttons were touching camera buttons. On a couple of dives I did have a small amount of condensation but on other dives none was visible.

 

Back on the boat, all was well.

 

I've not spoken to my supplier yet, thought I'd do some research first.

 

Is there a dodgy batch of Olympus housings about - I can't believe this is a general design fault as it makes the camera pretty much unusable .

 

All thoughts appreciated.

[rcolman 0]

Here is progress so far:

 

1) I have started putting THREE silica gel packs in to minimize moisture build-up. They go in blue and come out somehat pinkish, so there is moisture build up and it is being absorbed.

 

2) I notice that the housing notch touching the zoom lever is right up tight against the zoom lever. It would not take much movement to get it to move, and this may be causing the intermittent zoom condition - but why when you change exposure mode.

 

3) I hear conflicting tales of some people NEVER having problems and other's with tales like yours. So, I believe that there IS unit to unit variability - under pressure the housing deforms and some do it incorrectly.

 

4) BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN REMOVING 0-RINGS FOR CLEANING AND WHEN THEY ARE REINSTALLED. I recently did not get the smaller o-ring in the groove correctly, and it poped out upon closure and would have leaked badly.

 

ALWAYS go through the 3-step leak detection process in fresh water before heading off to dive. It has saved my camera at least twice.

 

Rick.

[TomH 0]

I got a PT020 and right out of the box it was bad. Putting camera in housing resulted in camera zooming out without me touching the zoom plus some other related probs. Returned it to Smile Photo for a replacement and they sent me back the same PT020 (serial numbers don't lie...I know who I won't buy from again) Talked to Olympus and they wanted BOTH the camera and the housing. Sent them back. They adjusted the zoom lever on the housing and did the standard cleaning on the camera.

 

Then, the second time I took it underwater; no, wait, I didn't even get it underwater and the camera went nuts. It turned on in display mode and when I switched to P mode it lost focus and would not work under any conditions either in or out of the housing.

The lens would slide out and stick. And when I tried to turn the camera off the lens would stay out and I never got a shutdown sound. Plus alot of other stuff. I talked to Oly tech support 2X. First they said "install the firmware upgrade. That'll fix it." The second time they talked me through a super secret reset button sequence. When that didn't work they said "send it in." When I got home, I procrastinated for a month before I wrote the detailed (4 page) letter describing the problem. And when I was writing the letter I brought the camera out to double check what I was writing and the camera spontaneously started working again.

 

I don't know what caused the problem, but a wild idea is saying altitude (camera broke at sea level, after a month at 7K feet it starts working again) After reading this I am wondering if the problem was PT020 related. Or at least started by the PT020.

 

I am wishing for an IKELITE or light and motion housing. Ikelite even has circuitry that will allow the C5060 TTL to sync with DS-50 and DS-125 strobes. That would solve the underpowered strobe problem I read about in another thread.

[TomH 0]

:oops: clicked submit twice

[TomH 0]

Got my camera back. Only feedback was the packing slip. It said "replace mode dial".

 

I think these guys have hit on what caused my problem.

 

http://www.digitaldiver.net/yabbse/index.p...y;threadid=7388

 

A quote from the thread:

 

"At first, we thought this was an adherent problem with the camera. As it turns out, if the Mode Dial wheel on the PT-020 isn't pulled up when either closing or opening the PT-020 it bends the Mode Dial mechanism on the camera and puts the C-5060 into a multi mode situation and makes it inoperatable. If this happens, invasive surgery is the only solution."

 

Moral of the story: Pull up the mode dial before opeing or closing the PT020.