Olympus XZ-1 review, with pics (1 Viewer)

[R-BallJunkie]

thank you amazon for shipping to me APO, and quickly. suprised at the mild response from my wife when this arrived, unannounced. i usally get an earfull for $500+ purchases that dont get cleared with written permission 90 days in advance. first off, these pictures are not altered via photoshop, or any other editing software....just shot and reduced for internet loading, and without saying, i have very little camera knowledge with regards to F stops, ISO settings etc. these pictures were taken on auto setting, with mild tweaks i figured out on my own. im sure they will get better. I ordered the kit, came with a 16 gb card, bag, flash, extra battery, tripod etc. im sure they are all fisher price grade, but for me...nice upgrades. i opted for an additional 16 gb card-class 10 for the speed capabilities. the amount of tweak capabilities on this camera is above my know how at this point. its intuitive enough for me to figure out some of on the fly adjustments like brightness adjustment, and color matching. i was able to make changes on the fly, to match what i thought my eye was seeing in the tank. ill dig into the manual a bit more when i get to work. one of the driving factors (aside from good reviews rec'd) for getting this camera was the relatively low price for the underwater camera, since im diving every weekend now. all the controls were intuitive with menu's that actually gives tutorials while your going thru them, good for camera dummies liek me. the low light capabilities are far past any camera ive owned. the clarity with candle level lighting is amazing, though i dont have a pic here demonstrating this. there's a shoe for a flash, plus a pop up flash on the camera body. overall, very happy with the camera. hands down the best camera ive owned....keep in mind, first go around with the camera, so right out of the box, amatuer shots. i hope to have some nice fish shots soon. lucky enough to meet the marine biologist thats collecting the rare Cirrhilabrus johnsoni wrasses and he is taking me out this weekend to catch fish..lucky me. keep in mind most of these corals are indigenous to the marshall islands, which doesnt have a huge export market, so most of these corals arent on the general market.

 

[RR-MAN]

Nice pictures C,

Since you are getting the corals for free it's ok to burn $500 on a camera.

 

[R-BallJunkie]

aah, yes. the trade off is equitable. the last picture is the most interesting coral i have. its a morph...the pink section is growing off the main coral, not two different corals, rather the same coral. its amazing what im finding as i dive different coral heads. this one was at around 70'.....supere excited about fish collecting this weekend.

 

[RR-MAN]

What is your bulb combo? Coral colors are little pale.

 

[R-BallJunkie]

grrr. i have a single 250 DE aquamaxx 14k bulb over the tank.

i didnt want to opt for a 400W MH, as i didnt want to flood the entire room (TV is in the same room...i do miss my mini-mansion at times) and the tank is rimless. ive hinted to the misses that the tank is underlit, and i have been spending countless hours researching LED's, and the ability to focus the light, as to minimize spillage.

trust me, im plotting, scheming and dreaming in the background. if maxspect G3's hit anytime soon, im in!!

 

[RR-MAN]

C, have you tested the ocean water/what is the Alkalinity? I'm just curious. Is it between 7-8 DKH?

 

[R-BallJunkie]

C, have you tested the ocean water/what is the Alkalinity? I'm just curious. Is it between 7-8 DKH?

Funny you asked. im going to test NSW soon. im actually switching to Tropic marin here shortly, whereas NSW is not consistent from week to week, believe it or not. when i get it down a bit more pat, i might start to do blends of 75% artificial salt, 25% NSW. we will see. ill post something next month, when my salt gets in. thanks Dr. Fosters for shipping to me for free, muh ha ha ha.

 

[mwilliams62]

Great pics... Which Tropic Marin did you get and how are you liking it??

 

[R-BallJunkie]

just the regular tropic marin.yes i like it. just getting thru a tank meltdown issue. hooked up my ato off wrong, dumped 15 gallons of kalk water in my tank. totally nuked my SPS ands clams. have to start over. in the states, i would be on suicide watch....but here, oh well, just gotta go collecting again. on topic, here's some shots with the XZ-1 with the underwater housing. i forgot the diffuser for the flash on the first dive. the second dive , the pics turned out better with the diffuser,but i lost it :x , but i havent gotten around to loading the second pics. found some wicked zoa's, will post pics later.

the underwater housing was only $225, which is cheap considering how much these can run. a real bargain when you cost the whole package. i ordered a separate underwater flash, which should make my pics progressively better.