Olympus TG5

[idriswilliams]

Hi,

I have been trying to use an Olympus TG5 for cave photography. I have used, in the past, flash on the camera covered with filters to activate firefly slaves, on various cameras. However, this one presents a problem. I have always set camera to manual & used guide nos. to set aperture, however, this one I have found after lots of trial & error & blaming flashguns, slaves & batteries, when on manual switches off the flash! Anybody got a work around to overcome this?
Idris Williams

 

[Fulk]

I?ve used a TG5 underground using the same technique, using the ?aperture priority? setting with the focus set to auto; I find that (most of the time!) a caving lamp provides enough light for the auto focus to work. One problem is that the aperture range is very limited, at f/2, f/2.8 or f/8, so I have to juggle with the ISO setting as well . . . but I?ve had some reasonable shots with this technique:

 

[andrewmcleod]

Bear in mind the TG series doesn't have a 'real' aperture adjustment (it is a fixed aperture camera).

 

[Huge]

When I first got my TG-4, I used it with flashes and slaves but decided that it's very much an automatic camera and now tend to use just a couple of the modes and peoples lamps for lighting.

I don't really do 'photo' trips as such as I don't like to hold up trips too much with complex flash set ups or having to unpack and repack gear. I just carry the camera in a pouch, on a loop of string around my neck and tuck it inside my oversuit, out of the way under my arm. Then it's just a case of whipping it out and telling people where to stand and where to point their lights. I find most people have a good idea of what to light up without needing much instruction at all. Just make sure you cave with people who have nice bright lights! 

I mainly use the Hand-Held Starlight mode and sometimes Live Composite but that means having to carry a tripod.

Here's a few of examples taken very quickly using Hand-Held Starlight.

 

[mudman]

Hi,

I have been trying to use an Olympus TG5 for cave photography. I have used, in the past, flash on the camera covered with filters to activate firefly slaves, on various cameras. However, this one presents a problem. I have always set camera to manual & used guide nos. to set aperture, however, this one I have found after lots of trial & error & blaming flashguns, slaves & batteries, when on manual switches off the flash! Anybody got a work around to overcome this?
Idris Williams

You should be able to turn it on again. Press the flash symbol (to the right of OK) and you get a load of flash options at the bottom of the screen and you can select what you want. I think it retains the last setting as the default for when you select Aperture mode again.

 

[mudman]

Bear in mind the TG series doesn't have a 'real' aperture adjustment (it is a fixed aperture camera).

Not quite, it has a diaphragm that provides a 1-stop decrease in aperture but simulates smaller apertures with a 3-stop ND filter. Thus if you are at the wide end, then f2.0, f2.8 and f8.0 are available in aperture priority mode. f2.8 uses the diaphragm and the further three stops to f8.0 uses the ND filter. If you look at the EXIF tags, I think there is one, NDFilter, that indicates if the ND filter was used.

 

[JoshW]

Bear in mind the TG series doesn't have a 'real' aperture adjustment (it is a fixed aperture camera).

Not quite, it has a diaphragm that provides a 1-stop decrease in aperture but simulates smaller apertures with a 3-stop ND filter. Thus if you are at the wide end, then f2.0, f2.8 and f8.0 are available in aperture priority mode. f2.8 uses the diaphragm and the further three stops to f8.0 uses the ND filter. If you look at the EXIF tags, I think there is one, NDFilter, that indicates if the ND filter was used.

An ND filter is frankly much better anyway. cameras with small sensors have no need to close down the aperture at all, not sure why they even bothered with the one stop change?