UK Diving	Tropical	Temperate		Trip info (on its way)

For Sale... good stuff that needs a new home ...for Hire too

Flashtrax XT 80GB card downloader/picturebank/media player - £75 An intriguing little unit which can download cards to its own 80GB hard disk as fast as most PCs and then connect to a PC as an external USB2.0 disk too. This means you can either forget the laptop or use this as a safety backup. It's not wafer thin and delicate - using a laptop drive not a tiny slow disk like an iPod - with a 3.6" flip up LCD screen and a dirty great rechargeable battery which will last for many, many downloads or...
	...Play AND record videos and downloaded films for 7 hours ...Play AND record audio from analogue sources OR its own built in FM radio OR downloaded songs, audiobooks etc for 12 hours ...Play your pictures back and let you copy files back to other cards ...has connections so pictures and video can be played back to a TV or projector and audio can be fed to a TV, hi-fi or headphones
	It has a Compactflash slot  and as well as reading those cards it will digest data from any adaptors which fit too. It comes with a reader for SD/MMS/MS cards and works with those for xD and Smartmedia too. 80GB should be enough for about 40,000 8Megapixel jpegs... but we're upgrading as now that we're being pretentious and using RAW files we can fill it between us if we go away for a couple of weeks. Progress? At least this lot concede they can't get you one! They have more info :-)

	Our  E-330s and matching Olympus PT-E03 60m underwater housing. Surplus to requirements now we use an E-620 and various Pens. We've both enjoyed the E-330 and found it the ideal bridge from compact to SLR photography underwater and on land.  Almost unique in that it has liveview like a compact - not the clunky version that current SLRs do. But autofocus as fast as an SLR how ever you use it. Looking back we've taken some of our very best pictures with this camera and lots of our exhibition prints (up to 30x20") were taken with it. It might seem that an 8 Megapixel camera is a bit old school but good pixels are better than more pixels :-) The E330 was unsurpassed as a land macro and street photography SLR because of its low profile and tilting screen. It produces rich, sharp results in air or water - see our galleries for plenty of evidence and our reviews have lots more detail.
	This kit includes the standard kit lens and matching port which are a good starter although like any SLR you'll need extra lenses for macro or really wide angle work, an external flash is also required (as with all SLRs). We have two wired flash options which will work with the E-330; housed land flashes and via a convertor bulkhead to use Sea and Sea or Inon strobes. We have other ports and lenses too, we can talk about that. Our review:  http://www.1townhouses.co.uk/pelagicpixels/reviews/camerae330.htm
	Olympus E-330 Digital SLR body + 14-45mm lens - £225 Olympus PT-E02 Underwater housing for E-330 - £350 Olympus PPO-E01 Port for 14-45mm lens - £120 It's tricky to list arms and trays for all permutations, but we can talk about that :-) Strobe option 1: Olympus FL-36 Flash - £110 Olympus cable - £45 Olympus PFL-E01 60m housing - £150 Strobe option 2: Nikonos adaptor bulkhead connector - £175 Sea and Sea YS-120 strobe - £200 Sea and Sea strobe cable - £25 Total: Option 1 = £850, Option 2 = £950 Hire rate: £200/week

	After the E-330 we moved onto the E-420 (In fact the housing can work with the E-400, E-410 and E-450 too). It's surplus to requirements now we use an E-620 as well verious Pens. The E-420 has been our workhouse for the last couple of years. It is the lightest and smallest housed dSLR available, by some margin. That's not surprising as the E-400 series are the smallest dSLRs ever made.  It's a very sharp 10 megapixel SLR which gives great colour and epic battery life. Small size is no handicap as this is a great travel companion  - due to lack of bulk and weight - and great camera too. It can use wired or optically triggered strobes and even run Olympus' clever remote, multi-flash TTL system. It has the modern style of Liveview which is quite useful occasionally (but not as good as the systen on the E-330). This housing has been modified to allow it work with the newer E-420 and E-450, though it still works with the E-400 and E-410. As we still have an E-410 that is available as a spare body. What more could you want for a turn key camera system? See our  galleries for evidence of what it can do and read our reviews for more details.
	This selection includes the standard kit lens and matching port which are a good start although you'll need extra lenses for macro or really wide angle work, an external flash is also required (as with all SLRs). We have two wired flash options which will work with the E-420; housed land flashes and via a convertor bulkhead to use Sea and Sea or Inon strobes. We have other ports and lenses too, we can talk about that. Our reviews (E-410 and E-420 underwater) http://www.1townhouses.co.uk/pelagicpixels/reviews/camerae420.htm http://www.1townhouses.co.uk/pelagicpixels/reviews/camerae410.htm The same reviews appear in a slightly different form in UWP magazine
	Olympus E-420 Digital SLR body + 14-42mm lens - £250 Olympus PT-E03 Underwater housing for E-330 - £350 Olympus PPO-E01 Port for 14-45mm lens - £125 It's tricky to list arms and trays for all permutations, but we can talk about that :-) Strobe option 1: Olympus FL-36 Flash - £110 Olympus cable - £45 Olympus PFL-E01 60m housing - £150 Strobe option 2: Nikonos adaptor bulkhead connector - £150 Sea and Sea YS-120 strobe - £200 Sea and Sea strobe cable - £25 Strobe option 3: Sea and Sea YS-120 strobe - £200 The E-420 can trigger this in slave mode - for use in A or M modes only Total: Option 1 = £900, Option 2 = £1000, Option 3 = £850 (advanced) Hire rate: £225/week

	There's nothing quite as good as a real camcorder for shooting general purpose video footage. Compacts aren't very good and SLRs and and Mirrorless cameras are more challenging though the results can be excellent. Here's a nice full HD camcorder for normal people that will shoot 2 hours at its highest quality setting on a 16GB SD card - it comes with a stonking battery that will last for more than 3 hours.
	It'll do little stills too and has a standard 67mm thread for accessory lenses and filters. There aren't many controls on the housing but you don't really need a whole lot - less potential failure points too! We used this for some of the footage shot for the BBC chalk reef documentary, chiefly the animal macro. We used a Pen with ultra wide lens for the scenic shots.
	Canon HF200 Legia AVCHD Camcorder - £275 Canon WV-V1 Underwater housing - £350 (Like the others I won't split, sorry) Hire rate: £175/week or £270/week with video lights

Strobe options	Yet more information
	Olympus PFL-E01 housing + FL-36 flash x2 This is (in standard form) for wired connection to Olympus SLR housings. It will function as a TTL, Auto or Manual strobe and work at any shutter speed. On land the flash will work with any hotshoe equipped Olympus or Panasonic compact, mirrorless or SLR. Unlike any plain underwater strobe it has a zoom head so it can narrow the light beam to suit your lens. If you use a wired Olympus connection it will do it automatically. That's cool just to impress your friends but also makes this flash very efficient for macro shooting where it is unusually powerful for a strobe... the downside is that the recharge time is slow for wide angle where this flash doesn't have the battery capacity or power of big underwater strobes. It is possible to use this housing with the wireless remote version of the flash (the FL-36R) but it takes a bit of fine tuning to make sure the fibres are properly located. The 60m rated housing does make these heavy and they are tall but for macro they are hard to beat... we liked them so much we bought the strobe version of the same flash the UFL-2. That's the reason we're selling. Olympus FL-36 Flash - £110 Olympus FL-36R Flash - £125 Olympus cable - £45 Olympus PFL-E01 60m housing - £150 Olympus PFL-E01 60m housing (modified for fibre) - £175
	Sea and Sea YS-120 Strobe A big fat old strobe that takes 8(!) AA batteries meaning it will run foreverand costs nothing to power. It has an optical slave sensor and a connector for wired connections -  where it can be used TTL or manual. I have cables for these if needed. If triggered optically it is manual only and has full and half power settings. This method does not work with most compacts... It's not fussy or complicated and is as tough as really tough boots. Nikonos adaptor bulkhead connector - £150 Sea and Sea YS-120 strobe - £200 Sea and Sea strobe cable - £25
	Sea and Sea YS-60 TTL/S Strobe A medium sized strobe that takes 4 AA batteries giving it excellent battery life for normal people. They come with a cable as standard, either Nikonos or Sea and Sea - these are Sea and Sea style. We have used these with optically triggered adaptors for compacts or wired bulkhead adaptors with SLRs.  They are excellent value and work out about half the price of a new Inon or YS strobe. These are very simple and reliable once the adaptors are set up and, like the YS-120, is again just as tough as really tough boots. TTL adaptor - £80 Sea and Sea YS-60 strobe - £125
	Subtronic Alpha A honking great top flight strobe! Beautifully made with lots of control, manual settings from 1/64 to full power which is awesomely bright and even - better than the spec suggests. Can be triggered as a slave or by Nikonos wired interface - which can also provide TTL control. The battery pack is big and internal so this comes with its own mains charger. Subtronic Alpha £300

A real digital classic, a great lens and wonderful solid build. Not our original. This one was bought as a back-up when we found 7070's in short supply and we've never used it underwater. For me this was the camera which started our 'serious' photography, razor sharp pictures with real depth. You can get more pixels now but its not possible to get the same combination of pixel, lens and body quality for such a flexible underwater case... well maybe with a 7070 :-)  Ready to use or an ideal as a back up body for a 5060 or 7070 user. Our review for BSAC - http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/photography/testc5060.htm

Amazing quality 67mm screw-on macro lens. A multi element apochromatic(!) lens which allows use of full zoom at super macro (sub 5cm) distances. Not for sale as we have things it will fit again! Camerasunderwater product page - http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/general/lenses/inon_m67.html

Bought in a fit of over enthusiasm, never used as we never found the Nikonos strobe we wanted. Great if you had a Nikonos and want to reuse the strobe with a new digital camera. Can be programmed for various modes and cameras - we found the Sea and Sea fit equivalent to be excellent, it saved our first Raja Ampat trip (photographically speaking) As you can see from the picture our unit fits a metal 5 pin Nikonos plug NOT the black plastic 4 pin plug on the strobe above.

	Any camera nerd will know that the big news is that there's now a type of camera that combines some of the best bits of compacts and SLRs. They use SLR sized sensors to take great pictures but without a mirror that goes clunk they can be much smaller. This is unexpectedly up for grabs as we have the newer models!  Like those it has a popup flash and can run S-TTL, plain slave or RC controlled flashes and strobes. It pretends to be an entry level camera but while you can turn it into a very simple to use pussycat it can also be confirgure to within an inch of its life and makes a lot of SLRs look very, very basic. You can fit any of the micro Four Thirds lenses which makes for a proper grown up baby system. It also shoots 720P HD video, which is nice although it has more of an SLR than camcorder feel so you need to shoot thoughtfully because of the shallow depth of field - its cool honestly :-) This comes with the first version of the kit lens which may not be the fastest but does focus closer, and all the boxes of course.
	The housing is half the size of a regular SLR housing (about 2/3 the size of the E-420 system). It weighs about 1.5kg all up before you add strobes and trays etc. As a 'stop gap'  before shelling out serious money, which works pretty well, you can use a wet macro lens on the outside of the port. It's a really nice little housing to hold and use. Rated to 40m, officially. This is the only Pen housing which will allow you to add an eye level viewfinder inside. It works fine without and we didn't feel the need - you may like the idea more. This includes the standard port which works with the kit lens and the 9-18mm wide angle lens. Contrary to what Olympus say it can be changed quite easily for a dome or macro port. An external flash is also required (as with all SLRs) and the housing has two fibre ports moulded in for you to use. It doesn't have a connetor for wired strobes - it's not fashionable anymore - but you can modify them if you just can't live without :-) Our reviews: On land: olympus-pen-e-pl1-review/ Underwater: olympus-pen-e-pl1-and-pt-ep01/ The underwater one includes quite a good bit on strobes...
	Olympus E-PL1 camera body + 14-42mm kit lens - £250 Olympus PT-EP01 housing - £425 It's tricky to list arms and trays for all permutations, but we can talk about that :-) Strobe option 1: Good if you are confident in Manual mode (which is fairly easy) Sea and Sea YS-120 strobe - £200 The E-PL1 can trigger this in slave mode - for use in A or M modes Strobe option 2: I wouldn't do this! Nikonos adaptor bulkhead connector - £150 Sea and Sea YS-120 strobe - £200 Sea and Sea strobe cable - £25 Strobe option 3: (Would be a bit top heavy) Olympus FL-36R Flash - £125 Olympus PFL-E01 60m housing (modified for fibre) - £175 Strobe option 4: (I need to prove this will work, but it would be a nice set up!) TTL adaptor - £80 Sea and Sea YS-60 strobe - £125 Total: Option 1 = £850, Option 2 = £1000 (advanced), Option 3 = £950, Option 4 = £875 Hire rate: £250/week

The Evolution of the 5060, almost identical physically but with a few refinements and 2 million extra pixels.  Does what the 5060 does and more, maybe a little faster macro and slightly sharper - easily makes A2 prints (those are the largest we've tried) . These were used for most of our show pictures before we went SLR and have had a fault free trip to Raja Ampat before they were retired. Our review for BSAC - http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/photography/testc7070.htm

These kits include the later PT-027 case which has various improvements over the PT-020 which some people (not us) had trouble with. One case has the standard Olympus flash connector and the other has a replacement connector allowing direct use of 4 pin  Sea and Sea YS-series strobes (the original connector is included and easy to refit - we'll do it for you if you don't fancy trying). The  case is notable for having a 67mm threaded port which allows the use of screw-on adaptor lenses so you can cover super-duper-macro and wide angle subjects on the same dive. Our review for BSAC - http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/photography/testc7070.htm

The standard bullet proof divers strobe, simple and able to sync up to 1/1600th with the 5060/7070 when used with a Matthias Heinrichs adaptor. Full TTL exposure in all modes, just the best for super macro! This is an S model with the black plug - the version shown on the right.

A totally manual digital compact or SLR compatible slave strobe. Very small, simple and easy to understand though you have to do some exposure work yourself. The included arm is just simple piece of aluminium which turned out to be just right for use it clear water with a small camera. The picture shows a newer version which has a metal plug on the side for a cable connection. This example is optical slave only.

Canon S70- Sold!

I've left this part here as we haven't done a review of this and someone might it informative.

Award winning Canon S70 Powershot digital camera. We're only got rid of it because after the great flood of 2006 we decided to have camera redundancy built in to our kit and to both use Olympus 7070s. This little camera has given me some of my best shots, which were very successful in the 2005 BSAC Photo competition.  Thus it has great sentimental value and I'll be very sad to part with it.

	It has been looked after by Rob for its entire life so it''s in perfect condiition. It's mint and still includes everything it had in the kit when it was new (April 2005).
The case was bought new for this camera and has been cleaned and greased whenever needed and never leaked. There are no significant surface marks only very slight signs of handling and careful use.
	An ideal camera for the ambitious beginner, has easy to use automatic modes as well as full manual control and everything in between. I have found it especially useful for fast moving subjects such as fish and buddies.
The macro mode was also very good . Focussing down to 5cm and allowing some very nice pictures of pygmy seahorses on our last trip.
	All this could have been yours for a mere £285!  What were you waiting for? (To a good home only : ^ )
It also has this fantastic panorama function... never again will fat relatives hang over the sides of your pictures!