Hi
The first point to make is that as far as I can see, the PT-037 housing is for the Olympus SP-550 and SP-560. The SP-500 is not listed for this housing, and there does not appear to be an Olympus housing for the SP-500. There is an Ikelite housing however (click here to go to ikelite’s site), which may cost a little more than the PT-037 would have, but is a superior housing.
On the assumption that you either have better information on the PT-037 than I do, and it does in fact suit the SP-500, or that you would look at the Ikelite housing for the SP-500, I will try to address your other questions.
Whether the camera and housing alone form a ‘good’ combination depends on a number of factors, which would include:
- how experienced a diver your father is.
- the diving he does, specifically the location, typical water clarity, ambient light level, conditions
- what level of photography knowledge your father has
- how high your father’s underwater photographic expectations are
If you father is a relatively inexperienced diver, I would suggest that just a camera and housing will be more than enough to keep him busy underwater. Strobes and other attachments would be a major ‘task load’ and may compromise his safety underwater. On the other hand, if you father is an experienced diver, or has done underwater photography (or some other underwater task) before then he may well be able to handle the extra distraction of strobes and accessories.
The main limitation of a camera and housing only comes from the need for using artificial light underwater: the deeper you go, the more light is absorbed by the water above, and the darker it gets. Also water absorbs light colours differentially - red is absorbed first, followed by orange, then yellow, and so on. The effect of this is that without supplementary light sources underwater, you don’t get the bright colours that you would on the surface.
Thus, unless you are at shallow depths (<10m) in clear water with good sunlight above, you generally need to use a flash to get good colours in the pictures. If you are in clear water the camera’s own flash can work quite well with close subjects (around 1m away or less). If you are in ‘claggy’ water, the particles in the water reflect the flash light and cause a snowstorm effect called backscatter. Not an attractive effect! The way to prevent backscatter is either don’t use the flash, or use a separate strobe, whose position is such that the reflected backscatter is not ‘seen’ by the camera lens. These separate strobes are generally quite expensive (usually more than the housing), and the task loading problem mentioned above means that I recommend that strobes are left for a future purchase once some u/w photo experience has been gained with a more easily controlled, simpler rig (i.e. without the strobe).
Handles and bases are generally required by those attaching a strobe to the rig. A handle and base can certainly be useful to control and manage a ‘housing only’ rig underwater, especially as the SP-500 is a large-ish camera for a ‘compact’, and so the housing will be moderately bulky.
The thread you refer to pertains to a person who already had an Inon Strobe, and so they were looking for camera and housing options that would work with the strobe. The Inon W37 is a kit containing a fibre-optic cable and attachments to enable the strobe to be triggered by the camera’s own flash. You would only need such a thing if you were using an Inon strobe.
I think, on the whole, your father will find that his camera plus a suitable housing will enable him to take good underwater photos, except in poor viz when too deep for ambient light photography (i.e. without using the flash). Initially, I would say there is no need for a strobe. A handle and base may be a plus, but possibly not a necessity (althought the Ikelite housing has a handle and tray included as standard). You might want to add a Magic filter or a UR-PRO filter if your father will shoot using ambient light alot. These filters re-balance the colours to effectively restore reds, and make the photos look more natural and colourful.(*) Again, its a nice to have, not a necessity though. I think a strobe is not a necessity initially, although you may find your father might request one for a future christmas!
Finally, you need to check up on your info on the PT-037 housing. I’m concerned that it doesn’t seem to be suitable for the SP-500.
Hope that helps!
(*) filters do not in fact restore missing colours, they attenuate the other colours so the small amounts of reds and similar colour is in better balance with the other colours, especially blue.
