By nature, choosing a camera is a compromise! My decision to buy the Olympus C8080WZ was both easy and difficult.

I really wanted a dSLR but did not want to carry all the lenses and ports when travelling; the decision was therefore to get the best compact digital that still offered some dSLR functionality - at the time, only the C8080WZ was anywhere close in my opinion.

Early on, my decision was to house my next camera in an Ikelite housing and also to use the Ikelite strobe system. The camera and strobe was required to "talk" TTL - once more, the C8080WZ came out number one.

I really also wanted a wide lens with dome port and although I would have preferred a wider lens to what Olympus offered for the C8080WZ, my decision was finally made.

My camera rig now has more than 10.000 shots in the bag and by now I would say I know the camera rig fairly well. It has its faults but no other than I had anticipated. Over time, I have learned to "adjust" to the "thinking" of the cameras "brains" and once I got there, the photos started to get fairly decent.

Like any camera (at least non-dSLR's) you need to understand how the auto focus works and the downsides - once you got that, you almost always get it your way. Before I decided for the C8080WZ, I had read everything about the C8080WZ I could get my hands on, and I knew that many people though the auto focus was trash. I agree, it's not perfect but it's really not bad and a lot better than I had thought it would be.

This camera does shoot RAW but it's pretty slow writing the image to disk - about 6 seconds! So, you need to think well ahead in order to shoot at the right time... and have the camera get ready at the next "right time". This is a disadvantage and the result is I only shoot RAW when the strobe is out of range.

That brings me to the most important thing in my opinion - use the personal modes and really work with them until you have everything right. I have setup four underwater personal modes - macro with strobe/JPG, close with strobe/JPG, close with strobe/RAW and "seascape" with no strobe/RAW. These four modes have been fine-tuned over thousands of shots, and for me they are now really close to the best this camera and I can do together.

The Ikelite housings are strong, easy to manage and you never need to worry about the seal. Time is important - when you prepare the camera rig don't do it 2 minutus before stepping out in the blue. Take good care of o-rings and make sure to do things the same every time. With housing, port and strobe this rig has four o-rings to pack before diving. If possible always do it back in the cabin on the boat or in the room of the hotel. Also make sure to chill the camera and housing all night with dry and cold air from the air-condition. If it can run all day on one set of batteries leave it - don't open the housing.

You will have to get used to these kinds of housings - they really make disturbing sounds on the first part of the decent - it cracks and you feel it in your hands! No worry - it will stop and you camera will stay dry. And it will stay dry all the way down to 60 meters acconding to Ikelite - I don't go deeper then 50 meters so 60 meters is not a problem with me! The Ikelite housing for the C8080WZ includes a sealed TTL circuit that interface the camera with a Ikelite strobe. Watch out for the TTL cable - the connector for the cable exit straight out from the back-plate so that the cable will get damaged, if camera is placed on its back, lens facing up. I recommend you replace the single handle with a double handle tray.

For strobe I use the Ikelite DS-125 (NiCd). It has good color, plenty of energy (also for bracket etc) and includes a focus-light. It really is light enough for night dives (although I would not recommend it as your primary source of light). On my rig I use Ultra Light Control Systems (ULCS) arms. Not really so much because they are light but because it is really easy to move the strobe around. Ending your dive, you need to take care, when boat crews take your camera - make sure you tighten the arms before you surface.