Olympus E-520 plus Underwater housing set and other accessories (used). Worth buying ?

Hello everyone,

I am just getting into underwater photography and I am looking for an item which can help me gain some experience and knowledge in underwater photography.

I have recently come across an entire Olympus E-520 underwater camera housing set (used) and I wanted to ask this community for advice if its worth the buy. My main questions are: With the camera being almost 10 years old, how does it hold in today standards? Would I be better off investing in Gopro 5 or 6? Also, even if I see no use for the camera, will the accessories be of any value for future camera builds? The asking price is currently at 500 dollars. Any advice is greatly appreciated. (I can also provide pictures if necessary)

I will list up all the items included in the following: (I am translating the following names from Japanese)

Inon Close-up Lens UCL-165M67 x 2

Inon holder Grip set

Inon multidirectional base II

Inon multidirectional base II (long)

Athena standard zoom port 14-42 OPD-SZ14-42 Port

Athena M67 Lens adapter arm

Athena ATPF port ring arm 110

Athena Joint arm 110i M67 Lens holder set S

Athena Zoomgear 14-42 ZG

Olympus Under water housing PT-E05

Olympus E-520 Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-F.5.6

Olympus Lens Kit

Hi pitchiker,

If the set is complete and ready to be immersed, it may be a good entry into UW photography. I agree with kelpdiver, 500$ is too much, even half of it seems a lot for this equipment (Maybe 150$?). For 1000$ - 1500$you may be able to buy a decent second hand system if you look e.g. in Wetpixel classified (e.g. Oly EM1 or EM5 with Nauticam housing - this system can be expanded later with Macro- and WA lenses and ports, flashes and in the end you just acquire a new camera body with housing)....

You may be able later to use arms, lens holder, close up lens and maybe the port (but you probably will need a special adapter for the port to be used on another UW housing) - so probably you will want all items new and tailored to your new housing....

The heart of the set. i.e. camera, UW housing and lens will not be useful and it will be practically impossible to sell them later. It also would not make sense to build an entire system (with Macro and WA lenses) based on this set. So it is just an entry and in case you like UW-photography you will acquire everything again. So practically the entire system cannot be used later..

The set is no comparison to GoPro, that is something different (most people even prefer actioncams, as they are much smaller and easier to handle, while a camera system is for passionated UW-phtographers, who do not care to transport hughe amounts of equiment and drag it through the waters and, in turn, would not want GoPro).

Wolfgang