My Olympus 5060 Settings and Tips
The text presented here represents the settings I use on my 5060 for underwater use

First off, turn the Reset to Default OFF. Without this, you will get very frustrated very quickly as the camera will reset itself every time the thing is turned off. Alter this mode by doing the following:-

ISO: set it to the lowest, 80
White Balance: to Auto or Cloudy. Cloudy will add a little warmth to the image
Flash Mode: As I use an external flash using the MikeDive / Matthias Heinrichs TTL wired adapter solution, the camera needs to be told to use only the external strobe (menu, Camera, Flash, pick external flash icon) and that it is in housing mode (menu, Camera, Accessory, fish icon).

Shooting Mode: I only ever used to shoot in manual mode as I prefer to set the exposure myself rather than leave the camera to sort itself out. Using M mode means that you only have a choice of 2 flash settings... off and slow sync 1 (first curtain). However, I now use the MyModes setting in shutter priority mode. More later...

Drive Mode: set to single frame if you want to use the flash. Continuous shooting mode will turn the flash OFF

Autofocus: set full-time autofocus to OFF unless you have a lot of ambient light. Where there is a LOT of ambient light, full-time AF can reduce the shutter lag significantly

Image size: set to 25xx x 18xx (3:2 ratio for prints) or 2592 x 1944 (usual computer screen 4:3 ratio). I never set the image size to be anything other than the native resolution of the sensor.

Image quality: RAW - it takes around 12 seconds and 7Mb, to save an image to the card, but is worth the penalty (as will be seen later)

Manual (M) Shooting settings:
for wide angle stuff, set the shutter to be 1/100 sec & aperture around f5.6. Change the aperture rather than shutter speed unless you specifically want shallow DoF where you'd set a faster shutter speed.
for mid zoomed stuff, set shutter to 1/100 sec
for max zoomed stuff, set the shutter to be 1/200 sec
for macro stuff (less than 60cm), shutter to around 1/100 sec and aperture to as small (high number) as it will go e.g. f16. The DoF is very narrow with close macro so a small aperture will help get more DoF
for super macro, as for macro, shutter to 1/100 sec
These aren't hard and fast rules, but tend to work pretty well as a starting point.

MyModes: The camera has 8 MyModes where you can preset settings and quickly select these settings. They can save quite a bit of time underwater when swapping between wide angle, super macro etc. They take a bit of getting used to in setting them up but are well worth the time and effort. To help things along even more, you can set the custom function button to access MyModes

Manual Focus: takes too long to set for each shot, but can be useful if you're shooting a series of shots from the same location. Use AF to get the initial focus then swap into MF to not have the camera re-focus each time you try to take a shot. Obviously you need to keep the subject to camera distance the same, but it significantly increases shutter response times. I just wish Olympus had provided a simple AF on/off button here.
Memory Cards: use both slots. Insert the largest CF you can afford and insert the largest xD you can afford. My primary memory card is the CF, with the xD being employed only when the CF is full.

Video Capture Mode: never thought I'd really use this. How wrong I was! You have 2 modes of operation based on whether you want sound or not. With sound being recorded, you cannot adjust zoom or focus settings (AF). With sound turned OFF, both zoom and AF are enabled. If you intend dubbing with music at a later time then your choice is pretty obvious. The good thing here is that you can capture as much video as your card will hold. No 30 sec video clip limits here! If shooting video, capture in full size. The frame rate is only 15 fps but still provides decent enough playback. Just remember that with video you shoot landscape, not portrait. You can get so used to swapping between landscape and portrait using the LCD screen for stills that it's easy to forget when shooting video.


Update - MyModes and RAW
RAW - Previously, I shunned RAW as it took too long to write to the card and took up a lot of space. Now, I never shoot in JPEG.
Why? RAW gives you the ability to alter the white balance (very important with underwater shots), the exposure, the sharpness and God knows what else after the event. You therefore have total control over the image, but as you are working with the RAW image data and not a processed JPG file you're not working with a bastardised image as produced by any in camera processing. Strangely, I now have a higher keeper rate with using RAW as I'm now forced to compose the shot properly rather than using the JPG machine gun and hoping you get a good image.
The other advantage is that you can do a lot of the white balance / colour corrections within your RAW processor (I used to use Raw Shooter Essentials by Pixmantec - it used to be free until Adobe bought the company - but now use Lightroom) and not have to try to do curve or levels rescuing in Photoshop / Paint Shop Pro / Whatever .

MyModes - I have 4 of these set up on the camera.
My Mode 1 : shutter priority, 1/80sec, ISO 80, single shot, macro autofocus, RAW, Flash on (slow sync), FEC +0.3, EV -0.3, zoom at wide angle
My Mode 2 : shutter priority, 1/80sec, ISO 80, single shot, macro autofocus, RAW, Flash off, FEC +0.3, EV -0.3, zoom at wide angle
My Mode 7 : M, 1/80th, F5.6, Auto focus, RAW, Flash on (slow sync), zoom at wide angle
My Mode 8 : M, 1/80th, F5.6, Manual focus @ 1m, RAW, Flash on (slow sync), zoom at wide angle

I tend to only use modes 1 & 2 though. Mode 8 is the oldtime catch-all favourite of 1m @ F8. With smaller digital sensors, we can use F5.6 instead.


How do you get deep blues for the background?
I achieve this by getting an exposure reading on the background then underexposing by a further 1 to 1.5 stops. With these settings in place, I recompose on my subject and fire away.

My external strobe isn't firing. What's going on?
Several things to check here....
1. is the shooting mode set to continuous? if it is, the flash is turned off
2. is the flash mode set to off?
3. turn camera off, turn strobe off, turn strobe on, turn camera on. The strobe needs to be switched on a few seconds before the camera.
4. has the bulkhead connector flooded?

The internal flash is firing but the external one isn't when it should be. The camera modes are correct (drive, ext flash, housing accessory etc). WTFIGO?
This is a sure sign that the camera doesn't recognise the strobe a being connected. Check the above. Also, if you are using the battery powered TTL adapter, make sure the battery that powers it has at least 2.7v across its terminals. If it doesn't there'll be insufficient juice to trigger the external strobe. When the camera recognises an external strobe that is ready to fire, the internal flash will be suppressed.

AF is slow. Is there anything I can do to improve it's performance?
Try to find a contrasty subject. The difference in contrast will help the camera grab a focus lock much faster. For night shots, a spotting lamp will help. I have an Unerwater Kinetics mini Q40 attached to my strobe for this very purpose. Alternatively, a dive lamp does the job just as well and also helps with shooting video in darkness.