TTL versus slave or pre-flash fired strobe

I am currently in the process of looking for a cheap manual strobe. I have a small, TTL strobe that is too weak so I was look for a cheap 2nd strobe (manual?) to go with it. I'm confused as to the differences between pre-flash remote (cable less) fired strobes and those with a slave optical cable. I have a fairly inexpensive setup. Oly with oly housing and an oly flash with housing. Any thoughts on the 2nd strobe? Hopefully under $400.

what camera & strobe do you use presently?

Julian

Julian,

I currently use the small, external Olympus flash (fl-20) with a housing. It is rated to 20M above water but I think that is generous. Its more like 15M. I've not yet gone diving with it but have been told it may be too weak and narrowly focused to use as a good underwater flash so I've been looking for a good alternative to use as a primary underwater strobe. With the price range of about $300 the pickings are slim. The Sealife SL960D or the low end YS-15, Sunpak, or even a low end Epoque. My problem is that many of these are fired in different ways and its confusing to know how, if, they will work well. Some use fiber optic, others use the pre-flash, some are manual. I've even considered a used SB-105. The more I research, the more difficult it seems to make this process without just jumping into an ikelite or inon.

Hi again, hope you are getting on well with your Oly set up. If I'm correct you've got the SP350 that we shared comments on previously.

I have been quite pleased with Sea & Sea strobes. I have the YS90DX and YS55 and YS30 strobes. Both the YS90 and YS55 can take fibre optic cables but also can use standard detachable sync cords. If you upgrade this feature might be worth having. The YS90 and YS55 both cope with camera preflash if required.

The YS90 and YS30 can also work as a cordless TTl slaves if you simply want to add a second strobe to your current set up. However I have not found the cordless TTl slave idea works too well. It seems erratic especially when there are high ambient light levels and the stobes are not angled towards each other.

I would avoid the YS15 as it is too basic and has no power adjustment settings.

I wonder if the TTl capability of your Oly strobe is something you want to retain? I currently use my YS90 and YS55 strobes both attatched by fiblre optic cables.

Hello Trevor, Yes, so far the oly sp-350 has been a nice camera...topside. I'm going diving in January and should have my first go at taking a few pictures underwater. The YS-90DX or Auto have both intrigued me. Its a step up in price but I can buy a new one for right at about $500. I too have heard bad things about "cordless" operation. Can you explain how you attach the fiber optic to the canon housing and a little more about these detachable sync cords and how those work? Without TTL do you just set an F-stop on the camera, match the setting on the strobe and then do a little experimenting based on lighting underwater?

Thanks,

Gary

Don't confuse trying to do TTL cordless operation with EV Manual Controller cordless operation which works extremely well............

I'm sorry but my "confusion" seems to be the order of the day when it comes to strobes...haha. Do you know when Ikelite is going to release a housing for the sp-350? That alone might "solve" my problem.

Gary,

This photo shows how I have attatched a fibre optic cable to a Canon housing. Firstly, I have removed the flash diffuser plate off the housing. Secondly, I have used a Sea & Sea fixing kit which consists is a small metal disc that has a hole in it where the cable can be pushed in. PVC tape then sticks the disc to the case. It is cheap and chearful but has proved faultless for some time now. I was initially sceptical of the idea of a fibre optic cable mainly because it looked so frail. The good thing is that it is cheap, quick to attatch and remove and on top of that it can't leak or cause floods.

Obviously this is not a TTl system. I work on manually setting camera speeds and apertures plus make use of the strobe to vary power output to control exposure.

I have never had TTl and am not convinced that I need it at all. Many Ikelite fans seem to shout about its virtues though.

For two stobes I have used 2 fibre optic cables. For this though I have got a small piece of aluminium and drilled two holes in it but then attatched it in exactly the same way to the case.

Trev

Gary,

Another option for you to consider for your PT-030 case or any other Oly case that has a Strobe bulkhead is the Heinricht Wickamp Oly-Nikonos bulkhead replacement.

I have no experience of it but there are quite a few others on Wet pixel who do use it and rate it quite highly. The only thing is that it can cost a similar amount to the Oly housing itself. Take a look at their web site or do a search on the forum to locate the web link

This is where choosing a strobe that can use a fixed sync cord instead of a fibre optic cable may have benefits. This is why I mentioned certain Sea & Sea strobes previously. The benefit of this fixed cord system over a fibre optic cable is that you can then get your TTl and also you are not having to use the cameras internal flash to trigger the external strobe all the time.

At this point there is usually a reply from someone on the forum that if only you had bought an Ikelite housing in the first place!

Photo attatched to show what I'm referring to.

Thanks Trevor....its very helpful.

Hi all ,

just for information Olympus has changed the socket on other time, now there are three different sockets : PT20,22,23,27 and PTE01 and PT30 the plugs matching at all sockets.... I am thinking to manufactur a PT30 Nikonos socket too for the others I have already. A prototype PT30 Nikonos socket is already done and I am thinking if it is worth to do some more ? depending on the weak WA of the SP350 by using under water if there is a INON solution for WA is comeing up may be it is interesting ... my testing with the Oly TTL converter is already well done but I noticed the Battery power is less for a whole day ( 2 dives ) shooting after 85 Pics( SHQ ) using 2500 mAh NiMh AA cells it is finished ....... using without internal flash. I imagine if you trigger by optical using the internal strobe you get as half the pics with one charging.... but I do not know.

Michael

I would recommend you to go diving with your camera and the FL-020 flash.

Sure it is weaker than most but It is possible to get guite decent results with it anyway.

I have used a oly 5060 in an PT-020 housing with one FL-020 flash the last year and a half and I must say that it works ok for most macro work anyway.

My tip is not to rush into anything. Get to learn the fl-20 for a few dives first.

It is probably necessery to get another strobe down the line mostly to avoid the disturbing shadow resulting from one flash but thats another story.

Take a look at my homepage it has a lot of pictures taken with the 5060-FL20 combination.

http://www.vannar.net/uvfoto.htm (the text is in swedish)

/Jonas

Thanks Jonas,

Great photos on your site. Loved the cuddlefish. On the strobe issue, I was looking down the road a year, or two, and thinking I might need something different so I was starting to research some options. Does the TTL work for you well? I suspect with macro you use the manual option more often? Thank you for your time.

Gary

Gary,

I understand FL-20 stands for a guide number of 20? Anyway, I second Jonas’ recommendation. The strobe should be powerful enough for macro and closeup stuff, especially with a compact digicam which have their smallest aperture around f8 or f11. It’s obvious that the strobe is not suitable for lightning reef scenarios or sharks. But I assume you don’t have a wideangle conversion lens so far? I would start with close up stuff (fish photography / macro) to get a feeling of your camera and what this strobe can do and what not. This way you can better evaluate what your future strobe should cover and still get good pictures within the range the strobe can handle.

Julian

PS/edit: The FL-20 should deliver TTL results underwater without restrictions, especially because you will shoot closeup stuff.

Thanks Julian,

WA will me my next objective along with a bigger strobe after trying some fish portraits and macro. ...actually my first digital adventure will be a pool somewhere with the kids...just to get the hang of things. BTW..I also purchased the Magic Filter to test out on my new digicam.

Gary

Does the TTL work for you well? I suspect with macro you use the manual option more often?

 

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Yes the TTL is worked exxelent almost every time. The flash behaved very much as I vanted it to without even having to think about it.

I actually never used the strobe on manual. The TTL worked so fine I really never saw any reasons not to use it underwater.

/Jonas