WHAT TO DO?

Hi all.

Checking all the mails regarding this topic (lighting) the decision is not clear. who can help me with the decision? I have a PT10 & Oly 4040 and I want to add an extra lighting, my question is:

Continous or flash?

If flash, is the Epoque 150 good enought, the money is important.

is necesary to mask the flash window in the PT10?

If the answer is yes, how, and how the slave is going to be activate.

Is posible to do it with a fibre optic, how?

can we say that the S&sea DX 90 (more than doble price) is the definitive solution?

I read some thing regarding problems of overexposed due the camera don´t know anything about the extra lighting from the slave. Can some one provide us with the manual to avoid this problem with tips like "reduce the power, or set the camera in manual and...)

Thanks in advance

Rgs

Luis

As far as the slave trigger is concerned, see my post in Techniques and Tips » Slave Flash Trick.

I have a Ikelite DS50 and a Sea&Sea YS90DX. I've always been an Ike fan for strobes but not any more. The YS90DX has EVERY feature you could possibly want (12 step manual exposure ajustment!!!!!)

As far as cost goes, see my post in Techniques and Tips » Amex Price Protection. I bought my YS90DX locally at a great dive store (support your local dive store) and used my Amex card to price match to B&H Photos price ($459).

Definitely get a strobe instead of a continous light. The strobe will be brighter and allows you much more freedom in setting the exposure of the background.

I just did some experiments per rstark's suggestion of using unexposed slide film to filter out visible light and let the IR trigger the slaves using a C3000 and a YS90DX strobe. I think rstark's right about the slide letting the IR through, but he's wrong about the pre-flash not having any IR. I got the strobe to trigger without using a fiber on the strobe's "Pre" mode.

If I set it to the normal "On" mode the stobe always triggered on the pre-flash and my photo alway turned out black.

It makes sense when you think about it. Both the pre-flash and the main flash comes from the same filament. I think the only difference is the duration the filament gets turned on.

I did the first set of tests by taping a piece of unexposed slide film right on the camera's flash. For the second set, I removed that film and covered the inside front surface of the housing with unexposed slide film. Same results.

It worked very well. The only way I got this to fail is by going outside and just shooting up at a dark empty sky. The YS90DX didn't trigger in this case. Also not surprising since the light sensor is on the front of the strobe. No reflected light, no trigger. I think it's probably good to have the strobe not trigger when the subject is too far to reflect much light; it wouldn't help light the subject, only create backscatter.

Herb