SP-350 Update

My Sunpak G-flash finally arrived! Here's the modified rig with two strobes. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure I'll get wet this weekend.

I'm interested in seeing your results as soon as you're able to post them. I've been on a hunt for a cheap, digital flash which will handle the preflash.

regards,

Gary

It works great topside. I took some supermacro shots around my house and the light was balanced, right down half an inch from the subject. While I was testing the sync, I turned the strobes around and took a picture of myself in the mirror, to test the light level. I had the camera and the FL-20 on ttl-auto, and set the Sunpak to minimum level on normal (non-preflash setting).

The strobe went off for both the preflash and the flash, and the picture came out perfect. I suspect that as the strobe preflashed, the cameras ttl sensor compensated for it.

I noticed in your picture that the internal strobe is going off as well. I normally turn that off in the camera settings when I've got the FL-20 attached. Do you leave it on?

No, I leave it off. I wanted a small picture so I just stuck it in the "Indoor" preset and forgot to switch off the built in flash. All my "My Modes" are in RAW. I did a bunch of those first, though, including a 3/4" super macro of my shopping list, which was perfectly lighted and had no shadow. My only issue with the new rig is that it's huge. I had trouble getting it close to my subject because I kept whacking the strobes on stuff. The cool thing about the loc-line is, you can bend it forward, backward, up, down-any direction, is long as you don't make the bends too tight. Now I guess I have an oil derrick of my own. He, he, he.

Accidentally shot 15-20 pics in "S" mode the other day. The water was very dark. Visibility was about 6 feet of pea soup. I had both strobes on, with the Oly set on ttl-auto and the Sunpak on very close to minimum setting. Last week, I used the diffusers on both and got poor light and a lot of backscatter. This time, I positioned the strobes all the way out, with no diffusers and used the edges of the light. Excellent lighting. No backscatter whatsoever. Worked well in Manual mode with my regular settings as well. I had the Sunpak set on regular instead of preflash. It flashed twice, and the ttl worked fine, compensating for the extra strobe. (I suspect that the preflash from the second strobe altered the ttl adjustment). Only had a couple of bad shots. They were subjects that were between rocks or in holes where it was hard to position the strobes.

By the way, the Oly always preflashes when set in ttl-auto. I don't think it does in the manual or auto setting. This, unfortunately makes ttl-auto incredibly slow. I got a lovely picture of the bottom half of a harbor seal a couple of weeks ago because the preflash sent him scampering off and there was so much time between that all I got was the stirred up bottom where he pushed off and his tail end.

Interesting read on the strobes and diffusers. I'm still a little confused on the SP-350, fl-20 and sunpak relationship. According to the Sunpak Manual if you have a digital camera that produces a preflash you need to set the Sunpak to the preflash setting in order to get it to work properly. Theoretically puttting in Normal with a camera with a preflash would cause it to misfire or not fire at all.

I think what happens is that if you have the power set too high, you wouldn't recycle in time for the slave to fire a second time. With low settings, which is all you need for macro anyway, the Sunpak recycles just fine in the time it takes the FL-20 to preflash, the camera to adjust the ttl settings and the FL to flash a second time. I only had one dive where I had problems with the sync between the two and I think it had more to do with too much ambient light at a shallow depth. The Sunpak wasn't slaving about half the time. Sea Yoda over on Scubaboard had the same problem when he got his Sunpak (he was the one who sort of started it all) so he ended up using a fiber optic cable instead of slaving directly off the built in flash. By the way, be really careful about lubing the battery cover o-ring and make sure the little spring flaps are fully retracted before you descend. Two Sunpak users I know of have flooded theirs. Mine quit after the first dive weekend and I had to send it back to ToCAD America for repair. They replaced it, and so far the new one's just fine. As a precaution, I've been pulling the batteries when not in use and stuffing a dessicant in their place. I don't think there's any provision for keeping condensation out. Mine failed after cleaning, and I found what felt like condensation on the batteries, though there was no physical damage and no sign whatsoever of leakage. Keep your invoice and if you have any problem, you have to ship it with a copy to New Jersey. They didn't do a good job of answering e-mails so I ended up just following the directions on the website and sending it. It took about 3-1/2 weeks to get back, but at least two of those were shipping time.

Leisure pro has that fiber optic cable for around $41 including shipping. I'm thinking about grabbing it. The idea of another cable strung on my rig isn't a nice thought. Anyway, I'll be in Boca Raton next week and have scheduled a few dives. I'll report back how it goes. Later,

hi ce4jesus & Larry C,

I am really new to this.. but i think it good to seek for advises from you guys since you guys have been using sp-350 and the results seems really good...

I have finally purchased my first ever digital camera, and bought sp-350, since everybody seems have good review for this camera... i have many questions to ask.. and hope i can improve my knowledge from here..

i havent test my 350 in the water yet.. but was thinking the problem to store the camera and the housing... wondering do you guys keep your camera in a dry box? and do we need to take out the o-ring for the housing when we store the housing... do we need to unscrew the ttl cap to clean the small o-ring too?

sorry, that my questions might sound stupid.. but i am really new to this... i have been using point and shoot kind of film camera for all this while.... and really new to this sp-350, which let us to play around with the setting... but i really don't know how.. any things that i need to look up for?

thank you very much if any one of you guys can share your experience...

I usually wash the orings with a mild soap and warm, water and grease them, and put them back in the housing before periods where I'm not using them for awhile. I don't store the SP-350 in a dry box. It stays in the housing throughout the day of diving until we're safely ashore and in the hotel. Be careful with that TTL cap and the TTL cable with your FL20 if you have one. There's a very thin o-ring that will fall out if you're not careful. It sits at the base of cable and the cap that covers the TTL. Enjoy your camera and PM me with any questions you have and I'll try to answer them.

Gary,

Just a quick thanks for being the first to test a Sea & Sea lens with the 46-58mm adapter. I'm heading to Fiji in 2 weeks. You can bet I'm looking forward to it.

Desert,

I'm also just bought a sea&sea hotshoe adapter arm to mount my focus light. Another success. My company is sending me to Hawaii next week. I'll be diving on Thursday barring any unforeseen problems. I'd love to see your pics when you get back from Fiji. Later,

Hello,

Great information here. I'll have to try and remember it all when I'm underwater (maybe my next purchase should be a waterproof laptop ).

I also have an SP-350 i have had some success and really like the camera and have just bought a strobe which I hope to try out at the weekend.

The idea of the Sea&Sea wide angle lens sounds fantastic. Cheap with good results. I was wondering if there was a single step-ring available from 46 to 58mm or whether you have had to use 2 step rings?

Keep up the good work

Thanks

Matthew

There's a single step ring available. I got my from a local photo shop. A single ring places the Sea and Sea almost perfectly. There's slight vignetting at the widest angle but a touch on the zoom fixes that and as you can see from the photo gives a nice wide view.

Well....I got a dive in with my sunpak strobe and a fiber optic cable to support it. I'm a little disheartened with the fiber optic cable. Since I use the FL-20 olympus strobe with TTL and turn off my internal strobe I was at a loss on how to use the cable. If the cable isn't attached directly over the FL-20's flat port (flat place on the housing where flash is), or directly onto the diffuser it doesn't fire the strobe. This doesn't make much sense to me as one would think it would only take a small amount of light to fire the strobe. So here's the dilemma...if its attached directly to the flat port or the diffuser it invariable must create a shadow. Furthermore if its attached to the flat port you can't fit the diffuser on top (velcro is stuck directly to flash interferes with diffuser fitting on housing). The only solution appears to be to stick it directly to the diffuser and live with any shadow that's created. The only other way to use it is to block the camera's internal strobe with a black plate and fire the optical strobe from the internal flash. It appears this may be the only way I'll use it from now on. I fiddled with it way too much on the last dive and wasted too many rare opportunities to fuss with it anymore. The sunpak strobe works fine without a cable along side the FL-20 flash.

Bottom line - unless you can dive a great deal and want to perfect the location and mount, I'd skip wasting $40 on a fiber optic cable if you're planning on using it in conjunction with the FL-20 flash. Otherwise when used with just the camera and the Sunpak the cable functions just fine.

I ended up putting mine on at the edge of the housing, next to the FL-20's flash output. It doesn't seem to shadow, as it is beyond the flash window. The external diffuser doesn't fit, but the topside diffuser for the FL-20 fits inside the housing, and works fine. After two or three tries at placement, the glue quit, so I had to use the spare velcro, and cut a bigger hole, easier to center. Keeping the cable out of the lens when adjusting strobe locations is an adventure. Unfortunately, my replacement Sunpak doesn't fire reliably off the FL-20 without the cable.

Hello all,

I've just purchased the PFL-01 and PT-030, I tried to connect the TTL cable and I noticed that the connection of the TTL cable with my camera housing is a little bit loose:

once the connector is tightly screwed to the camera housing, the cable can turn a little bit and if I pull the cable, then it can move by arroung 1mm.

Do you guys have the same behaviour, if so, that's normal :-D

Otherwise I have to figure out what's going on before get if wet :-(

Thank you,

Plucker

Hey Plucker,

Bad news...sounds like you lost that micro-oring that seats the connector. (I actually went diving in fresh water afer losing that sucker). It is by far the skinniest oring I've ever seen. LarryC actually found his but coudn't figure out where it went. If you look inside each end of the ttl cable there's a small groove at the seat. That Oring (sits) inside this groove. I use the word "sits" rather loosely because if it falls out of that small groove it will come completely off the ttl cable. I now travel with the cable inside a zip-lock bag for that very reason. I attach, and disconnect it very carefully and store it inside the ziplock. I recently had to purchase a new housing for the FL-20 flash so it came with an extra ttl cord with Orings that I travel with.

Later,

Gary