I bought a Fuji F10 last year (before the F11 was out) as I thought it would be a great camera for daily use and the fast picture taking/high battery life looked great for underwater shots. The low light capabilities and big LCD screen also made me think it would be great. Now I would like to upgrade to the F11 but don't have the cash right now...
Anyway I went along to the London International Dive Show over the weekend and bought myself a Fuji WP-FXF10 underwater housing for my camera and a Fuji underwater strobe kit. The equipment looks good and we leave for Malta in two weeks for a 14 day dive holiday as well as some above water fun too hopefully.
I seem to have it all working OK above water, and I am going to test it for leaks in the bath before we leave. One thing I don't quite get is how best to black out the camera strobe to reduce backscatter whilst leaving the top clear to activate the strobe I have bought. Any other Fuji owners out there able to offer any advice? The instructions that came with the strobe were not very good... Hopefully I will get some good pictures whilst we are out in Malta.
Thanks for any advice.
Hi Cryos,
The best way to trigger a slave strobe unit is to use a fibre optic cable. One end is attached to the strobe sensor, while the other end is encased in a piece that blacks out the internal flash of the camera.
If you do not have a fibre optic cable (I don't think the standard Fuji strobe kit comes with one), I suggest that you get one.
Cheers,
Mat
It doesn't come with one, and as I understood it my kit it too low end to use one?!? I am very new to this though and so I am quite possibly wrong. I didn't know it was possible to add an after market fibre optic add on capable of triggering the flash although I knew it was the best way to do it if budget and equipment permit.
I guess for now (as I am going on holiday today) I will just try to black out the forward facing flash whilst allowing it out of the sides to trigger the strobe. Hopefully they will have Internet access at the hotel and so I will check back here. I don't know if there are any good strobe tutorials for entry level digital camera set ups like my own? Above water I use a nice Nikon F80 but the housing was way outside of my budget and it is very bulky!
Thanks for the tips though - any links to more information I might have missed in my googling would be appreciated too. Anyone else using a similar set up wish to share their experiences possibly?
I may have been misled a little on the fibre optic cable. I coped without one out in Malta and used some blue-tac to further subdue the built in flash whilst still getting enough light out of the casing to activate the strobe. I will hopefully get hold of a kit soon and try it out in UK waters if I can work up the courage to try a little UK diving I think I managed to get a few nice pictures despite it but my strobe set up was not ideal.
Since I'm still hunting for that ideal, in-budget, non-marriage threatening, perfect strobe to work with my digital camera, so I'm sorta in the same boat. I think the idea behind the optical cable is to fire your strobe more reliably. Later,
I think I managed to get a few nice pictures despite it but my strobe set up was not ideal.
