strobe suggestion

Dear friends, it's the first time I submit a thread to this forum. I'm acually using a c-5050 with Inon D-180 strobe. I thought to move to TTL. The question is related to the type of strobe you would suggest me. I thought about a Sea & Sea strobe with digital adapter or the S-TTL of the new Inon's strobes (Z-240). Which opion in your opinion gives the best results in terms of exposure?

I think the most accurate exposure would be an Ikelite housing w/ TTL and an Ikelite DS125 strobe. After that's I'd look at a Heinrich's TTL adapter with one of his recommended strobes.

But do you really need TTL? It seems like a lot of trouble and expense to me.

Just my thoughts,

James

Actually, I've been using the D-180 for almost a year and a half. In wide angle the strobe performed always well but in close up and macro the auto function many times misses the right exposure and so you have to move to manual. I know that many are using the strobe only in manual but it takes a lot experience. I saw tests with the S-TTL and I like the exposure results even if the Ike real TTL worked better. I really don't know how well the digital adapater works and I even thought that the essence of the S-TTL and digital adapter are almost the same.

Hello Roswin.

Shooting manual is no longer a major problem for us. Why ?. You have the best learning curve tool in your hands !

the LCD display, quite simply , if you had a Z-240 you have 13 steps of manual power, start off somewhere with the exposure dial, and look at your LCD-histogram and adjust accordingly.

You will very quickly learn your new strobe and its power settings, after a few hours of practise you will be able to get very close to the exposure you require just by looking overall at your subject and its distance combined with your aperture setting on your camera.

if your not sure of the simple calculations here they are

Stobes all have a power setting MAX based on 100 ISO termed GN or guide number.

Guide numbers can be in Ft or Meters, be careful of this. they are usually as well expressed with an ON-LAND Value. to use this underwater simply 1/2 it.

so our manual calculations are as follows

Strobe to Subject Distance = GN / F-stop

Example Z-240 GN = 24m Land / 2 (underwater = 12)

I choose F8 on my Camera with a shutter speed to make the Background exposure i wish.

so my flash calculations are as followed.

Strobe to subject distance = (GN) 12 / F8 = 1.5 or 1.5meters.

So my strobe.......not my camera needs to be placed 1.5 meters away from the subject with it set to FULL GN Power to totally expose my subject when i use F8.

Are you understanding ? ( i hope).

You can simply make yourself an Exposure table for each strobe setting, The Z-240 has 13 Manual GN settings, so lots of options are available.

It might Sound confusing at first but try working through a few examples and you will get it.

You will find that shooters like James & Myself dont need TTL, we just learn our strobes & reach a level where the exposure table becomes second nature in our mind when taking pictures.

but you have the best tool to learn, DIGITAL LCD, i'm sure James can remember the days when we used to do all of this with FILM, and 95% of the time we got it right as well....

The happy times i've had looking over the top of my housing to look at the flash level on my subject & thinking ...... Yep that look about right.

I wonder if we could go back to that James after a few years on digital, and get as many keepers as we used too

Here goes a challange for the future... dont sell your film rigs for a nickle on EBay, save them, in time to come, a photo contest to see who gets the most keeps from a roll of E6 shooting manual only

regards

craig

thanks a lot Craig, I loved your explanations. I'll try it for sure.

Nice explanation Craig - thanks for taking the time to write it up.

Paul C