Strobes for a sp350

Hi all, as a beginner this whole strobe thing has me confused, i understand the reasoning behind and need for a strobe etc etc but im looking at an oly sp350 camera and oly housing, what strobe can i get that will work in conjunction with this? All the other setups ive seen use an oly flash and housing as well as a strobe, thats an expense i'd rather avoid if possible.. all advise appreciated.. Cheers

Joe

Joe,

The olympus strobe is for TTL and is rather bulky. If you're a freediver it would add a little drag. I'd go with an optically triggered strobe with manual adjustments. Cost-wise your Epoques and Sunpak G flash are the low end. I own the G-flash (just purchased). Its small and lightweight; furthermore it uses AA batteries like the camera. Its a little slow on the recharge between pics on max power. It also comes with a small bracket arm for about $190 from Leisurepro.com. Every other flash out there goes up in price from there.

Later,

Gary

Cheers for that. So i can just use say a sunpak strobe sensored off the cameras flash, are there any issues when using this, like times it wont trigger say in certain camera modes i might wish to use etc? Cheers Joe

joe,

Optical strobes can be finicky in shallow water and the G-flash is no different. I just purchased the Epoque fiber optic cable which works with the Sunpak G-flash as well. The cable will cause the flash to fire every time and will prevent the sun or another divers camera from setting off your flash. With that said, I've only had a couple of photos where the flash failed to fire.

on using the strobe...it should work in any mode. You'll want to block the internal flash (most housings come with a diffuser but not a complete block). This is easier than it sounds but simply cutting a thin sheet of plastic in the shape of the diffuser will work nicely. The fiber optic cable attaches to this part of the housing as well. It will send the light up to the optically triggered strobe. The blocker will prevent your internal flash from lighting up the backscatter in front of the lens. On a last note, if your camera supports the ability to do so you can set the internal strobe on manual and select the lowest output setting (1 in the SP-350). This will make sure your camera doesn't drain your batteries. Then you'll be set. "

Later,

Gary

Later,

Gary.

Morning all,

I am in a similar position. I have an SP-350 and have taken some nice shots but really need to invest in a strobe now. Any advice welcome.

I have seen that Epoque have a a connector that uses the bulkhead on the housing. Not sure if this means that the strobe power can be controlled through the settings on the camera or if it is just another way of firing the the strobe (like a fibre optic cable)?

Could be interesting though.

Matthew

"I have seen that Epoque have a a connector that uses the bulkhead on the housing"

Matthew,

I've not seen the bulkhead cable. I have seen/use the optical cable. There are some cables that have built-in electronics which use the firing pins on the hotshoe to trigger the optical strobe. If it connects to the Olympus bulkhead my guess is that is the way it works. I doubt it uses Olympus TTL. I guess most of the pros on here will tell you that they don't use TTL. They manually adjust the flash. As an amateur, its one thing less I have to worry about. I use the FL-20 in a housing and a Sunpak with optical trigger and manual adjustment for my second flash. The FL-20 allows me to completely disable the internal flash and still trigger the Sunpak. This preserves batteries and assists with recycle time.

Later,

Gary