IKELITE DS-125 HELP

Hi,

Need some help, currently using canon 10D and Ikelite ds 125 and ikelite ETTL housing.Have

purchased canon 17-40 L series lens.Have tried out diving in Ireland where I live but have only

being shooting macro with canon macro lens.

Travelling to the Red sea next month and wondering if using wide angle 17-40 should I need a

second strobe,especially at 17mm.With the water being so clear is it worth spending the extra $700

for the second strobe...?Most dives will not exceed 25 meters depth.

Will be shooting in RAW mode full manual settings.Using TTL for almost full reef shots.Will the

second srobe justify its price...?

Any help kindly appreciated,

Mark.

Hi Mark,

Where are you heading in the Red Sea?

Your pictures will have a much more balanced feel to them with 2 strobes, but only you can decide if it's financially justifiable.

I personally would not choose to shoot with one, in fact i now have several backups to prevent that happening.

You can get away with hand holding 1 strobe a lot of the time, but when you've used 2 strobes for a few dives you will suddenly go 'aaahhhh' when you realise what you've been missing.

I hope this helps!

More sound effects to follow....

The big differences between shooting with one strobe and shooting with two strobes are:

-gets rid of harsh shadows (the second strobe can paint/fill them with light)

-flexibility: many different light methods with two strobes _or_ turn one off/point it away from your subject and you're shooting with one strobe (visualize how you want to light your subject, practice and experiment, then continuously work on improving your lighting technique)

Note: get a good pair of strobe arms, balance your camera system so it's about 1/2 to 1 pound (250g to 500kg) negative in the water.

Hand holding a single strobe isn't a good idea for fragile reef areas because you don't have a hand free to do the two fingered balancing act against the little dead spot in the coral and can easily crash into the bottom doing a fair amount of damage.

TTL for wide angle shots probably won't give you good exposure results with any consistancy. Shoot with manual strobe power settings and use the red histogram dial in the exposure for the foreground. Then use the blue histogram and adjust the shutter speed to dial in the blue water background. (something I learned from Berkley White)

Take Care,

Chris

Hi,

Thanks both for your help,will be heading to Sharm for a week.Will be doing 5 days diving

in Ras Muhammad.Would any one of you know if any shops would rent a DS-125 in Sharm..?

Have been looking on a magazine and see a guy selling an Ikelite DS-125 with manual controller.He

is looking for 600 euros.With the manual controller does this mean that I do not need to buy a dual sync

cord.The second strobe is activated by the master strobe..?

Mark.

Hi Mark,

Yes/No on the slave, they work most of the time, but you may have difficulty when shooting in the blue at subjects that aren't so close.

I think i have an brand new ike dual ttl sync cord somewhere that i'd be happy to sell on cheaply, i'll PM you if/when i find it.

I think in the red sea you will find most photo shops are affiliated with Sea and Sea, the Nearest ike dealer is in Cairo or Alexandria i think (from memory).

Hand holding a single strobe isn't a good idea for fragile reef areas because you don't have a hand free to do the two fingered balancing act against the little dead spot in the coral and can easily crash into the bottom doing a fair amount of damage.

If bouyancy skills / surge conditions were that bad i'd hope any diver would have the common sense to stay away from the reef!

TTL for wide angle shots probably won't give you good exposure results with any consistancy. Shoot with manual strobe power settings and use the red histogram dial in the exposure for the foreground. Then use the blue histogram and adjust the shutter speed to dial in the blue water background. (something I learned from Berkley White)

A good little trick, but not much use when a dolphin/shark/napoleon swims in close, altering the strobe to subject distance very quickly... for that i wish i had ttl

I'm sure colour histograms are very usefull, but they sure aren't on every camera.

I dont have it on my canon 20d, so I suppose the Original Posters 10D won't give that as well.

isnt the shadow-bit from a singe strobe more of a problem for macro?