? Canon S-Series and ext. strobe / Overexposure ?

Hi!

I am using a Canon S40 with Canon WP-DC300 housing and planning to upgrade my setup by a external storbe and an two lenses.

In this posting I like to ask if anybody can give me some advise on the strobe setup to choose.

My plan ist to buy a strobe with stay with me even for the next camera system in 1-3 years (depending on what comes available). but also I like to stay within a certain budget.

Right now I consider these three

Sea&Sea YS90DX

Ikelite DS-50

Ikelite DS-125

Each with a fitting arm system of course.

I know that the strobe question is a matter of "believe"... :-) but like to hear some opinions of the different setups, preferably with a canon S-Series but any other P&S would do also.

I especialy wonder about two things:

1) In rather bad visibilty the internal flash tends to lights a lot of small peices (snowflakes) right in front of the lense. Therefore photos in that water a mostly not doable. An external flash whichis farer away from the lense should fix this at least a good bit. BUT the internal flash is used to fire the external and THEN I have the same snowflakes again... In case of the Sea&Sea the internal flash is partl bloked by the fibre cabel but on the Ikelite setup there is no cabel.... Any Experiences????

2) The canon oven tends to "overexpose" bright areas like sand and parts of corals/stomes. I dont like this effect and want o get rid of it. Sometimes it ruins good shots...

You can see what I mean in the first pictures in my Egypt galery

http://www.pixum.de/viewalbum/?id=421062

This was my first diving with the setup.

Does an external strobe change this effect or make it even worse (more brighter light)??

I hope you can give me some helpful informatin and am looking forward to read from you...

Best regards

Christian

PS: The perfect Ikelite service in the US does not matter for my because I live in germany.

Ahh noch mehr Deutsche! ;-)

But I continue in english so the others can follow us ;-)

I use the same rig (S40, WP-DC300) And just tested my new DS125 with the Quick Release Handle Tray (official for Olympus but fits for the Canon too) and Arm and the TTL sensor Ike offers as A package.

The whole setup is pretty sweet!

To remove the Backscatter: Use James trick with the exposed slide (tape a fulkly exposed Slide (from the end of the film) with the emulusion side up on the housing over the internal flash. The IR-Light that gets throug triggers the sensor but it doesn't create backscatter.

Without the Slide you have to use exposure correction of at least -1 Step at the camera, with the Slide you can go without or better use -1/3 Step.

DO SHOOT RAW. So you can correct the exposure afterwards. Exposure correction with a S40 RAW is only possible with the Adobe Photoshop RAW Plugin as far as I know.

Ike recommends the manual controller for the S40 (because he doesn't tested it) I bought the TTL Sensor because I could'nt get the manual sensor in time for my trip. It works pretty good and is very convinient.

I bought everything at Ikeliteservice Völker Berlin (www.ikelite.de)

Simon

(Frankfurt / Germany)

Hi Simon.

Could you post a few shots taken with your new set up ?? I'd really like to see what you get ....

I totally agree about RAW ... I'm currently waiting for a fiber optic cable for my set up. I should get it next week.

I'm normally going in Egypt in 2 weeks time. RAW + optic cable will be great ... I already know it