I need clarification on how strobe works

Hi,

I would like to buy a strobe for my Nikon d80. right now I am using Canon 620 with Sea&Sea YS60TTL/N and YS50TTL with Heinrich Weikamp triggered by built in flash of the camera.

I am quite confused regarding the Strobe ttl capabilities-functionality,

Let me know if I am wrong but there are 3 situation.

1) New modern strobe with built in TTL funciton.

this is only require a flash-connection to be connected to the cameras hotshoe

2) Old strobe wich require a special elettronic adaptor between

the hotshoe of the camera and the flash for work in TTL

3) Old strobe unable to work in TTL even if with adaptor.

It seems to me that I am in the 3th situation and so I'll need a new one strobe.

Can You suggest me a strobe for a REAL beginner with wide angle purpouse in mind?

Thank you

Andrea

What brand of housing are you going to put the D80 in?

What brand of housing are you going to put the D80 in?

the only one I can afford is a NIMAR , manufactured in Italy ( 100 km from me)

http://www.nimar.it/custodie_reflex_digitali_eng.htm

this is the strobe suited for the housing but I don't like it too much and it is very expensive .

http://www.nimar.it/engflash_subacqueo.htm

Thank you

Bit of theory:

all brands of camera have their own TTL protocols, new camera's may have updates on the protocol (like e-TTL for the 300D and e-TTL II for later models in Canon). Digital TTL is not the same as film TTL, so what once worked didnt anymore.

This works perfectly with own brand land flashes, but not so with third party strobes.

So to work TTL ; the strobe manufacturer has to decipher the signal, and translate the camera signal somewhere to something the strobe can understand. I dont know if that circuitry is in the housing of Nimar or in the Strobe.

So even modern strobes have the circuitry somewhere. (1) For Nikons, Ikelite made a gizmo to use the Ikelite strobes in TTL bij placing the circuitry in a sync cord extension. Similar to the Heinrich Weikamp external circuitry, but I dont think these let old film strobes do TTL.

http://www.heinrichsweikamp.net/blitz/indexe.htm

If money is a big issue, I would get a sync cord from Nimar that wires one of your existing strobes to it, and keep the other one on slave (or use a double sync cord). I use two small strobes with diffusor (DS-50 from Ikelite, similar to your YA60) to cover my 15MM FE frame (around 110 degrees on my camera)

I guess that it's either spending money. or using manual mode.

Manual strobe control is probably better for wide-angle: at 1m and f8, 100ISO and the strobes 50cm off-camera, full or half-power is probably about right for your strobes except for silver fish.

TTL often needs exposure compensation to accomodate the variability inherent in exposing wide-angle subjects.

Tim

B)

Manual strobe control is probably better for wide-angle: at 1m and f8, 100ISO and the strobes 50cm off-camera, full or half-power is probably about right for your strobes except for silver fish.

 

Tim

B)

Thank you all I'll go for Manual after all, maybe an occasion to improve my very basic photo skill also ;-)