Flash/strobe for digital camera

Hello. Just bought a digital camera (Cannon S45) and the underwater housing. Will be diving next month in Belize for 6 days and I will be a newbie to underwater photography and to digital photography. I do not have a strobe. I've been reading about the backscatter problems with the internal flash and about adjusting white balance. Being that these items seem like a lot to master and the fact that I am hesitant to continue the recent big payouts, I do not plan to get a strobe right now. Do you think I will regret not having a strobe?

I did the same thing (different camera/location), and regret not having the strobe, the pictures were clear/well focused but quite blue. I have since bought a strobe, and will try it soon.

If this is a trip of a lifetime, then get the strobe. Otherwise maybe play around with the camera first.

I am (was - because my S40 passed away :-( - But getting a S50 today :-)) with the same setup.

Using a Strobe will improve your pictures a lot. If you can afford it buy a Iklite DS50 or even better a DS125 (I use one of these) It is worth the investment. You can use a manual or a TTL Sensor (I use this at the moment). Manual gives you more control but TTL is lot easier to use if you are not so experienced. I bought it because i coudn''t get the manual sensor in time for a trip but I like the results and won't switch at the moment.

But there are some other tips to get good results:

1) Switch the flash to "allways fire" mode. The automatic mode don't give good results UW.

2) Use the Macro mode when shooting Macros. Sounds silly but i forgot this in the beginning.

3) Test what exposure correction you will need to don't overexpose. (I use between -1/3 and - 1 Stop)

4) Shoot RAW. This is the only way to get a really good whitebalance and will improve you pics alot. You can also correct little mistakes later.

5) Use the Photoshop Raw Conversion Plugin. I know some of our pros are not satisfied with it because it gives a little more noise than other converters but this don't show at the quality of images I can produce at the moment. The main reason why you should use it is, that it is - as far as I know - the only program that allows you to change the exposure of a Canon "S" Type Camera Raw. This is really important to make some not totaly correct exposed pictures (this happens all the time UW) usable.

6) If you use an external strobe use the

slide over internal flash trick. It reduces backscatter very much.

Have fun Simon

Thanks for the great advice. I will look into an Ikelite strobe, but it is very pricey. Does anyone ever rent just the strobe?

I don't know where you are located but ABSea Photo in Los Angeles (minutes from LAX airport) has a large Ikelite rental department and a gallery that is a must see if you are doing a layover of a few hours.

Hey Liz, I would be very interested in how your Canon S45 and the underwater housing work out. I just bought one and have been looking at the underwater case, also going to Belize for the first time in sept. A friend of mine just got back and loved it!

So please let me know how your camera does and how you like Belize. Thanks

Sure matacumbie. I'll be on the Belize Aggressor and I get back the end of May.

I am going to offer an alternative viewpoint.

Your camera is capable of taking some very good pictures in clear water using only the interrnal strobe. There are rules to follow, and limitations on what you can shoot, but there will be when you get a strobe, too. If you are a beginner, my feeling is that if you learn to take pleasing shots with the camera and built in strobe, when you add a strobe, you'll have a leg up on how to use it. If you add the external strobe in the beginning, you may have more variables than you know how to handle.

Take a look at these two galleries. They were both shot with an Olympus C-3030 with the internal strobe only.

Cozumel November 2000

Salt Cay, May 2001

Lots of folks will share with you what you can't do. Look past that to what you can do.

Well, in the end, I went to Belize without an external strobe. Thank you to Simon and SharpDiver for offering your suggestions and advice.

In the end, I had a ball with the camera, even without the strobe. I just went in knowing that I was limited to close-up and macro (and I remembered to press the macro button . I also got some tips from the photo and video guys on the Aggressor.

I am convinced that the Canon S45 is awesome! Or maybe it is the diving in Belize? Each day, after diving, I plugged the camera in to the TV in the Aggressor salon, and reviewed the photos of the day with friends and who-ever else happened to be in the room. After the first few dives, it was quite clear that I am a natural at photographing fish buts and tails, and have a soft spot for abstract art. But as the week continued, these themes grew less and less. I've posted a link to the best 24 in the photo critique forum.

Perhaps for next year, I will get a strobe (I did sometimes get backscatter in my close ups when there was water in the background, and on occasion being close up wasn't that feasible), but I am very satisfied with my first adventure with the underwater camera. It was a lot of fun.

Some items of note are:

- Since I do not have a laptop, I took 2 256mb CF cards, a spare battery, the TV connection cord and the battery charger (and of course the underwater housing).

- When I heavily used the camera during a a dive, I had to change the battery before the next dive.

- The camera fogged-up a few times. I brought the defogger liquid with me, but forget a lens cloth or tissue (borrowed some from the photo guy). Using this liquid only seemed to guarantee no fogging for one dive. It was a bit of a hassle to change the battery and defog the lens before each dive.

- I initially had the photo preview turned on (this is the default). But because of this 2 seconds between photos, I missed a few good photo opprotunities, so I eventually turned it off.

- At the advice of the one of the Agressor crew, I used aperture F8 for most of the trip. I guess that was good? I didn't play with it too much. I was too busy chasing fish.

- I never figured out how to change the white balance between cloudy and daylight underwater. This was a little annoying since almost all our dives started deep and then ended in the shallow water. So I just left it on cloudy the whole time, never tried the daylight setting.

- The Belize diving was great!

- The Belize Aggressor crew were superb.

Hello all.

I'm looking at purchasing one of the Canon powershots, either the S45 or S50.

I keep getting conflicting reports over the "improvements" on the S50 being not worth the extra cash .. Any comments??

Also having difficulty in deciding on a strobe either Ikelite or S&S.

The S&S seems to be a little off on the customer support So the Ikelite looks better.

Any advice on pairing a Ikelite strobe with an S45/50 I emailed them and they basically said they don't support TTL due to not testing it.

HELP!!!

Dave.

S45/50 is difficulty for underwater strobe to duplicate the preflash as described in following URL:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/dig_definitions.html

This is why Manual Controller is better choice. Manual is also what you will do with S&S............

Ike: i there a differnce in Strobe Duplication between the S40 and the S45/50. The S40 worked great with the TTL sensor, an now I got a S50. Do I have to be afraid of problems?

Simon

We have not tested that Canon camera series.............

Simon.

Have you used your S50 yet??

Any problems with the TTL sensor and the flash??

What setting do you use??

Dave

Not UW until now, but I will put it into the housing and do a surface testrun this thursday (its a holiday in germany) and will post some results.

Simon

Great stuff..

I eagerly await the results.

Midweek holidays are a great idea!! B)

Hi

To LIZ:

About the fogging of any unterwater-housing:

There are a few tricks to get rid of the fog inside the housing:

1. Best way: Put a small bag of Silica-Gel inside the housing.

2. Don´t try this at home-Way: Put the housing into the refridguator over night.

At the next morning put some toilette-paper-pieces between camera and housing.

The trick is, that the water condenses inside the cold housing and the toilette-paper

thakes this water. After that the air inside the housing is very dry.

Silica-gel is drying out the air without cooling the housing.

Put the housing into the refridguator over night

Are you sure that the O rings and plastics parts aren't damaged by the cold?

Hi Liz

I don't have the a Cannon Camera but an Olympus 5050z. I took this to Grenada for a 2 Week Holiday without a Strobe as i couldn't afford one at the time and the photos i took are fairly good. the link below is to my photo's if you want to have a look at them.

Grenada Photos

Cheers

Adrian

Hi Alto

> Are you sure that the O rings and plastics parts aren't damaged by the cold?

Well i wrote that this is the "don´t try this at home" way. I testet that with a cheap

Aim & shoot Camera. But it worked and this Camera still works