Flash/strobe for digital camera

Dave wrote:

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.

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Dave,

A few months back I purchase the S50 from a local camera store. I was torn between the S45 and S50. They are identical except for the megapixels. (4 vs. 5). The owner of the store I went to, steared me towards the S45 (it was cheaper). I told him what I was doing (underwater photography) and felt if I could get an extra year out of the camera by being able to use the camera housing without needing to upgrade the camera quality, it was worth the extra money. He still suggested the S45 saying that you won't notice a difference when enlarging photos and the 5mp doesn't increase the size of print you can enlarge - it's not enough of a difference to get you to the next frame size. After that, I negotiated a price. He gave me a larger break on the S50 ($100 off) vs. ($50) off the S45. So, I went with the S50. The local camera shop also gave me a great deal on the housing!!

As for strobes, see my post at

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?act=S...t=0entry17693

You may just have a store/dealer that doesn't want to be bothered with the sale. I sure found that! Sea & Sea has a package made specifically for the Canon series.

I flooded my S30. I am now thinking about A70 instead of S45/50. The reasons are:

1. A70 has better macro performance. The minimun focus distance is 5 cm while that of S45/50 is 10 cm.

2. the waterproof housing of A70 allows me to operate the aperature setting while S45/50 cannot

3. it uses AA battery which let me take more photos underwater

My only concern is the image quality. I am not sure whether the image quality of A70 is acceptable or not.

My Webpage

Hello,

I also have the Canon S50 and I have to agree with everybody who said that a strobe is a must.

If you shoot 10 - 20 ft down, crystal clear water and there is always sun and the sand is very white, than you may be able to use the internal flash or no flash at all.

If you go deeper that that and if you have even a little bit of back scatter than, don't even try to use your camera. Well, you can do silhouette and some macros but nothing else.

About what strobe to get ... well, they are all expensive and I would say get the most expensive that you can afford but you can do pretty good with a cheaper strobe.

I am using a Bonica strobe (reflective, fixed time and intensity strobe) and if you set your camera right and you cover your camera's flash you can have good results.

I built a special bracket to reflect the flash of the camera toward my strobe and it works great.

I paid $150 for my strobe about 3 years ago.

Keep flashing

Vlad

Hello,

I want to buy a Canon S400. But I also have a Bonica strobe (left from a flod on a Sea King from Bonica). I saw that you have a Bonica strobe and a Canon S50 (vlad).

Is your Bonica firing on the preflash?

Can you get rid of that preflash?

This is the only point holding me back from buy this camera.

Hugh

Can way to get my hand on that camera!!!

Hugh,

I am not sure if you sent me an email about this since I already responded to it.

In two words, yes you can turn the preflash off if you set yout flash to manual and your Bonica strobe will work great wit your camera.

Let me know if you need more explanations

Vlad