Ikelite AF35 for the beginner

Hi...I am new to the wetpixel forums. I am an avid diver and just recently have begun taking underwater pixs. I have never been a great photographer, and am not really trying to get David Doublet or Eric Cheng images. I currently have been using an Ikelite DS-125 substrobe and have not had much success with clarity of images. I use a Olympus Stylus1000 digital camera with an Ikelite housing.

Would the IKELITE AF35 be the substrobe of choice for the diver who wants basic digital images that are exposed properly?

Does the IKELITE AF35 automatically focus the image as if one was shooting with a digital camera on land? (this is what I am looking for).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or feedback!

AMW

Hmm, I may be confused by your question, but here goes anyway.

Strobes don't directly help the camera focus, unless you are using the modelling light feature that the DS125 has. I don't think the AF35 has this feature though.

Indirectly, strobes can assist with focus because they enable you to use a small aperture for a particular shot, which gives you greater depth of field, i.e. more of your shot in focus.

Some cameras do use their own flash to provide some light to enable their autofocus to operate in low light situations, but an external underwater strobe will ignore this activity, and will only fire when you actually take the shot, by which time the focussing (for better or worse) is all over.

If your camera is struggling to focus there are a couple of things you can do:

- ensure you pre-focus your shots - half press the shutter until the camera gets a focus lock. If the lock is not on what you want to photograph, recompose the shot and try again.

- use a focus light or the modelling light feature of your strobe. You can use a standard dive torch as a focus light, but the problem with these is that they don't turn off when the actual shot is being taken, and can result in hot spots in the resulting image. The modelling light on the DS125 turns off when the strobe triggers, so causes no problems.

The AF35 is designed to be very easy to use (at least as easy as an underwater strobe can be), so it may suit you better than the DS125, but it doesn't have the same power, and probably doesn't have the same coverage. You may well be better of persevering with the DS125.

Just my 4c worth!

Yes, a camera should shoot the same way topside as underwater...well, maybe <_<

The problem with exposure using the DS125 may be the result of not having a method for controlling the DS125 output. Topside, the popup flash talks to the camera and the picture is exposed properly. Underwater, with the strobe, that camera does not talk to the strobe and you need a manual controller to set the strobe flash output(do the talking)

So the problem would be the camera not being able to control the flash output.

With the AF35 you get a built in slave sensor with some kind of manual controller. The slave sensor sees the popup flash and the strobe fires at a level set by the controller dial (set by you).

So yeah, I'd add a controller to the DS125, an AF35 is just a dummied down package of the same thing...sort of...