Canon A570IS

My wife and I recently returned from a week on the Belize Aggressor which gave me my first opportunity to use the Canon A 570 IS with two Inon D2000 strobes. Great set-up! I used it on the trip in full manual mode with sTTL. I spent some time on the trip trying to figure out how to turn down the internal flash to save battery life and shorten recycle time while staying in sTTL. Didn't figure it out on the trip but have since went to manual on the strobes and brought the recycle time down from 7-9 seconds (review/write/recycle) to about 3 seconds. This was accomplished by turning the internal flash down to 1/3 power. Match the strobe and camera f stops and the exposures are spot on. There is a "Belize 2008" folder on our Zenfolio site for those interested.

Jeff

I currently use a Nikonos V an would like to move into digital. Under consideration is a package with a Canon A570IS, Canon Wp-DC12 housing and Inon D-2000S Strobe. Will I be happy with the quality of photos with this combination? Would the Inon UFL-165AD Fisheye and UCL165AD Macro be worth considering? Does anyone have examples taken with this combination? I have also been looking at the Canon G9 with an Ikelite housing, but it looks like the Inon supplimental lenses may not work correctly with this. Any thoughts out there? Thanks!

Hi and welcome,

I posted a couple of pics from that combo. Do a search in this subforum.

I just bought that combination on Amazon for 285 dollars. I have been led to believe it is a decent little camera. I already have the Inon lenses and D2000 for a Oly set I have not even got wet yet--lol--so, I will have two toys to play with. I got this set because it has manual control and a little more flexibility and range than the Oly 770SW rig. I do know that Inon, page 2 of their new page under Inon America, shows that they support this combo and show it rigged with the 165AD fisheye. I may be wrong but I am expecting some good photos from that lens. Your right, the G9 will not accept the Inon AD lenses, that is what I have been told--to bad because that is a no go for me.

crawdad

Here is the link to the sample pic:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22044

I think you'll like the set-up. Shoot in manual, turn the internal strobe down to 1/3 power and use your D2000 in manual mode. You'll have recycle times under 3 seconds. To use sTTL you will have to leave the internal strobe at full power which drains the 2x AA's and increases the recycle time to a 7-9 second range. I did find that the sTTL was pretty spot on though. I have been dealing with some power issues along with other folks who have bought the camera. If you throw in nimh's that have been sitting around a couple weeks you'll get a low battery warning fairly quickly. With freshly charged 2500 mah Energizers I just ripped off 160 full flash largest jpeg size shots. I'm considering a few low discharge nimh's specifically for the camera as my D2000's work great with the regular nimh's.

All and all I'm very satisfied with the camera. Camera and housing for under $300 is great too!

Jeff

Just to add to the previous thread. I shot another 160 (total 320 now) images tonight with the same batteries. Still no low battery warning. I need to buy a tester/meter and see if I may have a bad cell or two ( I have 30 2500 mah Energizers). My unscientific study proves to me that I need to charge batteries once I arrive at our vacation destination and we should be fine. With 320 shots on the batteries the recycle time is still under 3 seconds which is what you should expect when shooting in manual mode camera and strobe(s). Not bad at all for a +- $130 Point and Shoot. This could also justify some low discharge nimh's if you haven't bought all the batteries you need.

Jeff

Some additional information:

Battery review

Thanks everyone fr your help. It looks like this system will fill my needs.

Just to add to the previous thread. I shot another 160 (total 320 now) images tonight with the same batteries. Still no low battery warning. I need to buy a tester/meter and see if I may have a bad cell or two ( I have 30 2500 mah Energizers). My unscientific study proves to me that I need to charge batteries once I arrive at our vacation destination and we should be fine. With 320 shots on the batteries the recycle time is still under 3 seconds which is what you should expect when shooting in manual mode camera and strobe(s). Not bad at all for a +- $130 Point and Shoot. This could also justify some low discharge nimh's if you haven't bought all the batteries you need.

 

Jeff

Don't forget, the A570 allows the CHDK hack - giving you RAW, a live histogram, battery meter ( in percent or actual volts), and more.

Turns an impressive sub $300 (camera + housing) package into a "best bang for the buck" contender

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

Regards

Anyone have specifics on the hack for allowing RAW on the 570? I'm also looking for sample images from the camera shot with the Inon wide angle lenses.

I'm wanting to freedive with a compact camera/housing/wide angle setup and wondered about the CHDK RAW features - amount of time to write a RAW file to the card, memory buffer, etc.

FD, I can't give you any help on the hack as I haven't used it and don't know yet if I will?? If you take a look at my Zenfolio account you will find a Belize 08' folder. Most of the reef scene images were taken with the Inon UFL-165. I shoot the largest jpegs I can and use iPhoto 08' and it gives me the results I like. I also have the wide angle lens from Inon but it vignettes some. You may want to see if you can borrow both lenses and see which would work for your application. I really like the FE and don't even take the WA along when diving.

Write times are really up in the air with this camera. I use strobes so I can turn the internal strobe down by 2/3 rds and have write times just under 3 seconds. Using full internal flash you can expect re-cycle times in the 7-9 seconds with jpegs (more with raw I would imagine). Fresh batteries and the number of shots on existing batteries will effect the times.

Not trying to put you off with this camera because I really like mine but... if your looking to bust 3-5 images (with full flash) on a breath hold dive (with raw) you may have problems... Or I might see you on a HD documentary

Raw hack with no flash or 1/3 flash you might get 3-4 second re-cycle times (on fresh batteries) and it will rise from there.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

FD,

I can't comment ont the A570 as I shoot the A710 but JB's times seem spot on w/ the A710 (2xAA also) so I suspect they'd be correct with a570 also. His advice on RAW + Freediving is probably pretty good too. There are other a series powershots that use 4x AA batteries that might be a tad quicker (and bulkier).

As far as the hack, I don't always use the RAW function (processing work goes way up) but I find myself ALWAYS using the live histogram and battery meter. It's nice to know I have 2.473 volts left. Makes it easy to spot a bad cell also.

Regards,

TR

I would use flash very little if at all - The idea being to utilize the camera/housing/and it now seems the UFL-165 lens as a reportage type setup underwater while freediving.

Having the ability to shoot raw when needed is one of the biggest draws for me to this compact setup. I know others think the idea of ripping through frames is the way to shoot, but I come from the old school of photojournalism - a skillful photographer knows when to capture the decisive moment - not pray and spray.

My biggest concern is the write times in raw mode and what kind of buffer is there on this camera. I would entertain one of the other canon p/s cameras as long as it is compact and can take the UFL165.

Any thoughts?

Doesn't the A570 have a slave flash mode? You could put it on level 1 out of 10. Then the camera should recycle in about 1 second. I've done this with my Oly SP-310 and it works like a charm.

Good to hear that the RAW hack works on Digic III cameras. My undestanding, though, is that you would have to reload the hack every time you format the card. Othewise, you'll need to delete the photos manually.

No slave flash mode that I could find. The 570 is a pretty bare bones camera. Bargain at the current price.

Jeff

I have spent the day trying to install the latest CHDK build, with no success. I did get the previous one to work, so at I figured out the firmware version on mine was 101a. I did some test shots, tried to convert them with Adobe's DNG converter...no deal. Downloaded the dng4ps2-0.2.2beta-23 converter from the link on the CHDK site, and voila! Worked like a charm, and then I could open the files in ACR. I really like the live histogram, battery remining, and highlight overexposure (aka Zebra mode). Not sure if it will ever get much use U/W.

Cheers,

Marli

Can anyone tell me how to get the A570 to work in manual mode with my Ikelite DS125 flash? I love this flash and have had it for a few years, but when I use it with the A570 (in a Canon housing), triggered by the Ikelite manual controller, I can't get the camera in manual mode to trigger the DS125.

I want to do this so as to have control over both the aperture and shutter and to be able to cut the internal flash to 1/3 power to save on recycle time. (The DS125 recycles just about instantly, so the camera flash is the limiting factor.) However, no matter what I do, with the camera in manual mode, with the flash set to go off and, in fact, going off, it just won't trigger the external flash. It triggers it fine in the auto modes, so I've ended up using AV, where I can at least set the aperture. But that doesn't give me the control I want over the shutter speed to adjust the ambient exposure, and, just as bad, the recycle time is much longer than it needs to be because you just can't cut the internal flash down that far outside of manual mode.

Does anyone know what's going on here? To my mind, a flash is a flash and the slave in the manual controller should pick it up no matter what mode the camera is in. I've cranked the internal flash up to full power and it still won't trigger the DS125 as long as the camera is in manual mode. I'm a photographer by trade, so I'm pretty familiar with these concepts, but I'm obviously missing something here. Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jim

Hi Jim,

I am not familiar with the settings on your strobe, but I have an Epoque 150alpha slave connected via a fibre optic. I had the same issues.....Worked in auto, P , Tv and Av but not in Manual....I nearly threw it against the wall.....

Auto modes fires a preflash and Manual DOES NOT.....On my strobe it has 2 settings, Pre-flash and Manual. If I am in Manual mode on camera I have to set the strobe to Manual, If on auto (pre-flash fired) I have to set it to preflash...

I suspect the same is happening with yours, the strobe is expecting a pre-flash which never comes so ignores the main flash...

Let me know if this helps

Duncan

Bingo! That's it exactly. Works fine on Manual now that I set the flash controller to "non-preflash." Guess I never really grasped what the switches behind that mysterious plug were. Thanks so much, Duncan.

Jim