G-3 with DS-125

I have the following new set-up:

G-3 in Ikelite housing with DS-125 and slave sensor.

I had to do a lot of adjustments under water becasue ALL my initial pics were totally overexposed. The flash was overpowering the entire image. I finally dialled down the flash power all the way and used the following camera settings for the shots you see posted on the below link. Please have a look and give your advice on othjer adjustments to improve the system coordination.

G-3 setings: Aperature Priority mode, evaluative meetering, continuous focus, Auto white balance, Exposure comp -1.

The negative exposure compensation combined with fully dialed down flash really concerns me and can't be normal.

G-3 pics of Red Sea

Many thanks for your input, Kirk

That you dial doen Exposure and/or Flash is normal. With my S40 I used -1 But flash comp all the way down seems strange. There are two things that i would try:

Maybe it can't handle the Internal and the ERxternal flash at once. Try to use the "exposed silde over internal flash trick".

Maybe the setting of the TTL sensor (its the TTL sensor right?) is to not copy the preflashes, so the exposure metrer measures only hte light of the internal flash and will fires much longer than it would be needed with the extrnal flash that fires only with the actual "real" flash.

But I'm just guessing

Simon

See following URLs for suggestions and most problems:

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

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

Most important is the sensor MUST be aimed at the camera so it does not see the strobe to which it is attached.

RedC_Diver, can you confirm that the G3 uses pre-flash. I have to use similar settings to the flash comp on my C5050 to get better exposures in TTL.

As Ike posted above in dig_definitions.html the pre-flash duration is very important for the camera to calculate exposure. There's a pre-flash duration switch in the defunct battery compartment of the TTL sensor. I did a few exposure tests with it to the left and right (looking at the back with the sensitivity dial on top). I found with the switch to the right (longer pre-flash) I had to step up the camera's flash by +0.3 to get a 'better' exposure than at 0.0. With the switch to left I had to step down to the min. level of -2.0 to prevent overexposure. Subject was at 60cm, tests done topside.

ReyeR, your post was extremely helpful, thank you. I will follow your lead with some controlled top-side tests to zero in on the correct settings.

Ike, thanks for the links and your direct reply.

and Simon, again thank you . I'm sure the issue is pre-flash intensity related as well.

See you on the bottom,