Does the camera know the strobe is there?

A friend has a sea and sea ys-90 duo which I had a sync cable for to the ikelite housing. I realise in this configuration that I can only do manual flash exposure (no TTL). I have a few questions:

The camera does not show a strobe is attached....would that also be the case if a ttl compatible ikelite ds strobe was used or would it then detect the strobe.(strobe does fire though)

With the camera not detecting the strobe I assume I have to use full manual control and not Tv or Av. If I had a TTL compatible strobe can I then use Tv and Av mode with the flash light taken into account?

Sorry trying to get my head around this, have been looking through Martin Edges book and getting a bit confused as in alot of example shot they are shot on film with strobe set to TTL.

Am trying to understand whether I need to get the TTL strobes of just go manual, the housing has the gizmos for ike ttl but I can get 2x110a for the same price as 1xds160

Need some pro's and cons and advice please guys...

Rgds

Duncan

With my Ikelite 5D with 2x DS-125's the camera does know the flash is there. You can tell the camera knows there is a flash because it will not let you select a shutter speed above 1/200.

Comparing the YS-110a to a DS-160 is not a very good comparison. The DS-160 is a much larger/more powerful strobe. If you want to compare the YS-110a to an ikelite strobe, you should be comparing them to the DS-51 or compare the YS-250 to the DS-160.

Hi

I use a nikon d40x digital inside a nikon n90 film housing. My camera never detects the strobe. I have an ikelite ai and have used a nikonos sb105 strobe also. Shoot on manual on camera and set strobes to 1/2 power for shots to 1 metre and full power for shots beyond 1 metre.

camera settings RAW must be used- vivid color settings to emphasize the yellows and reds.

asa 100 - film speed 100 - f 13 for sunny days f 11 cloudy days or deep diving (Typical warm water visibility and lighting conditions)

The reason for these settings i get very sharp pics with lots of depth of field. If it is dark i can adjust exposure on computer. But not alot of adjustments are needed. So little adjustments are needed i haven't and probably won't buy a proper housing for the camera. For the 2 trips a year i do i can't justify it and my pics are better than alot of what i have seen on the trips i do as most use ttl and let the camera pick the settings. Your strobe has slightly less power so for your strobe setting i would use 1/2 power to 3/4 of a metre and full power beyond 1 metre. Your arm is 1 metre so if you can't touch it full power on strobe.

No - the camera does not take the strobe into account in the exposure when you select Tv or Av. The camera's light meter ONLY sets the aperture or shutterspeed based on the ambient light. If there is a TTL flash attached, the camera may limit the shutterspeed to the camera's x-sync speed (usually around 1/200th).

If you have a TTL capable system (ike housing + ike strobe for example) then the camera uses preflashes to adjust the flash power milliseconds before the shutter opens.

Cheers

James

I use INON strobes, but I think that it goes like this: if you have cable connections, then the camera detects the strobes and sets a limit on the shutter speed. If the internal strobe fires, the camera also sets a max. sync. speed. If the internal strobe is linked optically to the external strobe, then it is not registered by the camera, and the camera may record odd strobe behaviour as the internal strobe is inhibited by the light output from the external strobe when it is used in optical TTL mode.

Does this help?

Tim

I use INON strobes, but I think that it goes like this: if you have cable connections, then the camera detects the strobes and sets a limit on the shutter speed. If the internal strobe fires, the camera also sets a max. sync. speed. If the internal strobe is linked optically to the external strobe, then it is not registered by the camera, and the camera may record odd strobe behaviour as the internal strobe is inhibited by the light output from the external strobe when it is used in optical TTL mode.

 

Does this help?

 

Tim

 

Thanks guys, makes sense....just picked up a DS-125 on ebay so will have it once my friend comes to Sharm early Feb....need to get rid of all this snot so I can get back in the water......

Duncan