whats better ttl or fiber optic?

The Matthew Heinrichs solution was made to replace the Olympus TTL port, if you have one on the PT-015. Otherwise, I like option 1. Use one strobe in TTL mode and the other as fill light in manual.

What I dont understand is why someone doesnt make a slave trip that uses the inbuilt strobe light from a camera and creates the 2 wire trip necessary to fire a strobe in manual mode.

They do, several kinds. There are limitations.

TTL via fibre optic is a very neat solution that has many advantages over cables. Not using TTL (i.e. not firing the internal flash on TTL and thus the strobes) seems to be missing a major advantage of this setup. For me the biggest disadvantage of using fibre optics is that it limits your choice of strobes.

 

Although that would/will change when a non-Japanese fibre optic compatible strobe arrives. IMO Japanese strobes of the last few years (since YS350) have been chasing power in smaller and smaller units at the expense of quality of light. This is a non-issue for macro, but more significant for wide angle.

 

Alex

Wired TTL vs. optical TTL, that is the question, al least for me.

I'm blocked about this deep dilemma because each one has either advantages and disadvantages. Just help me to make a good choice. What follows is my little contribution.

I own a Canon PS A620 with its OEM house and a Epoque 230S strobe. This was just a starter set I enjoyed a lot, but it has bunch of limitations. One that annoyed me a lot was absolute lack of any TTL control what means too many lost opportunities. Deffinitively I want to upgrade to a G10 and its 10Bar housing. But what strobe choose?

Wired TTL solution goes to a Canon brand housed strobe. This is an economic and convenient solution: Speedlite 220EX and 10Bar housing kit including e-TTL sync cable is the cheapest set. Although this strobe was not designed for UW photography purposes offers a very valuable true e-TTL with a GN equivalent to what offer the next candidates, works topside (2 for 1) and it packs in a very compact size and weight. But this don't come without dissadvantages: Not aiming light, limited if any WA coverage, more O-rings to worry about... Of course there are more poweful and sophisticated housed Canons and other, housed or not, brands, but they are out my budget. Did I miss something?

Optical solutions are three indeed: Sea & Sea YS-110 alpha and the Inons D-2000 and Z-240. Connector for sync cable in the S&S and Z-240 only give emulated (not true) TTL if an external (and expensive!) converter or circuitry (Ikelite housings) is intercaled somwhere in the way of signal (more o-rings!). I say emulated because digital TTL protocols can be only emulated by independent brands as these protocols are absolute industrial secret. The same is valid for optical TTL being another kind of emulation, even if both converters and opticals work marvelously!

Having into account that I want to do a further upgrade for a wide angle kit, perhaps lens and dome, in one or two years, what will be the expert's choice? I have to admit that I'm slightly tilted for the cheap set, but I don't like to pay twice for wrong decissions!

Best regards.