Oly5050 and DS-125

I have an oly 5050, Ike case, and a DS-125 strobe with the Ike slave TTL sensor, as well as an YS-50 strobe set on slave.

I have been using my camera on about six dives now and I am still having lots of problems with over exposed and under exposed pics. I need some help with some questions I couldnt find covered here.

I have my camera set up as specified on the splashdowndivers web page.

My first question I have is that when the 5050 is in slave mode I assume that its not doing any pre-flash. So the slave TTL sensor should be set to non-preflash. Sound correct?

I cant seem to get any consistancy in pictures. I have the best luck using Macro. When I try with super Macro I seem to almost always overexpose. I tried turing of the YS-50 but it didnt seem to help.

I do get some decent pictures. On the last three dives I shot about 100 shots and got about 10 that seemed to have the correct exposers.

Also I am seeing alot of green in my pics.

Basicly I am wondering if I am having sync issues with my stobes. I tried taking a picture of the strobes with the camera on slave and they show the strobe flash in the pic. So it would seem they are syncing correctly.

Any ideas?

Much appreciated,

Hi Rob,

First order of business: Take some photos in your living-room. Fire off the strobe at an object 3 or 4 feet away at diffferent power settings on the strobe. If the strobe isn't syncing, then you will be able to tell.

Make sure that the camera's internal flash is blocked so it doesn't trick you into thinking you have flash working.

Let us know the results.

The green cast will depend entirely on the water you are diving in. Where are you located?

Lastly, Welcome to Wetpixel!!!

Cheers

James

Ive done a bit of that around the yard and the house, but Ill try it again. Im in Seattle WA and I dive the puget sound area. There has been alot of algae in the water so I guess that explains the green in the photos. I do have the camera flash blocked so that it reflects back to the TTL sensor on the DS-125 strobe.

Is there a recomended way to process those green photos? I have photoshop 6. I read something about applying a magenta filter in photoshop but I couldnt get it to work very well.

I'll let you know how the around the house strobe results work.

Thanks,

Rob,

There could be a lot of places where things could be going wrong. Are you using your strobes in TTL or manual? I'm not familiar with the YS-50 - does it have TTL and/or manual settings?

I can't speak for the YS-50. But the DS-125 with the manual controller can be operated 2 different ways usings camera slave mode.

1. Set manual controller slave sensor to look for preflash even though there is none and set strobe to TTL. Then set the flash power with the slave sensor settings. This is the way the combination was designed to work.

2. Set manual controller slave sensor to look for preflash even though there is none and set strobe to 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or full power. When using the combination this way the slave sensor settings and the strobes TTL circutry have no effect.

If I were having problems, I would try using the camera set to f:4 s 1/00 and slave mode with slave power set to the lowest level i.e. 1 and all other settings at default. Then I would set the strobe to 1/2 power and shoot some shots at stationary objects about 3 feet away adjusting only the positioning of the strobe. If I could get good shots this way but not with the strobe set to TTL I would suspect the slave controller and/or strobe in TTL mode is not working properly.

Also, you mentioned you have the output blocked on the PT-015. I don't know how you did this, but the best way is to sandwich a piece of aluminum foil between the plates on the diffuser. This way you will get lotts of reflected flash to drive your slave. However, I don't think this is where your problem is.

The YS50 does not do wireless TTL; it will simply provide a full dump and overexpose photos if close.

Camera set to slave mode does NOT provide a pre-flash, and DOES NOT provide TTL; it simply provides a low power flash to trip an external slave strobe in this mode. Slave strobe must be operated as manual either with Manual Controller or manual settings on the strobe with TTL controller.

Manual Controller must NOT be set to ignore pre-flash because there is no preflash if camera is in slave mode. Controller would ignore preflash, wait for the regular flash, then reset itself when no regular flash came within the prescribed time.

Let me clarify a few things so we are all on the same page:

I have a Ikelite single handle housing # 6130.51 (I use the Ikelite provided opaque camera flash suppersor)

I have a Ikelite #4065 SubStrobe 125 (DS-125) with diffuser (I havent been using the diffuser), I have the DS-125 set to TTL.

The DS-125 is hooked to an Ikelite #4100.5 wireless TTL Slave Sensor (currently set to non-preflash mode)

I dont have a manual controler for the DS-125...

I also have a Sea&Sea YS-50 that I use on slave mode. Its not wired to the cammera in any way. I meant it to be fill light and dont use it for super macro shots. I tend to use it for regular and plain macro shots. But as you would expect it dumps full light and tends to over expose pictures. Is it just to much light for a fill light?

Just shooting around the house the strobes are firing off just fine, but any close shots are washed out even if I dont use the YS-50.

Forgeting the YS-50 for the moment, should I have the Oly 5050 camera flash set to slave?

I guess what I am asking is what should I have my camera set on to get TTL to work with the DS-125?

Thanks for the help,

SubStrobe 125 will do whatever is set when triggered by Sensor if camera in slave mode. SubStrobe in TTL setting will produce a little blip of light like it sees from the camera which is not bright enough for photos. SubStrobe in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or full power will do just that for the same reason.

The YS-50 can do nothing be blast away because it is simply a manual strobe with a slave sensor in this situation.

If you want TTL you must set the camera to provide TTL. The #4100.5 TTL sensor works just like a fibre optic sync cord, watching the strobe in the camera. Following URLs explains use:

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

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

Well that explains it then. Thanks Ike for your help!

Ill try it all out on my dives tommorow.

I woke up in the middle of the night realizing my above post was wrong. I said strobe in TTL would produce full dump thinking it would see no quench. I edited the post a few minutes ago correcting it to say strobe in TTL setting would produce a small blip of light like it saw from the camera. Very embarrassing............