Strobe controller

I am looking to move from film (Nikonos V) to digital and may go with the Oly C5050, PT015 and ikelite strobe setup. My question is about which strobe controller to use. Ikelite has a manual slave controller that allows for 10 strobe settings and they have a TTL slave controller. I would like to be able to do both (manual and TTL). Anyone using this setup or have any general advice?

I have both. I hook up my primary strobe to the manual controller and the secondary to the ttl slave. Works great! I've never missed TTL. I can do TTL when I use it with my CP 5000 but the manual controller is just better.

I have both. I hook up my primary strobe to the manual controller and the secondary to the ttl slave. Works great!  I've never missed TTL. I can do TTL when I use it with my CP 5000 but the manual controller is just better.

Can you change the ratio of the lights with it wired this way?

I would like to be able to do both (manual and TTL).

Depends on what strobe setup you go for as well.

-With the DS50 and the manual controller you can only do manual. Combined with the TTL controller only TTL and a manual full dump.

-With the DS125 and the manual controller only manual. Combined with the TTL controller you can do TTL and manual with 4 step control (full, 1/2. 1/4 and 1/8).

The last combo is what I've got and is the only one that will allow you do have TTL and (coarse) manual control.

I've just ordered a second DS125 with a manual controller and will be hooking it up like Dave does. Herb, if they're both DS125s, then apart from diffusers and varying distance and aim, I guess you could switch the strobe (that's connected to the TTL sensor) to one of the 4 manual settings to get ratioed lighting.

Ike tells me they are working on a controller that does both. But they don't have it yet. You have to go with L & M's digital ROC to get that. To tell the truth I thought I would like to have TTL but the manual controller used with the LCD review is much better. I do much better than I ever did with TTL.

Forgive my ignorance, but I am relatively new to the underwater photo world and need to clarify that I can use TTL with my

Ikelite Ds-125 strobe and my Olympus Housing for my C5050. I have recently upgraded from a C3040 but had an Ike

housing. I am assuming that the TTL will work with the Oly housing as well? Or do I need to buy a manual controller?

Thanks for any input, I need it!

TTL controller should work fine with the 5050 even if it isn't in an Ikelite housing............

I have played around with the TTL sensor with an Olympus camera in their housing. I was not too impressed with the results. Seems to be two main problems.

1) The sensor is super sensitive (even when set to minimum). This means that if the strobe is angled in toward the camera lens, as you would do for macro shots, the sensor detects the main strobe light firing and the TTL fails. I guess you could try covering over part of the sensor window to reduce the sensitivity. Anybody else have this experience as macro is the one area where TTL should work well.

2) Over exposure. When I compare the exposure of the cameras inbuilt flash to that of the Ikelite strobe my judgement would be that the TTL sensor tends to over expose all macro/close up shots. Again anyone else have this experience? I may add that the camera was set in fully auto mode!

Would love to hear other users opinion about this.

The manual sensor on the other hand works very well. Gives you complete control of the exposure and would seem to be the much better choice as it will also be great for wide angle.

When I got my first digital camera, an Oly 3040, I went TTL with a DS125 strobe. I thought I could abbreviate my learning curve by letting the electronics do my thinking for me.

But I couldn't get the lighting to do what I wanted. Under reefs and in dark corners, TTL seemed to work ok. In the open the pictures tended to be overexposed.

So I went manual with the camera and got myself a manual controller. The quality and consistency of my pictures improved immediately.

Based on my experience, I think that manual is not only a better way to go but also easier to learn since one does not have to spend a lot of time figuring out what is going wrong.

Furthermore, I think that TTL may never work right for underwater photography since there is need for light to bring out colors that is independent of the need to get the proper brightness.

Thus my bottom line recommendation is to forget TTL. Go manual all the way. By so doing you will get better pictures from day one on.

For details on the settings I use, see the following URL.

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gall...up_settings.htm