TTL Sensor or Sync Cord

I recently got an Ikelite housing for my Canon G1. I thought I was good to go for bringing back some astonishing photos of my new hobbie until my instructor told me that I would get much better results with an external stobe for the camera. I've settled on the Ikelite DS-125 but cannot determine from information I've obtained whether to go with a sync cord or TTL sensor. Can any of you old hands out there shine some light (no pun intended) on this for me? Some considerations would be simplicity of rigging up the gear, reliability of connections, reliability of operation, extra maintenance, manipulating or handling the rig underwater and any other strength or weaknesses of the two options.

The G1 has no provision to utilize a sync cord. It must be used with either the Manual or TTL controllers. See following URL:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/5can_g1.html

Thanks... that will save me a costly mistake. Now all I gotta do is research on manual or TTL sensor control.

go manual

Karl

Ditto.

This is a response to Karl and Dave. Thanks for your input guys. I checked your websites. Needless to say, I'm impressed! Understand though, that I'm just now an entry level green hand at U/W photography. I would really like to unwaveringly take your adviced and "go manual" gents, but would one of you be willing to explain why? Also, Karl, at your website you post photos of your rig and also Kimberly's. Her's is labeled as having a manual controller and yet I recognise a part of it to be an Ikelite #4100.5 TTL slave sensor. Am I wrong? I am certainly still confused.

Anyway you guys keep up the good work and thanks again for your input.

Lou Holder

PS I had a 1992 FLHTC (loved it)

Hello Lou,

Good eye.......I changed the text, but not the photo of her gear. We still have three digital sensors, but Kimberly and I use the manual controllers now. We get more consistant results. The sensor yields the best results for us when there isn't any ambient light (background "blue") in the shot, ie: macro and close fish shots.

We usually set the manual controller on -.5 or -1.0, Shutter speed of 1/125 and 5.6 F stop for starters. Get close and shoot up!

Give it a try.........Karl

I use the manual controller on my primary strobe and the TTL on my secondary. See the other post on the manual controller, but essentially I think it takes fewer shots using manual control and LCD review to get a better exposure than you can get using TTL (and bracketing)