DECISIONS....4040?, CP5000? OR G2?

To be fair, my CP5000 Ikelite housing arrived at my dealer today.

Yeehaw! I hope you enjoy it.

I posted some CP5000 shooting tips here:

http://www.reefpix.org/iketest

HTH

Cheers

James Wiseman

[Edited on 5-16-2002 by jamesw]

Wow. I know the Ikelite housing is made to fit the camera, but I am amazed at how they managed to access all controls. Welp, I finally have all of my gear - batteries, lens, adaptor, housing, strobe - can't wait to get it wet! I was up until 3:00 messing around with it.

James, I read your tips on the CP5000, but I am still a little confused about the TTL and strobe use. I can't seem to get the strobe DS125 with TTL cord to fire with the internal speedlight disabled. Is this possible? What settings in the CP5000 should I use for the speedlights? I figure you can adjust exposure control on the camera for most situations after everything is setup correctly.

Hi Krash (What's your name again, I don't think we've met),

You didn't get a sync cord with your strobe???? I would recommend using the sync cord but that's just my personal preference.

I don't have any experience using Ike's TTL Slave Sensor. So you're on your own, or perhaps Ike can advise.

For tips on setting your aperture/flash options/etc, check out the "Camera Specific Settings" post in the "Techniques and Tips" forum here at Wetpixel. I posted a tip there on using the Nikon 990. The 5000 isn't any different. Shoot in full manual (M) or Aperture Priority (A).

Let me know if you have any specific questions - your questions now are a bit broad to answer without writing a book and I just don't have time for that today cause I have a deadline at work.

I highly recommend you try out your setup WELL BEFORE your vacation. Try it in the pooll or even on your kitchen table.

Cheers

James

Yeah, I have a TTL sync cord. I will check out the specific camera settings - didn't notice that.

I must have shot 250 photos last night A friend of mine is getting certified for our trip. The instructor is going to let me hop in the pool with them and mess around with the camera.

Oh, my name is Chris and I am from Kansas City - not much diving done here!

Krash indicates he has a sync cord. Confusion is that the Coolpix 5000 always produces a preflash regardless of the settings.

ike

The pre-flash does not bother me. I am as new to the CP5000 as I am to UW - whole new setup for me.

I suppose a more specific question would be what settings (auto, forced flash, off, etc) can you use for the internal flash and still fire the strobe TTL? Leave the speedlight setting on auto?

The Nikon manual doesn't have much to say about external lights. On a positive note, I have been able to get the exposure I am looking for from macro all the way up.

OK, sigh.

Go to the menu

Go to Speedlite Control

Set to Internal and External. (I think this is the setting - I will confirm when I get home later.

Go to the back of the camera.

Push the button to disable the internal flash.

What you should see on the LCD screen is a lightning bolt next to a lightning bolt in a circle with a slash through it.

That means that the internal speedlite is disabled and the external speedlite (whatever's connected to the hotshoe) is active. You will still get a preflash.

If your shots are coming out overexposed:

Go to the menu

Go to speedlite control

Set Compensation -1.0 or even more

What this will do is "turn down" the duration of the flash.

HTH

James

Also forgot to add (From my website):

The camera as it comes "from the factory" uses a feature called "Shot Confirmation" where the camera fires a small flash "blip" to tell the subject that a shot has been taken.  If you don't want to tell the fish that you just took a photo of them (with the corresponding drain on your battery) then go to "Speedlite Control - Shot Confirmation - Off" to disable this feature.

Thanks. I was never able to get the LCD to display that. Brain fart or something.

Following URL has generic suggestions:

Digital Camera Questions and Suggestions

Hmm. I think there is something wrong with my camera. It will not recognize an external flash. I have tried the DS125 strobe and another external flash and it will not show the 2nd icon on the monitor. I can only get the external to fire when the internal fires as well.

Got it. The pins on the sync cord were hanging up badly. I was afraid that I was going to break something to get it fully seated in the hot shoe. It works fine.

Woohoo! Enjoy.

Cheers

James

Just to let you all know there is a longer

lasting battery available.

The standered battery is rated at

650 mha.

A replacement that can be bought at

Focus Camera Inc. is rated at 800 mha.

Phone # 888-221-0828

The Item # VPRENEL 1 Vidpro rechargeable EN-EL1 battery F/Nikon.

The price is $34.99

Should keep you wet longer!

Marc

Originally posted by derway

This is a great idea.  We can get together a list, of the aspects that matter, and we can give rough values to those factors, for various cameras and/or housings.

 

Then, all someone has to do, is plug in their own personal weightings, for the relative importance of each factor, and out pops their best choice.

 

We could probably even turn it into a spread sheet.

 

[..]

 

Once the list is there, we can each rate our own cameras, given what we know of them in real life use, and what we may know of others, in comparison.

I think some of you might already know http://www.digideep.com. I would be really interested in hosting your spreadsheet and offering the opprtunity for registered divers to rate etc. I can offer you to develop a webform and everything else that is necessary. We are currently overhauling the camera section specs and were exactly looking for features that are important for diving photography.

Please tell me what you think about it

cheers .oOo. Andi

Hey there Andi.

I poked around a couple cameras and a couple housings on your site, and it looks like many of the features, in our "important points for uw use" list.

So, the spread sheet could be a cool interface, to the data you have, and will collect. The user can set up weights for relative feature importance, and get their custom rating system that way.

Boy, great stuff, but a LOT of work, collecting just all the technical specs, let alone rating all the cameras..

Hi Andi,

Yes I love the site and I think it would be a great place to host the spreadsheet.

By the way, did you see my note on your "Who knows Japanese" thread?

--Nick--

If you interested take a look at the

classifieds section of wetpixel forum.

I have ad placed there.

Marc