use of internal flash in Ikelite housing

I have rebel xti housed in Ikelite. Lastly I have discovered that it is possible to use the internal flash. The flash can be activated by using the auto mode of the camera and covering the lens (it will then pop-up inside the housing, though not to full extent, but enough.

Has anyone tried it?

What is the point? Are you trying to avoid buying strobes? I hope you are not expecting quality light by doing this.

What is the point? Are you trying to avoid buying strobes? I hope you are not expecting quality light by doing this.

2 points, actually. The first is not to carry the 2 heavy ikelite ds160 that I have

The second point is to use this to trigger a slave strobe.

The problem is once the flash is up, you have no more control over it - there's no way to push it back down, so you're stuck with it for the rest of the dive. Why not use a sync cable since the Ikelite housing has a connector built in?

The problem is once the flash is up, you have no more control over it - there's no way to push it back down, so you're stuck with it for the rest of the dive. Why not use a sync cable since the Ikelite housing has a connector built in?

You can disable the flash from the camera.

Sometimes you want to do off camera strobe frames, where the strobes are near or behind your subject, and you are far and need some way to trigger them as slaves.

Yeah, I suppose it could have a use somewhere. I have a 40D and I didn't know you could disable it from the camera. I just don't think I'd like the harshness of the direct flash, but I don't even think it would be seen because the port would completely block it, especially if you're using a big 8" dome.

Presumably this will also give you a way to use optical triggering for non Ikelite strobes, much like their compact cases. I thought the camera flash didn't have room to open in the Ikelite housing and this was a pretty big negative for me when looking at the Ikelite option, as I already have Sea and Sea strobes which can only be triggered in manual mode using an electrical cable with the Ikelite housing.

Yoav,

you are a lucky person as the internal strobe of my Ikelite D90 housing don't open enough that the internal strobe will fire.

This excludes the option of using optical triggered slave strobes....

You may buy a slave strobe, optical cable and a mounting block for the camera to trigger the slave strobe,

as it is normal on compact cameras. To avoid that the light of the internal strobe will disturb use either:

1° masking tape to cover the area in front of the internal strobe, leaving only a pinhole where the optical cable mounting block sit

2° cover the internal strobe with a piece of black fully exposed 35mm film as this will still trigger the strobe, but no visible light escape the housing.

I am not sure but pretty sure that the INON D-2000 strobe will handle the strobe from the internal strobe and provide you pseudo TTL using a

optically triggered slave strobe. Other brands of slave strobes may work also, a try will answer this question to you.

Chris