Greetings all,
I just purchased an Ikelite housing + DS50 strobe for my Sony DSC 707 digital point-n-shoot. The Ikelite housing features a TTL sensor with a bulkhead connection to the DS50, which then works in auto/TTL mode.
In dry testing with the setup I noticed that I obtained blurry pix caused by very long shutter speeds. I had been using aperture mode set to F8 and with ISO set to 100. The exposure level was correct, but obviously too blurry. Ikelite mentions exactly this issue in one of their FAQs.
So, I went to an entirely manual setup. I chose F8 and a more reasonable shutter speed (I think 1/40th). This worked just great. Good exposure, no blurriness. Cool.
The problem is, with these settings in a moderately-lit room (sunny outside, but scant direct sunlight entering room), the LCD doesn't light. My understanding/assumption is that the Sony 'knows' that there isn't enough light at F8&1/40th to light the scene so the LCD obligingly shows almost total darkness. When I half-press the shutter the LCD (briefly, during autofucus) illuminates, allowing me to compose and shoot. I expect that this behavior would be the same underwater, in similarly darkened environments. In fact, the behavior is evident even when the camera is un-housed and using only its own flash.
Everything seems to be working fine, but this issue confounds me. Composing will be difficult without an illuminated LCD, and trying to compose with the shutter half pressed will be a real challenge, especially since the LCD only lights briefly, during autofucus, then turns back to semi-black. Plus, what if I half-press then need to change distance to subject?
Any guidance would be appreciated. Again, I don't have any reason to think that any of the equipment isn't working exactly as designed. Hopefully, newbie that I am, I'm simply missing something small.
