Scared, excited, all tingly inside, and need help!

I am pretty happy, all the “gear” showed up, in great/new condition as advertised. As pointed out I have defiantly jumped in to the deep end and have struggled some. But after a couple of days of playing with camera/housing/lenses I am feeling more confident.

Set-up: D100, Aquatica housing, YS90DX Strobes (2) with a single bulk head, and S&S duel sync cord

Have searched for threads but can’t find answers to:

(Based on shooting in Manual, probably jpeg fine to begin)

1. Do you put electricians tape over the whole D100 "Accessory Shoe" or just certain pins?

2. If just certain pins which ones? I assume the one that does not match the camera "Accessory Shoe"?

3. What do you set the D100 "Flash Mode" to?

4. S&S Manual says “set strobes to PRE” what about the "Slave" function?

5. Obviously looking for simple step by step help on setting up strobes. Once working I “comprehend” the exposure and power functions.

Let me say it is resources like this that have helped immensely in this new venture, thanks!

I

4. S&S Manual says “set strobes to PRE” what about the "Slave" function?

The "slave" setting is for using the strobe without connecting it to the housing.

A sensor on the front of the strobe detects the light from the strobe that _is_

attached, and fires at the same time.

This is useful if you can't or don't want to cable the 2nd strobe, or if you wish to place the second strobe remotely from the camera.

When you see pictures that show a diver holding a camera and have a bright flash light coming from their strobe, it was taken by setting the model's strobe to slave.

Thanks chrisg. If you play around enough you can get things to work. Got strobes to fire. Still curious about camera flash setting and strobes (YS90DX) fired on Pre and ON. Which setting should be used?

I don't know on your particular camera, but with mine, "on" is the correct setting. You can tell if its right just by taking some shots at short exposure times and seeing if the flash shows up.

Thanks chrisg.  If you play around enough you can get things to work.  Got strobes to fire.  Still curious about camera flash setting and strobes (YS90DX) fired on Pre and ON.  Which setting should be used?

Look inside the bulkheads on top of you housing (take off the black caps) and look inside.

Tell us how many contacts you see in each one.

Look at the wiring inside the housing. What kind of ribbon cable goes to each bulkhead - count the wires. Does one have 5 wires and one have 3?

With this information, we can help out.

Cheers

James

Buy surfing a couple of mfg sites I was able to figure out only one pin on the shoe needed to be taped and got the flashes to fire. In fact I spent two hours in the pool last night playing with the system. Few things I noted:

1. On manual, ISO 200, WB Cloudy, the meter seems to become irrelevant? For shots that looked good in the monitor the meter showed them way underexposed. Does anyone use the meter?

2. In a small, white bottom/sided pool setting the flashes over ½ just caused everything to wash out. I assume in open water the flash will be better absorbed?

3. My air consumption is going to go way up! With the dome port, shade, 2 strobes and long TLC arms there is a lot of drag. But even though slightly negative still handles pretty well underwater. Typical swimming tropic dive on a 80cu tank I get 1:10-1:20. How much time did packing a camera take out of your bottom time?

4. What are the advantages of shooting Aperture Priority over Manual?

5. Have extra everythings, batteries, o-rings, grease, etc… What are your “must have” items with a system like this? What are your “must follow” procedures when boat diving with your equipment?

4 days and counting to COZUMEL!!!

Typical swimming tropic dive on a 80cu tank I get 1:10-1:20. How much time did packing a camera take out of your bottom time?

To what depth? Mine varies +/- 5 minutes at times when I have a camera.

4 days and counting to COZUMEL!!!

Just got back on Saturday from a week down there. The weather at the beginning and end of the week was crappy, but it was still a great trip. Wish I was going back!!

Hi,

1. On manual, ISO 200, WB Cloudy, the meter seems to become irrelevant? For shots that looked good in the monitor the meter showed them way underexposed. Does anyone use the meter?

That sounds about right. The meter is calibrated so that the shot will come out with an average "brightness" of 18% gray. That works pretty well for above water shooting, but I used the meter on my S2 a lot for my first dives and found that the water was too light. I try to underexpose the meter reading by about 1 stop for a good blue water background.

2. In a small, white bottom/sided pool setting the flashes over ½ just caused everything to wash out. I assume in open water the flash will be better absorbed?

That totally depends on your subject. Check the guide number of your flashes and use the guide number calculation to get your flash power. Guide number(ft) = fstop / distance(ft) That will give you a good starting point for setting your flash. I usually start with the highest power and the highest F-stop I can get.

3. My air consumption is going to go way up! With the dome port, shade, 2 strobes and long TLC arms there is a lot of drag. But even though slightly negative still handles pretty well underwater. Typical swimming tropic dive on a 80cu tank I get 1:10-1:20. How much time did packing a camera take out of your bottom time?

You have to be a good diver before you can take your camera down. Don't allow yourself to get distracted by all the buttons and dials and endanger yourself or your dive buddy or the reef. Don't skip breath too much or you will get a headache (or worse). Your air consumption may go down or it may go up - it's hard to say.

4. What are the advantages of shooting Aperture Priority over Manual?

Manual - you get the exposure YOU want, not what the camera wants. If you DO shoot in A, you may want to dial in some compensation - see above. Use matrix metering.

5. Have extra everythings, batteries, o-rings, grease, etc… What are your “must have” items with a system like this? What are your “must follow” procedures when boat diving with your equipment?

Don't open the housing on the boat if you can help it. For Coz, you WON'T want to open your housings on the boat, believe me. Shooting w/ a D100 you should be able to go 5 dives shooting RAW w/ a 2 gig card or like 10 dives shooting JPEG with a 1 gig card. Bring some soft cloths for cleaning your ports, extra battery chargers etc.

Good luck,

James

It will take a couple of dives to get my trim prefected with the camera. But with over 2000 dives most in Drysuits, currents, etc... I have learned safety first, don't bump the reef second. We are "small boat" diving in Coz have read in other threads about people using softsided coolers for camera bags on the boat, might have to make a Costco run see if they have any in stock.