Aperture Priority

I recently picked up a used Panny LX3 housing 10bar and ikelite 110a strobe, after realizing it didn't support TTL out of the box, I picked up a Heinrichsweikamp TTL converter.

So with the strobe set to TTL, when I use aperture priority, the shutter speed seems to stay at 1/30, which would cause problems and be too slow to freeze action underwater. Is this a limitation(or feature) of the camera ?

Am I better off using shutter priority and setting it to 1/125 ?

I know I can use manual as well and pick both settings, but I don't understand why the camera sticks with such a slow shutter speed when it has the available light from the strobe to do something quicker.

Far better I think is to use manual mode and set the shutter and aperture independently and then you can choose your strobe settings as you see fit. I think that the camera doesn't "know" that a strobe is attached when it is in the housing.

Bill

The camera know's there is a flash and that it is TTL, there is an icon that lights up on the screen.

It seems to default to 1/30 for every aperture I set it at. I think this was the behavior for old camera's based off of the flash synch speeds, but I would have thought with a modern flash and camera it would do something much faster

That is very strange, since I believe that the camera can sync at very high speeds (like 1/1000). Something must be set funny somewhere else. Does the camera indeed sync correctly in manual at 1/500 sec say?

Bill

I'll give that a try and post back

The behavior you mention is not unusual. The camera will default to the lowest ISO and then to multiple of the focal length.

If you are in really dark conditions and the camera hits the max ISO or you have already set the ISO it will go as low as 1/30

The camera believes the internal flash can compensate -3 or -2 Ev so even if you change the xposure compensation nothing happens

Best option is to shoot in manual, the LX5 flash is still TTL

Thanks. I played around with it this weekend and found that the metering just loves 1/30 when the flash is attached. If I point it directly at a light I can get the shutterspeed up higher, but even with a brightly lit subject, it favors 1/30. As for ISO, in AUTO mode, it appears to be pegged at 100, even if its dark. Alternatively, and strangely, if I manually pick a high ISO, it seems like it doesnt properly account for it in the metering, and the picture comes out over exposed.

That is very strange, since I believe that the camera can sync at very high speeds (like 1/1000). Something must be set funny somewhere else. Does the camera indeed sync correctly in manual at 1/500 sec say?

Bill

Setting it to a higher speed seems to work ok.

But yea, I unfortunately I think I'll be limited to shutter priority and manual modes...

As I said most compact cameras do not perform real metering when the internal strobe is set to on but they default to most friendly values for a correct exposure or so they think

Use manual mode with forced flash and you will get your reading correctly. Shutter speed 1/125 or more aperture whatever you need and ISO what is needed to expose correctly