Strobe for Canon WP-DC800???

I recently picked up a Canon WP-DC800 housing for my Canon S400 for an upcoming dive trip. I originally didn't plan on getting a strobe but in some web searches I found references to a Canon strobe for Canon's line of digital camera housings. However I haven't been able to find anyone who sells one.

Are these still available? If so, where?

Were they any good??

I assume from other posts that the built-in flash will result in too much backscatter for all but the closest subjects.

I've been diving with a Canon S230 in a WPDC600 casing for about a year now. My experience with backscatter is variable - here in the Pacific Northwest, where there are a lot of particles in the water, I can get severe backscatter with the internal flash on any shot longer than 3 feet, and sometimes less. On the other hand, on my dive trips to Hawaii, I've found that backscatter isn't really a problem.

However, the internal flash is very weak, and you'll probably find it provides no real illumination at all past 6 feet or so. You'll likely want an external strobe; I've never heard of Canon selling their own underwater strobe, though. Additionally, underwater strobes are not cheap, particularly since you need one that can interoperate with the preflash Canon uses in the Powershot series to predetermine exposure before taking the real shot.

Options:

1) Get a strobe capable of ignoring the preflash and only firing on the real shot, like a Sea&Sea YS-90DX or an Ikelite DS-125 (I'm sure there are others). Though I'm a little suspicious of this, since it seems like it would confuse the camera's exposure, lots of people have great shots with this setup. You'll probably spend $800 or more on this setup (strobe, manual controller (for Ikelite, at least), and strobe arm); you'll get a great strobe if you upgrade your camera later.

2) Get an Inon D-180s. As far as I know, it's the only underwater strobe that actually duplicates the preflash and lets the camera determine exposure the way it wants to - and claims to give longer camera battery life as well, because the camera doesn't have to fire its own flash at full power all the time. This will likely cost you $600-700, though it doesn't (as far as I know) support TTL auto-exposure, so if you upgrade your camera to a digital SLR later this won't be a good strobe for you.

3) Do what I did initially, and get a cheap SeaLife external flash for $200. Unfortunately, this strobe does not recognize the preflash and ignore it OR recycle quickly enough to fire twice, so unless you jump through hoops like I do to lock the flash exposure, your pictures all come out radically underexposed. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS OPTION AT ALL. (To take a picture, I have to frame the image once, push the shutter half-way and press the flash exposure lock button on the back of the camera, which fires both strobes and locks the exposure; wait for both strobes to recharge; frame the shot again and take the picture. Oh, and if you touch any other controls on the camera, even half-press the shutter button and release without taking a shot, it releases the flash exposure lock, so you have to start over. Needless to say, I don't get many shots of skittish fish.

I'm planning on upgrading to a digital SLR very soon, so I'm just living with it for the moment.

The camera is a "point and shoot" so it will always choose a low f-stop. This means that you need an extremely weak strobe, or one that you can turn down a lot.

I don't believe the above info about the Inon D180s is correct - it will not function as a TTL slave w/ the Canon S400. It will function as a manual slave though and can be set to ignore the preflash.

TTL sensor systems don't work well w/ this camera, so some form manual control is probably the best way to go.

Choices are:

Ike DS 50 or DS 125 with MANUAL controller

Sea and Sea YS25DX or YS90DX

Inon 220, 220s, 180 or 108s

Personally, for your camera, I'd go w/ the cheapest - the YS25DX.

Cheers

James

Thanks for the reply.

I too already have a SeaLife camera and strobe and I too was considering trying to use that with this Canon camera/housing combo. I didn't think of the pre-flash issue. Oh well.

Here is a link that shows a flash attached to a Canon housing:

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/page/09-e.html

I don't know if I'm willing to spend the kind of money it's going to take to "do it right"

At this point it's probably cheaper for me to go back to SeaLife and pick up their digital camera which will work with the external strobe and other accessories I already have.

Have a look at the Sealife camera before making up your mind - you may see that the Canon is a better system to stay with. Check prices on the YS25DX.

Cheers

James

Ggulik, the flash in that image from the canon site is the inon d180.

I have a d180s with my a70. Using a magnet switch you can use it to toggle between either using the preflash or ignoring it. They have posted the manual on the inon america site for both the 180 and the 180s. That has the deal on what it can and can't do with each camera model.

I'm surprised at the prices that are being quoted. I paid $540 Australian for my 180s and quoted $690 Aus for the 180, and the oz dollar is less than the US so it might pay to shop around.

Another alternative not mentioned here is an Epoque ES150 strobe set. Much cheaper, quality probably similar to the Sea Life strobe you have and works well with your camera, has 'ignore pre-flash' setting.

http://www.scubacam.com.sg/pages/strobes/epoque150.htm[/url]