C5050 Ikeelite new TTL Housing vs PT-015 Manual Controller

Thanks for all your help. I thought I had things all figured out…

I have just purchased an Olympus C5050/PT-015, and I am trying to put my rig together. I’m also trying to be economical, but at the same time don't want to be swapping out accessories because I overlooked something, BTDT. I’m looking for a versatile rig that can give me somewhat of a point and shoot setup now and more sophisticated manual setup as I evolve and grow into UW photography.

At first I was going to keep my PT-015 and build off of it as listed below on my setup #1 wish list. I had it all figured out until I read more about TTL… This leads me to the question. Does the new Ikelite TTL housing for the C5050 fix all of the hit or miss problems that are inherent with the TTL controller? I have read other people have started out with the TTL controller, only to change over to the EV/manual controller. Is this move inevitable in the equipment evolution of underwater photography, in the quest for more manual control? Would the same person change over to an EV/manual controller if they started out with the new Ikelite TTL housing? Could an EV controller be added to the Ike TTL housing, allowing the user to switch back and forth from TTL to full manual easily? Would I be sorry going with hard-wired TTL? What are the limitations of TTL?

Please comment, please suggest, and please stop my head from spinning…

I’m contemplating the following setups:

Setup #1

Using my PT-015 housing and adding the following:

Ikelite DS125 Strobe

Smart Charger

Manual Controller

Sync Cable

Either an Ikelite 1 handle tray and Deluxe Ball Arm System (or)

ULCS tray and 5"/5" Three Clamp Arm Set

Lens Caddy

Lens Leash

INON UWL-100 Type 2

Or

Setup #2

Ikelite TTL C5050 housing

Ikelite DS125 Strobe

Smart Charger

Either an Ikelite 1 handle tray and Deluxe Ball Arm System (or)

ULCS tray and 5"/5" Three Clamp Arm Set

Lens Caddy

Lens Leash

INON UWL-100 Type

Your input and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Mike

I started withthe PT-015 and the manual controller and did okay. I just got the Ikelite TTL housing and find it A LOT easier to use. I will still use the manual controller for wide angle shots but for macro, I think the TTL housing and sync cord work wonders.

I also understand the PT-015 has been discontinued. I shifted to the Ikelite housing because I didn't want to wait for my PT-015 to flood (I've notices salt crystals in the mode dial after about 50 dives). With my new housing, I can focus more on composition instead of figuring out the right strobe intensity for every shot.

Regards,

Norman

I have the ike ttl housing and the ds 125. I was playing with the strobe for the first time last night in the dark with the strobe light on. I aimed the light so it centered on the middle of the lcd screen. When I took the shots, it did not seem to light them up well. The only thing I had realized I was doing wrong is that I set the strobe to full instead of ttl. I would image that if anything, the shot would come out overexposed. I had the arm extended out from the camera pointing at the subject. Any advice or what I may be doing wrong?

Thanks,

Justin

I think it would help if you told us what F-stop you used and how far away you were.

Cheers

James

I set the camera to auto, I had forgotten all f-stop and aperture settings I learned from college. I was about 4 to 5 feet from the garbage pail I was focused on. Going back to settings, everything was default except I turned the internal flash off. Nothing else was changed. I was using the strobe light with the room lights off (trying to simulate a night dive) I'm sorry if this is jumbled, but I am a rookie in the purist sense of the word.

Thanks,

Justin

See the following for some settings that should work.

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gall...up_settings.htm

Thanks for the link. BTW, I realized I had pirated this thread and I apologize for that.

I think the 125 can't use the full mode if your camera is using a preflash for exposure setting. The stobe doesn't have enough time to recover from the first flash. All of your light might have been from the aiming light if you had that on. My sony worked that way. Try it on 3/4 and see what that does. It should be over exposed at that range on auto.

I think the 125 can't use the full mode if your camera is using a preflash for exposure setting. The stobe doesn't have enough time to recover from the first flash. All of your light might have been from the aiming light if you had that on. My sony worked that way. Try it on 3/4 and see what that does. It should be over exposed at that range on auto.

I think Ike explained this one earlier. In this type of follow-the-flash TTL the big strobe will cut off when the internal flash turns off from running out of juice. A full dump requires longer time than the duration that the internal flash can stay on.

Last night I redid everything. I started by taking a picture in the dark, no housing or strobe and set to auto. It came out pretty good. Then I set up my camera with the housing and strobe, then configured it the way splashdown divers shows. Then I took the same pictures. It came out pretty good just like earlier. The only thing I had noticed is that it was not as intense (brightness) as the camera alone. The only thought that I have is the flash was set to default by itself. WIth my strobe etc, the flash intensity was brought back -0.7. The camera by default tends to overexpose shots. One thing I had a problem with was testing the TTL. I read that if I fire the strobe with the lense cap on, the strobe will go to max intensity but still not expose the picture properly and the ready light on the strobe will flash to tell me that. I could not make this happen. The only thing I did notice is the intensity seemed different to me at certain shots, telling me it's working. BTW, the camera turns on this little red light while I am focusing, but I don't recall seeing that before. Can someone tell me what that is and should it be doing that. Also, what is meant by preflash? Sorry for the long questions

I may be wrong on this, so anyone feel free to correct me.

When the camera takes a pic using the flash it needs to have a idea of what it is taking a pic of so it can ajust its settings. To do this it flashes the strobe at a set brightness so it can see how bright it needs to flash for the pic. This all happens so fast it looks like it is only flashing 1 time. On full intensity the 125 does not have the juice to do the preflash and the full flash in that fraction of a second so it never does the full flash.

Following URLs attempt to describe strobe use with digital cameras:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/dig_strobes.html

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/dig_definitions.html

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2olympusTTL.html