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Lights, Strobes, and Lighting Technique / Archived topic

Strobe Recommendation for SWC

Started by The_Darkness ·

  • 31Posts
  • 31Replies

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Strobe Recommendation for SWC

31 posts
  1. Hello,

    While I am not new u/w photography, I have never shot my dad's Hasselblad u/w. We have the 500c and SWC with the Zeiss corrector lens set. His Subsea strobe is obsolete of course. I'm looking for recommendations for dual strobes. Devon said that he can make me an adapter to the current EO connector. So sync cable type is a non-issue. 

    Thanks! 

  2. I used the Subsea strobes as well as the Ike 150 back in the day with my Hasselblad system and used the EO plug on the housing (for the EL). These were 150 watt-second units. EO is a bit out of fashion with current strobes. Better off adapting to a bulkhead or fiber optic. With the blue housings it may be possible to swap out bulkheads - possibly a reduction fitting will have to be added as those old bulkheads appear to have used a larger diameter hole than the 14mm being used these days. I would be interested in knowing if Devon can do this.

    Edited by Tom_Kline
  3. Thanks Tom!

    I'll have to ask Devon about changing out the bulkhead fittings. Since you've run the Hassy housing, there are two PC cords inside. What is the difference? I'm assuming both bulkheads are wired to one or both of the PC cords to run dual strobes. 

  4. Any strobe that can be manually triggered will work, the old cameras just have a conncetion switch for want of a better term to connect two wires to trigger the flash - very simple.   Probably need some decent power as I suspect even with the correction lens you would need to stop down quite a bit with wide angle work.   _ there is very little information on what the Zeiss correction lens for the SWC actually does - it appears to be a shallow dome with a diopter to allow the lens to focus?? 

    I'm not clear you say you have the 500C and SWC - two separate cameras and presumably housing for each of them?

    Some buoyancy would also probably be useful as the UW weight of the housing for the SWC is a reasonably hefty 1.3kg.

    depending on what type of thread is used for the flash connection bulkhead it may be worth considering changing that to a modern style Nikonos bulkhead so you can use standard cables. 

    So back to your original question any of the strobes that do manual would be fine - INON Z-330, Ikelite DS-160 etc.  You don't need a particularly wide beam as even the SWC is "only" about 23mm equivalent focal length.  The literature doesn't seem to cover using the very wide 30mm lenses underwater.

  5. Thanks Chris.

    My understanding is that the correction lens set widens the angle of view back to 90 deg u/w. The port is flat on the outside. Spherical inside. 

    My dad never acquired the SWC rear section. Instead, he removed the prism from the 500c rear section to fit the SWC and just imagined the SWC viewfinder frame. Haha. 

    I agree on your point about adding some buoyancy.  

  6. 29 minutes ago, The_Darkness said:

    Thanks Tom!

    I'll have to ask Devon about changing out the bulkhead fittings. Since you've run the Hassy housing, there are two PC cords inside. What is the difference? I'm assuming both bulkheads are wired to one or both of the PC cords to run dual strobes. 

    Redundancy. The Hasselblad lenses that are needed are the ones with Compur shutters in the lens. There is a PC post on the lens to plug the wire into. To use two strobes one will need a Y type synch cord - two strobes plugged into one fitting. There are both cabled (wired) as well as fiber optic cords of the Y type. The Sea and Sea model is no longer made but can be found on the auction site and maybe here.

  7. 7 minutes ago, The_Darkness said:

    Thanks Chris.

    My understanding is that the correction lens set widens the angle of view back to 90 deg u/w. The port is flat on the outside. Spherical inside. 

    My dad never acquired the SWC rear section. Instead, he removed the prism from the 500c rear section to fit the SWC and just imagined the SWC viewfinder frame. Haha. 

    I agree on your point about adding some buoyancy.  

    I was wondering about this. The prism fitting on the 500C is much longer than the top of a SWC.

  8. 9 minutes ago, The_Darkness said:

    Thanks Chris.

    My understanding is that the correction lens set widens the angle of view back to 90 deg u/w. The port is flat on the outside. Spherical inside. 

    My dad never acquired the SWC rear section. Instead, he removed the prism from the 500c rear section to fit the SWC and just imagined the SWC viewfinder frame. Haha. 

    I agree on your point about adding some buoyancy.  

    So how do you use the correction lens for the SWC?   Does it work inside the dome of the 500C housing?  I assume I found the right housing online with an 8" dome on either end.  Focusing might be interesting as well.

  9. 4 minutes ago, ChrisRoss said:

    So how do you use the correction lens for the SWC?   Does it work inside the dome of the 500C housing?  I assume I found the right housing online with an 8" dome on either end.  Focusing might be interesting as well.

    The two housing rear sections shared the same front section. He simply has to replace the standard flat port with the correction port - this may already be done. There is another lens that goes on the front of the Biogon lens of the SWC. The two (port and this other lens) correction lenses work as a unit.

  10. I'll post pics shortly. Stay tuned.

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

  11. Interesting, there are 3 PC cords! Two gray, one black. 20200831_190211.thumb.jpg.7e3312d92b3ddf26d9c7aa4a66699829.jpg

  12. I guess the black one was added. Do you have a volt-ohm meter aka multimeter? You can use one to test the conductivity between the plugs and bulkheads.

  13. Back to the original question I think any of the more powerful strobes on offer would do the job, the lens gives 90° field of view - equivalent to about a 22mm lens so not particularly challenging to cover.  The ikelite strobes/cables are well documented there is a page about this on the ikelite site and the strobes certainly work with basic manual and the circular tube should provide nice light.  I'm guessing you would be shooting around f16?  so would need sufficient power.  this is the ikelite page:  https://www.ikelite.com/blogs/faq/wiring-diagrams-test-firing-strobes

  14. I recall shooting f/11 with 70mm Ektachrome 200 Pro film - brings back memories especially the hassle of special ordering the film. Using one or two 150 W-S strobes. The whole rig with two strobes (EL housing) was quite the monster, around 50 pounds in air. On the plus side one can sync at 1/500 due to the leaf shutter.

  15. I recall shooting f/11 with 70mm Ektachrome 200 Pro film - brings back memories especially the hassle of special ordering the film. Using one or two 150 W-S strobes. The whole rig with two strobes (EL housing) was quite the monster, around 50 pounds in air. On the plus side one can sync at 1/500 due to the leaf shutter.
    I have the 70mm back. Too bad 220 roll film is no longer made. Only 70mm B&W from Ilford. But there is the new digital back.... $$$$

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

  16. 16 minutes ago, The_Darkness said:

    I have the 70mm back. Too bad 220 roll film is no longer made. Only 70mm B&W from Ilford. But there is the new digital back.... $$$$

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
     

    With the prism removed it is possible that you will be able to chimp through the viewing port.

  17. Ooohhh! That's right! [emoji106] Definitely not with the 500c though. With the new digital back, the screen tilts to horizontal. When I get them back from being serviced I'm going to go to a store that has the digital back to take some measurements.

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

  18. Regarding the housing PC cords, I found this in the Hasselblad Way 4th ed book. Also, I have been unable to find how far to stop the camera down when using the corrector lens set. [emoji848]2b0d86b3b1be147828ab90743f122bff.jpg

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

  19. On 8/31/2020 at 5:58 PM, ChrisRoss said:

    So how do you use the correction lens for the SWC?   Does it work inside the dome of the 500C housing?  I assume I found the right housing online with an 8" dome on either end.  Focusing might be interesting as well.

    Sounds like the housing for the 500EL. Do you have a photo?

     

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