Poor Man's Flash

Hello,

I posted in the beginner's forum without a single response, so I figured I'd give this one a try.

I will be getting a WP-DC800 housing for my S400 Digital Elph soon and plan on taking the combination to Australia. While I'm willing to pay some more money for things like silica gel bags (Moisture Munchers), it doesn't make sense (for me) to spend almost as much on a strobe as the camera itself (just because I don't dive much).

So, are there cheap alternatives to a strobe? Would a strong underwater light do the trick or would it not diffuse enough - leaving a spotlit area on the subject? Even that may be preferable to the interal flash or no light at all. I'm just fishing for ideas here. Oh, and any other affordable (read <$100 total) accessory suggestions would be much appreciated also.

Thanks for reading,

Adam

Hello Adam. Try the Bonica Neonlit-3, i've no idea for how much it sale in US dollar, but it has to be one of the most economical strobe on the market, it as 5 different set-up for tuning your camera's pre flash triggering and a handy variable level switch for lowering its power ratio. If you do get it, first thing is to remove the plastic stopper from the base plate, they can cause flooding of your housing if left there, so yeah, trust me you wanna remove that thing.

It sad but we are not as enclined to check trough the beginner section as we should, there is where the people wo need assistance and with whom we should be sharing our knowledge are, thank's for the subtle and politically correct whip cracking I'll pay more attention.

Adam,

Lights would help and the best one I tried would be something without a spot (like LED flashlight) because yes, you will see it in the picture. Try to build your self some difuser for the light.

Viz'art's idea is great.

I have a Bonica strobe, probably one of the first ones they had, no settings, no power level just a photo sensor but it worked damn good until I got my Ikelite strobe.

Other ideas ... don't use a strobe and if you are not too deep you can still get colors to show if you do some digital processing of the pictures after you get them on your computer.

Good luck.

Vlad

Thanks for the replies...good information.

I checked on the Bonica Neon III Strobe. $300 at LeisurePro...still too much for me to justify. If I dove more, then it wouldn't even be a question. In fact, I'd probably shell out more and get a full up SLR system.

For now, it sounds like my best option is to try and diffuse my dive lights. I have Underwater Kinetics lights...non LED. Any suggestions for a home made diffuser?

Thanks again,

Adam

There was a nice thread at uk.rec.scuba recently on someone building an underwater system using a cheap land flash, slave cell and a transparent watertight casing like Otter or something. Pictures and all.

Try googling that newsgroup for flash or strobe and you coud hit gold.

timo

ps. Leaving Brussels today and the new housing travels home in my suitcase

Wow Adam you're been taken for a ride 300.00$ !!!, I sell that flash in Canada for 300.00 Canadian and my name is not Mother Theresa of Calcutta, you should be able to find this at around 250.00 U.S.,

Alternative are scarce, Ziplocks are not going to cut it, getting a transparent plastic housing to adapt a land flash will bring you close to the same amount by the time you add, the housing, slave cell, tray and arm plus your time (yeah it's worth something) that is provided the thing works properly <_< .

Cheers

Hey Adam

Have you thought of using filters rather than a strobe? The URPro range of filters come very close to the colour compensation that a strobe provides. And Alex's Magic Filters sound good too. I don't know if your Digital Elph can cope with filters, but it might be worth a look.

Yeah, you could try experimenting with a land flash in a bag housing like an EWAmairne or a Aquapak

http://www.aquapac.net/

You'd need a slave stobe/flash.

http://www.adorama.com/MRMSP.html?searchin...flash&item_no=1

The only thing is that light travels differently underwater (more of it gets absorbed) and a slave strobe needs to 'see' the flash in order to work. So you'll have to do some trail and error. Dedicated underwater strobes have a fibre optic link that picks up the flash from your camera/housing or in more high end cameras, directly hookes up electronically (hot cable).

Also since it's using your camera's flash to trigger, you're likely to get backscatter (particles in the water that appear like snow in you shot) because the camera/housing flash unit is close to the lense. With dedicated underwater gear, the strobe is further away (that's why you extension arms and booms) from the camera.

Sunpac makes the G Flash which is about $180 and possibly the cheapest underwater strobe out there, but I haven't seen too much on boards about its performance. It may be too new for much feedback yet.

Search B&H Photo for Bonica, and you'll see strobes (head only) starting at $130. They also have Lee CC30R filters for <$10 which you can either cut to fit inside the housing or hold in front of the housing for better color balance with no flash, ambient-light photography.

Fantasea Line will soon be realsing a housing for the economical Sunpak Remote Lite ll Digital Slave Flash. With a depth rating of 130 ft.

For more information follow progress at www.fantasea.com

For a more sophisticated land flash with housing you can order the

FSB 800 housing for the Nikon SB 800 Speedlight http://www.fantasea.com/d70_gallery/40932306.htm

Fantasea Line will soon be realsing a housing for the economical Sunpak Remote Lite ll Digital Slave Flash. With a depth rating of 130 ft.

For more information follow progress at www.fantasea.com

For a more sophisticated land flash with housing you can order the

FSB 800 housing for the Nikon SB 800 Speedlight http://www.fantasea.com/d70_gallery/40932306.htm