Using two SB 800 U/W with D2X

What I think Marc is saying is to set your colour temperature to ~5,000k in the RAW converter, or whatever color temp your flash puts out.

My Inon Z220's put out around 5500k so that's what I set as my white balance starting point.

Cheers

James

James,

my Subtronic Maxi is 4600K. The AWB is 5500K. It's better than the 4600K.

I get much better results with the tiny Ikelite DS50 when doing Macro. The Subtronic is good for WA.

Thanks

A couple of my divebuddies now use 2 SB800 in Sealux housings. What I was told so far is that underwater, wireless communication range is only around 18 inches. I guess it is still ok for macro work but does not seem too promising for wide angle use.

James,

 

my Subtronic Maxi is 4600K. The AWB is 5500K. It's better than the 4600K.

 

I get much better results with the tiny Ikelite DS50 when doing Macro. The Subtronic is good for WA.

 

Thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I often find that my Subtronics are so warm that I end up using colour temps of 3500K in RAW conversion for macro. Generally I use 4500K for wide angle with the same strobes.

Alex

Question from "Luiz ROCHA" Aug 23 2005

"How about the new subtronics? They say they do support iTTL, but is

it only one? I mean if you have two subtronics, does one have to be on

manual?"

...

REMARKS :

 

"2" Boot 2006 is probably "oktober 2006".

...

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BOOT 2006 will be end of January 2006 in Duesseldorf, Germany

Torben

This is just a short update to my progress with my dual SB 800 project.

I’ve made a second housing and have connected it to the master flash housing using a 7 strand fiber optic cable. So far it works perfectly but I have not tried it underwater. I have complete confidence that it will and will keep everyone informed after I get it in my pool sometime this weekend. I’ll post a few pictures when possible.

Marc

I'll be waiting...

I’ve had a few private e-mails asking if my SB 800 project was a success or not ?

I wasn’t quite ready with the full story but I thought I’d post these 12 pictures I took in my pool this weekend. It’s nice to report it is a full success and the fiber optic slave works perfectly. All the picture including the flower picture was taken in my pool with my Sigma 14 mm wide angle and the macros with my Tamron 90 mm. The first picture is of yours truly and a second macro picture of my eye. Wow, looks like I had to many the night before.

I’ll update with more pictures of the SB 800's with the optical connection soon.

Marc

SB 800 pool pictures

That's great Marc, it seems that it worked very well! I am anxious to see pictures of the rig.

A related question, last week I was photographing on land with three SB800. Whenever I set mine to "master" it would not fire, only trigger the other two. I had no manual (still haven't got my manual with me in the moment), is there an easy setting to make the master fire as well?

Luiz

Never mind Marc, I've just downloaded a PDF from Nikon that should answer my question. Here is the link for anyone else interested:

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/SB800_techniques.pdf

Luiz, you beat me to it

Here's another link http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin...wYWdlPTE*&p_li=

Karl

Marc,

Great news! Glad to hear it's working.

I really like this photo - good job!

The pose and expression are very good.

Cheers

James

Mark,

nice photos

Can you share with us a picture of the set (D2x housing, the two housed SB800, etc)?

Thanks

With out going into to many detail about how I made everything I thought I’d post these pictures. If anyone has any questions I’d be happy to answer them.

I’d like to thank Ike Brigham from IkeLite for helping me with the wire bulkhead connectors, and Dave Marsh from Underwater Photo-Tech for suppling me with the OEM Nikonous bulkhead connectors. Thanks guys for making my project a lot easer.

Marc

SB 800 housing pictures

Nice work Marc, I'm glad that I was able to offer some help!

That's great Mark, thanks for posting. I have some friends in Brazil working on the same project and I think this will be very helpful to them. One question, have you noticed a significant decrease in anlge of coverage by the flat glass in front of the SB800?

Luiz

The results are looking great.

Now we need to set a challenge. We need to come up with a type of picture that really makes use of having iTTL underwater.

Alex

I agree with you Alex, after a few dive trips and more than 1,000 shots with the D2x and Ikelite strobes in manual mode I see no need for TTL. To tell you the truth, I think I am taking the best pictures I ever took now, it is amazing how much better you are able to light the scene controlling the strobes manually. Just to make myself perfectly clear, here is an example:

I really don't think I would get a result similar to this with TTL, unless I started compensating the exposure (which would take just as much effort as getting the exposure right in manual mode). By the way, this was the second shot of this fish, the first was a bit overexposed (but could be corrected in the RAW file). So, it only took two shots (or about 30 seconds) to get the exposure correct in manual. I think it would take just as long (or longer) on TTL.

The challenge for me has already been met. I take a lot of pride and self satisfaction in my creations. I don’t know many individuals that take underwater photographs and make their own equipment. The challenge for me was making the optical slave strobe work when no one has before and at a very cost effective price. It cost me around $ 800 in total and that includes the two SB 800 units.

Having shot manual with my SB 104 and iTTL with a single SB 800 I can say iTTL works excellent especially using it for macro. Of course iTTl exposer can be fooled like small subjects against large open areas of non reflective backgrounds. But I find the SB 800 does a very nice job even in tricky situations. I chose TTL like many other for different reasons. I find it frees me to concentrate on the subject and less on the technicalities of the exposer. If I was not getting good results I would definitely shoot manual all the time.

Alex, I remember your comments about using shutter priority while shooting with your Magic Filter. Why weren’t you shooting full manual, maybe it was freeing you up to some extent and you decided the results were good enough ? Anyway, TTL is a very useful technology above or below the waterline. Underwater photographers are still asking for it or manufacturers like IkeLite and others would not be offering it.

Different strokes for different folks, It’s you choice.

Marc

One other comment was the housings flat port effecting the flash pattern output ?

I can’t answer that question because I have never measured the beam pattern in or out of the housing. I’ll try projecting the pattern on a wall a see if I can determine if their is any reduction.

I’ll report back as soon as I know.

Here’s a better picture of my housing and a single SB 800. It’s shown with a IkeLite macro port mounted.

Marc