Sony a6400 camera settings

[rwe]

I have just purchased a Sony a6400, Fantasea housing, and Fantasea wet wide lense. At this point I only have the 16-50mm kit lens that is useable underwater. Interested in hearing how others have set up the various camera buttons/functions/customs functions/etc. for underwater. Both for stills and video. Is the underwater white balance useful for video or is auto or manual best?

Thanks for any info,
Rick

 

[Barmaglot]

I have an A6300, so pretty similar, but I only shoot stills with strobes (dual SeaFrogs ST-100s; waiting on the new Retras), so I keep it in M mode, 1/160s shutter (flash sync speed), f/8 or f/11 aperture, and auto ISO 100-800 range. Focus is usually AF-C. I have a trigger extension on my tray handle, so I rarely touch the the camera buttons while shooting - it's basically both hands on tray handles, right hand to shoot (half-press to focus), left hand to zoom. Always shoot in RAW, process with Capture One Express (free for Sony and Fujifilm cameras).
Focus peaking is very helpful when focusing, and the electronic level is useful when composing - you can always see when the camera is tilted, or pointing down rather than up, even when you don't have a good reference point in your surroundings.

 

[gstrek]

I have an a6000, 16050mm kit lens, with a Sea&Sea strobe, a SeaFrogs Salted A6xxx housing, standard flat port.

I get 2 dives on a battery:

- Set camera to Airplane Mode (turns off wifi radio)
- Turn off AF illuminator (won't help in the housing)
- Turn off Pre-AF
- I set my camera to go into power saver mode in 2 minutes. Half press shutter to wake it.
- Set flash exposure compensation to -3.0 and use external strobe on manual.

I use Manual Mode, 1/125 @ f/8 ISO 100 and use power adjustment on my S&S strobe, AF-S or DMF with Center Focus. DMF allows me to see the focus peaking with a half press of the shutter. Experimenting with AF-C, Center Focus and Lock On AF with Back Button Focus.

The FN button allows shortcuts to the menu system for things you might want to easily tweak while shooting. I've highly customized mine from the default.

You can use a saved memory location for shooting Video. A turn of a knob to Memory Recall and I can start shooting video, Turn it back to M and I'm back to photos. For Videos: 30 fps @ Manual 1/60, auto ISO and F/8, XAVCS, auto WB, AF-C, Wide Focus points. Without a red filter I need to do white balance in post. I haven't tried the Under water white balance (I need to dive more!).

 

[BFRedrocks]

- Set flash exposure compensation to -3.0 and use external strobe on manual.

I shoot an a6500 with dual INON Z-330s. I was curious why you set the flash exposure compensation to -3.0 rather than leaving it at 0.0?

 

[gstrek]

I shoot an a6500 with dual INON Z-330s. I was curious why you set the flash exposure compensation to -3.0 rather than leaving it at 0.0?

I use manual and not TTL on the external strobe so setting to -3.0 EV is enough to trigger the strobe and saves battery. On my Olympus, I could set the internal flash to a minimal value of 1/32 just to trigger my S&S. Main reason is battery life and shooting manual is pretty easy.

 

[rwe]

Won't get to dive with my new system until September 20 so a couple more quick questions.

1. Does the green light showing vacuum on the Fantasea housing keep flashing the entire dive or stop after a while? How often do you have to charge this light?
   
2. If I enter the water with the UWL-09F lens attached via a bayonet mount, will I have to remove/reattach to get water into the space between the wet lens and the port or will it get in without un-attaching (my male bayonet mount hasn't arrived yet so haven't been able to test).

Thanks,

Rick

 

[J.Sola]

I have an A6300, so pretty similar, but I only shoot stills with strobes (dual SeaFrogs ST-100s; waiting on the new Retras), so I keep it in M mode, 1/160s shutter (flash sync speed), f/8 or f/11 aperture, and auto ISO 100-800 range. Focus is usually AF-C. I have a trigger extension on my tray handle, so I rarely touch the the camera buttons while shooting - it's basically both hands on tray handles, right hand to shoot (half-press to focus), left hand to zoom. Always shoot in RAW, process with Capture One Express (free for Sony and Fujifilm cameras).
Focus peaking is very helpful when focusing, and the electronic level is useful when composing - you can always see when the camera is tilted, or pointing down rather than up, even when you don't have a good reference point in your surroundings.

Hi!!
I have read that you are using Seafrogs strobes ST-100 with Sony a6300. I’m trying to use with Sony a6400, but cannot synchronise well and all taken pictures are becoming 100% black. It seems camera and external flash are not working together. Do you have idea how to solve it??

 

[Barmaglot]

Wow, this is a blast from the past - I have long since sold off those ST-100s, but from what I recall, as long as you trigger them optically, they have zero adjustment - as in, none of the knobs or buttons do anything, they're just straight TTL slaves, not unlike Sea & Sea YS-03. Are you triggering them via fiber optics or sync cord? If it's fiber optics, are you using the pop-up flash, or do you have a flash trigger?

 

[J.Sola]

Thanks for your reply….
I’m using pop up flash through fiber optic wire.
Surprise why the picture taken using ST-100 is becoming 100% black, not dark…. If synchro will be early or later, I think I can see picture taken as flash didn’t work, that means dark… But in fact, appears 100% black.
I think this is very strange and I don’t know if problem is caused by ST-100 flash or because camera settings.

 

[Nemrod]

The Sony cameras always fire a preflash. Your off camera strobes are firing on the preflash and thus your exposure is black or underexposed. You must configure your strobes to ignore the preflash.