OM-1, Sea&Sea YS D3 DUO strobes and Turtle flash trigger

[jlyle]

For many years, I've been frustrated by how long it takes Olympus and OM cameras to take a second image after the first one. The limiting factor has always been the little Oly flash unit used to trigger the strobes. Oly cameras won't take a second picture until the flash unit is fully charged which takes about three seconds! Additionally, the flash unit relies on the camera's battery to recharge.

The o-Turtle Smart TTL trigger is the solution. The trigger has it's own internal, rechargeable power supply and is super fast. You can take picture, after picture, after picture as fast as you can actuate the shutter, less than one second between shots. (When coupled with the D3 DUO strobes you can also use RC control between the camera and strobes. RC is a more accurate TTL for Olympus cameras.)

Yesterday, I took my camera, OM-1 fitted with the Turtle flash trigger and dual YS D3 DUO strobes, in the water off of Southern California. Conditions were not optimal, with dark, green water and limited visibility.

I am very, very pleased with the new setup. Taking multiple images as fast as I could pull the trigger was fantastic. No more having to wait until the flash recharges.

I did not try burst firing of the camera but I suspect, as long as you aren't getting a full dump from the strobes, you can shoot even faster.

 

[d^2b]

I'm glad it works well. I thought about getting an o-Turtle, but according to the manufacturer they don't support my YS01 strobes. Lately I have switched to shooting manual storand triggering with 1/64 power of the on camera flash (FL-LM3). With this setup the on-camera flash charging is no longer the bottleneck. So for people willing to give up TTL, the problem is solvable another way.

 

[BoltSnap]

The o-Turtle Smart TTL trigger is the solution. The trigger has it's own internal, rechargeable power supply and is super fast. You can take picture, after picture, after picture as fast as you can actuate the shutter, less than one second between shots. (When coupled with the D3 DUO strobes you can also use RC control between the camera and strobes. RC is a more accurate TTL for Olympus cameras.)

Is it better than the Nauticam flash trigger?

 

[jlyle]

Is it better than the Nauticam flash trigger?

The Nauticam flash trigger works quickly, too, but does not offer RC (TTL) with OM/Olympus cameras.

 

[jlyle]

I'm glad it works well. I thought about getting an o-Turtle, but according to the manufacturer they don't support my YS01 strobes. Lately I have switched to shooting manual storand triggering with 1/64 power of the on camera flash (FL-LM3). With this setup the on-camera flash charging is no longer the bottleneck. So for people willing to give up TTL, the problem is solvable another way.

True. Good point. Thank you.

 

[Germie]

I own the Turtle trigger as my EM1 mk2 blows up the original flashes very fast (this has to do with the charging circuit). So I had no choice to go to the turtle trigger. The Nauticam won't fit in an isotta housing they said to me.

And then the problems started, first it did not fit, they sent me it with the wrong piece under it, so it did not fit on my camera. Ok, this can happen, wrong product in the right package (there was written olympus on it).
Then I had to stick the led's in the housing. Of course this did not fit directly from the manufacturer. They adviced me to glue them. But happely I never did, I used extra thick 3m foam to make it fit.

And then the strobes did not work, I have strobes from seasea YS version, and the inon S-2000 and the Z-330 and the Backscatter MF2. I had to buy all new cables. The cables I had were partly not original, but they worked fine all the time when using the original oly flash in the housing.
So this was another high costs. And sometimes new inon cables directly out of the box did not work. The system is very sensitive with not working.

Ok and then it seemed to work. But after charging and putting the small cable on again and put it on the camera again, I had to take it off, on, off, etc till the flashes started working again. I could deal with it.

And then in less that 2 years usage, the hole where you needed to plug in the cable to charge it broke. So this was warrantee, but it was another weak point of the Turtle trigger.

After that it worked ok for a while. Till sometimes my strobes didn't fire again. And then the camera did see the trigger, but there was no led emitting. And then it was doing it well without doing anything and then not working again. And sometimes I saw the leds working, but still no strobe flashing (I putted 1 strobe on the housing, other was free so I could see if the leds were working).
They said to me it is impossible that leds get less power and flash with lower intensity, but this looks like this was my issue.
Now I have a new cable with leds (happely I never glued it in the housing, with the 3m foamtape it was easy to remove). The first dive I did with it, it worked again, but I haven't tried it more now.
I really don't trust that trigger anymore. Last year I decided to do the world championships underwater photography with my older EM5 camera due to this issues. I hope I start trusting the turtle trigger again, but if there was another system that would work for my housing (isotta), I would have b ought that for sure.

And I only need an option to manually fire strobes, but I only could buy this expensive solution. The cheaper version of the Turtle did not work.
The original FL-LM3 strobe was not charging slowly, I could do as fast taking pictures as I can now. The 1/64 was bright enough under all circumstances.

So in 3 years I have my 3rd trigger (was warranty), and have my second set of leds. Not very durable in my eyes.

 

[jlyle]

I own the Turtle trigger as my EM1 mk2 blows up the original flashes very fast (this has to do with the charging circuit). So I had no choice to go to the turtle trigger. The Nauticam won't fit in an isotta housing they said to me.

And then the problems started, first it did not fit, they sent me it with the wrong piece under it, so it did not fit on my camera. Ok, this can happen, wrong product in the right package (there was written olympus on it).
Then I had to stick the led's in the housing. Of course this did not fit directly from the manufacturer. They adviced me to glue them. But happely I never did, I used extra thick 3m foam to make it fit.

And then the strobes did not work, I have strobes from seasea YS version, and the inon S-2000 and the Z-330 and the Backscatter MF2. I had to buy all new cables. The cables I had were partly not original, but they worked fine all the time when using the original oly flash in the housing.
So this was another high costs. And sometimes new inon cables directly out of the box did not work. The system is very sensitive with not working.

Ok and then it seemed to work. But after charging and putting the small cable on again and put it on the camera again, I had to take it off, on, off, etc till the flashes started working again. I could deal with it.

And then in less that 2 years usage, the hole where you needed to plug in the cable to charge it broke. So this was warrantee, but it was another weak point of the Turtle trigger.

After that it worked ok for a while. Till sometimes my strobes didn't fire again. And then the camera did see the trigger, but there was no led emitting. And then it was doing it well without doing anything and then not working again. And sometimes I saw the leds working, but still no strobe flashing (I putted 1 strobe on the housing, other was free so I could see if the leds were working).
They said to me it is impossible that leds get less power and flash with lower intensity, but this looks like this was my issue.
Now I have a new cable with leds (happely I never glued it in the housing, with the 3m foamtape it was easy to remove). The first dive I did with it, it worked again, but I haven't tried it more now.
I really don't trust that trigger anymore. Last year I decided to do the world championships underwater photography with my older EM5 camera due to this issues. I hope I start trusting the turtle trigger again, but if there was another system that would work for my housing (isotta), I would have b ought that for sure.

And I only need an option to manually fire strobes, but I only could buy this expensive solution. The cheaper version of the Turtle did not work.
The original FL-LM3 strobe was not charging slowly, I could do as fast taking pictures as I can now. The 1/64 was bright enough under all circumstances.

So in 3 years I have my 3rd trigger (was warranty), and have my second set of leds. Not very durable in my eyes.

Wow, I'm sorry about your experience. I did find setting up the Turtle trigger with my strobes to be complicated but eventually figured it out.

One issue was the width of the trigger's LED attachment compared to the flash windows inside of my Nauticam housing. The end of the attachment was narrower than the two windows in the housing. I was able to carefully tack the attachment in place so it overlapped the two holes to get it to work. It wasn't until later that I discovered, I could break the fitting in half and match up the holes.

 

[Germie]

I have 2 loose leds, so don't need to break. But even then it was hard to stick it into the housing.

 

[BoltSnap]

Last year I decided to do the world championships underwater photography with my older EM5 camera due to this issues.

Wow, where was it, the one in Cuba organized by cmas?

I am planning/hoping to participate in this year's championship in Albania and will be using my em5.

 

[Germie]

Wow, where was it, the one in Cuba organized by cmas?

I am planning/hoping to participate in this year's championship in Albania and will be using my em5.

You can use the EM5, don't worry, I was in the middle and my camera is for sure not bad. I don't see the difference between the results with the em5 or the em1. But the em1 is a little bit faster, I can use some more lenses, has more focuspoints for macro. So it makes it a little bit easier. I took only 2 lenses for that competition and I will do that again if I ever go again.