I've been using a 4300 for several years now. I've tried many different settings and I thought I'd share a bit of some techniques that work for me. I'll preface this with an equipment description - Fantasea housing, YS 50 TTL strobe and Mathias' strobe trigger.
I started out shooting manual. I'm an advanced amateur (done some pro work too). I know what is good for depth of field, stop action..... I'm comfortable with manual. However, I missed a nice shot once using manual and decided for my next trip to try auto mode. This turned out to be a mistake. I couldn't understand why all my pix were in such soft focus and not sharp. Before my last trip I decided to investigate why. I analyzed the EXIF info for the bad pix.
We all seem to shoot the 4300 with fill flash enabled. That's good, but in auto mode the camera adjusts itself to 1/30 to 1/60 sec typically with a wide open shutter -- then adds a little flash to brighten things up. The shutter speed is too slow to freeze the action of a moving fish, camera shake......
EXPOSURE:
SHUTTER: Using manual mode and kicking the shutter up to at least 1/125 will freeze the action and eliminate most camera shake. I've done some experimentation and found that the 4300 will flash-sync all the way to 1/1000 sec! OK so why not use 1/1000 all the time? Because the shutter speed combined with the f-stop will determine the exposure of the background that's not visible to the strobe. You will want different effects depending on the background. I've tried this in the pool and gotten a completely black background at 1/1000 - and a light green/blue background at 1/125. Depending on the situation one may be better than the other.
F-STOP: What about f-stop? The 4300 only has a choice of TWO!!! What's displayed in the LCD will vary depending on the zoom setting - but at any one zoom setting there are only two f-stops selectable in manual mode. Use the higher f-stop (A+) for close subjects ( <3 ft.) to improve depth of field, and the lower f-stop (A-) for distant subjects so that the strobe can expose properly; it does have a limited range. The 4300 WILL overexpose features within a foot or so if you use the lower f-stop! One thing to remember too is that when you choose a higher f-stop, the LCD dims when the shutter is 1/2 depressed! This will prevent composition or tracking that elusive fish. The LCD does not dim at the lower f-stop; allowing you to complete composition or track your quary.
MANUAL FOCUSING
It is important to be able to manually focus for dimly-lit or low-contrast scenes. A side benefit is that there is very little shutter lag using manual focus and manual exposure. Of course, you can pre auto-focus on another object the same distance away by pressing the shutter halfway - getting a focus lock and panning back to the subject to snap the picture. Of course you'll want to leave the camera in macro mode almost all the time. The exception to this is you can use infinity mode to cancel the flash for distant scenes. Do some experimentation so that you can associate the focus bar display in the LCD with actual distances. If you have a bit of tele dialed in, the bar changes from red to white at a focus distance of about one foot. 12 clicks from the far right is about 3 feet - and it's still pretty close to the right. At this setting, you can get a depth of field of about 3 feet to infinity at the higher f-stop. For macro shots, it's better to set the bar to an approximate distance and then move the camera in and out to see the focus change in the LCD. BE SURE TO LEAVE FOCUS ASSIST ON! Double check important shots by reviewing using the zoom feature! Finally, if you are using auto-focus (I do most of the time), the camera uses this information for the flash/exposure setting. If you do not have a steady green light and shoot anyway, the exposure will probably be incorrect. This gets worse the closer the subject is to the camera.
MACRO:
Mathias adapter is prone to being swamped by the slave strobe -- overexposing the scene. For this reason, I usually remove the trigger (which blocks the built-in flash) for pictures closer than 2 feet. I have recently found that mounting the strobe on adjustable arms and shielding the trigger from the strobe, I can take macro's using a diffuser on the strobe -- even closer than the range of the internal flash (which is blocked by the housing). The slave must be positioned in front of the trigger or so the slave flash is shielded from the trigger.
ISO -- I leave it at 100. You can see grain in any other setting.
FOCUS LIGHT:
Use one! I use either two Q-40's attached to my strobe, or a light cannon slung under the tray -- or all three!
FILTER:
Use one for any scene that the strobe won't illuminate and you can get a reasonably steady exposure (1/60 or better). Underwater landscapes is a good example. Sacrifice a tad of exposure if you have to. A slight gamma correction is much better than radical levels processing. If there's a question, take one with the filter and one without.
HOW TO REMEMBER ALL THIS?
I use notes on my strobe. I break things down to 4 basic modes
Distance MODE APERATURE SHUTTER FLASH
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3" - 2' CLOSE A+ (7.6-13.4) 1/1000 Internal or Ext w/diffuser
2' - 6' MEDIUM A+ (7.6-13.4) 1/1000 (or slower) Ext w/diffuser
6' -12' FAR A- (2.8-4.9) 1/60 1/125 1/250 Ext NO Diffuser
12'+ DISTANT A- (2.8-4.9) 1/60 1/125 1/250 Infinity Mode + UW Filter
LABEL THE BUTTONS --
I use simple paper icons or text on the inside of the case with some glue-stick to hold them in place. e.g
EXP FOCUS REVIEW S+ S- A+ A- and a BIG "ON" for the top jog to turn the LCD on and off manually.
You can also use white or yellow electrical tape on the outside and print with a permanent marker (sharpie).
If you've read this far - then congratulations. Try some of these settings yourself and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Mark
I started out shooting manual. I'm an advanced amateur (done some pro work too). I know what is good for depth of field, stop action..... I'm comfortable with manual. However, I missed a nice shot once using manual and decided for my next trip to try auto mode. This turned out to be a mistake. I couldn't understand why all my pix were in such soft focus and not sharp. Before my last trip I decided to investigate why. I analyzed the EXIF info for the bad pix.
We all seem to shoot the 4300 with fill flash enabled. That's good, but in auto mode the camera adjusts itself to 1/30 to 1/60 sec typically with a wide open shutter -- then adds a little flash to brighten things up. The shutter speed is too slow to freeze the action of a moving fish, camera shake......
EXPOSURE:
SHUTTER: Using manual mode and kicking the shutter up to at least 1/125 will freeze the action and eliminate most camera shake. I've done some experimentation and found that the 4300 will flash-sync all the way to 1/1000 sec! OK so why not use 1/1000 all the time? Because the shutter speed combined with the f-stop will determine the exposure of the background that's not visible to the strobe. You will want different effects depending on the background. I've tried this in the pool and gotten a completely black background at 1/1000 - and a light green/blue background at 1/125. Depending on the situation one may be better than the other.
F-STOP: What about f-stop? The 4300 only has a choice of TWO!!! What's displayed in the LCD will vary depending on the zoom setting - but at any one zoom setting there are only two f-stops selectable in manual mode. Use the higher f-stop (A+) for close subjects ( <3 ft.) to improve depth of field, and the lower f-stop (A-) for distant subjects so that the strobe can expose properly; it does have a limited range. The 4300 WILL overexpose features within a foot or so if you use the lower f-stop! One thing to remember too is that when you choose a higher f-stop, the LCD dims when the shutter is 1/2 depressed! This will prevent composition or tracking that elusive fish. The LCD does not dim at the lower f-stop; allowing you to complete composition or track your quary.
MANUAL FOCUSING
It is important to be able to manually focus for dimly-lit or low-contrast scenes. A side benefit is that there is very little shutter lag using manual focus and manual exposure. Of course, you can pre auto-focus on another object the same distance away by pressing the shutter halfway - getting a focus lock and panning back to the subject to snap the picture. Of course you'll want to leave the camera in macro mode almost all the time. The exception to this is you can use infinity mode to cancel the flash for distant scenes. Do some experimentation so that you can associate the focus bar display in the LCD with actual distances. If you have a bit of tele dialed in, the bar changes from red to white at a focus distance of about one foot. 12 clicks from the far right is about 3 feet - and it's still pretty close to the right. At this setting, you can get a depth of field of about 3 feet to infinity at the higher f-stop. For macro shots, it's better to set the bar to an approximate distance and then move the camera in and out to see the focus change in the LCD. BE SURE TO LEAVE FOCUS ASSIST ON! Double check important shots by reviewing using the zoom feature! Finally, if you are using auto-focus (I do most of the time), the camera uses this information for the flash/exposure setting. If you do not have a steady green light and shoot anyway, the exposure will probably be incorrect. This gets worse the closer the subject is to the camera.
MACRO:
Mathias adapter is prone to being swamped by the slave strobe -- overexposing the scene. For this reason, I usually remove the trigger (which blocks the built-in flash) for pictures closer than 2 feet. I have recently found that mounting the strobe on adjustable arms and shielding the trigger from the strobe, I can take macro's using a diffuser on the strobe -- even closer than the range of the internal flash (which is blocked by the housing). The slave must be positioned in front of the trigger or so the slave flash is shielded from the trigger.
ISO -- I leave it at 100. You can see grain in any other setting.
FOCUS LIGHT:
Use one! I use either two Q-40's attached to my strobe, or a light cannon slung under the tray -- or all three!
FILTER:
Use one for any scene that the strobe won't illuminate and you can get a reasonably steady exposure (1/60 or better). Underwater landscapes is a good example. Sacrifice a tad of exposure if you have to. A slight gamma correction is much better than radical levels processing. If there's a question, take one with the filter and one without.
HOW TO REMEMBER ALL THIS?
I use notes on my strobe. I break things down to 4 basic modes
Distance MODE APERATURE SHUTTER FLASH
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3" - 2' CLOSE A+ (7.6-13.4) 1/1000 Internal or Ext w/diffuser
2' - 6' MEDIUM A+ (7.6-13.4) 1/1000 (or slower) Ext w/diffuser
6' -12' FAR A- (2.8-4.9) 1/60 1/125 1/250 Ext NO Diffuser
12'+ DISTANT A- (2.8-4.9) 1/60 1/125 1/250 Infinity Mode + UW Filter
LABEL THE BUTTONS --
I use simple paper icons or text on the inside of the case with some glue-stick to hold them in place. e.g
EXP FOCUS REVIEW S+ S- A+ A- and a BIG "ON" for the top jog to turn the LCD on and off manually.
You can also use white or yellow electrical tape on the outside and print with a permanent marker (sharpie).
If you've read this far - then congratulations. Try some of these settings yourself and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Mark
