Took the camera for its maiden dive this morning. Here are my thoughts.
8080/Ikelite housing/DS125 with TTL sync
HEAVY. 10 pounds. I weighed it. 10 pounds. And I still plan on adding my DS50 sub-strobe when it comes back from repair. Geezus!! Underwater it is not too bad but I will be replacing the single arm with my double. Mostly to add the second strobe but even if I were not, I would still go with a double handle so as to give my poor left hand a break from carrying it around underwater.
TTL: I must have a setting wrong although I went through the Ikelite setup and the camera setup and although it appears to work topside when I tested it, all of my TTL attempts at depth were over exposed. Not just a little but DRAMATICALLY. After 10 or show white outs, I switched to half power and just adjusted strobe distance for effect. I will have to look deeper to see what the problem is. Not impressed with TTL at this point but again, it could be operator error.
8080: Could this thing take longer to focus? I suppose so but it seems unlikely. Even with good ambient light and the focus light on the strobe on it was still hunting light a hound on the scent trying to find a good lock. I swear, I almost fell asleep between shots once or twice. Grrrrrrrrr. Image quality is really sharp and color saturation is good when I have the strobe set properly. No real detectable artifacting on the images that a novice like me can recognize. The camera writes SHQ images to the card nearly as fast as my old 4040 wrote HQ files.
Ikelite Housing: Heavy but well built. Camera controls are fully functional. I would like to have seen them go with a constant on switch for the once that require a press and hold while turning the jog dial to select options. It is hard to hold the camera, press the button and turn the dial at the same time. I HOPE it gets easier with practice. I don't see where having a different mfg housing would make this easier aside from the weight of the unit. The shutter release is a bit trick in my opinion. Because it is not spring loaded, if you press it and then move your finger, it stays pressed. I have lots and lots of pictures of sand and the side of my leg. It takes almost no travel on the release to engage the shutter release on the camera. Now I suppose this type of function may come in handy when doing a half press and hold as the half press will stay pressed until you manually press the lever forward again. Good thing? Jury is still out on that one for me. The port on this is a monster, looks like a howitzer sticking out the front and definitely blocks some of the focus assist light in the camera.
So, I will be back in the water with it tomorrow and trying again with the TTL. If anyone has any recommendations on some "my modes" to try or what I may be doing wrong, I am all ears..
Terry
8080/Ikelite housing/DS125 with TTL sync
HEAVY. 10 pounds. I weighed it. 10 pounds. And I still plan on adding my DS50 sub-strobe when it comes back from repair. Geezus!! Underwater it is not too bad but I will be replacing the single arm with my double. Mostly to add the second strobe but even if I were not, I would still go with a double handle so as to give my poor left hand a break from carrying it around underwater.
TTL: I must have a setting wrong although I went through the Ikelite setup and the camera setup and although it appears to work topside when I tested it, all of my TTL attempts at depth were over exposed. Not just a little but DRAMATICALLY. After 10 or show white outs, I switched to half power and just adjusted strobe distance for effect. I will have to look deeper to see what the problem is. Not impressed with TTL at this point but again, it could be operator error.
8080: Could this thing take longer to focus? I suppose so but it seems unlikely. Even with good ambient light and the focus light on the strobe on it was still hunting light a hound on the scent trying to find a good lock. I swear, I almost fell asleep between shots once or twice. Grrrrrrrrr. Image quality is really sharp and color saturation is good when I have the strobe set properly. No real detectable artifacting on the images that a novice like me can recognize. The camera writes SHQ images to the card nearly as fast as my old 4040 wrote HQ files.
Ikelite Housing: Heavy but well built. Camera controls are fully functional. I would like to have seen them go with a constant on switch for the once that require a press and hold while turning the jog dial to select options. It is hard to hold the camera, press the button and turn the dial at the same time. I HOPE it gets easier with practice. I don't see where having a different mfg housing would make this easier aside from the weight of the unit. The shutter release is a bit trick in my opinion. Because it is not spring loaded, if you press it and then move your finger, it stays pressed. I have lots and lots of pictures of sand and the side of my leg. It takes almost no travel on the release to engage the shutter release on the camera. Now I suppose this type of function may come in handy when doing a half press and hold as the half press will stay pressed until you manually press the lever forward again. Good thing? Jury is still out on that one for me. The port on this is a monster, looks like a howitzer sticking out the front and definitely blocks some of the focus assist light in the camera.
So, I will be back in the water with it tomorrow and trying again with the TTL. If anyone has any recommendations on some "my modes" to try or what I may be doing wrong, I am all ears..
Terry
