Any cheap strobe unit for digital cameras?

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I see that a decent underwater digital camera system could be put together for $400 or so ($250 for camera & $150 for UW housing.) Still a bit more than a moderate underwater camera, but those underwater cameras are so barebone for above land photography that they are almost useless.

But it seems that the few strobe units I've seen that are digital camera ready cost a fortune. A dumb slave strobe that would cost $50 above land cost $200 underwater. Add some features like like skip the first N-flashes would increase the price $500.

Are there any cheap source for strobes that are digital ready?

 

[Dee]

Underwater digital photography is just getting off the ground and becoming affordable and so is the equipment for it. As far as I know there are only 3 strobes designed specifically for digital use, and I could be wrong,...S&S, Ikelite, Epoche...that ignore the pre-flash.

With the light sensitivity of the lenses on digital cameras, it's possible to get a quality camera and housing to start with. You'll get some very good pictures and can add a good strobe later.

Keep in mind that cheap and digital and decent quality don't go together!

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Underwater digital photography is just getting off the ground and becoming affordable and so is the equipment for it. As far as I know there are only 3 strobes designed specifically for digital use, and I could be wrong,...S&S, Ikelite, Epoche...that ignore the pre-flash.

Adding a little feature like trigger on 2nd flash doubles or triples the cost the equipment? I guess most strobes are dumb slaves in watertight housing. Adding any logic to them requires a radical re-design.

Maybe the next generation digital will have the option of no pre-flash, then I could get any sub $200 strobe.

With the light sensitivity of the lenses on digital cameras, it's possible to get a quality camera and housing to start with. You'll get some very good pictures and can add a good strobe later.

I've had too much backscatters w/o strobe. And I don't have photoshop to color correct every picture.

I don't know if I want to be trapped with the camera if the price of strobes never comes down.

Keep in mind that cheap and digital and decent quality don't go together!

Of course, cheap is relative, especially in underwater photography.

I was only looking to finally jump on the digital bandwagon (kill 2 bird with one stone, migrate for land and UW camera) because the camera mfg's own housing are dirt cheap compared to 3rd party ones like Ikelite's. You would think I could go cheap with my existing SLR & 21mm lens, but a housing for it would cost more than the camera itself.


Maybe I should just skip the next couplle of generations of digital cameras and get a film camera like the Bonica Multi-snapper, but I don't think I'll take that much underwater pictures to justify the cost. Then again, a digital ready strobe costs more than the whole Multi-snapper package. I am trapped either way.

 

[raxafarian]

don't forget to figure in the cost of film and developing.

I'd estimate .40 - .50 cents per picture. (based on 5.00/roll film, and 5.00 developing) and most times you won't be happy with the 5.00 "walmart" developing... so add lots of money if you send it to a more custom lab. I might be high on the film price... but close enough.

So... you shoot 2 rolls a day on a week long trip. 170.00 or so.

I shoot 100+pics a day with a digital... cost 0.00

I will add this... if you are going to print every single picture... you're gonna go broke buying paper and inkjet cartridges. I only print a few... mostly just look at them on the laptop. Easy to show others.


By the way... there are digital cameras that do not use preflash... the nikon 995 is one.. but then you are "trapped" again... cause you'd have to spend more for a housing.

 

[Dee]

There are cameras that require no pre-flash and strobes that give you a choice of pre-flash or not, such as the S&S YS90DX but they aren't cheap.

When I was using a film camera, my processing bill for the film would be in the neighborhood of $200 for 20-25 rolls. I would throw 50% of them away right off. Of the rest I'd have 20% that were only snapshot quality, 15% that were really good for prints and only 10% worth printing to enlargements. $200 for a few prints was ridiculous.

In just 2 trips, my strobe was paid for with the savings.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

There are cameras that require no pre-flash and strobes that give you a choice of pre-flash or not, such as the S&S YS90DX but they aren't cheap.

But those digital cameras still require TTL flash exposure? which still requires a strobe that flashes for the duration the on-board flash goes off?


I guess this ties into the other question I posted. If the digital camera has wide exposure latitude like modern print films. Then I could get a manual dumb slave strobe, use it to expose my subject and have the camera capture the light via a pre-set shutter speed/f-stop, and somehow, the AE system of the camera adjust the picture just taken so that it looks properly exposed.


Also, does any digital cameras (via its TTL exposure measurement) have the capability to close the shutter once it receives enough light from a manual slave strobe (or light of any nature,) before its auto pre-selected shutter speed has been achieved? Meaning if I had the camera set to aperature priority, having the shutter speed determined by the camera as 1/125 sec, in the midst of keeping the shutter open for 1/125 sec, the manual flash shot off enough light for proper exposure after 1/2000 sec, the TTL metering should determine that enough light has arrived and shut off the light capturing circuitry at that moment. I assume it should be common, since these digital cameras don't really have a shutter like a film camera, where it cannot react fast enough to stop additional light from reaching the film. All the digital camera has to do is shut off the light collection circuitry.

 

[luvdiving]

No.:boom:

 

[raxafarian]

my camera does not have "preflash". The way the ttl works with the strobe is:

I turn off the internal flash.

I hook the ttl cable in the housing to the camera

I hook up the ttl cable from the strobe to the bulkhead of the housing.

The camera has a flash sensor. When it senses enough light, it sends the shutoff signal to the strobe.


So, no, you wouldn't be able to use a manual strobe and have the camera shut the shutter once enough light reaches it... It's gonna stay open for however long the shutter speed is set for. (your idea does seem to be a good one... but it's not the way the camera works...at least my nikon doesn't).

I've accidentally left my strobe on manual, full power, and I can guarantee the pictures will be waaaaaaay overexposed... so it's the same as a film camera... ttl shuts off the strobe, not the shutter.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

raxafarian once bubbled...
my camera does not have "preflash". The way the ttl works with the strobe is:
I've accidentally left my strobe on manual, full power, and I can guarantee the pictures will be waaaaaaay overexposed... so it's the same as a film camera... ttl shuts off the strobe, not the shutter.

The images were overexposed, probably due to the camera going into a fixed shutter speed in flash mode(?)

There should be some external trigger capability from the camera (e.g., for timecode recorder or whatever). So it could trigger a manual strobe, while the camera operates in full aperature priority TTL capability. That would mean camera would have to have shutter speed as high as 1/50,000 sec, a flash/strobe's minimal duration.

Anyway, if they were to throw any of those truely useful features in a digital camera, it would be on a professional SLR, not on one of those cameras that gives you the max pixels for the dollar.