attaching a strobe ...

[Dee]

B&H are good folks....good luck!

 

[RonFrank]

Reading the manual that came with my new strobe, it says to attach the optical cable to the housing (in front of the flash) using a piece of black tape.

Is there a more elegant solution? Black electrician's tape will come off underwater rather handily ... and duct tape leaves a sticky residue that is almost impossible to clean off the housing.

Wondering if there's anyone out there who uses an optical slave strobe ... and how you attach the optical cable to your housing ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

My cuz uses this flash (nice flash BTW for the price) and she used the Red Green tool of choice for EVERYTHING... duct tape

Your housing has a diffuser.. yes? So if you decide upon the RedGreen method, then just duct tape over the entire diffuser. You really don't want any in camera flash entering the image if possible.

You will want to likley NOT leave this thing hooked up to the housing on a permanant basis. If you do, than maybe other options would be better suited. BTW residue from duct tape is easily removed from plastic. Jack Danials would work, but you may want to choose a less expensive alternative. I think plain ol' dishsoap and hot water would work rather easily. They key is don't leave the tape on for months :11doh:

 

[Cacia]

Ron, unless I am not following this, I just wind mine around the arm, like a vine.

 

[RonFrank]

Ron, unless I am not following this, I just wind mine around the arm, like a vine.

Then you are doing it all wrong! LOL

Catherine, the original poster is asking about an optical fiber sync cord which has to be attached in some fashion in front of the on camera flash for PnS applications. Unfortunately the manufactures don't seem to be able to provide a very good way to accomodate their own design, and often say to use tape of some sort which works, but....

 

[jwvanno]

Just another idea...

My PT-015 housing for my Olympus C5050 has the flash diffuser standing off from the housing body by an inch or so. What I did was wrap the fiber optic cable around the handle of my SeaLife digital flash like a vine, then routed it under the housing body and up the face of the housing. Then I drilled a hole through the diffuser that was 2,000ths of an inch smaller than the OD of the fiber. Then I slowly and gently worked it into the hole, so that the fiber is end on to the flash, allowing it to be activated when the internal flash fires.

NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOUR DIFFUSER IS NOT MOLDED INTO THE HOUSING BODY!!! IT HAS TO BE A SEPERATE PIECE OF PLASTIC OR YOU'LL FLOOD THE HOUSING.

Then I used some aluminum Air Conditioning Duct tape to merely "black out" the original flash.

I was worried that the cable would come out of the hole during a dive, or during entry or whatever, but 30 dives later in surf from the beach and giant strides off the boat, it has yet to back out even the least bit.

If nothing else, I highly recommend Aluminum Ducting Tape for adhesion in sea water!

 

[havnmonkey]

You will have to adjust the placement of the sensor... in high ambient light in Coz my SL960d wouldn't fire because it couldn't sense the internal flash. I had it mounted to my plastic diffuser. Just tape it where you think it will work and try it out, if you need to "black it out" with tape over the whole sensor; do so... but the original mounting hardware it made for the reefmaster cameras which sets the F.O. cable right infront of the flash(within a quarter inch) and then blocks the internal flash from affecting the picture. Trial and error...

p.s. I had best results with electrical tape and it didn't come off underwater if applied dry.

 

[Peter Guy]

Bob, I have the same strobe -- the tape that is supplied doesn't work well at all! The Velcro fix works very nicely -- don't let Lynne leave without giving it to you. I'll try to get her to bring my housing and fiber optic to show you.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks Peter ... I'll get there early so I have time to check it out (I have AOW students showing up at 6 PM) ...

... Bob (Grateful )