Budget strobe for TG-5 + Seafrogs

[tursiops]

Controlling the sunball typically involves fast shutter speeds.

...which the TG series does not have, at least by choice.

 

[Barmaglot]

...which the TG series does not have, at least by choice.

Yeah, but I would wager that putting one in aperture priority and pointing it at the sun will result in a pretty fast shutter speed.

 

[tarponchik]

Though Intova went out of business several years ago, I am still shooting with their ISS2000 slave flash. If you find a used one, get it. It is kinda bulky because it takes 4xAA. They have a smaller PX-21 which is still available at Amazon for $59.99 (I never tried this one).

 

[scubaozy]

Why would you need HSS under water?

Most common use is in macro, using high speeds to darken background completely to bring out the object. When I upgraded to slr, I was pretty disappointed not being able to use hi speeds. Without hss, to darken the background pitch black, you need to have clear empty water behind the object also you have to work much harder on positioning of your strobes. With hss, you can approach your object from any angle and just crack up your shutter.

Anyway, so I can try to get any "modern" (??) Inon or Sea and Sea used, which would fit my budget and which is at least manual, is that so?

Absolutely, having rc is not a criterion necessarily, get the cheaper one between two brands. I give the edge to inon, because it can do, sTTL, manual, external manual. STTL is also manually tweakable.

 

[Asanoth]

Hello,
I got lucky and got an YS-01 with a tray and arm for some 150 € + shipping. I tested it thouroughly in Egypt and it delivered fine. Of course, there is quite a bit of learning to happen.
On the first dive, it did not seem to work underwater, only above: I do not have idea why, but it never happened again. Maybe I had it set up poorly, or there was too much light.
TTL with TG5 worked very well right out of the box, I did not setup anything on the camera (only force flash). For manual I would need to study more: Hopefully I will visit the Philippines (10+ days itinerary for January or Christmas) and learn some more, especially applying exposure compensation not to have ambient light influence the image.
For wide angle, it did not do anything, but I think that was mainly because the TTL flash was not strong enough.
Also, there was a significant limitation on the camera's flash recharge time: Wonder if there is any better way to use with a TTL, I guess not.

Thank you all for your tips.

 

[Michael Greenberg Manfish]

Why would you need HSS under water? In air, you might need it maybe for fill flash for a subject in a bright lit desert... or to capture multipleexposures of a flying bird in a single picture. But for normal stuff, I do not see the point of HSS. And UW, everything is much slower. I would say it is much better to freeze the exposure via a more powerful flash (meaning not-HSS flash), and it is not like your background will be too bright at 1/200 and ISO 100 10 meters below... Even when you point it towards the sun, you will not try to expose sun correctly.

Anyway, so I can try to get any "modern" (??) Inon or Sea and Sea used, which would fit my budget and which is at least manual, is that so?

HSS is the holy grain of wide field underwater photography in shallow water. My rolliemarine would do 500th of a second. When tilting up where there is a lot of ambient light, the ability to go higher than 250th of a second allows you to control the mixing of sunlight with your flash.. also you can use less power (brightness) on your flash.