Canon A570IS + Ikelite Substrobe S = Dark Pics

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Here is a thought, go to Manual or Tv on the camera dial and set in 1/60 second, just as an experiment.

That strobe may require a preflash, some film P&S cameras did preflash and if yours did then the strobe is expecting a preflash. If so you will have to return the camera strobe to Auto (under the Menu button) and you cannot shoot in Manual on the mode dial.
N
 
I set the aperture to f8.0 (the highest), and the shutter speed to 1/60", and the ISO to 80. SUCCESS!! Thanks. The photos are on the bright side, and with a brightly colored subject, the photo is washed out. To resolve this, I used a piece of white plastic to make a diffuser for the flash. It worked. I may also try to lower to the white balance manually in an attempt to do away with the homemade diffuser. Thanks. For longer range shots, I'll just switch to Auto or the Underwater setting so that I can leave the manual setting alone for quicker macro shots. I have CHDK, so I can play with the white balance afterward on the RAW images.
 
I set the aperture to f8.0 (the highest), and the shutter speed to 1/60", and the ISO to 80. SUCCESS!! Thanks.

Of the three variables above, the only one that should or could effect sync would be the 1/60 second which is why I suggested give that a try. You should have full control over f stops from f2.6 to f8.0. I would also give 1/125 a try.

However, that you appear to be in Manual exposure mode on the mode dial, that seems to indicate the strobe does not expect a preflash. I think you are making progress but there is more to go yet.

N
 
The Fstop, shutter speed and ISO are not the reason for your success getting the strobe to fire correctly. To set both the Fstop and shutter speed you had to put the camera in maual mode and in manual mode the ONLY 2 choices for the flash is either off or on...in other words you shut down any preflash that was happening (see page 128 of your manual.) Now that you have the strobe working in manual you should continue to shoot in manual and learn to use the histogram (see page 16) to guide you in setting the shutter speed and F-stop. The over exposures you are getting above water are normal, water attenuates about 4 times more light than air does so you will see a marked decrease in the exposure at depth. Go to this thread and read about manual setting http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-photography/214500-help-manual-camera-settings.html
 

Back
Top Bottom