Current policy on using strobes at Guadalupe?

[FettSolo]

Hey folks,

I'm heading back to Isla Guadalupe soon for the first time in six years, and I was curious what the current rules on underwater strobe usage are. Are they allowed, or no?

An e-mail to Nautilus yielded this gem: "Video lights are 100% okay. If you take 1 photo there needs to be one flash per photo. If there are multiple flashes per per photo that flash/strobe/light is not allowed."

I've never heard of a strobe that fires multiple flashes per photo... confusing answer, to say the least. Hoping someone who has been there recently can clear this up for me!

 

[Damselfish]

perhaps they are talking about the pre-flash used for determining exposure in some setups? Or maybe a slave strobe?

 

[FettSolo]

Yeah, who knows?

All I know is there has to be at least one person on SB who has been out to Guadalupe this season and knows the deal with the current strobe policy - please help!

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Yeah, who knows?

I just came back last week (just posted trip report & pix here) and the answer they gave you is correct. Video lights are fine. They use the term "strobe" to mean multiple flashes for multiple images as if you were shooting in a high-speed multi-frames-per-second mode. (And yes, some UW strobes/flashes can fire that way.) If you are shooting a single frame with flash, you're fine. And it's OK if you're flash recycles quickly to shoot again quickly. They're just trying not to blind the sharks with flashes.

I shot with dual strobes (Sea&Sea YS-D1s) and sometimes shot even quickly (two or three frames in two or three seconds - but always triggering everything with my fingers, not CONTINUOUS mode or anything like that) and there were no issues.

 

[FettSolo]

@Ken Kurtis - Thank you very much! That was the clear, specific explanation I was looking for.

 

[Rred]

"I've never heard of a strobe that fires multiple flashes per photo..."
Also very common on consumer cameras, where the strobe trips a couple of times to get your pupils closing, to prevent red-eye. That usually can be turned off, and wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for UW cameras, but still...a lot of consumer cameras "stutter" the strobe that way.
I'm surprised anyplace would actually be regulating this!