Dim bulb question for sure

[RIdiverMike]

I have a SeaLife DC500 with one digital Reefmaster flash and I've had mucho problems getting the flash to fire. Others in this forum (the SeaLife section) have given me helpful suggestions and I'm pursuing them. But I had a general understanding type question relating to external flash in general.

I've always understood that ANY external flash is far superior to the camera's simple little internal flash. I once tried a Canon pocket digital with a Canon housing and only the camera's little internal flash. All I got was backscatter.

But I was looking at some of my buddies' shots from a trip in the fall (I was with them) and they were using pocket jobs (Canon sd1100, I think) with no external flash. At least some of their pix revealed some pretty good colors (like reds) and no backscatter - their shots were at least as good as my SeaLife (when it works, that is).

So now I'm wondering if my understanding has simply been wrong all along. Courtesy of my DC500, I mostly take ambient light shots but I'd like to be able to reveal some colors now and again. Not clear to me whether I should keep trying to fix the DC500 or just trash it and buy a pocket job w/housing but no separate flash. If I thought the pocket job would result in non-backscatter shots with at least a little bit of color sometimes, I'd be tempted to buy one and save the space of an external flash in my suitcase.

So I guess I'm wondering what folks' experience is with pocket camera internal flashes in general. Do you find that you can ever reveal some color with the internal flash?

Thx in advance for any feedback.

Good day and good diving!

RIdiverMike

 

[ABQdiver]

Hey Mike,

As you know, water knocks out the natural/ambient light down quickly the deeper you go. Using the on camera flash puts the flash directly in the angle of incidence that will bounce back light reflected off any particulate in the water between you and the subject.

Getting that flash off the camera changes the angle and thus reduces the possibility of that particulate matter returning light to the camera. Getting closer will help a LOT and give you better colors since you have less water to shoot through. This will help the on camera flash since it is not that powerful as well. Diving in really clear water helps a lot too!!

Here's a cool link for aiming strobes.

 

[SteveAD]

A remote strobe absolutely will decrease backscatter, but the built in strobe is far frome useless. Backscatter is caused by the flash reflecting off of particles between the camera and the target. If there are very few particles there is very little backscatter, so a built in flash can work just fine in extremely clear water and or close up work. Do the good shots your friends have made fall into either of those categories?