DIY housing for Metz 48

[tamas970]

Hi everybody,

I am assembling my underwater gear (E-PL5), and thought, why not use a normal flash in a housing? It would save some package weight and costs.

The plan:

2 Metz 48 AF-1 (I'd use them on land anyway: fully compatible with Olympus TTL, strong GN)

DIY acrylglas housing, similar to this one: Paul's Homemade Underwater Video Housing

The idea came from Subal's strobecase: Subal underwaterhousings for digital cameras - Underwaterphotography with Subal - Lesson learned here: to keep the original angle of illumination, one needs a semidome cap!

I know, there are some traps:
1. safe sealing -> I try to keep the design as simple as possible: Plexiglas tube, one end permanently closed/glued, on the other end a double O-ring solution.
2. controls -> either using a pair of strong magnets or just leave the unit always on
3. Syncronization: I would like to use Toslink or any el-cheapo cables. It seems to work fine, just have to be ported right (pointing at the slave sensor): Flickr: Discussing Fibre optic cable to trigger Nikon CLS underwater? (camera on the surface) in Strobist.com

Does anyone have experience with non-uw flashes in uw housing?

 

[bvanant]

A lot depends on your skill level, access to tooling and willingness to buy a new Metz when you flood one. You might save some weight but not size and if your time is worth more than $20 per hour, just go buy a used $400 strobe and you will be in much much much better shape than building your own.

Bill

 

[tamas970]

I was thinking on a simple acrylic clock dome as a starting point: only the backside has to be sealed.

Question: does a dome bring any good for a flash? (how does it effect the illumination angle?)

A lot depends on your skill level, access to tooling and willingness to buy a new Metz when you flood one. You might save some weight but not size and if your time is worth more than $20 per hour, just go buy a used $400 strobe and you will be in much much much better shape than building your own.

Bill