First time strobe user

[Mert2003]

Hello everyone,

I will be diving the red sea in three months and I was looking into purchasing a strobe for my Sony T9 (Epoque EHS-ST9) underwater housing unit. First off I would like to know what accessories I need to complete the system.

Also, I would like to ask a naive question regarding whether or not it is worth it to simply upgrade from a point and shoot underwater experience to a SLR underwater photo experience. I own a Nikon D80, but stomaching the 2500 - 4000 for the housing unit and strobes seams a little crazy to me. Is it really worth it? I do a total of 25-40 dives a year and right now I am happy with the T9's underwater pictures. Is it worth the 3/4 grand?

Thanks all!

 

[caymaniac]

Hello everyone,

I will be diving the red sea in three months and I was looking into purchasing a strobe for my Sony T9 (Epoque EHS-ST9) underwater housing unit. First off I would like to know what accessories I need to complete the system.

Also, I would like to ask a naive question regarding whether or not it is worth it to simply upgrade from a point and shoot underwater experience to a SLR underwater photo experience. I own a Nikon D80, but stomaching the 2500 - 4000 for the housing unit and strobes seams a little crazy to me. Is it really worth it? I do a total of 25-40 dives a year and right now I am happy with the T9's underwater pictures. Is it worth the 3/4 grand?

Thanks all!

First of all welcome to the board. Second, spending that kind of loot is really a personal preference. Lets just think for a minute, who will want ot see your pictures? Your pics will probably be important to anyone you are taking the trip with, after that who would really want your pics? Not to be condesending.
I have purchased a housing, several ports and several strobes, but this is what I enjoy. If you enjoy your T9 then that is enough. If you are going pro or have more options then you will want to spend more. My goal is to print some of my pics and frame them, hang them in my house, share them with a few friends/family, maybe even enter a contest. This is where it ends, only you can decide if you would want a strobe/housing/camera/lens's/ports/extra paraphinalia along with lugging it on a boat/underwater.

I enjoy it so I have chosen to do it.

Some people spend alot of money on a muscle car, some on motocycles, some on homes, some on their yard/garden. Most everyone has a hobbie, some people spend more on their hobbie than others. Some people dive more than others.

 

[spt29970]

It depends on what you want to do with your photography. If you are happy with your T9, why upgrade? I love my dSLR setup, but I was running into the limits of what I could do with my previous setup (Oly 5050). The benefits, of course, are reduced shutter lag, lower noise, better sharpness, and better wide angle. The downsides are that they are heavy, difficult to transport, and much more work to dive with. People go back and forth about the requirement of using the viewfinder instead of the LCD. When I switched, I thought I would miss my LCD. The truth is that I LOVE my magnified viewfinder. I would never go back to the LCD to frame images. Although some of the new crop of dSLRs have live view, it doesn't work well underwater.

 

[Mert2003]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the feedback. I will go ahead and purchase the strobe for the T9 point and shoot.

Is it a one item set-up when purchasing a strobe? I mean to say, does everything come in the box that I will need to set it up? There's seams to be a lot of accessories and I'm thinking I'll need to purchase a few of them? Here's what I'm looking at INON D-2000 Strobe #D-2000

Thanks for the help.

 

[cannon fodder]

Hi Mert,

I got this INON D-2000 Strobe and Flexible Arm Package #PG-D2K-FB it has everything you need, cable, tray (screws to the bottom of the housing), and arm. Works great with my pt-26/stylus 500. I got the 2000-s the extra $80.00 didn't seem worth it for the light.

Cheers,

Derek

 

[Mert2003]

Thanks all. I will be purchasing the D-2000 set-up, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I can post some nice Red Sea photos on here in a couple of months.

Thanks Again!