I've actually used the FL-20 and housing for about 2 years. Love the TTL. "Macro and close up" ... not exactly. The FL-20 has enough power for most photos. You're not going to cover a large pelagic with it but it does a decent enough job. Since I've used it for quite some time, I can give you the strengths and weaknesses as I see them.
1. The biggest strength is TTL. It's auto and it works great. The majority of photos I take with it are well lit.
2. Its a hardwired cable - no optical cables to fool with, no cable-less issues. Fires every time the flash is ready to fire. (Having owned two optical versions I can't say enough about getting a flash when you need one!!!)
3. Its generally strong enough to cover most of what you need and if you diffuse it correctly it should give you a decent area of coverage.
dislikes
1. It has a flat port and tends to come out pretty hot therefore it can leave some harsh shadows if you don't diffuse correctly. (flash diffuser also fits in housing).
2. The housing diffuser sucks. Keeps falling off.
3. Because the port is flat, and small, you can't use the housed FL20 to trigger another strobe (been there done this and its frustrating)
Recommendation - If you're not going to buy an Inon with a hardwired cable from athena (big bucks) (or the S&S with Mathias bulkhead also big bucks) then this will make a fine starter flash for you. If you want to walk on the wild side, Olympus just came out with its own version of an underwater strobe for $299 list. It hasn't been evaluated by anyone that I'm aware of but you can see it on the olympus website.
Here's a link to some photos -
http://www.cupsonline.net/MembersSh...ameyMemberStillGallery/tabid/134/Default.aspx
