I am only a rookie (just did my first U/W photography trip) but here's my two cents (after months of reading and research):
If your wallet can stretch to it, go for two strobes rather than one. Go for mid-to-high-end strobes rather than low-end ones. Cameras and housings will naturally evolve and be replaced, but strobe technology doesn't change much and a good strobe will last you a long time. A cheap strobe may only frustrate.
I have a pair of S&S YS-D1s. I run them to my Sony RX100 using slave TTL. Exposure is good 75% of the time, and EV tweaks are available on the strobe itself for the remaining 25%.
My strobes have target lights, but these are essentially useless as focus lights because most of the time you do not want your strobe to be pointing directly at the subject if you are interested in quality photos. You want the edges of the light cone to diffuse onto your subject, rather than have a dead-center aim. In my one trip, I never used the target lights even once, so these are completely non-essential to me.
I bought a Sola 1200 as a focus light. In the circles I dive with here in Malaysia, I have never seen anyone use a focus light, so I questioned whether or not it was worth the purchase. But so many people here on SB swear by them, so I took a chance. It was the right decision - in lower light conditions (all you need is a subject to be underneath a rock overhang on an overcast day, even in mid-afternoon), it made all the difference and allowed the camera to lock focus quickly. You could probably focus without the light, but often you want to capture a shot at the right moment, and you want your focus to track (rather than hunt) until that moment occurs. I am very happy I have the focus light, though the Sola 800 would have been sufficient I think (rather than the 1200 model). The 1200 will be useful for amateur video work though.
I was concerned about hot spots in the images, but not a single of my light-aided photos has a hotspot on it. I guess this is because that the Sola has a very wide and even flood of light and the strobes are simply too bright to make the hotspot visible at all. I would not get hung up on focus lights that turn off automatically - many here attest that they have never seen a single hotspot after taking thousands of photos with always-on focus lights, and my short experience attests to this.
The one piece of advice I will now offer anyone looking for quality photos (rather than holiday snapshots) is not to scrimp. Some of my friends have been diving with cheap housings and using the internal strobe for ages, and others I have seen have upgraded to a single low-end strobe, and for the most part their results only frustrate. Those only interested in holiday shots are happy, but if you aspire to magazine-quality pics, then you really need to shell out the bucks right at the beginning for a decent setup - anything less is a waste of time in my opinion. I saved until I could afford a decent set, rather than do it piecemeal (which also generally costs more in the long run).
And for someone with zero prior photography experience, I am very pleased with my first time results, and look forward to many more years of enjoyable photography.
Happy snapping!
If your wallet can stretch to it, go for two strobes rather than one. Go for mid-to-high-end strobes rather than low-end ones. Cameras and housings will naturally evolve and be replaced, but strobe technology doesn't change much and a good strobe will last you a long time. A cheap strobe may only frustrate.
I have a pair of S&S YS-D1s. I run them to my Sony RX100 using slave TTL. Exposure is good 75% of the time, and EV tweaks are available on the strobe itself for the remaining 25%.
My strobes have target lights, but these are essentially useless as focus lights because most of the time you do not want your strobe to be pointing directly at the subject if you are interested in quality photos. You want the edges of the light cone to diffuse onto your subject, rather than have a dead-center aim. In my one trip, I never used the target lights even once, so these are completely non-essential to me.
I bought a Sola 1200 as a focus light. In the circles I dive with here in Malaysia, I have never seen anyone use a focus light, so I questioned whether or not it was worth the purchase. But so many people here on SB swear by them, so I took a chance. It was the right decision - in lower light conditions (all you need is a subject to be underneath a rock overhang on an overcast day, even in mid-afternoon), it made all the difference and allowed the camera to lock focus quickly. You could probably focus without the light, but often you want to capture a shot at the right moment, and you want your focus to track (rather than hunt) until that moment occurs. I am very happy I have the focus light, though the Sola 800 would have been sufficient I think (rather than the 1200 model). The 1200 will be useful for amateur video work though.
I was concerned about hot spots in the images, but not a single of my light-aided photos has a hotspot on it. I guess this is because that the Sola has a very wide and even flood of light and the strobes are simply too bright to make the hotspot visible at all. I would not get hung up on focus lights that turn off automatically - many here attest that they have never seen a single hotspot after taking thousands of photos with always-on focus lights, and my short experience attests to this.
The one piece of advice I will now offer anyone looking for quality photos (rather than holiday snapshots) is not to scrimp. Some of my friends have been diving with cheap housings and using the internal strobe for ages, and others I have seen have upgraded to a single low-end strobe, and for the most part their results only frustrate. Those only interested in holiday shots are happy, but if you aspire to magazine-quality pics, then you really need to shell out the bucks right at the beginning for a decent setup - anything less is a waste of time in my opinion. I saved until I could afford a decent set, rather than do it piecemeal (which also generally costs more in the long run).
And for someone with zero prior photography experience, I am very pleased with my first time results, and look forward to many more years of enjoyable photography.
Happy snapping!
