Need G12 help

[Dannybot]

I have on good authority that Santa has a G12 and Canon WPDC-34 housing under the tree for me this year.

I have a couple Olympus UFL-1's with trays and flex arms that I have been using with limited success with my old pocket camera.

I also have a $400 Ikelite credit that I won in a contest last summer.

So my question for anybody who can offer advise is this: should I return the Canon housing and get the Ikelite housing and try to make do with the UFL's? Keep the Canon housing and get an Ikelite strobe setup like the AF-35, which would be essentially free, but limited in capabilities? Or spring for a DS-51 and EV controller package?

Any thought on the packages I am considering are greatly appreciated.

Danny

 

[acooper]

Reliable, cable based TTL is truly nice to have. I recently switched from a Canon case with a YS-110 to an Ikelite case and DS-51. I always had issues with TTL over the fiber and found shooting manual to be more reliable. With a cable this is no problem, good exposure has become painless, paticularly up close.

On the other hand, the Ikelite case is big and heavy! I am a big guy 6'2" and 220+. This camera is as large as I would want to carry. Using the Ikelite tray and some Ultralight arm bits to put it together. I liked the ease with which I could shoot one handed with the Canon case, leaving my other hand free to steady myself against surge or current. This is difficult with the Ikelite, it is just too big to wrap a hand around comfortably and still hit the shutter button.

 

[PatW]

I am not a fan of TTL. I just set the camera at manual. I have found that in many situations, the TTL is inaccurate. The biggest exampe is when you are shooting on a sandy bottom and the strobe's reflected light greatly over exposes the shot.

 

[Dannybot]

TTL is not really all that important to me, that's why the shift away from pure P&S pocket camera to more advanced option. With the Oly setup I had, I only had EV +/- 2 stops...

 

[Gilligan]

An Ike setup as mentioned will give you true TTL as well as the convenience of adding wet-mount wide angle and macro lenses. True TTL is not perfect but probably requires less guesswork than with manual or fiber optic fired strobes (simulated TTL).

The Canon housing with a fiber optic fired strobe or the Ike DS51 without the TTL hard wire setup will be more compact but the Canon housing is not suitable for a wide angle lens should you want one.

I am using a G12 in a Canon housing with a manual strobe and am satisfied with it as I don't have any wet-mount lenses. My strobe is fully manual so it is guesswork but I got use to it and know the sweet spots. Regardless, I sometimes shoot 3 or 4 shots of the same subject at different strobe settings. IMO you won't eliminate that with true TTL but you will probably significantly reduce it.

 

[coralcruiser]

Keep the canon housing, see if you can sell the ikelite credit at a discount and put the cash towards an inon strobe or wet lenses

 

[farsidefan1]

I like the recsea housing with lightweight arm and YS-01 strobe. With some flotation attachments you can get neutral buoyancy. The recsea allows full access to ALL CONTROLS for the G12 which was not available on the canon housing, nor I believe, the ikelite. For me those were dealbreakers. The only limitation is that I have to decide if I am going wide or normal before I get wet. Can't change lenses in the water. It is easy to handle one handed.

 

[coralcruiser]

I like the recsea housing with lightweight arm and YS-01 strobe. With some flotation attachments you can get neutral buoyancy. The recsea allows full access to ALL CONTROLS for the G12 which was not available on the canon housing, nor I believe, the ikelite. For me those were dealbreakers. The only limitation is that I have to decide if I am going wide or normal before I get wet. Can't change lenses in the water. It is easy to handle one handed.

I thought that you could use wet lenses with the recsea housing... I'm waiting to see if they come out with one for the G15 so I can get that camera

 

[acooper]

The recsea allows full access to ALL CONTROLS for the G12 which was not available on the canon housing, nor I believe, the ikelite. For me those were dealbreakers.

Not quite true. The Canon case has no access to either control wheel, the Ikelite does not access the front control wheel. For either case there are other methods to control these functions in the housing. Canon engineers allowed for the limitations of their housing when writing the software. Just read the manual!

 

[Gilligan]

Not quite true. The Canon case has no access to either control wheel, the Ikelite does not access the front control wheel. For either case there are other methods to control these functions in the housing. Canon engineers allowed for the limitations of their housing when writing the software. Just read the manual!

Push 5 to select between F stops/Shutter Speeds (combined in M mode) and Focus choices.

For focus choices push and hold 1 then push 7 or 9 to move between the three respective settings.

M Mode - push and hold down 1 then push 6 and 10 for shutter speeds and 7 and 9 for F stops.

Av Mode - push and hold 1 then 6 and 10 to change F stops.

Tv Mode - push and hold 1 then 6 and 10 to change shutter speeds

NOTE: If you don't hold 1 down far enough the flash setting control will appear with 9 and the macro control will appear with 7. Wait for the control to disappear then push 1 again and continue.