New TG-6 Setup

[Peter Bomberg]

cruisekingkris, you sound like me when I traveled around the world with my Revo! And I would be giving you the appreciative look as I believe in self sufficiency (to a high degree) , my 180 was more a necessity than an evolution. By bringing the weight down to 14Kg for 2 complete sets we compromise and add dives on our trips rather than going on dive trips.

And to be 100% honest I think I am at 17Kg currently including the full camera, but talking with a friend about manufacturing a carbon fiber first stage

 

[cruisekingkris]

@Peter Bomberg Wow you really have it all dialed in. Very nice

 

[skl007]

There are some issues with the settings recommended, Do you know what shutter speed/aperture and ISO you are using or were selected for the shots that are dark? Is the magnet in or out on the flash? Are the images you are taking macro, wide or both and how far is the strobe from the subject?

Backscatter suggest using f18 - f18 is the fully zoomed f6.3 aperture with a 3 stop neutral density filter added - It DOES NOT give you additional depth of field over f6.3. It will help darken the background, but f18 is quite slow and the strobe may either not have enough power or the TTL may choose to dial down the flash for some reason. Or if you are too far away the strobe may not have enough output to illuminate the subject.

Try doing some on land shooting something like the toy figures in the video and try f6.3 and f18 to see if that makes any difference. Shoot inside with lights low enough that a frame without flash is well under exposed at your selected settings. See what the image exposure looks like. This will give you a starting point for working underwater.

I can't recall shutter speed, but I'm usually shooting at ISO 100-200. Magnet is out of the flash, and most of the photos I'm taking I'm between 6 inches and 2 feet. My strobe positioning is drastically different between the distances though, as is my zoom. I find zooming all the way in is what is causing a lot of my issues, so perhaps my flash is just not strong enough?

I've done a little on land shooting but gave up when my focus light was enough to illuminate the subject. I should probably give it a go without the light and see if the camera can do the focusing without any extra help.

 

[Chris Ross]

I can't recall shutter speed, but I'm usually shooting at ISO 100-200. Magnet is out of the flash, and most of the photos I'm taking I'm between 6 inches and 2 feet. My strobe positioning is drastically different between the distances though, as is my zoom. I find zooming all the way in is what is causing a lot of my issues, so perhaps my flash is just not strong enough?

I've done a little on land shooting but gave up when my focus light was enough to illuminate the subject. I should probably give it a go without the light and see if the camera can do the focusing without any extra help.

I would suggest setting to f6.3 and trying again f18 is quite slow and may explain your issues if you are having problems when zoomed right in. Magnet out is correct for TTL.

The point of testing on land is to try and see if you can get good exposures with the flash alone - a dimly lit room at night will have ambient light low enough that you can guarantee most of the lighting comes from the flash. This is what you are trying to achieve UW - the flash light is full daylight colour and ambient UW is green/blue - the red is gone. So you need the strobe to be strong enough to give you most of the exposure. If you practice on land you can find a good flash position and confirm the flash is giving enough light and take those settings underwater. If you get a good flash position probably stick with that at least initially and try to shoot from the same distance and adjust zoom to suit the subject.

The other issue is whether the camera will give you the right TTL exposures, for macro it probably has a better chance of getting that right. You may need to tweak the flash exposure compensation a little to get that right.

 

[Daebado]

I’m playing with setting every dive and trying to learn the in and out of the camera and underwater photography itself.

View attachment 564673

Hey Kris,
was just wondering how you like your trigger for your shutter button. I have seen these advertised before and was very interested but could never find any good info from anyone who has actually used them.

Thanks!

 

[skl007]

After much fiddling, I think my Inon S200 might just not be strong enough to sufficiently light a supermacro subject at full zoom. Has to do with the forced aperture on the TG-6 when zoomed all the way in.

 

[undrwtr1]

Hey Daebado - I liked that trigger also, but went with this instead. Worked great and was able to depress the shutter with only slight movement of my finger. Received from China in about a week or so. With my rig almost neutral, I was even able to do a lot of single-handed shooting because of how nicely this extension worked.

 

[Daebado]

Hey Daebado - I liked that trigger also, but went with this instead. Worked great and was able to depress the shutter with only slight movement of my finger. Received from China in about a week or so. With my rig almost neutral, I was even able to do a lot of single-handed shooting because of how nicely this extension worked.



View attachment 568772

Very interesting idea! Looks like it is specifically made for an Olympus PT-058/PT-056 housing, though. I have a Fantasea housing for my Canon G7X MKII. I don't think this will fit and I don't see where they have them for other housings (although you would think they would!).

 

[Hector1959]

After much fiddling, I think my Inon S200 might just not be strong enough to sufficiently light a supermacro subject at full zoom. Has to do with the forced aperture on the TG-6 when zoomed all the way in.

I do not think your flash (or any other) is not strong enough for macro shots. Flash power becomes more needed with not so close subjects but for macro shooting most flashes (if not all) would suffice. Many photographers use video lights (not so powerfull as strobes) for macro succesfully .I have S&S YS-01 which is equivalent to S2000 and for macro I normally have to dial down power to avoid overexposure.
I would rather think that the flash light beam is not properly directed to subject or strobe not properly sycronized with the camera.

 

[skl007]

I do not think your flash (or any other) is not strong enough for macro shots. Flash power becomes more needed with not so close subjects but for macro shooting most flashes (if not all) would suffice. Many photographers use video lights (not so powerfull as strobes) for macro succesfully .I have S&S YS-01 which is equivalent to S2000 and for macro I normally have to dial down power to avoid overexposure.
I would rather think that the flash light beam is not properly directed to subject or strobe not properly sycronized with the camera.

Hmm, I thought it was related to the forced small aperture with a the TG6 fully zoomed. I'll have to play with it some more then. Last time I wasn't using the video light for focus at all, thinking that it would force a stronger flash.