Nikon coolpix, w/ ext. strobe. Not allowing flash to show??

[Banshee Ben]

I have a coolpix 4600 with underwater housing. I also have a sealife 32mm with an external strobe. The digital takes better pictures so I try to put the external strobe on the digital housing. The digital screws into the same area that the sealife one does and the external flash sensor detects the digital flash and flashes. The problem is that even with both flashing my pictures, even in a lighted room, turn out extremely dark, like one would expect in a dark room with no flash. If I turn off the strobe the camera takes bright pictures again. Some how the strobe is darkening my pictures? Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Peter Guy]

It sounds like the strobe isn't syncing. I was just reading something earlier to test to see if it syncs. Take a picture of the setup in the mirror -- if the image shows the flash, it is synced, if it doesn't, it isn't. Does your strobe have the switch to adjust for pre-flashes? I was just playing with mine and I needed to set it at "1" to sync with my new S80 (SeaLife 960D).

Good luck.

 

[Banshee Ben]

I looked and my strobe dosn't seem to have a strobe setting, I'll look at my camera. Sounds right but funny that 2 flashes are dimmer than 1. Funny thing is this is a world forum and you live 10 miles from me in Redmond.

 

[Scubasw]

I might be a little off here, but what may be happening is this, Many digital cameras use the preflash to gauge how much light is going to be needed during the actual exposure. If the external strobe fires during the preflash, then the camera thinks the scene is very well lit and will compensate by using a faster shutter setting or changing the f-stop. Either way when the internal strobe fires the main flash, the external strobe has already fired and you now under-expose the shot, because the camera thinks the scene is much brighter than it really is. Check your manual for the strobe and camera. You should be able to turn off the preflash on the camera, which might affect your shots also, or what is better is to set the strobe to ignore the preflash.

 

[Banshee Ben]

I was thinking the same thing about the f-stop speed, sadly my external flash dosn't seem to have any adjustments so I hope the camera does.

 

[four_engines]

I'm no expert. I made a mistake once attempting to take pictures with my Canon A520 using one of the Auto modes. Predictably, the pictures turned out awful. When I tried using Manual mode, I found that the pictures were exposed better, of course, you have to play around with the Aperture and Shutter Speed.

F/E

I was thinking the same thing about the f-stop speed, sadly my external flash dosn't seem to have any adjustments so I hope the camera does.