nikonos style sync cable or fiber optic cable??

[Sail Rock Diver]

im about to upgrade my UW system from a epl1 to a oly omd in a nauticam housing.

in the last 2 years i have been shooting in full manuell mode with 2 sea & sea 110a connected wit fiber optic cables.

my question is what is the difference between the nikonos connection and the fiber optic connection.

any idea.

thanks for any suggestion

 

[jlyle]

If you are shooting full manual and "slave mode" on the flash, there's little difference between an optical pick up and a hot shoe connection via cable. If, however, you are using TTL, the hard wire connection to the hot shoe will extend the camera's battery charge. I've opted to go with fiber optics on my new OM-D/Nauticam system.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Jlyle's response gives the impression that hard wiring the strobe with a Nikonos cord will give you TTL operation. First you will need the bulkhead connector which is an option. Then you would need some type of decoding chip between the cord and the hot shoe to make the TTL work. Then as Jlyle has said this will eliminate the need for the on board flash and increase camera battery life. Total cost to do this will be around $400.00 if a decoding chip can be found for the E-M5.

As long as you have been shooting in manual anyway I see no real upside to going with the hard wire other than the ability to raise shutter sync beyond 1/250th when hard wired. The 110a strobes have not had the best reputation for working well in TTL with Olympus and others, this issue has been addressed with the new YS-D1 and a few other S&S strobes.

Phil Rudin

 

[Sail Rock Diver]

Thanks for that phil and jlyle,

thats the thing now the omd just has the iso 200 instead of iso 100 and i like to shoot with a dark background like that.

Customer @ Sail Rock Thailand | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

would be nice to go beyond 1/250th to get the sunbeam a bit better but i guess i need a more powerful strobe or not?? to get a nice sunbeam i have to shoot at 1/160th f 14 iso 100,
if im not wrong, shutter has no effect by the strobe light. so if i could shoot a biger f stop ( f 7.1. 8 . 9 . 10) i could rise the shutter to 320 , 400 , 500 ,640 to get a nice sunbeam.

is that correct.

and the pic above no photoshop or light room. just out of the cam.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

You would shoot ISO-200 at 1/250th and F/14 to get about the same results as you would at 1/160th, at ISO-100 and you will get a better sun burst. Even with Nikonos cords the very best you may be able to do is 1/320th and that is not a given until someone does a test to see how high you can get over the 1/250th sync that is the announced top speed.

Phil Rudin

 

[Sail Rock Diver]

ok thanks again phil verry helpful ! i asked BWF if i could have both sync and fiber optic but sadly it is not possible .

so i will go for the fiber optic solution.

thanks for the help.