Oly stylus 400 and sea life SL-960

[JohnDough]

I am looking for a CHEAP strobe ( $150ish) for my Oly400 and pt016 housing. I think the Sea Life SL960 will work. Can anyone verify this? I know this isnt a powerful strobe, but I think the others are out of my price range.

 

[f3nikon]

I am looking for a CHEAP strobe ( $150ish) for my Oly400 and pt016 housing. I think the Sea Life SL960 will work. Can anyone verify this? I know this isnt a powerful strobe, but I think the others are out of my price range.

You are going in the right direction on getting an "affordable" strobe, I won't say cheap as in quality. The problem with the SL960 is that it will work only with cameras WITHOUT a preflash like film cameras and some digital, the Olympus 400 does have a preflash.

Now the Sealife SL960D can fire off a preflash, but the price is $300! Do the homework on these strobes, call the manufacturer direct to see if they will work with your camera. Their strobes are around $180 I believe.

http://www.tocad.com/flash/gFlash.html

http://www.bonicadive.com/webpages/page4.html

http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=BONDSL

And the power of a strobe is not really the issue on the price of the strobe, all UW strobes will light up the subject. the price of the strobe is determine by how much the manufacturer thinks you are willing to pay.

 

[JohnDough]

Are you sure the stylus 400 has a preflash? there is only 1 flash I ever see when taking pictures unless I turn on the red eye reduction (which i never do..) or is a preflash just part of the regular flash making it longer..( yes.. i'm a newbie )

and if it doesnt have a preflash, would the Sunpack G-flash be a much better option than the SL-960? Cost is definately an issue, I saw the g-flash for $200, $50 more than the SL-960..
and would the Bonica for FILM cameras ($162 at LP) work or only the Boniica for digital ( $100 more- out of the question)

Thanks

 

[f3nikon]

Check this site:http://www.acecam.com/photography/2907.html

The following digital cameras don't fire a pre-flash to set the white balance:
Nikon Coolpix 900 series digital cameras and all Kodak, Sony, Ricoh, Fuji, Casio and Hewlett-Packard digital cameras.

The following brands determine the white balance by firing a pre-flash:
Olympus, Agfa, Epson, Nikon Coolpix 700 and 800 series models, Canon, Polaroid, Panasonic PV-SD4090, Toshiba TDR-M60 and the Pentax E1-200.

You cannot see the preflash with the naked eye, its not the red eye flashes either. Some cameras fire a preflash to determine the correct white balance for the picture, the problem is that the the preflashes are so strong that it fires the slave strobe before the real flash fires. So the cameras shutter opens and closes after the external strobe has already fired.

Try ebay

 

[JohnDough]

Looks like I'm going for the Sunpak G-flash

Thanks for all the help!!

 

[f3nikon]

You're welcome and good luck.

 

[MacHeath]

Check this site:http://www.acecam.com/photography/2907.html

The following digital cameras don't fire a pre-flash to set the white balance:
Nikon Coolpix 900 series digital cameras and all Kodak, Sony, Ricoh, Fuji, Casio and Hewlett-Packard digital cameras.

The following brands determine the white balance by firing a pre-flash:
Olympus, Agfa, Epson, Nikon Coolpix 700 and 800 series models, Canon, Polaroid, Panasonic PV-SD4090, Toshiba TDR-M60 and the Pentax E1-200.

You cannot see the preflash with the naked eye, its not the red eye flashes either. Some cameras fire a preflash to determine the correct white balance for the picture, the problem is that the the preflashes are so strong that it fires the slave strobe before the real flash fires. So the cameras shutter opens and closes after the external strobe has already fired.

Try ebay

Sony cameras do fire a preflash (the P series does anyway). You need a strobe that can ignore it.

 

[f3nikon]

Thanks for the update. Actually we need a strobe that can fire off a time delay.

 

[ReyeR]

You can't generalize pre-flash cameras by brand. Some models within brands have modes where the built-in flash won't fire a pre-flash.

Also, pre-flash is primarily used for flash exposure calculation.

 

[f3nikon]

Thanks for the update. That article, I believe was just a guideline and very general. The best way to check for preflash is to take a picture of a slave store with the camera's internal flash.