Olympus C-750/PT-18 Strobe question

[ReyeR]

Dee,
You make an excellent point. BTW Can you turn your focusing light off for skitish subjects? I am looking at an additional strobe and that sounds like a great way to go! I looked it over on the website and it has all the features I need.

Thanks.

Matt

I'm not Dee but to answer your question yes you can turn the focus light off. There's a switch at the back of the D-180: Press and release and the light will come on - it'll stay on for a few seconds and switch off or switch off when the strobe fires. Press, twist and lock the switch and the focus light will stay on till you manually release the switch.

 

[Divemonkey]

I'm not Dee but to answer your question yes you can turn the focus light off. There's a switch at the back of the D-180: Press and release and the light will come on - it'll stay on for a few seconds and switch off or switch off when the strobe fires. Press, twist and lock the switch and the focus light will stay on till you manually release the switch.

I was talking to a couple photographers and they said that the built in focusing light on the INON while very nice, has a problem in that it makes you turn the strobe too far towards the subject and thus iluminating too much water in the forground and getting more backscatter. Have you experienced this problem?

It would have to be a very wide beam light to get the same 90-100 degree coverage of the strobe, And I would not think it would be very strong at that point. Your input on this would be appreciated.

Matt

 

[ReyeR]

I was talking to a couple photographers and they said that the built in focusing light on the INON while very nice, has a problem in that it makes you turn the strobe too far towards the subject and thus iluminating too much water in the forground and getting more backscatter. Have you experienced this problem?

It would have to be a very wide beam light to get the same 90-100 degree coverage of the strobe, And I would not think it would be very strong at that point. Your input on this would be appreciated.

Matt

This is a problem I face with the DS-125 as well. This is an issue I raised in this post:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=612071&postcount=4

from this thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=57681

IMHO:
While a built in aiming/focus/modelling light seemed like a good idea to start with I very quickly learnt that, due to backscatter, aiming the strobe right at the subject was perhaps not always the best way to light the subject, especially in water that was less than perfect. I now very rarely aim the strobe directly at the subject, except perhaps with extreme close-up work. I am currently trying to find a focus-assist light that I can mount near my camera instead.
So, if you ask my opinion, if I was to choose all over again, a built in light wouldn't be very high on my list as a desired feature in a strobe. A reasonably priced and bright (if there is such a thing) focus-assist light mounted neatly on my housing's lens barrel would be a desired accessory. Especially if it has the option to add a red filter on it. A little birdie told me that there is hope on the horizon......

 

[Dee]

The more I use the D-180, the more I'm realizing the same thing. I've got a bracket that I used under the PT-10's lens port to hold a focusing light....I'm thinking of mounting it to the PT-15.

Or maybe I'll wait on your little birdie!

 

[Divemonkey]

The more I use the D-180, the more I'm realizing the same thing. I've got a bracket that I used under the PT-10's lens port to hold a focusing light....I'm thinking of mounting it to the PT-15.

Or maybe I'll wait on your little birdie!

I use a Single Q-40 mount on my work camera which is a Light and Motion Tetra housing and a C-4030. It mounts to a flexible plastic mount whos mfr escapes me right now but it is the black plastic series of little cups that attach to each other...

On my Personal Rig (see attached photos) I use an Ultralight arm, and a mount made by them that holds a pair of underwater kenetics Q-40 lights on a adjustable mount midway up the arm. It is reasonably good for most things and can put a lot of light on a subject if needed, and also can be used independently if you need or want less light, or you want independance for redundancy. The mount has a bit of a problem that the Q-40s can be twisted or knocked out of the mount if your not careful so I just throw a tie wrap on there and the are going nowhere fast.

Not as nice or elegant as the light and motion rechargable that works as a video light or a very nice modeling light, but it is a lot cheeper.

Cheers

Matt