Question (Im new): DS-50, DS-51, DS-60

[ameri180304]

I have an ikelite housing, for a Nikon D90. I have no strobes, but was considering the following; DS-50, DS-51 or DS-60.

I see theres major price differences in these. Can I pull it off with TWO DS-50's? Or would you recommend 1 DS-60? Would DS-50 work with an ikelite D90 housing? What is TTL?

I love photography, but am new to the underwater aspect of it

 

[Doubler]

Don't think they make DS-50's anymore. I personally use 2 DS-51's, mostly because I can't afford the higher end strobes and I wanted two strobes. Ikelite makes a good strobe and the higher end ones are good but also look at Sea & Sea and Inon.

TTL is Through the Lens. Simply put the circuitry in the camera based on the lighting parameters set up by ISO, aperture and time controls the power output of the strobe.

 

[PatW]

I have the DS 51. I am planning on getting another. The DS 51 is a very nice strobe. TTL fires from an electrical impulse from the camera and not from using a fiber optic actuation by being triggered from the camera's strobe. That has 2 advantages: the camera uses far less charge per shot and the strobe can respond to the camera's settings.

The DS-51 has a limited range but not bad. In underwater photography, even a really powerful unit has a surprisingly short range. The other problem is that the strobe has a limited field of illumination. That means if you are doing a wide angle shot, not everything will be illuminated. It is not that bad because the strobes with wider angles of coverage over twice as much. It works well on macro subects or non wide angle work.

It is often a good thing to use 2 strobes. That way you can get a wider field of coverage. You can also do any number of tricks with using strobes with one to light from one direction and the other from another and so on. That is why most people use 2 strobes for underwater photography. Doing so gives you far more options.

 

[slowhands]

I have an ikelite housing, for a Nikon D90. I have no strobes, but was considering the following; DS-50, DS-51 or DS-60.

I see there's major price differences in these. Can I pull it off with TWO DS-50's? Or would you recommend 1 DS-60? Would DS-50 work with an ikelite D90 housing? What is TTL?

TTL is an old acronym from the film era for "Through the Lens", which is a technique for allowing the camera to accurately control the flash using the camera's auto-exposure system, which looks "through the lens" and sees the image the camera sensor sees. Early strobes were manual -- they did not adjust under camera control. Some had adjustments so you could dial about the right setting manually.

TTL is common now, because it is very accurate and convenient. Some people still prefer manual though, because the flash setting can be changed on the flash and it does not change much for a lot of underwater scenes at a given depth.

You can't fully use some early DS-50 nor some DS-125 strobes, with the Ikelite housing. They changed the interface for TTL in 2004. You can use the early versions in manual mode but it's more difficult. Check the serial number here:
SubStrobe Requirements for Newer TTL Digital Cameras

I suspect you meant the DS-160, not DS-60. There is also the DS-125, which is the same size, cheaper and less power, but a great strobe too. Anyway, just get a later version DS-51, 125 or 160/61 to have full TTL function. Excellent products, with excellent support by ikelite. See:
http://ikelite.com/web_pages/1strobe_index.html

Two strobes are better for wide angle, if you can afford them.

Incidentally, there are two ways to implement TTL, using an electrical cable (Ikelite), or an optical cable (everyone else). Because electrical cables are very susceptible to corrosion and failure, most people prefer the lighter and more reliable optical fiber connection.

Rumor has it that ikelite will introduce fiber optic cables some day soon, but I wonder about that. Their TTL converter in the housing draws power from the strobe via the electrical cable; they would need a battery in the housing. Probably they will start by updating their AF-35 low end flash for a fiber connection, because the competition has got to be killing them in that space.