Real Newby strobe question

[DavidHickey]

Well, probably a real dumb question BUT here goes, I have about made my mind up, I think I'm going to order the Fuji E900 camera and a Ikelite housing. But reading up on the housing it says you have to get a manual strobe. I guess you can't attach a wire to the housing from the strobe??? Is this a problem? I'm not ready to buy a strobe yet but don't want to buy a housing that may not do what I want down the road. What exactly is a manual strobe and how does it flash with the camera? And is this a problem? Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

 

[kapula]

If I didn't get you all wrong manual strobe is one that mimics your internal flash. It's also called a slave strobe. You set your strobe power manually and it fires after your internal strobe has fired. You attach it to your housing with an optical cable and cover the internal strobe so that it won't create backsatter in your pictures. Other option is to use some sort of ttl (through the lens). With ttl camera is connected to your strobe and it meters light through the lens and tells strobe how much power is needed. Then you can use strobe in modes where internal flash won't fire. On the other hand ttl systems are more costy (you need wires from hot shoe to housing and housing to strobe) and are compatible with only that many camera/strobe pairs. As you have a digital camera you'll learn to use manual strobe aswell.

That's the theory part. I don't own a strobe but am drooling to get a ttl one.

 

[Larry C]

The Ikelite housing for the E-900 will use the built in flash, so you won't have to spring for the strobe for a while. You have to use a manually adjusted strobe, using the Ikelite EV Controller that takes its signal from the camera flash. This really isn't a bad way to go. You have 10 settings for strobe power and you don't need a sync cable. With experience, the manual should work fine. For most macros, you'll use a very low power setting anyway, so the more important issue is aiming the strobe where you get the best quality of light and the least backscatter and putting it the best distance from the subject and the lens.