SB800 with housing or a UW strobe?

[alo100]

I have some Nikon equipment and wanted to make them fit for the UW photography.
Have a question about strobes... do you really want to use a housing for the SB800 or others or would you rather get a UW strobe? What is a better solution? Thanks.

 

[dbh]

I have seen some good macro shots with an SB800. While you can get decent shots with one strobe, you will get better shots with 2 strobes (shadows eliminated). Right now, you cannot fire 2 SB800's beacuse you can only hardwire one. Fantasea is cooming out with a clear housing for the SB800 so it may be possible to fire the non-hardwired one in slave mode. No one has tried this yet.

Even with 2 SB800's, they will not produce enough light for Wide Angle. You could light up fish portraits and the 24mm end of the 12-24 but not the 12mm end or the Nikkor 10.5.

Dave

 

[alo100]

Dave,

Yes, I have seen it on Catalog, the cost is about US$250... I know there is another manufacturer which has it already (10 bar) I checked it out today.

So you mean TTL everything, the same as on land, and equally good as other UW strobes with similar Guide number?

Do people use SU-4 for wireless UW?

Thanks!!!

-Albert

 

[dbh]

I have never read about anybody using wireless underwater.

If you just use one SB 800 it is iTTL. Several people on digitaldiver.net and wetpixel.com are using them (and working on getting 2 to work together). Go to both sites and do a search.

HTH,
Dave

 

[Mariozi]

Apparently no wireless technology can be used uw.
This is why there is no cell phones uw...
If it is infra-red, it gets absorbed by water faster the red light!!!
Radio waves of ANY frequency also gets absorbed very fast.
This is why aquariums are the Networking Maintenance people nightmare!
Only wireless tech I did see working uw with some success is direct wireless TTL through light sensitive cells (like the Sea&Sea`s YS-90).

 

[alo100]

Thanks everybody! According to Dave's pointers, there are really somepeople using SB800 UW with success. I'll check into that more about how they use it.

Mariozi, thanks! so sea & sea is using radio frequency...
I think there are some OTS 25kHz commuication sys, but it doesn't look like a cell telephones to me... let me explore more on the SB800....

For multiple lights and for wireless, yes, I haven't heard anybody who is using it yet.
Then the angle coverage, thanks for the info, it's important to know as well.
About the throw, there is not question about it and with i-TTL too with Nikon cameras.
Here's something I've found which have some of my questions answered, but they are all about using the strobe on land, I think it maybe useful to share:

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID86/1112.html#0

"1. "RE: D70, SB-800, and wireless i-TTL?"
In response to message #0

>This implies that you can not get i-TLL without using a cable.

If you want i-ttl and the SB-800 to be the master and off camera you need a cable. The SB-800 connected to hotshoe will give full i-ttl.

> Can the SB-800 be used in i-TTL mode wirelessly with the D70?

Yes, but only as a remote flash not master. The D70 built in flash can be a master and control the SB-800 using i-ttl but can only control a single "group" of flashes.

>I'm guessing that the a master SB-800 needs to be connected to the >D70 with a cable,

or on the D70 hotshoe

>but other 800/600 flashes can be triggered
>wirelessly from the master 800. Is this correct?

Yes, If you want to use multiple groups of flashes you need the SB-800 as master and it must be directly connected to the D70 either on the hotshoe of via a cable. If you are using one “group” then the built in flash can control the SB-800(s).

At least this is my understanding of it as I only have one SB-800 to test with.
Cheers
Peter"

 

[alo100]

Thanks for the link, e.g. this link is useful:
http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9439

Mariozi is right. The wireless solution only works well for the macro setup (2 strobes). It works within 18 inches (the 2 strobes) or so, according to the thread. Then the solution some are using is hardwired the master to the camera, then use a optical cable to connect the slave to the master, and it works well for them. Of course, this is not like the on land situation, for which you can have many strobes talking to each each through the infra red wireless.

 

[alo100]

Thanks for the link, e.g. this link is useful:
http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9439

Mariozi is right. The wireless solution only works well for the macro setup (2 strobes). It works within 18 inches (the 2 strobes) or so, according to the thread. Then the solution is like this, hardwired the master (SB800) to the camera, then use an optical cable to connect the slave to the master, and it works well for them. Of course, this is not like the on land situation, for which you can have many strobes talking to each each through the infra red wireless.

Correction made as shown above.
2nd thought about the Inon Z240, althought the angle is large enough for WA, the GN is 24... if the ambitent light is good enough for the background then it's probably ok (e.g. imagine a person is trying to take a photo of a big ship wreck with a 15mm), if not, then the back ground could be dark mixing with the rest of image of the ship where the strobe is hard to reach). I wondered if those Salvo video light (HID) would make a difference..... just a wild thought.

 

[dbh]

I am not sure I understand your last analogy. NO strobe will light up a entire shipwreck (6' away is about the max.). If you could find one, you would absolutely blow out the part of the wreck closest to you.

Dave

 

[alo100]

I mean non of us can bring the whole set of lights used for UW movie shot; however, if the intensity of these lights can be adjusted, would it be useful... so that it can be used as a dive light and as a light source for photo:

http://www.salvodiving.com/li_ion_video