Settings for compact camera with S&S YS-110a strobe

[Jacques-André]

Good day all.

I was directed to your forum from scubatoys, and think that there are wise peoples here so here it goes.

I have a simple compact camera, with no manual mode of any kind (no full manual, no aperture priority, no shutter speed priority). It's a Lumix ZS3. Great lens, does ok pictures, but I needed a strobe.

Bought a good strobe (S&S YS-110a as I will move to something better soon) that does D-TTL with the Lumix (or is it S-TTL or E-TTL, I don't know but it does TTL with the preflash via a fiber optic cable).

My question is simple : What settings should I use with the camera. Forced flash "ON", no focus light help, and lower ASA (like 100) is ok, but what's next ? Maybe WB to "sunny" ?

Please help me, I will be diving in Australia (Great Barrier Reef ))))) soon and need to figure this out!

Thanks.

 

[Nitro91]

can you set white balance to a manual mode?

If you can, take a few shots underwater with the strobe and see which looks best.
if nothing manual works, just do auto or play around with which settings looks the best to you.

The benefit of having a more manual camera like a higher end compact digital to dslr, is you can set the white balance to the temperature of the strobe.
I set my nex-5 to 5000k, the same as my z-240 strobe.


But yeah just play around with the camera, trial and error usually does it.

Enjoy the GBR, i just got back from a liveaboard there a few days ago

 

[Jacques-André]

Hey Nitro.

Hope you enjoyed you trip down-under mate!

What liveaboard did you join ? I have a few friends down there, maybe it was with some of them!?

Yes I can do white balance, so will try that. Will probably have to do white balance as I change the type of photograph I do, like macro, less macro and close (as I won't try wide angle with the camera I have ;-).

Thanks.

 

[Nitro91]

well i live in australia lol. it was with spirit of freedom. A-class everything.
awesome food, great crew, awesome dives- although we got 25-35 knot winds and 2-3m swell outside the reefs, worst so far in 2012 which is extremely unlucky. still got great dives in.
will have to go back sometime in the future.

didn't get to go to osprey though.

I'm sure you will get good weather

 

[Jacques-André]

Lucky man! I would love to live in Australia, and have been working on this for a few years. Might come true soon, and in Sydney probably !

In the meantime, I try to visit each year and to do some diving if I can! Did Ningaloo reef and the navy pier (Exmouth, the best diving for me yet) 2 years ago and the Hobart and some of the jetties in SA. Did some snorkeling in the GB 4 years ago but no diving yet!! It's actually that snorkeling experience that got me into diving! Had the urge to see it from closer!

Really looking forward to it.

Hear only good thing about the spirit of freedom, but that is too costly for me (and wife and son) on top of the round trip from Montreal. So I rented a wicked camper for a few weeks and will go diving once in a while with dive centers. My preferred place is Cape Tribulation for camping!

Australia is the best place in the world.

Might meet you some day !

Jacques

well i live in australia lol. it was with spirit of freedom. A-class everything.
awesome food, great crew, awesome dives- although we got 25-35 knot winds and 2-3m swell outside the reefs, worst so far in 2012 which is extremely unlucky. still got great dives in.
will have to go back sometime in the future.

didn't get to go to osprey though.

I'm sure you will get good weather

 

[NautilusCairns]

Hope you have a good trip. I live in Cairns so dive on the GBR at least once a month mainly doing day trips out of Cairns or Port Douglas. Getting out to the Ribbon Reefs or Osprey which are really world class sites requires a live aboard like Tusa's Spirit of Freedom or Mike Ball's Spoilsport. Both great dive boats.

 

[Cnz Diver]

Hey I have the same stobe as you, I run it with a S100 and am still learning how to use this combo, I run a website call Cairns Diving: Cairns Scuba Diving Reviews and Advice we review all the trips from Cairns so if you need some advice you should get in touch.