Sony A1 + Nauticam [Photo & Video Enthusiast] **Strobes not firing properly?

[matthewmilner]

Good afternoon from Rhode Island!

I'm a photography/videography enthusiast and decided to try diving 4 years ago. I've been hooked since and once I learned it was possible to take my A1 underwater I had trouble talking myself out of the investment. This past February, right before I took a dive trip to Indonesia, I went all in and purchased the following...

Setup:
-Nauticam A1 Housing
-Sony 28-60mm & Sony 90mm dry ports
-Nauticam wide angle wet lens for the 28-60mm
-2x Ikelite DS232 strobes
-2x Big Blue 20K Lumen Tri-Color lights

Yes, pure insanity and a splurge to say the least. I really loved my experience with the rig, even though I had some frustrations, I found that it really didn't take away from my dive experience and helped channel my ADHD, hah.

Settings: I mainly shot with manual shutter speed, Auto Underwater ISO, and the same focus setup I use for birding (continuous auto with tracking). I'd also like to clarify that I do tend to split 50/50 between photo and video, you can get incredible stills underwater but capturing the movement is also fascinating.

I'd still consider myself somewhat of a newbie when it comes to UW photography, so I figured that I'd pop a few questions to the group and hope to get some advice from some of you seasoned photographers.

Questions:
1. As far as my settings go, should I keep rolling with the automatic UW ISO that Sony has as a preset? Also curious what you all use as a starting point for shutter speed and aperture when you hop in the water? From what I've gathered 1/125 and F9 is good (some have told me set & forget F9).

2. I've read quite a few threads now discussing strobe issues, I had the same problem and really struggled to get both of my strobes to fire correctly. I found when I toggled to just one it worked pretty consistently (not perfect though), but often this didn't yield the lighting results I was after. How the heck should I go about this, I'm borderline considering calling up Ikelite for an explanation.

3. I don't have a fisheye lens, am I missing out? At first I thought rectilinear wide angle was sufficient and I'm not always a fan of fisheye distortion. This all went out the window when a manta came gliding 3 feet from my head...too big for the frame :/

4. I'm attaching a photo of my setup below (without lights attached to the arms). It's still negatively buoyant in saltwater, I'd say maybe 500g of flotation would bring it close to neutral, but it's bulky. Any suggestions or tips for re-configuring the current layout?

Thank you all so much for your time. Really excited to continue developing my UW photo/video skills. As a side note I'm planning to list a couple lights for sale here as I'm planning to upgrade.

Here are the photos as promised!!

Cheers,
-Teo

 

[Nemrod]

1. No, set to a fixed ISO
2. How are you connected, electric or optical?
3. Yes, you need a fisheye type lens, fisheye distortion is rarely a consideration underwater and the pluses far outweighs the minuses. But you already have a semi-fisheye WWL-1. That is not enough with a 130 degree FOV? The WWL-1 is not rectilinear.
4. Shooting photo and video in the same dive, wow, well, okay people do it I guess. You have an awfull lot of stuff on there.

 

[hilljo88]

I shoot a different configuration: Sea and Sea housing and strobes and SONY A7R3, but I think some of my settings might work for you. I save manual settings for macro to M1 storage on the camera and just twist the dial to M1. Those settings are 1/250, ISO 200 and usually F12. Macro subjects are usually slow moving so shutter speed should be okay with the excellent 90 mm macro lens. ISO is set to base or close to minimize noise and F12 has a good depth of field. Next tune in your strobes to make these settings work by adjusting power and/or angle towards the subject. The A1 sensor has great dynamic range so you should be able to recover shadows for a wide range of settings, but don't blow out the highlights. Take a few dives to play with the settings. Your housing should allow you to adjust everything.

I mostly shoot macro and while I have a fisheye lens and dome port I only occasionally use it. You will need to adjust your strobes for more power and a wider angle.