Sony a6600 Underwater: Initial Thoughts

[Steve the Baker]

Back to my prior question: Anybody actually use the a6600 underwater yet?

Lance

Hi Lance,
I have the exact rig your looking at. Nauticam is still working on a couple of issues with my rig. One was a port issue with the redesign of the housing for wide angle. Flash trigger wasn't ready when the housing came out. Shot a few dives with my Sony 90mm macro lens and Loved it. U W Technics flash trigger failed. Seems to be a board issue. Really enjoyed the ergonomics of the housing coming from shooting also a Canon G7x. Still waiting for a resolution on the parts.

 

[Nemrod]

Hi Lance,
I have the exact rig your looking at. Nauticam is still working on a couple of issues with my rig. One was a port issue with the redesign of the housing for wide angle.

Steve,

Could you provide more information on the Nauticam port issue?

Also, the UT trigger has undergone several upgrades I understand since you and I got ours. Unfortunately my warranty replacement was lost somewhere, this being no fault of anyone, just one of those things that happen. So another trigger was sent me and I am expecting it any day. It has the latest board and HSS capability (should I purchase Retra strobes and wind up in the poor people home living in the trunk of my Toyota). Fingers crossed.

Another bit of info for what it might be worth to anyone with older Inon strobes. The Type II Inon strobe, at least mine, do indeed fire and sync with the (LED) UT trigger. The concern being that a LED (compared to a camera flash) would not be enough light to trigger the (less sensitive than newer Type IV) strobes through the optical cables.

James

 

[Steve the Baker]

Steve,

Could you provide more information on the Nauticam port issue?

Also, the UT trigger has undergone several upgrades I understand since you and I got ours. Unfortunately my warranty replacement was lost somewhere, this being no fault of anyone, just one of those things that happen. So another trigger was sent me and I am expecting it any day. It has the latest board and HSS capability (should I purchase Retra strobes and wind up in the poor people home living in the trunk of my Toyota). Fingers crossed.

Another bit of info for what it might be worth to anyone with older Inon strobes. The Type II Inon strobe, at least mine, do indeed fire and sync with the (LED) UT trigger. The concern being that a LED (compared to a camera flash) would not be enough light to trigger the (less sensitive than newer Type IV) strobes through the optical cables.

James

Steve,

Could you provide more information on the Nauticam port issue?

Also, the UT trigger has undergone several upgrades I understand since you and I got ours. Unfortunately my warranty replacement was lost somewhere, this being no fault of anyone, just one of those things that happen. So another trigger was sent me and I am expecting it any day. It has the latest board and HSS capability (should I purchase Retra strobes and wind up in the poor people home living in the trunk of my Toyota). Fingers crossed.

Another bit of info for what it might be worth to anyone with older Inon strobes. The Type II Inon strobe, at least mine, do indeed fire and sync with the (LED) UT trigger. The concern being that a LED (compared to a camera flash) would not be enough light to trigger the (less sensitive than newer Type IV) strobes through the optical cables.

James

Hi James,
The port chart wasn't updated when the housing came out. Because of the larger battery they have come out with an updated port for my Tokina 10-17mm lens & Sigma Mount Converter. I have been really busy at work and will get you an update on the issues after St. Patrick's Day.

 

[Nemrod]

I did receive my new trigger today and have installed it into my housing. Thus far I have only ran the trigger in Manual and the camera in Manual. All seems normal. I will table dive it a few times and try to get into the pool again. I have several things to test other than or in addition to the new trigger. Plus my old D-2000 Type 2 prodigal son (strobe) has returned after service and it needs a workout in the water. I do not like dry firing them very much.

I learned something this week, speaking of Inon strobes. If you want to run your strobe through a few cycles to form the capacitor then you can use the power button on a Sony remote control. So you do not have to set your camera up.

James

 

[Hoag]

I did receive my new trigger today and have installed it into my housing. Thus far I have only ran the trigger in Manual and the camera in Manual. All seems normal. I will table dive it a few times and try to get into the pool again. I have several things to test other than or in addition to the new trigger. Plus my old D-2000 Type 2 prodigal son (strobe) has returned after service and it needs a workout in the water. I do not like dry firing them very much.

I learned something this week, speaking of Inon strobes. If you want to run your strobe through a few cycles to form the capacitor then you can use the power button on a Sony remote control. So you do not have to set your camera up.

James

With these triggers, are you still limited to a max shutter speed of 1/160 second?

 

[Nemrod]

With these triggers, are you still limited to a max shutter speed of 1/160 second?

That is a question maybe for @Barmaglot as he is more versed on this. However, the latest triggers support HSS if your strobe can support it and for now the only UW strobe that can do HSS is the Retra models.

But it also appears that my new trigger allows me to go above 1/160 by using the WL command while in Manual (0 position on the board switch) selected for the trigger. I am not sure though that the LEDs will fire in this configuration, still trying to learn the changes that have been made since my first version. The new trigger seems to have expanded capabilities in addition to the HSS.

Now if only Inon would release the new S240HSS! (I just made that up but I can dream).

N

 

[Barmaglot]

With these triggers, are you still limited to a max shutter speed of 1/160 second?

Pavel has developed a new firmware revision for UWT triggers that removes this limitation, I should have an updated board next month. Note that this will require Retra strobes in HSS mode to function. Updating existing triggers will involve sending them to Pavel in Moscow.

TRT electronics also announced a firmware update for their Turtle trigger that will expose this functionality. Their trigger has a PC connection, so it will likely not require shipping back and forth.

 

[Nemrod]

And I just learned the answer for non-HSS strobes. The answer is no, the 1/160 sync speed is still the top SS allowed. However, my previous trigger would need to be unplugged from the hot shoe to use speeds above 1/160 for ambient only which meant opening the housing, arrrgghh. So what confused me, the new trigger, in trigger Manual mode (0) on the board, I can now turn OFF the strobes/board and shoot ambient light at any SS I want, but there will be no strobes for this, the LEDs do not fire. De-selecting the camera WL command then returns the board to normal operation and the camera syncs at up to 1/160 and the strobe LEDs fire. I have one of my custom buttons, C2, assigned to WL command.

The previous limitation is one of the reasons I went with the A6400 over the A6600. I want to be able to shoot ambient at any SS (conversion to B&W for large objects to big for flash). The A6400 using the onboard flash (in a Nauticam housing) can turn the flash ON and OFF. But I could not do that once I plugged the trigger into the hot shoe. Now I can via the WL command on C2.

That said, I still like having the A6400 onboard flash for back up. I am a believer in having a Plan B.

N

 

[stuartv]

I don't know about the crop sensor Sonys, but Pavel, from UWT, told me over on WetPixel that with the Sony FF, the UWT trigger will do up to 1/250 shutter sync speed in TTL. But, perhaps not in full Manual. And, I asked the guys at Reef Photo about it before I bought it. They tested the Nauticam non-TTL trigger and verified the 1/160 limitation, and then tested the UWT and verified they got clean images at 1/250.

TTL systems in underwater photo

When I finally receive my updated UWT trigger (to replace the first, defective one), I am looking forward to trying out TTL for the strobes, with the camera in M, with AutoISO.

 

[Nemrod]

I don't know about the crop sensor Sonys, but Pavel, from UWT, told me over on WetPixel that with the Sony FF, the UWT trigger will do up to 1/250 shutter sync speed in TTL. But, perhaps not in full Manual. And, I asked the guys at Reef Photo about it before I bought it. They tested the Nauticam non-TTL trigger and verified the 1/160 limitation, and then tested the UWT and verified they got clean images at 1/250.

TTL systems in underwater photo

When I finally receive my updated UWT trigger (to replace the first, defective one), I am looking forward to trying out TTL for the strobes, with the camera in M, with AutoISO.

Stuart, I do not really consider the 1/160 sec flash sync of the A6XXX cameras that much of a limitation. But either way, with the current trigger, I do not see any way Reef could have pushed an A6XXX to 1/250. I have tested every possibility I can think of with both of my triggers that I have had. The new one is working great (fingers crossed) and using the WL command I can shoot ambient with all shutter speeds, just no flash available. Now, with the Retra strobe and the trigger set to the Retra profile, position 7 on the board, it is possible to go above 1/160 to any available shutter speed. This is again done by the WL command with the trigger in position 7. In any other position, 0-9 save for 7, the WL command simply kills the strobe trigger to allow all shutter speeds without flash. I bet UT could write the software to allow trigger above 1/160 by WL command but instead of a pulsed output the trigger would give just a single flash, perhaps in the position 0 which is full Manual.

So, if, Reef, or anyone, has gotten shutter speeds with strobes above 1/160 sec I would like to know how they did it? It might be possible with wired, non-smart, sync but not optical with anything I see now.

James