Sony a6600 Underwater: Initial Thoughts

[stuartv]

@Nemrod Reef tested it with an a7r III (I believe it was). I don’t know if an a6xxx can do it or not. If you look at the link I posted above, you can scroll down to where Pavel (the UWT engineer, I think) talks about it. He specifically mentions a7-a9, but he doesn’t say anything at all about a6xxx.

 

[rks]

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

Pardon my ignorance but what is the WL Command?

 

[Barmaglot]

Pardon my ignorance but what is the WL Command?

The flash modes in A6xxx cameras are: Auto, Fill, Slow, Rear and Wireless (WL). That last mode is meant to operate with strobes mounted on the hot shoe or radio triggers instead of the pop-up flash. Underwater, radio triggers don't function across any meaningful distances, but this mode is used by LED trigger boards that attach to the hot shoe.

If you have UWT's trigger for Sony cameras, set its mode dial to position 7 (Retra Flash) and attach it to the flash hot shoe, it will report to the camera that it is an external flash with HSS (high-speed sync) support. This, in turn, will make the camera unlock flash speeds above 1/160s, all the way to the camera's limit of 1/4000s. Since the Retra strobes support HSS only in manual mode (not in TTL), this is available only when the camera flash mode is set to WL, which puts the camera's own flash operation mode in manual, without TTL's pre-flash metering exposure.